Infinite

Ronnie and I stayed in bed until the afternoon when I pushed him off the side of it, demanding that he take Charlie outside before one of us had a mess to clean up. "He's your dog, Ronnie," I complained, barely awake, "It's your job now."

Ronnie laughed and grabbed my arm, trying to keep me from shoving him all the way to the floor. "I'm going. I'm going," he chuckled, pushing me back, "Atti, knock it off."

I pulled my arm out of his grasp and pulled the sheet up over my chest. I leaned back against the pillows and watched as he dressed, pulling on a pair of shorts and a hoodie from the closet. He was beautiful in everything he did.

It wasn't a manly word, but it was truthful. Ronnie was a classic kind of beautiful. With the images ingrained on his skin and his loose clothing, he was original and I felt nothing other than pride and luck that we lived our days together and climbed into the same bed at night.

He padded barefoot across the carpet and opened the bedroom door, the black leather leash in his hand. "Charlie!" he shouted to the dog, expecting the puppy to know his new name, "Come 'ere boy!"

The dog's chain collar jingled as the little puppy tromped down the hall. I smiled as the thick boy raced into our room and put his front paws on the bed, exploring. "Morning, Charlie," I greeted, reaching over Ronnie's side of the bed to pet his head, "I hope you like it here so far."

The dog slipped off the bed at Ronnie's call. I moved the comforter back into place as Ronnie slipped the leash onto the dog and headed out of the room, still barefoot.

I slipped out of the sheets once they were gone and rounded the bed to the dresser, stepping around our dirty clothes that were still on the floor from the night before. I plucked a shirt out of the closet and a pair of sweats from the dresser before I headed down the wide hall to the bathroom, the towel back around my torso.

I had just climbed under the hot water when the front door opened and Ronnie called for me. "Babe?"

"In the shower!" I shouted back through the open door. I stepped under the spray of the water and soaked my hair, noting how heavy it became while wet. I stepped forward and reached for my favorite shampoo. I smoothed out the snarls with my fingers and massaged the shampoo into my hair until all the little beads disintegrated.

"Hey, Atticus, what're we doing today?"

I peaked out of the curtain. Ronnie stood in the doorway and Charlie pranced in the hall behind him. I closed the curtain again and dipped my head under the spray. "Do we have any plans?" I asked, trying to remember if either of us had anything going on today.

He moved and I heard the ruffling of the trash bag and the sound of my clothes hitting the floor when Ronnie accidentally knocked them down and took their place, sitting on the sink. "I don't think so," he commented, reaching down to gather my things and toss them on the toilet seat. "Do you want to do anything today?"

With my eyes closed and the water flowing down the back of my head, I hummed and then replied to him. "We should go out for lunch or something," I suggested. I reached for the conditioner on the built in shelf. I frowned, my eyes still closed, when I heard the door close. I rinsed my face and peered out from the behind the shoulder curtain. Ronnie was still here. "What're you doing?" I asked.

He met my eyes and dropped his shirt to the rug. "Joining you. Save water, cheaper bill."

"Ah, that's your excuse?" I questioned, pulling the curtain closed.

He pushed it open on the other side and stepped into the tub. "Do I really need one?" he retorted.

I looked over his tattooed skin and messy hair. I stepped out of the water and cupped his jaw. He leaned down as I leaned up and pressed my lips against his. "Of course not," I said with a shrug of my shoulders. We switched positions and he washed his hair as I let the conditioner soak into mine. He ended up getting out before me, like usual, so I could finish up without him.

He was dressed in a oddly cut hoodie, a hat that covered his wet hair, and a pair of jeans when I climbed out and wrapped a towel around myself. I went to the bedroom and got dressed, dropping the towel to the carpet before I moved to the perpetually open closet.

Learning to share a small closet between us was a difficult feat. Ronnie and I shared a lot of the same habits, two of the most difficult ones being a large accumulation of clothes and a dislike of getting rid of anything, so when I permanently moved most of my things into his apartment, we struggled to find enough room for all our clothes.

We'd compromised and decided to split the closet right down the middle. He could keep whatever fit on his side and I'd do the same. Over the time I'd been living here, we'd managed to completely lose all boundaries within the closet and now our clothes were completely mixed together. This way, I'd managed to bring back a few more items without him realizing.

