"I want how it was before. I want it all with you in my life again... I'm asking you to stay."
Miles Cobain-Smith
An aloof and detached logician, he scrutinizes the simplest things through microscopic lenses. Academic validation, family expectations...
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"What kind of tattoo do you want, sir?" Juliet asks, taking his hand onto her lap as she uncaps the black marker pen.
"Whatever you want," Miles says, lazily placing his head on her shoulder with his eyes fixed on the television where a wildlife documentary is playing.
"Maybe I can draw a flower or something. What's your favorite flower?"
"Lily of the valley."
"Ah, that's a beautiful one. I remember seeing them in the living room vase of your house. My favorite flowers are roses and cherry blossoms," Juliet states, trying to find the proper place on his hand to draw. "I love those wedding bouquets of roses along with strings of white lily of the valleys."
"Red roses?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
"Don't move, Miles. Sit still," she orders, outlining the edges of the small bell-shaped flower when he shifts again, making the ink smudge a little. She gasps, giving him a disapproving look. "Look what you did to my artwork. I'm going to kick you out of my parlor, sir."
He chuckles before muttering sorry.
"Did I tell you I'm getting a motorbike?"
"Oh my God, that's so cool," Juliet exclaims, turning towards him. "Motorbike rides seem more exciting to me than cars. When I was little before moving to Mahone Bay, we lived in Ottawa, and Dad had a motorbike. On weekends, he would take me for long rides around the city, and sometimes we went so far that it became night to return home."
"You miss motorbike rides?" Juliet nods in agreement to his question, and he smiles. "I will take you with me then."
"That would be so fun! Thank you," she says, finishing off the drawing and then she holds his hand and looks at the flower design from different angles.
"Do you like it?"
"Yes, it's beautiful," he comments, taking a closer look at it.
"You'd look really weird if you had a tattoo," Juliet giggles, keeping the marker pen aside. "So unlike you."
"Add some blonde hair maybe, blue eyes, a rope chain, a few bracelets, and you've got Miles possessed by aliens, and we would definitely not be here today," Miles jokes.
"That's hilarious! I just imagined you like that, and I'm about to have a heart attack in my brain!" Juliet says, throwing her head back in laughter while Miles watches with an amused smile. "That's not my grumpy at times, quiet, and cute Miles, you know, more like an utterly rich, famous pop star who the whole world is in love with."
"The whole world except for you..." He says, making her snap her eyes at him, and a soft smile makes its way to her lips. "I know you'd rather not live at all if you had to live under the spotlights. You wish to be invisible and live like background noise. People talking in a home, children playing, floorboards creaking-always present but never noticed, you get the idea, right? And that's what I need. I need only you to love me; the world can burst into flames with all its shallow treats for all I care."
