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Gently, her slightly trembling fingers glided over the worn wooden edge of the lacquered table. She could no longer count the many times she had sat here, but she knew that it had always been the happiest moments in her life that she had spent here.
The candle that stood on the table in front of her cast flickering shadows on the walls of the small seating alcove, shielding her for the most part from the prying eyes of the other guests. She only could make out the guests on the opposite side of the corridor, but at the distance it was impossible for her to tell whether they were familiar or unfamiliar faces.
A smile curled around her mouth, revealing the wrinkles that time had dug deeper and deeper into her skin, as a memory from nearly 30 years ago crept into her mind.
"Regina, what are you doing?" Emma grinned with amusement as she watched her wife from the doorway as she moved the armchair to within two feet of the TV.
"What does it look like?" she groaned, as the piece of furniture was chunky and carried quite a bit of weight. "You could just help me instead of standing there laughing at me."
This statement only made Emma laugh even more. "You could just wear glasses," she suggested, stepping closer with her arms folded in front of her chest, finally giving her a hand. "Because then you don't have to flatten your nose on the screen!"
"You don't wear them either!" Regina pointed out indignantly and sank down into the armchair when it was finally in the position she wanted.
Rolling her eyes, Emma slid astride Regina's lap and put her arms around her neck so that their faces were only inches apart and their noses were almost touching. "Yeah, probably for the reason that I don't need them to see well," she smirked, pressing a kiss to her lips before Regina could protest.
"That's not fair!" the brunette indignantly let Emma's curly blonde mane slip through her fingers. "I'm only a few years older than you!"
Emma shrugged her shoulders. "We'll all get there, you'll see."
"Anyway, as long as I can still see you well enough, I won't put on my glasses," she grinned, and couldn't help but notice the way Emma's gaze lingered on her lips as she did so. "What's wrong?"
"I love it when you smile so wide," Emma whispered, nuzzling her face into the crook of Regina's neck. "You're so beautiful."
"Yes, yet. Wait until I wear glasses," snorted the brunette.
"I think you're very sexy with glasses," Emma smirked, brushing her hair back from her forehead.
Regina's right eyebrow shot up in alarm at that, as she leaned away from her and eyed her questioningly. "How would you know?"
The smirk still played around Emma's lips as she leaned forward to Regina's ear to whisper, "You don't think I haven't noticed you secretly wearing reading glasses at work, do you? "
"Have you already decided on a dish?"
Regina's head rose slowly and it took a few moments for her clouded eyes to make out the waiter in front of her. "Not yet. Give me five minutes, young man," she asked.
With a smile, he bowed his head for a moment and was already about to make his way to the next table when Regina briefly called him over again. "Excuse me, is Marcus here tonight?"
"Oh, yes, ma'am, he is," he nodded.
"Would you mind if he served me? It's not against you personally, it's just... a kind of ritual, you know?" she explained slowly, waiting for his reaction.
Again, he bowed his head briefly. "Of course, ma'am. He never misses working the shift on Valentine's Day," he winked at her and this time she let him leave.
Sighing, Regina leaned back and examined the table set for two in front of her. The wine glasses were already ready and the cutlery lay straight and neatly at the places opposite each other. Napkins folded into swans stood between them and ensured that Regina had to run her hand over her eyes.
Finally, she sighed deeply again and opened the menu. Although she knew it practically by heart, she pulled her reading glasses out of her handbag and put them on. Actually, she wasn't particularly hungry, but having decided to come here today, she wanted to order something.
The five minutes that the waiter, unknown to her, had assured her had long since passed, but finally she saw a man around 60 approaching her table with a broad smile on his lips. "Marcus!" she greeted him and held out her arms for him.
"Regina," he returned the greeting and took the older lady into his arms.
"I was beginning to think you wouldn't be here today," Regina admitted, setting aside her glasses.
"I've been serving you every Valentine's Day for over 40 years now. Did you think I would suddenly stop?" he asked her with amusement.
Instead of an answer, Regina eyed him from top to bottom. "I can't believe it. You're an old man, Marcus. When we were first here, you were practically a kid, and now you're the owner of the restaurant!"
