The Sigma Asset 🏳️‍🌈 (bxb)║AMBYS WINNER 2022

48: Rollers and Breakers

Eight a.m. and I'd run out of staff paper, but no way was I gonna leave the bed to get more. I'd filled pages with the pulse of the ocean's heartbeat, the melody of our breaths tumbling like the surf, the ostinato rhythm of the music that Will had turned us into. The melody had echoed in my head long after we'd nestled together, sharing drowsy kisses until Will had fallen asleep.

I'd slept badly of my own volition, planting kiss after helpless kiss on Will as he'd slept, pressing close to absorb all the warmth I could from him, all the time my fingers twitching to try out his music on the grand piano.

At first I'd doubted that it could stand as a real piece of music, the barest shell of a composition, only existing for a short time in the warm cocoon of Will's arms. But at two a.m. I'd crept out of bed to fetch staff paper and pencil to capture the piece before the night took it to my dreams, or hid it forever on my cluttered brain-shelves.

I'd written down what I could remember, expecting it to be a silly curiosity to laugh at over breakfast. But I'd woken up to find the notes for an entire movement scrawled onto staff paper. I didn't even have to test it on the piano; I knew that it was a beautiful little étude, light and airy in C major. Maybe it could be a late birthday present for Will.

Will's music was forgotten as my eyes fell back to the slow rise and fall of his chest, an arm thrown above his head, the other arm over his torso, like a dancer who'd been enchanted to sleep mid-arabesque. Fuck, he was so beautiful. How was I gonna bear to be away from him during the day when he went back to work? How was I gonna bear to be away from him forever when I went back to Busan? 

You're not in Busan yet, Zeph.

I swung my legs out of bed to go make coffee, but Will's arms were already winding around my waist, his laughter sending a sub-sonic vibration through my ribs as he pulled me back into bed.

"Hey! You were asleep a second ago!"

"I'm still asleep," he said.

More laughter, and more kisses. Slow and deep. Like we were never gonna make it out of bed. Will ran his finger along the cord of my necklace, scooping the shell up into his palm, before pressing it to his lips and settling it back against my chest.

"I've been doing that too."

"Del be del rah daré[1]" Will said, smacking kiss after kiss onto my knuckles before pulling me onto him.

"Gloria told me what that means, you know. Persians are so melodramatic."

"We're not melodramatic!" He sulked under the covers for a few moments, before emerging to pepper me with kisses again.

"OK, if you're not melodramatic, what's the most romantic phrase you can think of in Farsi? I bet it's gonna be totally over the top."

"It won't be." Will settled against the pillows, eyebrows furrowed in thought, as if testing line after line of flowery Persian poetry to find the most saccharine. "The most romantic thing that people say to each other in Iran is probably jigaré mani."

"That's short. I was expecting some long-ass poem." Will chuckled at that, taking my hand in his and turning it over to kiss my fingertips, my palm, my wrist. "So? What does it mean?"

"It means I'm your liver."

It wasn't the sentimental Persian fluff that I'd been expecting. "You're...my liver? As in...you're one of my internal organs? And that's meant to sound nice?"

A torrent of laughter spilled out of Will. "It sounds super-romantic in Farsi." He pulled me closer, pressing his lips to each knuckle of my right hand, then moving on to the left.