Barcelona Sunset

The sun was starting to set in Barcelona. Long soft golden and red beams caressed the rippling waters of the Mediterranean and the puffy clouds in the slowly dimming sky. Elijah considered it a stroke of luck with maybe just a taste of fate that they were able to find a patio table which afforded such a sweeping view of both the city and the sea. It was perfect place to sit and have some sangria and tapas. A wonderful way to wrap up a day in the interim before a tastefully late dinner.

And it had been quite the day; starting rather early. Elijah and Alabaster first toured the Barri Gotic, finally leaving sometime after noon. Then, there was going to the church of the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona Cathedral, and the National Museum of Art of Catalonia as well as various shops and other curiosities in between. By that time, as late afternoon was fading into early evening, the realization came to the both of them that they'd not eaten anything more than a shared apple since breakfast. Their mission to find food was what had led them to the very patio table with its sweeping view of both the Mediterranean and the grand city of Barcelona itself.

Elijah was watching the fading daylight turn the clouds the colors of gold and flame and royal purple when he felt a hand against his. Alabaster, lovely as ever, offered him a sly and knowing smile. She raised her glass in an unspoken toast, which he met with a look out from under his dark wavy hair and gave her an impish half smirk, like he knew a secret. The same look that had gotten him accused of being strange or spooky, but Alabaster told him was charming. He found her to be such a lovely traveling companion, whom he could not thank enough for joining him on his various journeys.

"Do you think I would have gone without you?" She asked him in Kathmandu, outside of a metalworker's shop that she wouldn't let him enter.

"People are strange," Elijah replied. "You might have."

He still remembered that afternoon in Sampson's Antiques and Salvage. There was the Eastern Orthodox painting of Saint Thomas he had been eyeing for some time, but Sampson was known for charging high prices, sometimes far beyond the appraised value. Although Elijah had the money, though he rarely looked like it, and even had something of an acquaintance with Sampson that almost passed for friendship, there was still the matter of business and whether or not the price to pay was worth it. Finally, after some haggling with Sampson and finding a spot on his wall to hang the painting, Elijah went to buy it.

That day he walked into Sampson's establishment wearing a pair of jeans and a Ramones shirt, carrying a fairly nice-sized roll of money, opting to pay in cash as sort of a playful affront to the proprietor. The woman who he spoke with at first acted a little snobbish toward Elijah, which was to be expected. Most of the people that shopped at Sampson's Antiques and Salvage dressed a little nicer unless they were runners for richer masters. When Elijah pulled out his money and mentioned Sampson by name, the woman's demeanor changed, and she immediately apologized before grabbing the painting of Saint Thomas to package it.

"Damnit!" A voice behind him cursed. Elijah turned in its direction, perhaps thinking it was one of those better-dressed customers he sometimes got into arguments with when Sampson convinced him to attend one of his wine parties.

Her hair was white. Not platinum blond or dyed, but the color of fresh-fallen snow, which complimented the creamy tone of her skin. Her mode of dress was almost anachronistic, looking more Victorian than of the modern era. Her eyes were like prisms, catching the light and reflecting it back in infinite shades and hues. At first, all Elijah could do was stare, which was something he knew Mom and Dad would have berated him on, but not half as badly as his grandmother.

"I beg pardon?" Elijah said the very moment he recovered both his wits and his voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "I was looking at that piece for a particular project I'm working on, but I guess you beat me to it."

"I thought it might look nice on my wall, but I had to convince Sampson it was not worth as much as an artifact from the founding of Byzantine Empire."

"And you know how much one of those artifacts might cost?" She inquired with a sly and knowing smile.

"I've studied a little archeology," Elijah said with a shrug.

"Are you an archaeologist?"

"No."

"What do you do?" She asked.

"I read. I study." Elijah replied. "I travel and I ask questions. I collect things."

"What kind of things do you collect?" There was a flirtatious, but sincere tone in her voice. "Besides antique paintings of Saint Thomas?"

"Things that interest me," Elijah replied with a smirk. He realized he just might be acting a little flirtatious himself.