"Just don't remind me. My father knew no mercy. Under no circumstances did I want to continue running the place," he laughed.
"Look at that boy over there. How old do you think he is? Henry's age? 15? 16?" Emma pointed her knife at the teenager, who looked more than unhappy wiping the table across the room.
Regina turned in the direction Emma pointed, then shoved her girlfriend's hand down. "I don't know how old he is, but I know I'm never having dinner with you again if you can't behave. Put the damn knife down and don't point it at people!" she hissed at her.
"You're so hot when you curse," Emma whispered.
Regina just rolled her eyes and sipped her wine. "Do you already know what you want to eat?"
"A double burger and fries, what else?" Emma stated, as if it were the most natural thing ever.
"Are you actually going to grow up someday?" Regina moaned.
Emma shrugged her shoulders. "You're the one who wanted to take me out for Valentine's Day. Shouldn't I be eating something I actually like in this case? What are you having?"
"The pike-perch fillet on parsley potatoes."
"Boring." She dragged out the word and crossed her arms on the table to rest her chin on them to eye Regina.
She raised one eyebrow questioningly.
"I love you, Regina. We should come here every year. Make some kind of tradition out of it. I never want to spend Valentine's Day without you again!" she said honestly.
The gaze of her dark brown eyes was on Emma for a long moment before she reached across the table and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "That sounds like a good plan."
"Marcus!" A bearded man came out of the kitchen and his thunderous bass voice not only made
Emma and Regina raise their heads, but also startled the boy, who in the meantime had cleaned three more tables.
Hastily, he came behind the counter to the older man, who talked to him for a while before he shyly approached the women's table. "I would like to welcome you. Have you chosen already?"
Emma tilted her head and examined him closely, whereupon she caught a kick from Regina.
"The pike-perch fillet for me and the double burger for my girlfriend, please," it finally came from Regina.
Nervously, the teenager nodded and hurriedly made his way back to the kitchen.
"You scared him!" Emma stated.
"I scared him? It was you who stared at him like a crazy person," Regina said indignantly.
Emma giggled. "You really have no idea how you come across to other people, do you?"
"Well, how?", Regina challengingly crossed her arms in front of her chest and stared at her.
"Like this." She pointed to her posture. "Like you were going to devour anyone who got too close."
Regina snorted and sipped her wine again.
"You'll see! We'll never see the kid here again!"
"Emma didn't think you'd last long and quit the job," Regina said. "I had a different opinion."
"For a long time, I would have been on Emma's side. But at some point, I enjoyed talking to the guests. Everyone has their story and everyone is special," he admitted, his eyes taking on a dreamy expression for a moment before he looked at Regina again. "But speaking of which: Where's Emma?" He eyed the empty seat across from Regina.
A melancholy smile briefly played around her lips. "She died last April."
"No!" Visibly shaken, Marcus stared at her and pulled up one of the vacant chairs to digest the shock. "I'm so sorry about that! April... That wasn't long after you two were here," he then stated.
Regina nodded slowly. "She wasn't sick. She fell asleep and just didn't wake up the next morning. That's the way she always wanted to die. I was just hoping... it would be my turn before hers. " She shrugged and took a sip of the red wine. Closing her eyes, she kept the drink in her mouth for a while before swallowing and looking at him again. "I didn't really want to come today, but... we already had a reservation, as usual. And I just couldn't bring myself to cancel. You would have wondered why, and I wasn't ready for that, to say it out loud."
Gently, Marcus took the bony, age-spotted hand of the otherwise still stately woman in his and looked her in the eye. "I am honored to serve you once again today, Regina."
A tear stole into the corner of Regina's eye, but she smiled. "And I'm glad I decided to come." Her hand slid thoughtfully through her gray hair, which she still wore cut so that it just rested on her shoulders.
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this!" Regina thundered, turning her head unhappily back and forth in front of the mirror. "I look like an old woman!"
"Sorry if I'm scaring you with this now, honey, but you are an old woman!" retorted Emma, wrapping her arms around her spouse from behind. "And you're beautiful," she then added in a whisper as she looked over Regina's shoulder at their shared reflection.
