"That woman is just like you, TianTian." Tianya's mother, Musha, stated with a chuckle.

"What do you mean, Ma?" Tianya asked while casting her mother a curious look.

"Still so young, but worrying about so many things when you don't need to. You need to live life and be in the present. Not worry about the future or the past."

"C'mon, Ma. I have to worry about you. Who will? Dad died several years ago and you live alone."

"I'm still kicking, aren't I?" Musha mused as Tianya rolled her eyes.

"Yes, yes."

She still cast her mother a worrisome look while squeezing her hand in reassurance.

"I still worry and I've been busy lately."

"TianTian, relax, it should be the other way around."

"I know, but still."

"I know, darling, I know."

Tianya aided her mother to her doctor for her mother's bi-weekly checkup. After that the mother and dauther were at the bus stop awaiting their respective bus so that Tianya could take her mother back home after picking up the prescribed medication her mother needed to take.

"Ma, you have to make sure to take your medication, okay?"

Tianya reminded her mother as they waited for the bus to arrive.

"Doctor Kong said you have to watch your stress level. You're not getting any younger."

"Aiya, TianTian, stop fussing about me. I'm an old woman. I know what to do and how to care for myself." Her mother dismissed her own health notion as she shot her daughter a look.

"You should worry more about yourself. You should be married by now and giving me grandchildren."

"Ma."

Tianya shook her head with a laugh while taking a hold of her mother's arm and leading her onto the bus.

"William and I haven't even talk about such things, yet alone about having kids."

She helped her mother settled into an empty seat before taking the one beside her.

"If it happens, then it happens."

"Psh."

Her mother made a face upon hearing her daughter's words.

"I'm not getting any younger, TianTian. The two of you have been dating for seven years now."

"Ma, it's only been four years today."

"What else can I do? I have nothing better to do, but sit around and watch the TV all day."

Musha sighed heavily.

"It's boring doing nothing, TianTian. I miss tending to my garden every morning and evening."

"Don't worry, Ma. Your health will return to normal and you'll be out and about tending to that lovely garden of yours in no time. Anyways, I think the day will come sooner than you think before you know it about me and William."

Tianya smiled as she remembered seeing a tiny black velvet box in the backseat of William's car the other day when he had picked her up for work in the morning.

"Soon, Ma. Very soon. Just you wait."

She patted her mother's hand and reminded her about her medicatin.

"Make sure to take your medication tonight, too. I won't be home as I'll be celebrating my anniversary with William, alright?"

"Alright. Just make sure he finally proposes to you this year."

"Ma."

"I'm just saying. If it's been that long, then he needs to commit. That's all."

"Ma."

"Okay. Okay."

Later that night Tianya got ready to celebrate hers and WIlliam's fourth anniversary of dating. She wore a very stylish white top over black skinny jeans, and cute black and white Converse heels to match. Tianya tried to maintain her energy as she was usually mellow and calm about almost everything in her life, but something like this was a bit different. It was a moment she was sharing with her loved one and hoped to spend the rest of her life with.

So Tianya was just being extra excited as she believed tonight would be the night where her long-awaited vision of marriage would come true. Beside's her mother's health, life was going well. So was her job at the bank. Of course she lived a very normal life and at first thought she was too average and maybe weird for William, but their time together over the course of four years had changed her view of that. Or so she believed.

Tianya waited in her living room for William to buzz that he was down below. She had to call him twice before she was able to get through to him to ask when he was going to pick her up for their date. Even then, he briefly apologized about it all and told her he would be there in fifteen minutes. It was another hour before he finally arrived and the pair was able to start their evening. Tianya told herself that William was just busy and stress with work and forgave him when he apologized once again.

She forgot about the whole incident upon arriving at the high-end restaurant of Skylight Terrace. Tianya couldn't believe her eyes of the wondrous view before her due to the fact that they were at the luxurious Skylight Terrace where it took several months to even reserve a reservation. Her heart thumped rapidly against her chest as she was overcome with anxiousness and silent excitement. Tianya tried to remain tranquil as possible as she didn't want to get ahead of herself now.

And throughout that evening it was marvelous and everything she dreamed of in Tianya's eyes. The evening went wonderfully and beyond her expectations of it all. William was charming, attentive, and complimented his girlfriend here and there with lots of small kisses to her knuckles every so often. She was such a cute mess and she nearly forgot about the whole ordeal of a proposal until she witnessed a quartet entering the area with violins.

At first Tianya assumed William got them to play to set the mood, but it wasn't until they surrounded a table next to theirs. Tianya smiled awkwardly trying her best to hide her disappointment as she cheered along with everyone else as the man proposed to his girfriend. Luckily, the woman had said yes and everyone in the restaurant loudly cheered for the lovely couple. Tianya looked over at William and wondered if he would delay the proposal due to the couple besides them. She didn't have to wondered long when her boyfriend asked for the check and no dessert. Tianya was looking forward to having something sweet, but didn't voice it.

