Friday evening rolled around and Sunny left the staff room at the back of the diner.  Tiffany watched her practically run to the door.  For the last week, a new and improved Sunny graced their presence and they all loved her.  From the cute squeal she gave at the delivery of flowers on Monday morning, to the little sashays she gave as she meandered her way between the tables, even to the little dance routines she made to the music from the jukebox whilst waiting for her orders.  Nobody had seen anything like this, or at least to this level.  It was all thanks to Nathan, they knew it, and they prayed that the pair would remain together.

But what concerned Tiffany right at that moment was that in a very short period of time, Sunny would be heading out on her date with Nathan.  Her first proper date with him.

And she was dressed in jeans, a long sleeved t-shirt and sneakers.

“Hey, Sunny?” she called to her.

“Yeah?” the excited waitress twirled around.

“Don’t you have a date tonight?”

Sunny beamed and nodded frantically.  She had brushed her hair and tied it back, decorating her head with the cutest yellow polka dotted ribbon she could find.  She had bought it especially for their date and had kept it in its packaging until she tied it not ten minutes earlier.  Her makeup was so gentle, she could have passed for not wearing anything.  One of Yoona’s tricks, no doubt.

“So … what’s with the clothes?”

Sunny giggled and shrugged.  “Nathan said it would be better if I dressed in jeans.”  She pouted.  “He won’t tell me why either.”

Tiffany frowned.  “What time is he getting here?”

“Any minute.  Tiff, do I look ok?”

“You look cute, but I just …”

“What?” Sunny started to panic.

“I don’t get why you’re not in one of your cute dresses that you would normally wear.”

“He asked me to dress like this.  He said it’d be better.”

“Really?”

At that moment, Sunny’s phone beeped with a message.  As she read it, she smiled and almost sweated with nerves that anyone could sense.

“I’m outside,” the message read.  “See you in a minute?”

“He’s here,” she whispered.

“Too late to get you changed, I guess,” Tiffany mused.  “Come on,” she took Sunny’s hand and walked out with her.

“What?  Where are we going?”

“I’m going to find out why he’s telling you what to wear.”

“Tiff, it’s ok!” Sunny called out after her.  The pair walked through the door, around the corner and saw Nathan immediately.  He was looking directly at them as Tiffany calmly marched towards him.

“Hey,” he smiled, only to let it drop the second he saw Tiffany’s polite scowl.  “Everything ok?”

“You’re telling her what to wear now?” she asked accusingly.

Had she waited for a moment, she would have heard Sunny’s sharp gasp of air and felt her arm go limp.  When Tiffany was on a mission, however, nothing stopped her.

“I thought better of you, Nathan,” she continued.  “It’s your first date and you’re telling her how to dress?”

“Tiffany …” Sunny quietly tried to interrupt her.

“Seriously, Nathan, what’s wrong with you?”

“It’s ok,” Sunny nudged her relentless manager.

“No, Sunny, it’s not alright ….” Tiffany turned to look at her friend before noticing the look on her face.  She followed her eyes to its target and saw what had entranced her.  Everything made sense right then, and she felt like a complete fool. 

Behind Nathan, in all its black and silver glory, say a Daelim Daystar motorbike.  Hanging over the handlebars to his right was a black and red helmet, and a second, pink and white, sat under his left hand.

“I got my motorcycle license two months ago,” he confessed sheepishly.  “I figured, instead of risking tearing Sunny’s legs to shreds, I’d ask her to protect them.  But I couldn’t tell her that I had this thing, could I?  It’d spoil the surprise.”

Tiffany closed her eyes and avoided his sweet and forgiving gaze.  “Have fun, you two,” she muttered highly embarrassed, and scuttled back into the diner before she could put her foot in anything else.

The pair laughed as she left and Sunny felt herself blush harder than she had all week.

“Shall we go?” he asked, standing up and holding out the second helmet to his date.

Sunny bowed sweetly and accepted the helmet, her smile not disappearing as she gingerly placed it on her head.  He gently clasped the strap under her chin and tightened it slightly.

“That ok?” he asked.  A nod was all he needed as he put his own helmet on and lifted his leg over the motorcycle, making room for Sunny behind him.  She climbed onto the bike, settled into the seat and wrapped her arms tightly around her boyfriend.

