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Sasha Sasha Sasha

He has been waiting for her, just as she has been waiting for hiold found in the dirty road of her life At the intricate black scrollwork entrance of the Summer Garden, she eases to a stop and slips off her bike

The beauty of the castle grounds anificent green haven in the walled city The air smells of liroomed paths

She does as they have planned: she walks her bike down the path, trying to look calh a place where peasants rarely go But her pulse is racing and her nerve endings feel electrified

And then he is there, standing beside a li at her

Sheher bike He is beside her in an instant, holding her arm

“This way,” he says, leading her to a spot deep in the trees, where she sees he has laid out a blanket and a basket

At first they sit cross-legged on the warreen bower, she can see sunlight dappling the water and gilding a marble statue Soon, she knows, the paths will be full of lords and ladies and lovers eager to walk outside in the warht

“What have you been doing sinceI last saw you?” she asks, not daring to look at hi it is as if she knows him already, but she doesn’t She does not knohat to say or how to say it, and suddenly she is afraid that there is a wrong way to move forward, a mistake that once made cannot be undone

“I a to be a poet ”

“But you are a prince And poetry is forbidden ”

“Do not be afraid, Vera I am not like your father I am careful ”

“He said the sa to my mother ”

“Look at me,” Sasha says quietly, and Vera turns to him

It is a kiss that, once begun, never really ends Interrupted, yes Paused, certainly But from that very moment onward, Vera sees the whole of her life as only a breath away froin the delicate task of binding their souls together, creating a whole co their separate halves