Chapter 5

Since the first date Will and I had a wonderful time together, it had been almost 6 months. He moved into my house and we literally spending quality time each and every day. We would have breakfast together before I took off to work. Sometimes he would come to the hospital and bring me out for lunch and sometimes, he cooked dinner and dressed like a waiter awaiting me home. That time when he did that he must have something dirty playing in his mind. His gelled hair, the black bow tie tied around his neck, seducing naked upper body, long black slack and bare foots on the tiles. He could be really sexy sometimes.

      We talked about so many things. About my conservative parents, about his childhood, about my previous study life, about his enlistment, about the discovery of our sexual orientation, about our ambitions and all sort of things. Down the road we would have to know all these little things in order to understand each other better. These conversations were meant to be truthful for a long term relationship. They were the foundation of strong bond.

      Late in the summer Will's holiday was coming to an end and I didn't realize that time was passing so fast. I came back from work one day and found him solemnly lying on the couch looking to the ceiling. I was very curious and started to get worry when he didn't bother to look at me even when I called him. I put down my bag and sat on the floor beside the couch.

      "Hey." I said. "What's up?"

      He turned his head to me and nothing came out of him. I started to get really worry. "Uhmm..." was all he said.

      "Honey what's wrong?" I was caressing his hair.

      He took a deep breath and sat up on the couch. I looked at him waiting for his words. "I have news."

      "I'm waiting." I said patiently.

      "I got a call. I would need to depart to Afghanistan in two weeks." He said sternly.

      The rest of the night went meaninglessly. This breaking news caught me off guard. I couldn't think straight as if my world has fallen apart. We didn't speak for a few hours, even dinner. In fact, it was a disaster. I have never had such weird dinner in my life. I couldn't bring myself to speak of a word and that probably the reason.

      In the bed he started to convince me that everything would be fine. He talked for a long time and I couldn't help myself to utter a single word. When I turned to him I hugged him close and tears started rolling down my cheeks. I wasn't that strong actually.

      "Hey, hey." He urged softly. "Don't cry."

      I couldn't say a word I was crying so badly. "Not that I will never make it back." He said.

      For the rest of my crying he didn't say anything anymore. Deep down we both knew how it would be we just never speak about it. "Be safe" was all I said.

      Will have approximately one week plus before he needed to pack up his things and leave to Afghanistan. For the rest of his days he had in the state I had him accompanied. I wrote in to apply for holiday.

      Will had plans for me and himself before he left. He brought me for an escape at Hawaii and wanted me to enjoy as much as I can. We both just wanted to spend as much time as possible together because we knew that the departure would definitely bring some changes to our relationship. For now we just stick together and that was probably the only thing we could do, to create memories in togetherness.

      We spent uncountable time together. In the morning we visited a lot of places. He rented a car to drive me around the town using GPS. He brought me to a local tattoo house and we both inked our body with a local tribal tattoo. We went up to the volcano with trained personnel and were amazed by the its heat. We could feel the heat bubbling on the surface of our foots while stepping on it although with our sneakers on. For few afternoons we spent some time together to learn the local traditional dance called the Hula Dance and some nights we would enjoy the fire dance in specific restaurants. When there were barbecue parties out there on the beach at night, we would join them and mostly they were very friendly and welcoming. Will and I were truly enjoying every second.

      One evening while Will was taking a nap in the hotel room, I sneaked out of the room and went down to the beach. Sometimes we just need some alone time. The sunset was beautiful, it colored the sky orange and seagulls were scattered all over it. The waves formed a symphony which I was fascinated by it. I know I could sit here the whole day looking at the sea under such soothing environment. I found a spot under a coconut tree and sat down on the pearl white sand. The sea breeze gently stroking my face I find it very comforting. Within a minute I sunk into deep thoughts I didn't even realize that Will found me on the beach. In fact, he has been sitting there for quite some time. His presence startled me when I turned my head and shrugged my shoulders for relaxation purpose.