Regina's dark eyes narrowed skeptically. "On you, gray hair looks good because you've always had light hair. But on me?"
Shrugging her shoulders, Emma stepped back from her. "Well, color it again, if you think so. For my part, I stand by my age and am proud that I've lasted this long with you, you old bat," she teased her, biting her lower lip teasingly.
"Just watch out, next month your five will turn into a six too and then I'll be the one laughing," Regina teased, pursing her lips into a grin as she pulled Emma close and kissed her. "Henry, Ella and Lucy will show up with a bouquet of flowers with a giant, golden 60 in it!"
"They didn't do that to you either," Emma said, unimpressed by the indirect threat.
Regina, however, just shrugged and stole another kiss. "Don't worry, I'll make sure they do it to you."
"I don't want to keep you from your work, Marcus. I'm sure you have plenty to do," Regina finally said. "Thank you for taking the time to listen to an old woman's sad story."
"You've never kept me from work before, Regina. And today you are my guest of honor, so to speak," he said, rising from the chair he had been sitting on and pushing it neatly back to the table. "So, what can I get you? The pike-perch? The redfish fillet? Or a steak today after all?" He grinned; he knew all the dishes Regina preferred.
But she shook her head and handed him the menu. "Today, I'll have the double burger. Thank you, Marcus."
He nodded and accepted the menu. "You're very welcome."
Regina watched him leave her table and then reached again for her purse, which she pulled onto her lap. It took her a while to find the right compartment and open it; her fingers were not as dexterous as they used to be, and her eyesight had progressively deteriorated over the past three years. Finally, her fingertips came across the photo she had been looking for and pulled it out. It was already creased at the corners and the edge was partially torn, but she refused to exchange it with a newer digital image, like the dozens she had on her phone.
"Where did you get that old thing?" Regina asked, watching Emma turn the ancient instant camera over in her hands and examine it closely.
"Found it in your attic when I took Henry's suitcase down last week," she explained, and in the next moment was already fully occupied with the camera again.
Regina's look became wistful. "Do you miss him as much as I do?" she asked her, lowering the ballpoint pen with which she had been countersigning invoices until just now.
"He's only been gone a few days!" said Emma.
"A few days too many, if you ask me," she nodded, staring out the window.
Emma tilted her head, rose from the floor where she had been sitting cross-legged, and came sauntering over to Regina's desk. "He is studying and the university is not out of the world. A word from you and we'll get in the car and go see him, okay?"
Slowly, Regina raised her head to look at her and finally nodded slowly. She took a deep breath. "I've just never been away from him for so long," she whispered apologetically.
"Don't worry, I'll keep you well occupied and you won't even notice he's gone," Emma grinned in response and sat down on Regina's desk, burying some documents under her.
"Hey, watch out, you're crumpling my papers!" came an immediate outrage from her wife, who was trying to pull the papers out from under Emma's butt.
"You're only making it worse that way," Emma stated dryly, who grabbed Regina around the waist and pulled her onto her lap. "See, that's much better. Now, after all, we're both making your papers useless."
Regina snorted in annoyance and rolled her eyes, but the very next moment she received a long, tender kiss on her mouth.
"I wonder if this thing still works. Let's try it out," Emma said one moment later, who was already holding the camera again.
"Come on, don't bother with that old thing!" Regina grumbled, trying to pull her close one more time, but Emma was already pointing the lens at them both.
"Smile, please!" she shouted and pinched Regina's ticklish side in such a way that she let herself sink against her, laughing. Emma, in turn, had to laugh at Regina and pushed the shutter release button at the exact moment when they were both sitting there tightly embraced and grinning broadly with narrowed eyes.
Regina slid off her lap and snatched up the photograph as soon as the device printed it. "This is terrible!"
Emma snatched the picture from her hands and eyed it. "It's not terrible, it's great! You look dazzling!"
"I'm grinning like a rabid horse! Throw it away!" she demanded, but Emma wouldn't let her take the photo back.
She shook her head and tucked it away in her jacket pocket after sliding back off the desk. "It's a beautiful photo and it will always remind us of this day!"
