The time was 8 PM. The day was July 14th.

It was pouring outside, and the power was out. Frani had been crying for hours now, curled into a ball and laying a hallow shell on her bedroom floor near her window. She was alone, yet today was supposedly her birthday. Even worse, she wished the wrong man was there to give her comfort. To hold her, whisper her name and tell her everything was all right. Instead, she had taken another day of his insults, in hopes that he would give up and come running to her.

But Arthur would never do something like that. She should have known better…

Her heart was breaking inside her chest like fragile glass, each shard coming through her eyes as tears, and each tear being more painful than the last. Even though she was no stranger in the ways of l'amour, for some reason she fell for him every time. She could love him all she wanted, but he would never contribute in return. How could she have been such a fool?

All she knew was upside down now, her head was spinning… She needed to get away. But where could she go? She finally began to stir, climbing up and propping herself off the floor. Wiping the fresh tears from her cheeks, she slowly go up, holding onto the window sill to support herself. She felt as if her knees could give out on her any second now, yet she somehow managed to stay upright. She limped to her door and through the living room as the same words raced inside her head…

I need to go far away.

I need to disappear.

But I need to see him one last time…

As soon as her bare feet hip the pavement, she broke out into a dash down the middle of the street, against traffic. Several drivers swerved off the road as the young blonde woman raced in the direction her heart guided her. Even if it had hurt her so much in the first place, it was all she had left now. The only real thing she could rely on.

She had run about a mile before she realized that this street seemed familiar. It was Bakers Street. And she had been here too many times to count. Arthur lived just a block away from here. Her knees buckled a little beneath her, yet she continued to push on. The rain coming down was powerless in stopping her. At long last, she reached a white picket fence, which framed an English-Tudor style cottage and the beautiful white rose garden that surrounded it. The memories of him flooded into the deepest cavities of her mind…

It was in the heat of summer. Frani shook her head and sighed as she lied out on the grass of Arthur's front lawn, "Why don't you just buy red roses?" Arthur rolled his eyes as he continued to paint the petals of the pale bud in his hand. "It's not my fault that the gardeners messed up on my order," he scoffed, "And I'm not paying for a replacement. Besides, ordering another bush would be a waste." She sat up and reached towards the sky as she chuckled. "It seems the thing you're wasting now is time. That red paint will wash off the next time that it rains, anyway…"

Frani pushed open the gate and glanced over at the croquet balls and mallets that were lied out in the yard. She smiled a little, but it quickly faded, like she feared her memories soon would too. As she approached the front step, she held her breath. Should she go any further? She already had come so far. Before she could make up her mind, the door before her swung open. Behind it, she saw a wide-eyed Arthur, his hands shaking as his teacup fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.

"S-so…" he breathed, "Did you get my message?" Frani was too shocked to speak. "No…" she shivered as the cold water hit her at last, "Was I supposed to?" Arthur was silent a moment before he began again. "Ahem…" he chortled, "I've been calling you for hours now. You haven't answered any of my messages…"

"My power went out… My telephone, too." She replied, biting her tip to keep it from trembling.

His face grew hot as he attempted to speak, "I just wanted to say… That I was sorry… And I love you."

He had been worried for her this entire time. He wanted to talk to her. He hadn't given up on her. He didn't want to lose her… And all this time she had felt so terrible. She had doubted herself and her heart. She vowed at that moment that she would never again fall to pieces like that. And she would never distance herself from Arthur again.

They flung their faces at each other, their lips entwining in a passionate kiss, as if straight out of an old movie. His kisses trailed down her neck and across her shoulders. She moaned a little, which made him smile under his feverish pecks. He swept her off her feet and carried her marriage-style inside, closing the door behind him. And as they continued down the hallway and into his bedroom, she thought quietly to herself on how this was the best birthday of her entire life…