To the Love of My Life

He suddenly felt grateful that he hadn’t stayed on the mountaintop to watch the fireworks or went to play cards early.

Ruby sat on the sofa with the glass of water handed to her by Steve, watching him rummaging through his entire house, trying to find the candles.

He had one shoe on and the other off, and the shoelace wasn’t tied, swinging with each step.

Her gaze lingered on his left leg, noticing he kept it straight while walking.

How could Steve know where the candles were kept in his house? The maids usually took care of these trivial matters. He searched the entire living room, which had been cleaned and tidied for New Year’s only that afternoon, making it look as if it had been robbed and ransacked.

Ruby reluctantly put down her glass of water and stood up. “If you can’t find them, don’t worry about it…”

“I have them!” Steve interrupted her without waiting for her to finish speaking.

The power had cut off, likely due to a circuit issue or a breaker tripping. He only needed to check the breaker, which would take less than a minute, and didn’t actually need to borrow candles.

He had never thought of disturbing her when she didn’t take the initiative to visit him. But now that she had unexpectedly appeared before him, he desperately wanted to prolong this private time, making it last a little longer.

After finishing, Steve took out his phone and said to Ruby, “Wait a moment.”

Then, he dialed a number.

“Mrs. Taylor? It’s Steve Burton… Where did you put the candles in the house?” His tone was gentle when asking. Walking towards the back room, he pushed open the door at the end, not closing it behind him. Ruby could hear his voice from the living room, now angry and stern, “Don’t you know that candles are essential household items? What are you doing putting them at the bottom of the box in the storage room?”

“None of your business why I’m looking for candles!” With his last yell, Ruby saw Steve coming out of the room holding two packs of candles.

Steve walked up to Ruby, handing her the candles, his tone clear of any anger from his phone conversation, “Is this enough?”

One pack of candles had about six, so two packs made twelve. Ruby didn’t really have a power outage, so she just took one pack and said, “Thank you.”

Upon receiving the candles, Ruby glanced at Steve’s left leg unconsciously. She moved her lips, not knowing how to ask about his injury.

After borrowing the candles, was she going to leave?

Steve’s throat moved, subconsciously wanting to talk to Ruby, so he asked, “Do you need a lighter?”