She sat quietly in the coffee shop, her blue-lined hands wrapped around the warm mug resting on the square table. Whispered conversation and muted laughter went unnoticed by the lady and her young companion as she tilted her head to the side, wispy strands of snowy white spilling over her shoulder. As the steam and chocolate aroma lifted from the surface of the swirling liquid, she tipped her head up, the smile on her face only just concealing the tears in her heart.

"...I was in love once."

Lightly tracing the rim of the mug with the calloused pad of her index finger, she released a small reminiscing sigh. Her sapphire eyes were glassy with moisture with a cloudy whiteness teasing the rims of her irises. Skin nearly void of wrinkles glinted with an odd sort of cheery glow as she lifted the mug to her lips. Following a single sip, she smiled pleasantly at her companion and tucked a bit of hair behind one ear.

"He was a lovely man, just lovely...and he was mine."

A robin softly twittered in the tree behind her as a breeze drifted through the open window, bringing in the tinkling of a bicycle bell. Though her eyes rested on the person across from her, they clearly focused on a scene beyond all of them. "He had a beautiful soul, full of innocence and undiscovered passion. It was...oh, it was breathtaking when you first locked eyes with him."

Another sip. She thought for a moment before lifting a small bowl off of the table and plucking three marshmallows from it to toss into the cooling mug of hot chocolate. As she stirred the liquid, a trail of beige foam following the straw, the smile across her lips grew wider while she watched the trail with her wise eyes. "He was so powerful and strong, with such broad shoulders and hair like an angel!" She gave a little laugh and clapped her hands together as a small amount of color came back to her pale cheeks. "It was blond, of course. Turned all of the girls into no less than twittering larks when they saw him nudge it from his eyes." She giggled again before taking a hold of the straw and lightly tapping it on the side of the mug, abruptly going on like she had so much to say and no time to say it in. "But it didn't matter how they batted their eyelashes or flipped their hair because those shining eyes watched me and not them."

A giggling girl ran past to the counter with her parents, who walked hand-in-hand and with the ease of a blissfully married couple. The woman watched the trio and smiled fondly now, the barest twitch of her lips. "He was a miracle, an absolute miracle. I can't imagine how God made such a perfect man. I guess He broke the mold after him. It would have ruined the balance of the world if He'd made many more." She lightly ran her finger down the mug's handle now, as if marveling over its smooth texture. "I was so lucky to have him while I did. Such a miracle..." She trailed off, her eyes growing glassy once again. Her complexion was positively glowing with mirth.

"We met at school, of course. I was sixteen, he was seventeen and had just transferred to my high school from his in Georgia. A Southern gentleman through and through. And I loved him so..." She stared into the surface of the hot chocolate, watching the marshmallows come to a complete stop. The couple sat at a table with their little girl, who had a giant piece of chocolate cake before her and a grin to match it, revealing a little gap in the front of her mouth between her teeth. The wind blew through the window again, bringing in the scent of an earlier Spring shower and the light humidity that came with it. It seemed to bring something to mind, spurring the woman forth. "Yes, we met under an umbrella after school one day. I was running to my father's car in the rain, and he just...came out of nowhere with his umbrella, holding it over my head with the gallant grin of his. My knight in shining armor."

She looked up at her companion with a coy smile, as if she was a shy schoolgirl again. "I've never known anything like it. Nothing made him hesitate, not even my father, and my father was certainly not a small man." Her words cut off with another sip of her hot cocoa, she let her gaze wander back to the counter and studied the vase of daisies that sat upon it. "The next day, he met me before my first class and positively insisted on carrying my books. He wouldn't leave my side in the cafeteria. He even invited me to the diner that afternoon and paid for my malt." It was there again, the glow in her cheeks from the gentle blush she held. She screamed of contentment, from her kind smile to her vaguely twinkling eyes. As odd as it was for her companion to notice, she looked stunning at that moment, perfectly full and happy. "Things moved quickly, as they always seemed to do in those days, as if in a blur. Drive-in movies, diners, meeting my parents, meeting his...we never realized that things could change in only a moment."

The mood seemed to change abruptly. It grew darker as a cloud drifted past the sun. A cat yowled off in the distance. A stormy sort of sad gleam shoved the happiness from her unfocused gaze with the force of a tornado, whirling one emotion after another in the great sapphire vats. "...Those planes came out of nowhere. Demons, they were, destroying our precious land when we'd never done a thing to them." She shook her head, lightly touching her temple as if a headache flew through her skull. "He had to go, of course. You weren't truly an American if you didn't, you know, and he'd just turned eighteen. That day at the bus stop...it was the hardest thing I've ever done." She frowned now and furrowed her white eyebrows, her forehead still remarkably smooth. "We held each other as long as propriety allowed, and he whispered, for the first time, that he loved me."

She exhaled quickly, as if the mere memory of that moment still took her breath away unexpectedly. Her eyes hovered on the glossy surface of the table now while her cooling mug sat unnoticed. The companion said not a word but merely stared as the woman's eyes filled with tears. To her credit, she didn't shed a single one. Instead, she merely sniffled and continued. "The letters came as often as he sent them, of course, and the radio kept me abreast of the latest news of battles and the location of the troops...but then the nights would come, and the darkness would wrap around me like a straight coat, paralyzing me with 'what ifs' and the like." As if feeling the silky yet terrifying darkness, she shivered and shook her head again. "It didn't help that the letters would stop when he was caught in the thick of battle."

The humid breeze caught the curtains around the window and stirred them into a frenzied dance only restrained by the bar that held them. The scent of the rain made images of a thickening battle by an ocean lift into the head of the woman's companion. "But there was one day when the letters just...stopped." Her eyes lightly misted over again, resting unfocused on the vase of daisies once more. Silence. An entire minute passed before she shook her head and went on. "No one told me of the telegraph until the day before the funeral. I was in an entirely different state for the summer and couldn't make it back in time."

The hot chocolate had long ago gone cold, but the companion paid as little mind to it as the woman herself. Soft murmurings came from the tables around them, each group of people in their own little world. "Yes...yes, I fell in love once..." She wrapped her left hand, entirely void of jewelry, around her mug, as if it was the only thing that could support her, and smiled sadly. "...and I wouldn't change it. It was the best year of my life."