AN: I need a title for this. Also I’m posting this in a blind panic because that is how I post everything. :)
“Have I ever told you how I met the love of my life?”
Rowan was sitting with Aiden, his only son back from college for the summer, in his home office, a large dark wooden desk separating the two. His son resembled him in every way except for his dark brown hair which came from his mother.
“Yeah, of course. Mom talks all the time about how you two met.”
“I’m not talking about your mom. Lyria is. . .” His son’s face is riddled with confusion. Rowan shakes his head, “She is a different story, one you’ve heard most of before. I found my soulmate when I was about your age, my real mate.”
Aiden cocks his head at his father, “How did I not know about this? I thought mom was your mate.”
Rowan gently smiles at him, “No. She—we thought it was better to tell you that she was but now that you’re old enough we figured you should know the truth. Not only the truth, the whole story. And for my own selfish reasons, I want to tell the story, to hear the words to remember it. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had the luxury of remembering her and, if you’d like to hear, I would like to share the story with you.”
Rowan’s health had been declining in recent years and he wanted to share his true self before he passed away with the one person he truly loved, his son. His hands shook just slightly as he waited for the response. After everything had happened, he wanted his son to know him for the man he was and not the man he became.
Quietly, Aiden says, “Okay.”
“Okay,” Rowan repeats, “Well.”
He takes a moment just for himself to remember it all, everything he wants to tell Aiden and everything he maybe shouldn’t.
“So, this is the story of how I met the love of my life,” Rowan can’t help the wide grin that spreads across his face, “This is how I met Aelin Ashryver Galathynius.”
——————————————————————————
The bar was packed with tweaking graduate students and honors students all, quite unsuccessfully, trying to drown out their worries of exams and papers with as many shots and drinks they could afford. Rowan sits on a barstool finishing his second beer of the night with a drunk Fenrys on his right who is thoroughly distracted by a group of freshmen sitting at a booth on the other side of the room.
He turns his head to see the owner of the voice. A blonde girl sliding onto the stool beside him with a smirk on her face and a drink in her hand.
“I suppose not anymore,” he grumbles. He didn’t even want to come to the bar tonight. Fenrys had coaxed him into it swearing that the drinks would cause him to forget the C Professor Aiken gave Rowan on his most recent essay. At the glare he received in response, Fenrys promised drinks were on him and Rowan finally agreed. He figured he’d talk to this girl until Fen would finally let him leave, it’s better than doing nothing.
“What’s your name?” She asked him.
“I’m going home with you tonight,” she sticks her hand out to him. He tries not to roll his eyes as he takes it, “It’s nice to meet you.”
Still shaking her hand, he says, “Ah, so you’re the type of girl who’s bold because your philosophy is ‘live everyday as if it’s your last.’ Am I right?”
“In a way, sure. Maybe I just enjoy being bold.”
She drops his hand and says, “My name is Aelin. And by your logic I should be telling you right now that you are very much the type of person I’d like to kiss.”
His jaw clenches. Aelin just laughs; she thinks his irritation is funny, “You’re a freshman, right?”
She shakes her head, “I’m not in school.”
“But if you were, you’d be a freshman, yeah?” His beer was almost gone.
“Well, if we’re making assumptions, you’re. . .” She squints her eyes and examines him comically, “a junior. You like drinking but never learned how to properly have a good time because you’re too worried about your grades and I intimidate you because bold women who want to kiss you remind you of irresponsibility.”
“You don’t intimidate me,” he grumbles to her, looking down at the bar.
“So, if I kissed you right now it wouldn’t intimidate you?”
He turns to look at her, the smirk now softer on her face and her eyes glancing to his lips. They’re already seated closely together on the two stools so it doesn’t take much for her to lean forward and capture her lips with his.
To her surprise, and his, he kisses her back.
After a moment, she pulls away and smiles at him, “Do you have a car, Rowan?” The corners of his mouth twitch as he nods a ‘yes,’ “Good.” She grabs his hand and drags him out of the bar.
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