Happy Birthday, Ai-li ! — @aetherloved
There wasn’t a doubt that she looked lovely in the candle’s light. Of course she would. More than lovely. Stunning, really, in the slinky navy silk dress he’d bought for her, adorned with crystals to look like the night sky. The dress was of course to his taste, tailored to the measurements he lovingly remembered of her. But he hadn’t quite expected how the imperial blue contrasted her fair skin, or complemented her aureate eyes and her roseate hair. Or how the candlelight would illuminate her features, shine crystalline upon her glossed lips, augment the splendor of the curl of her pretty mouth when she'd catch his gaze across the table.
Caleb wondered why he’d brought her here. Now that he’d returned, it felt like something new. Something mature for them to do: go to a fancy dinner like adults, have an excuse to dress up and make memories she’d be able to brag about to her friends. Something enviable, something new. Halfway through their aperitifs and he’d already regretted the distracting distance of Ai-li across the table, the ambient conversation of the neighboring tables that made it nearly impossible to talk without raising their voices a little, or the way they’d just pull awkward smiles across the way like they suddenly didn’t know how to act when they had to act like adults. So he does what he does best when it comes to her. He manages.
“Hope it isn’t too early,” he says, catching her attention and reaching into his breast pocket to pull out a thin velvet box. Rising from his seat, he walks over to Ai-li’s side, opening it to reveal a thin gold chain with a pale pink jade lotus flower pendant, and the characters “夏以昼 ♡ 月艾莉 " engraved in gold on the back. Like a promise she can wear upon her skin.
Caleb lets her get a good look before he takes the initiative to retrieve it from the box and adorn her throat with it. Leaning in to clasp it properly, he murmurs softly against the shell of her ear, voice velutinous with invitation, “I already can’t wait to get out of here and take you home. Is that selfish?”