While Regina ate her burger and fries, the photo stood leaning against the unused wine glass on the other side of the table. She could hardly believe how young and childish they had both once been. Not that Emma hadn't been childish until her last day, but the years and decades had made her a little more mature and thoughtful, too. The bite almost got stuck in her throat as she tried to recall the sound of Emma's laughter and couldn't quite manage it. She could remember most of the moments in their life; they played out like scenes from a movie in front of her mind's eye. But when she focused only on Emma's face and wanted to hear her laugh or her voice, both slipped away before they became tangible.
"Is the food all right?" Marcus asked, who had stepped up to the table again, unnoticed by Regina.
She looked up at him and nodded before slowly shaking her head. "To be honest, I don't know why she liked it," she said contritely.
Marcus smirked. "Would you like me to bring you something else?"
"No, no, that's all right!" Regina objected directly. "I'm not very hungry, I just thought..." She closed her eyes for a few seconds, then turned her gaze to the battered photo. "I was hoping it would bring me a little closer to her. "
Understanding, Marcus nodded and followed her gaze. "She really was an incredible woman."
Regina nodded "She was. And I don't know how I deserved to spend my life with her." She gave a short laugh. "You know what's funny? She was of the same opinion regarding me."
"Regina, do you want sunstroke?" Emma came running out of the house holding a glass of water as she hurried over to her wife in the garden.
It was the hottest summer for many years; the thermometer did not show a value below 77 degrees for more than a week, not even at night. During the day, temperatures rose to 104 degrees and the sun burned relentlessly from the sky.
Regina paid no attention to Emma at all, but pounded more wooden stakes into the ground with a hammer.
"What's this supposed to be?", Emma wanted to know when she finally reached her. She was already completely sweaty and out of breath from the short walk from the house to Regina.
"What does it look like?" Regina asked irritably.
"Like a suicide mission?" Emma suggested.
Regina snorted indignantly and pushed her wife out of the way to deal with the next stake. "The sun is burning all the leaves on my apple tree! I have to protect it!"
A wry smile flitted across Emma's lips. She thought it was so sweet that she put the well-being of her apple tree above her own health. But, of course, she could not let her harm herself. "Honey, must we do this now? In the stinging sun? Come on, you need to get in the shade. Tonight, I'll help you set up the sun shade myself, but right now it's just too hot for that." She reached for Regina's arm to take the hammer from her, but she just pushed her aside.
"It can't wait until tonight, just look at it!" she almost raged.
Emma tilted her head. "It'll live. Come on." With gentle force, she grabbed Regina's arm and dragged her into the natural shade of the bushes, where she handed her the water glass. Only without the direct sunlight did she see how red and burned Regina's arms and neck already were. "Drink, come on."
Annoyed, the brunette emptied the glass and then stared wistfully at her beloved apple tree.
Emma's features became soft and carefully she stroked her cheek briefly to get her attention. "You are the most incredible woman I've ever had the privilege of knowing," she whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "You put yourself in danger for a tree, and I love you for it."
"How did it turn out?" Marcus wanted to know, who in the meantime had once again joined her at the table. As the owner of the restaurant, he could afford the luxury, and because of the date, there were more waiters than usual on duty today anyway.
"Well, Emma was right, it was just too late already. I had a proper sunstroke and spent the evening busting my guts," she said, embarrassedly hiding her face in her wrinkled hands. "She wanted to take me to the hospital, but I refused, so she sat with me on the bathroom floor until I felt better and then put me to bed. When I woke up the next morning, she had set up the sun shade for my tree. She had been working on it half the night."
Marcus smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds just like her. She was resilient."
Appraisingly, Regina swayed her head back and forth. "Well, not quite."
"That's not fair!" Emma complained. She had tied her graying hair into a loose knot at the nape of her neck, which had half come undone. "You haven't exercised your whole life, and I've always kept fit!"
Regina straightened up from her crouched position in front of the cabinet, groaning, and held her back as she stood again. "So what?"
