We stand there and watch the sun touch the horizon…then dip below. Glacia hugs her arms to her chest as the wind plays with her hair and the sunset glows on her face. Her hazel eyes shimmer fiercely in the last rays of light—and then shadows overtake us. Chirps, hums, and buzzes accompany the night. The occasional beat of wings. There’s a rustle in the leaves and a soft whistle. A second whistle answers it, and the rustles move toward it.

“He would always stare at the mountains,” I tell Glacia. “Every time we went to work, he’d stand in the atrium and look at them for a while. That’s all. It’s what we were doing…what we were doing when…”

My throat tightens as more thoughts of him fill my head. If I have one regret, it’s that I always got stuck not knowing what to say to him. It never seemed to bother him, though. He said he understood.

I realize my hands are balled into fists. Glacia is watching me, concerned. I rub my mouth and shake my head.

“Nobody deserves to live like that,” I say.

Yet…isn’t that how I lived by waiting for Ladia? I robbed myself of four years that could have been spent forming relationships, traveling the planet, and securing a future. Instead I shut myself from the world and my friends. It’s too late to change what I did. It’s too late to apologize. It’s too late to forget. But like Victoria said, sometimes you need a reminder that your past happened, a reminder that you can still forgive yourself for the way you were before you became what you are now. And I know that’s why Glacia is here.

She’s my second chance.

I find her hand and hold tight, then lean my head on hers. Her fingers shift between mine.

“Arman?”

“Mmhmm?”

Glacia leans into me more. I can feel her heartbeat racing. She slides her hand up my arm.

“Your hand is freezing.”

Neither of us can help it. We both laugh. Glacia giggles and buries her head in my chest, and when our laughs die down, she looks up again. Her eyes glisten in the twilight, her hair flutters in the breeze. My hands slip to the small of her back, pressing gently, and she reaches up with one hand, curling her fingers under my chin. I lower my head and her lips settle onto mine.

In that moment, I feel the strength of the river as if it were rushing around us again. I sense the weight of the wind and hear the echoes of the chirps. A chill runs through me, even as warmth seals our bond. Life is not as big as I’ve come to believe, and we are not as small as we thought. For one instant, all that matters in the entire universe is right there between us.