It was then the woman returned with his painting and change. Interrupting the exchange. At first, Elijah was a little irritated by this. He then looked at the white-haired girl with prism-like eyes and smiled.

"Will you give the painting to this young lady here?" He asked the woman.

"Um, yes, I can do that, Mister...?"

"Raitt. Elijah M. Raitt."

"Of, course, Mister Raitt," the woman said, handing the painting to the white-hair girl, who was looking at him in utter shock.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked him.

"Yeh. You have a use for it." Elijah said. "And it's for you."

"Well, thank you, Mister Elijah M. Raitt," she said. "And can I ask you what the M stands for?"

"Maximilian, my grandfather's name," Elijah said. "But call me Elijah or Eli, Miss...?"

"My name is Alabaster Black," she said with a giggle, extending her hand. He took it with a chuckle at the perfection of her name.

"It's pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Alabaster Black."

"Alabaster, please," she said. "And I should thank you for this painting." She paused. The look in her prism-like eyes was one of a sudden shyness. "Do you like sushi?"

"Not really," Elijah said honestly. "I do, however, like Japanese beer. There's a sushi place I know of that carries the very same beer I had when I visited there last year."

"Well, instead of having sushi with me, would you like to have some Japanese beer?"

"I'd love to."

It was a sort of joke between the two of them that the encounter at Sampson's Antiques and Salvage and subsequent Japanese beers was their first date. There was some truth to it, though. Shortly after that, they became inseparable. Alabaster, an interior decorator who specialized in the Victorian era, often helping with the furnishings of renovated buildings, found Elijah's tastes in esoteric archeology to be quite invigorating. Sometimes, she would ask him to come with her to whichever project she was working on just for his perspective.

It took very little time for them to find themselves in the midst of a full-blown love affair. During that period, along with meeting her family, he introduced her to Mom and Dad, as well as Jessup. Often, Elijah hadn't wanted to let someone in close enough to make those sort of introductions. When he traveled, he took Alabaster with him. The money his grandmother left to him which had paid for education was also invested in such a way that he didn't need to work. After a certain point, Alabaster would only take odd projects out of love for her work.

Nine months after that first encounter, Elijah bought a house. A quaint Victorian, which he told Alabaster she could do whatever she so desired when it came to decorating and furnishing, as long as he got to put his own collection of artifacts from around the world and his books in the massive study. On the day they moved in, amongst all the stacked boxes, expensive celebratory Italian wine, two storm candles, and take-out Chinese, Alabaster handed Elijah a package, asking he open it right then. He complied, his eyes widening when he saw it was the very painting of Saint Thomas he had bought nine months before and given to Alabaster.

"To hang on your wall," she said.

"Alabaster, you shouldn't have," Elijah said. "I gave this to you for that one project of yours, remember?"

"Oh, I remember," she said. "I found something else for that." Then she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a kiss. "The day you gave me this, you said it was for me. That's the day I realized I was for you."

Another kiss on lips brought Elijah back to present. He was in Barcelona. The sun was setting.

"What are you grinning about?" Alabaster asked him.

"Just remembering," Elijah replied. "I was remembering the first day we met."

"That was quite a day," Alabaster said. "It was almost as wonderful as this."

"Any day with you is wonderful, Alabaster Black."

She smiled, took his left hand and kissed him. Slow and deep. When she pulled away, there was that sly and knowing smile he so loved. She was looking at his left hand, which caused him to look down. On his finger was a ring. It was silver with the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism set in brass within it.

"Do you remember the metalworker in Kathmandu? The one I wouldn't let you see?" Alabaster inquired. "I had him make this for you."

"Alabaster..." the words curled up in his throat. She smiled and pulled him close.

"Elijah Maximilian Raitt," she said softly. "My dearest friend. My sweetest lover. My wonderful traveling companion. Will you marry me?"

He smiled. It was the only thing he could do in the midst of that moment. Then he kissed her.

"Alabaster Black," he said, enjoying the perfection of her name. "How could I not?"