 

~~~

 

“As they both rode off into the sunset, Sunny knew they would both live happily ever after,” Inara’s father finished the story, closing the book for effect.  He looked over to the little girl and smiled.  Just as she did whenever he read her a story, she had fallen asleep before he could finish.  He watched as she quietly breathed, snuggled with her favourite baby pink teddy bear.  He remembered her “aunt” giving her that as a birthday gift.  She wasn’t really Inara’s aunt, but was such a close friend to his wife that they were practically sisters.  He quietly replaced the book onto the shelf and returned to tuck his little girl into bed.  He kissed her head as he pulled the blankets over her, turned off the bedside light and left the room and his daughter to slumber.

The rain was still falling as he walked downstairs to the quiet, empty living room.  There was enough natural light to give a dull illumination, even at this hour, but he switched on the overhead light anyway.  He sat on the sofa and picked up the newspaper he had been reading before Inara went to bed.  It was full of the usual stories of terror and distress, crime and sorrow, with the odd human interest story tucked into the small corner of page 28 and the entire centre pull out section dedicated to the latest fashion trends that would die within a few weeks.  He read the news in near silence, the falling rain and the passing cars the only noises keeping him company.

The front door, far behind him, opened.  In from the rain walked a woman, completely soaked from the weather.  “Ugh,” she exclaimed as she closed the door.  “I knew I should have taken my umbrella.”

“There’s a towel over the radiator for you,” he called out to her, the newspaper maintaining his attention.  No words passed between them as the woman removed her wet coat, picked up the towel and dried her electric red hair.  She walked over to him, her sneakers squeaking once on the hardwood floor, and put her arms around his shoulders from behind.

“Thank you, baby,” she greeted him as she kissed his cheek.

“Wow, it really is bad,” he looked up at her as she left him to finish drying.  Her hair, her clothes and even her skin were dampened from the rainfall.  He could only imagine how soaked she would have been without her coat and if her hair hadn’t been partially dried now.  She nodded at the statement of obviousness.  “Then I really am glad that you have a nice hot bath waiting for you upstairs,” he smiled, returning to his paper.  “Bubbles, candles, even a chilled bottle of wine waiting outside for you.”

“Awww, baby!” she kissed him again.  “You did that for me?”

“Honey, it terrible outside.  I figured you should get yourself rested and pampered, freshened up from your day, then we could talk about everything that happened and enjoy tonight together.”

She smiled at him.  “We’ve been married for almost seven years and you’re still as sweet to me as when we first met,” she cooed.

“This coming from Mrs ‘I know I said I wouldn’t but I just had to get you this thing you really don’t need but looks so cute and made me think of you’,” he teased.

“Yes, from me, Mr ‘I do that almost every day anyway, even when I don’t have enough money to do so and I know it annoys my wife no end’.”

He turned his head to her and smiled at the woman sitting down next to him.  Almost seven years ago, he had promised to love her with every ounce of his being.  Eight years ago, he had declared his undying love to her in a restaurant with their friends and proposed to her, despite secretly doing so privately a week earlier.  Nine and a half years ago, he had told her she was his dream woman and over ten years ago was the day they had first met.  Yet not once throughout this decade had he ever looked at her with anything less than pure adoration.  Nor had she looked at him any differently.  Their friends were jealous of their love for each other, wondering how they could still remain so enamoured by each other after all this time.  Some had compared them to their parents, who argued for as long as they could remember.  Yet these two were as sweet and patient with each other as the day they first met.  They were friends as well as lovers, a combination he always thought worked better than any.

“So …,” she looked away from him, putting on the usual coy act she would give when she wanted something he would so easily give to her anyway, “fancy sharing a bath with me?”

“Sharing?”

She nodded.  “We haven’t had a bath together for a long time and … I’ve missed you.”

“Awwww.”  He leaned in and kissed her lips, catching a drop of rain that had been resting there.  “I’d love to.”

She smiled her bright and shining smile, and her entire face lit up.  Her personality shone in that instant, bringing life to her prized moniker.

“Where’s Inara?” she asked.

“In bed.”

“Already?”  He nodded.  “She never sleeps like this for me.  You never have her misbehaving.”

“That’s because she’s a daddy’s girl.  Everyone knows that.”

She laughed.  “Did you read to her?”  He nodded again.  “Did she choose the story?”  Another nod, coupled with a beaming smile.  She rolled her eyes and blushed slightly.  “You are going to have to tell her the truth with that story, you know.”

“What?” he asked, mocking indignation.  “It’s all true!”

“Nathan, come on,” she smirked.  “Ryan did not make me upset because he shared his sweets with everyone else and not with me.”

“Sunny, come on,” he mocked, over-exaggerating her statement, “you want me to explain to her how you were really mad at me because Ryan was such a tool?”

She looked away and blushed.  She loved the story as much as her daughter did, and she adored the way Nathan had made it more like a child’s fairy tale.  She simply found it amusing that all of the fights about Ryan’s infidelity and her reaction were retold as how Ryan would always eat her favourite sweets in front of her.  The real moments were a time where she learned how much she loved Nathan, a time where she learned what love really meant to her and how important it was.  She hoped that, when she grew older, her daughter would be so lucky to find love with a man that was even half as perfect as she saw Nathan.  “Tell her when she gets older?” she mumbled.

“Of course I will,” he folded his newspaper up and put it on the arm of the sofa as he stood up.  “Now, Miss Sunny, I believe we have a booked engagement to attend.”

She chuckled.  ‘Miss Sunny’ was how he addressed her when pretending to be her servant.  He would bend over backwards for her as much as he could and treated her like a princess.  Although it was never one sided; she would always do for him.  She just never addressed him as ‘Master’ or anything similar.  He bowed like a butler and held out his hand like a suitor, which she daintily took in hers.  She stood up, carrying the slightly damp towel and led the way to the stairs.

“Oh wait,” he called, letting go of her hand and walking to the kitchen.

“What is it?” she shouted, waiting for him on the first step.

“Well, we’re sharing a bath, right?”

“Yeah …”

“And I left your wine upstairs for you.”

“Uh huh …”

“Well, I didn’t exactly plan on us sharing tonight,” he explained, returning from the kitchen with an empty wine glass in hand, “so I only prepared one glass for you.”

She giggled and draped her arms around his shoulders.  “I know I keep saying this, but …” she shook her head.

“I love you too,” he smiled at her, wrapping his arms around her waist.  Despite the addition of the step, Sunny was still an inch or two shorter than him.  The normal foot difference in height was very noticeable, but she loved it.  It made her feel more protected by him.  She lowered her eyes and blushed, something she did often when in his embrace.

“Come on,” he coaxed.  “Your bath is getting cold, and your wine is getting warm.  That’s going against the natural order of things.”  He patted her playfully as she giggled.  She twirled around and took his empty hand in hers, leading him up the stairs to the bathroom.

And as they ascended the stairs together towards their evening retreat, Sunny knew they would both live happily ever after.