Still though, Tianya remained hopeful. Maybe there was another place he had planned for them afterwards as it was still early to retire for the night. Unfortunately, nothing happened afterwards of what Tianya assumed was going to occur that night. There was no extra place to visit after Skylight Terrace. No special dessert to make up for the one that didn't come after dinner. No candlelight mood or musicians playing a special song and surrounding them. And there was no William getting up from his seat to kneel on one knee in front of Tianya ready to propose to her and spend the rest of his life with her. There was no tiny black velvet box presented in Tianya's sight to gasp at the item inside.

Instead she was sent back to her building complex with no mention of a proposal and left with a quick kiss to the lips at her doorstep. Tianya's anniversary of four years felt more like it was any other date that they had in the past. There was nothing special and Tianya realized that William didn't even mentioned their anniversary. Tianya hoped that he would've said something as she was the one that normally said stuff concerning their status and the likes. Tianya felt that in every romantic expectation, the guy would take the lead and that night it made her realized that William had never done such things in their relationship all of these years.

Of course he showed her that he cared when others were around and doing this and that whenever she invited him over to visit her mother. At first she just thought it was just her mother being difficult with him, but realized to this day that her mother still didn't like the guy. Tianya also realized that she had never met his parents yet or even brought it up either. Tianya shook the thoughts away while letting out a slow breath as she entered her house and up the stairs to her room in a quiet manner. Was it just her or was the rose-colored life she had looked at William with were now fading.

Almost like she was on auto-pilot Tianya went about her nightly routine like normal while scenarios played throughout her mind. She checked up on her mother who was sound asleep and double checked that she had taken her medicine as well to which her mother did. Tianya then tidied up the house before refreshing herself with a long and warm bath. After that, she got comfy in bed with the covers pulled close to her chin. Tianya wondered if she was just overthinking everything and maybe had missed the times William was quite romantic and cared for her without her knowledged. Still the inkling feeling of what she may have suspected all of this time was now edging itself to the front of her mind.

Tianya didn't want to think any longer upon it or feel that it could be possible, but as of right now a lonely feeling settled upon Tianya. She didn't want to feel the loneliness creeping upon her, but it was getting harder to push those nagging thoughts away, especially tonight of all nights as it marked her four year anniversary with William. She brushed the stray tears away while getting out of bed as she took a small blanket with her and grabbed her phone along with her earbuds as well. Tianya headed out of her room and to the living room that had a balcony.

Quietly opening the sliding glass door and barely shutting it, she settled herself upon the recliner with the blanket wrapped tightly around her. Tianya plugged in the earphones and played sad ballad songs from her hand-phone that had a playlist she always went to. She allowed the device to pull the aching thoughts from out of her instead of trying to suppress her own feelings into overtaking her. If she could separate those parts of her from her real self, then maybe reality wouldn't hurt so much in the end. Still though, Tianya knew that you could only push away reality away for so long.

A few days later Serena was photographing a female modeling the new S/S 2020 MOLDIR line in the courtyard of the actual company building, but she wasn't feeling the person. It just didn't work for Serena even though to others it came out amazingly. Which was mainly from the company's secretary slash personal assistant and the model's friends who happened to invite much to the dismay of Serena. The one thing that really annoyed Serena was that the model's friends also got into the photos which irked her after telling them she just needed the main person. When it happened for the nth time that day and within the hour since they started, Praya had to intervene knowing that Serena was about to call off the shoot any second now.

"Let's take a break." Praya suggested while stepping in front of Serena. "We'll try this again in fifteen minutes."

Serena quickly put down her camera with a relieved look while the model, Nazha Maimaiti, went to fix her hair and makeup along with her gaggle of friends. The personal assistant slash secretary who turned out to be William stepped up to Serena with an eager look.

"So what do you think, Ms. Knight? Nazha's wonderful, isn't she?"

For work purposes and to keep her life as private as possible Serena went by an alias which was Nova Knight. A name she used to use for a character in her stories back in grade school. To also hide her identity, Serena wore a face mask that conceal the lower half of her face. This also obscure the way she wanted to feel in front of the client so that they didn't see her true feelings. Serena feigned a polite smile to reach her eyes that didn't appear like she was gonna throttle the model and her buddies.

"Yeah, totally."

"Wonderful. I'm thrilled of the turnout." William exclaimed happily. "To be photographed by the one and only Nova Knight of Everlast Skies."

"Yeah, totally."

William didn't catch the sarcasm in Serena's tone as he turned to Praya.

"I'll check up on Nazha first, Ms. Lundberg, and then we can sort out the rest."

William rushed off leaving the two women behind with eager steps. Serena rubbed her temples to ease the tension as she shook her head with a tsked before going through the photos. She let out another tsked indicating that she was seriously not satisfied with any of the images she had taken. Praya noticed her friend's frowning face.

"What's wrong?" Praya cooed as she lightly shoulder bumped her friend to pick up Serena's mood.

"Nothing." Serena simply replied.