Emma snorted and looked at her plastered arm. "I slip once and break my arm! What's the matter with you? You keep falling because of your bum hip and because you refuse to wear glasses and nothing's ever happened to you!"
"Good genes?" Regina suggested, slowly approaching the hospital bed where her wife lay, while heavily leaning on her walking stick. "Don't worry, you'll be fine," she whispered, taking her healthy hand and pressing a kiss to it.
Emma's angry expression then immediately relaxed and gave way to a sly grin. "Then I'll let you serve me for the next few weeks," she decided.
"Of course, she didn't. Quite the opposite, actually," Regina said. "She had obviously made it her life's mission to always be there for me. She took the 'for better or worse' thing very seriously," she laughed. "As I said, she was always working out, and as we both got older, it started to show. I had back problems early on and then later on I had hip problems. She, on the other hand, was just bursting with energy."
"I think it's nice that she took her marital duties so seriously. Unfortunately, it is often the case that with the years and aging, everyday life takes hold and there is no more room for tenderness," Marcus said.
Regina nodded slowly and shifted a bit in her seat to find a more comfortable sitting position, but for the first time in a long time, it wasn't age-related pain that kept her from staying in the same position any longer, but the memory that came to her mind. "That never happened to us. We fought, too, of course. That's just part of it, if you ask me, anything else is absurd. But even on our last night together, she still wanted to make me feel good. I wasn't feeling well, we had been out with our son and his family. She was worried about me. She was always so worried about me."
"If only you weren't so stubborn all the time!" Emma scolded, helping her wife lie down in bed, where she spread the pain gel on her lower back with gentle massaging motions.
Regina closed her eyes and sighed at the pleasant touches that soothed her pain and were so incredibly gentle at the same time.
"I told you it would be exhausting, but no, you have to walk!" she continued to grumble, pulling her wife's nightgown into place.
When Regina turned and looked into Emma's eyes, however, she recognized no anger in them, but deep concern. "You'll never live to see the day when I let myself be pushed around in a wheelchair," she swore to her with a smirk and put her trembling hand to her cheek.
"You're 87, Regina. I think it would be okay for your environment," Emma replied, leaning her face into the touch.
"Thank you for reminding me, but thank God I'm not demented yet." She paused and looked at her reassuringly. "I'll be better tomorrow, you'll see," she promised her, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear as her dull eyes studied the beautiful green in Emma's irises. "I love you, Emma."
"And I love you. You can wake me up if you get worse," she replied, giving her a quick kiss on the lips. "Good night, my love."
They sat there in silence after Regina had finished speaking, and no words were needed in that moment. Regina pushed her plate away from her and blinked hard a few times until she could see the numbers on her wristwatch. She was exhausted, and the time only confirmed why. "I should go," she stated, looking up at Marcus, who eyed her silently.
"How are you getting home?" he immediately inquired of her.
"My son is picking me up," she explained, smiling warmly. "Actually, it was even him who partly persuaded me to come," she admitted.
"So that was a very good idea of his then, I'd say," he grinned, handing Regina her photo so she wouldn't forget it while packing her things.
She looked at the picture in his hand for a while before shaking her head. "Keep it."
Astonished, he shook his head and held it out to her again. "You can't do that, Regina."
"Yes, I insist on it. I don't need it anymore, I... I've looked at it for so many years. I can see it in front of me without actually having it. I want you to keep it and maybe remember us from time to time," she explained calmly and collectedly. "Maybe someday you'll tell your young guests about us and reassure them that true love still exists nowadays. Maybe it is rare and you only experience it once in a lifetime if you are lucky enough, but it does exist. " Her eyes took on a moist sheen, but she was still smiling.
"You can be sure I will, Regina," he nodded. "However, I can't shake the feeling that this is going to be a goodbye."
Regina smiled all the wider and patted his hand with her shaky one. "Nothing is infinite, Marcus. And that's a good thing." She paused and picked up her purse. "What do I owe you?"
He shook his head. "Nothing. Dinner's on the house. You've already left your most valuable possession to me," he said, lifting the crumpled photo briefly.
"No," it softly came from Regina, and her gaze took on a dreamy expression. "The most precious things I own are my memories."