The closet floor was covered in clothes we couldn't fit to hang on the bar or the top shelf, and Ronnie kept a shelf full of more of his stuff in the bathroom. The rest of my things were still at my house, but I was slowly managing to invade his bathroom shelving space. We still managed to keep most of our drawers separate though, which was something we were both pretty proud of.

I skimmed through the closet until I found something decent to wear and tossed the items on the bed. I pulled undergarments out of my top drawer and dressed. I decided on a simple outfit of jeans and t'shirt, hidden beneath my favorite black hoodie - the same one that Ronnie had let me 'borrow' the very first time I came to this very apartment.

Taking it off the dresser, I clasped my pendant necklace behind my neck and gingerly touched the beautiful diamond that rested against the hollow of my throat. It was the present Ronnie bought me for our one year anniversary while we were on tour.

Ronnie took Charlie outside again while I dried my hair in the bathroom. We weren't sure how the dog would react to being left alone, but we decided just to try it and see. Fifteen minutes later, Ronnie stepped into the bathroom. "You ready to go?" he questioned, folding the dog leash absentmindedly.

I ran the brush through my lengthy hair one last time and nodded at him, my eyes meeting his through the mirror. "Where are we going?" I questioned, dropping the black brush onto the counter.

"Pizza?" he asked, leaning against the door way.

I pursed my lips. "I'd rather go somewhere with better food," I replied, not really in the mood for pizza since I spent most of my days away from him in a pizza restaurant. "What about Olive Garden or something like that?"

I could see the young Ronnie cringing at the thought of paying so much for just one meal. In the past, Ronnie had lived lower-middle class and faced the reality of being broke. Our childhoods were night and day, but in the present, it seemed that our lives were parallel, even before they intersected.

I raised my eyebrows at him as I waited for a reply.

He nodded, an easy smile coming on his lips. "That sounds great, babe," he said, stepping into the view of the mirror.

I looked at us, really looked at us. In my own past, I never imagined that I'd be engaged to a singer. I'd lived my life heeding my dad's advice and planned on staying far away from the music business and the musicians in it, but it seemed that fate had another path for me to follow.

Looking at us in the mirror, I felt like everything fit perfectly. I fit into his arms and into his life and he fit into mine, despite the advice from the man that raised me. Looking at us in the mirror, it was a reflection of our life. We were complicated people who lived a life that was beyond that, but we managed to make it work and I woke up each day happier than I did the day before.

I reached into the front pocket of Ronnie's jeans and pulled out his fancy phone. I unlocked it and opened up the camera, aiming it at the reflect of ourselves. In the image, two people looked back. The man wore a lidded hat that hid the tattoos underneath, a hoodie that shielded his colored skin, and a pair of jeans that were barely visible from behind the woman who stood in front of him, leaning against his chest.

She too wore a dark hoodie and a pair of jeans. Her hair fell down and disappeared out of the picture, too long to be seen fully. Her eyes almost matched his - both a dark brown. The man's arms wrapped around her waist and she smiled, her free hand gently touching his jaw.

It was a simple image, but in it so much could be seen. The love was almost tangible and the adoration was visible on both our faces. Unlike pictures from our pasts, happiness and heath were evident. I sent the picture to my own phone, my mind wandering, and stuck Ronnie's back in his pocket. When I turned to head out of the bathroom, he stepped in the doorway, his arms up on either side, blocking my exit.

I moved my eyes up to his and raised my eyebrows. With his arms still blocking the way, he leaned down and pressed his mouth against mine. I grabbed his hoodie in bunches at either side of his body and kissed him back, feeling every emotion all at once.

It was not a simple emotion or a simple reason that brought Ronnie and I together, but as he kissed me in the doorway of our bathroom, it was clear to me that he was the man that I was destined to love every second of every minute of the rest of my life.

He wasn't perfect, far from it, but as more time passed from the time we met, his flaws became smaller and less important. With every moment he became a better person and I followed in his footsteps.

My hands moved up and cupped his neck. His hands stayed up but his mouth stayed on mine. I breathed against his lips, goosebumps on my skin as he straightened up. When I opened my eyes they met his overwhelmingly dark ones. We didn't exchange any words as he stepped back and motioned for me to go ahead.

I ran my thumb over his perfect mouth before I stepped out of the bedroom and headed down the hall, ready to go out for lunch with my fiancé and more than ready to marry him than I'd ever been before.