I can't lose you.

Jake let out an exasperated sigh and took the seat ,quite far away from Phil." Do you have a death wish? Seriously, the staff room? That's the last place the professors would want us to be. Let's head back to some other class", he grunted.

" If you're worried about someone finding us , you are free to go", Phil grinned and resumed his paperwork regarding their college project.

"That's not going to work, Phil Hawkins" , Jake snapped back.

"I get it.You are annoyed ,immensely annoyed,about yesterday", Phil stated whose eyes seemed concentrating on the paper.

"That's true. You almost destroyed the WHOLE program I had in my computer. You won't understand the most significant role it played for me", he argued.

Phil placed his hand on his chest and gasped. " You have had something very significant than me in your life! Oh dear, I feel sorry for my heart".

" The project will never reach the endpoint at this pace ", Jake shook his head in dismay. " Me, a computer student assigned to work with an arts student, I am not unsurprised at all."

"Pfft, I think I was given a chance to beg for forgiveness to you", Phil dragged his chair nearer to Jake's. "Jake,please, I told you I'll buy the latest laptop as compensation, or ask me anything you want. I'll get it for you."

Phil's eyes lingered dolefully at the indifferent stare of Jake

"I'm done for today. We're going home", Jake hit the paper on Phil's head. " I am not wishing to accept anything else", he stared at those lingering eyes and laughed softly.

"This is the best stare contrasting to those you made for the past half an hour", Phil smirked. " You thought you did it secretly, but you didn't. "

Before the shock of realisation,could leave Jake's eyes, they heard footsteps in the corridor. He immediately pulled Phil to hide under a table.

"I can't wait to go home", Phil mouthed inaudibly.

»»——⍟——««●○●○●○●○»»——⍟——««

Jake laughing as he spun me around our tiny kitchen at two in the morning because our favorite song came on. Jake holding our newborn daughter with tears in his electric blue eyes. Jake tangled in our sheets on lazy Sunday mornings, messy black hair falling into his face while he smiled at me like I was the only thing keeping his world together.

He died ten years ago, but my heart never learned how to survive without him. People told me I would move on eventually. That grief would fade. That someday I would find someone else. But there was never going to be anyone else. How could there be?

We met in the strangest way possible. I was just a random phone number his half-sister had given her boyfriend before she disappeared. He was a wanted hacker desperately trying to find her. I should have been terrified of him, but instead there was this pull between us from the very beginning. Something magnetic. Something impossible to explain no matter how hard we tried to ignore it.

By the time Hannah was finally found, we were already falling for each other. Meeting him in person only made it worse. One look at those bright blue eyes and that crooked grin, and I knew my life would never be the same.

And it wasn’t.

Jake became a free man and we built a life together piece by piece, full of chaos and love and late-night talks. We got married, had kids, and grew old together. Even after years together, he still kissed me like he was afraid I might disappear.

Then one rainy night, he never came home from work.

I still remember the sound that left my throat in the ICU when the doctor told me there was nothing more they could do. I remember clutching his hand while our children cried beside me. I remember begging him to stay.

But he slipped away anyway.

And he took half of me with him.

The light around me grows warmer now, brighter. The pain in my chest that has followed me for ten long years slowly begins to fade. For the first time since losing him, I feel whole again.

My feet carry me forward before I even realize where I am. Golden gates stretch high into the sky, glowing softly around me. And there he is.

Jake.

Standing just beyond the gates like he’s been waiting for me this entire time.

My breath catches as I stare at him. He looks exactly the same. Messy black hair falling into his face. Electric blue eyes full of warmth and love. Home.

I break into a run.

The second I reach him, his arms wrap around me and he lifts me effortlessly off the ground. I bury my face into his neck, sobbing as I cling to him while his hands hold me like he never wants to let go again.

I pull back just enough to look at him before crashing my lips against his. Everything around us disappears. Maybe it’s heaven. Maybe it’s simply him. Either way, the world stops the moment he touches me again.

When he finally sets me down, his forehead rests against mine. “Hi, my love,” Jake whispers softly.

A shaky laugh escapes me through my tears. “Hi, Jake.”

His fingers lace through mine like they were always meant to be there.