      "Oh Jezz! How long have you been here?" I asked, frightened.

Will laughed. "For at least 10 minutes."

      "Why didn't you call me?"

      "I don't want to interrupt you pondering life epiphany." He smirked.

      "Ha.Ha. Very funny Willy." I turned my gaze away from him, back to the sea in front of me.

      "I woke up and couldn't find you in the room. I guess you went down to the lobby or somewhere until I found you here." He said and moved closer to me.

      I nodded and didn't say a thing. "What are you thinking?" Will finally asked.

      "I don't know." I shrugged. "It's like a lot of things jumbled together. I don't know which should I deal with first."

      Will knew what I was trying to say. "You know, if the God turns back time and allow me to choose again my career, I will still stick to same job which I am doing now."

      I looked into him and waiting for more to come. "If I never join the army, I will never see you, I will never know you. I will never meet you and I will never have so many happy moments in my life, and this moment now here is one of it." He paused. "You made me the happiest man on earth, you know? If I never meet you and never read that poem, I didn't even know that I could be that happy. I constantly looking for something to do with my life which hopefully could make me happy and none of it actually lasted."

      I smiled and he continued his conversation. "Up until I saw you in the clinic, up until the dance on our first date on my brother's wedding, up until our first sex. Everything is still crystal clear."

He stopped and took a breath. "I want you to know that you’re the most important person in my life I couldn’t afford to lose you."

      He held my hand and brought them to his chest. I couldn't tell how happy I was that moment I went speechless. I wasn't a good speaker starting from the beginning and he somehow got used to it. I smiled gladly and planted a kiss on his lips. The only thing to express how important his words were to me was by putting my gratitude into action. I knew that he knew I was obsessed with him too.

      Will stood up and walked towards the bushes trying to look for something. He squatted down and started working on something in his hands.

      "What are you doing?" I asked.

      "Hang on." He said. "I'm about to finish."

      "I'm curious." I wanted to get up but stopped by Will. "You just relax I’ll be done in a while. Now, I think I’m done."

      I frowned, what was that in his hand?

      He knelt down next to me and said:

      "Would you marry me?"

      He was proposing to me.

I kept asking myself if it was real. I looked into him and starting hearing some buzzing sounds around us, the crowd was growing.

      "I know this is selfish, and it's not even a year we've met," Will paused, "But I would like you to know you're the man of my life and I didn't want you to be out of my life."

      He was still kneeling and I started to hear words like "Say yes!", "What are you waiting, man?" and "Go for it!"

      "Would you marry me?" He asked again.

      "Without a proper engagement ring," I said, "But this goes good with me."

      Will's face split into a big smile and hugged me so fiercely he almost suffocated me. I was smiling with him too, flaring brighter than the sun. I couldn't believe that I would have this day in my life, perhaps my parent's idea of relationship wasn't bad at all. I made the same ring for Will and as he put on the ring for me, I slipped my fresh-made ring into his ring finger. My ring finger.

      "I am engaged!"

I yelled to the crowd and both of us received a generous and thunderous applause. Will looked into me as if he literally hit the moon. He held my hand firmer than ever. And I learnt something that evening: When you truly looked into the people they were actually pretty accepting, just the minority of them still carrying the hatred towards same sex relationship. End of the day, the most important thing is finding the right person for ourselves despite people’s bad opinions. Doing what you like is freedom, liking what you do is happiness.

      As we walked back to our room along the hallway, I whispered to Will.

 "Just so you know, you're not selfish. I'm happy you included me in your life and to me, you're as important as oxygen. I love you, Will Sullivan."

      Without an omen he darling-lift me as we were approaching our room. I was frightened by his action at first, and later then I put my hands around his neck, smiling on this man's silly face. Who knows this soldier in front of me could be really sweet and romantic freak sometimes.

      "I love you too, Bryan Wu." Will whispered.