Page 64 of Ra
Ra thought about it. “No. Because my intention is to live beside you, love you endlessly, then follow you into the next life to do it all over again. If I’m a god, I cannot access the next life. I’d have to make a deal with Anubis, and we all know how unlikely that would be.”
Azi laughed. “What I heard is that you want to be with me.”
“That’s all I want. I’m an excellent historian. If you choose to continue your exploration of ancient civilizations, perhaps I could help. It’s almost like I lived in ancient civilizations personally,” he said with a mischievous grin. “Or we could just stay home and be sickeningly in love with each other. It’s your choice.”
“Does that mean you’re staying?” Azi asked.
“Will you promise me forever, and then forever again?” he asked.
“I promise you forever, and then again!” she said excitedly.
“Then I’ll stay. Forever, and forever again!”
“And we’ll have adventures! You need to see everything!”
“So many adventures!” He held her chin gently in his fingers, kissing her, savoring the taste of her lips, the feel of her skin against his. He opened his eyes after their shared kiss, and watched as she opened her eyes, looking at him with an endless amount of love in her soul. “I love you, dear Azenath.”
She winced just a bit when he used the term he’d gotten from her when she was frustrated with him. “I wasn’t lying when I explained the dear part was more of prayer to my God to help me deal with you. It was not a good thing.”
“Ah, but when I called you ‘dear Azenath’ I meant it as a term of endearment. I prefer to believe that you were doing the same for me.”
Azi laughed. “So, when I rub my eyes and say ‘dear god’ in the future, it’s a good thing?”
“Always! Whatever we do, it is always a good thing.” He slung his arm around her shoulders and led her toward the exit. He paused at the top of the staircase and took her in his arms as he looked down lovingly at her. “Thank you, Azi, for seeing me, the man. For guiding me in this life. For loving me, flaws and all. Though, we both know that flaws in my character are completely imaginary — I was, after all, a god. Quite perfect, really,” he said, as he took her hand and led her the rest of the way up the steps.
“Dear god,” she mumbled, shaking her head as she chuckled.
“You see? A good thing, not an exasperation at all,” Ra said joyfully.
Azi laughed wholeheartedly, as they reached the top of the staircase, her hand clasped in his where it now rested on her shoulder. “Perfectly normal. A good thing, no exasperation at all,” she agreed.
“I love you,”Azi said.
“Of course, you do. Because I love you, too,” Ra said.
A little more…
The next morning Azi and Ra lay in the disheveled sheets of Azi’s bed. Nothing woke them — not Azi’s phone ringing incessantly from downstairs. Not the sun shining brightly through the window. Nothing. Until Abasi began pounding on the door.
Ra was the first to sit straight up in bed and try to identify the incessant banging. “What is that noise?!” he demanded.
Azi turned over and began to stretch her body this way and that. “I don’t hear anything.”
Abasi pounded on the door again.
Azi sat up. “That’s the door. Someone’s knocking.”
“That is not knocking. It is pounding.”
Ra got up and pulled on a pair of shorts, then headed downstairs with Azi right behind him as she pulled on a robe.
“Wait a minute! Don’t just open the door, we don’t know who it is!” Azi warned.
Ra yanked the door opened and glared at Abasi. “Stop assaulting our door!” he ordered angrily.
Abasi immediately cast his eyes down. “Apologies, Ra. But we have a problem.”
“We do not have a problem. You, however, seem quite upset. Explain to me why we should care in the early morning hours of the first day of our lives together that you are upset,” Ra demanded.
