Aika - The Moment That Changed Everything

I barely slept the night before.

Caleb had almost said something. I was fearing the implications of the unfinished business between us. And what would it mean to him.

I knew it. I felt it in the way his breath changed when we hugged, in the way his voice softened like he was stepping onto thin ice. When I stopped him from speaking, I hadn’t even known what I was preventing. I only knew that I couldn’t bear to hear it yet.

Not when my father lay between worlds. Not when my heart was already full and fragile. I felt very selfish about it all. He hadn’t protested. He had simply nodded, accepting my boundary as if it were sacred.

Father had been admitted for a while now and we’ve made friends with the nurses, some of which graciously allowed us to sleep at the lobby on some nights.

Just when I was starting to doze off, the morning had already started. With frantic shouting. I woke to my mother’s voice cracking as she cried my name from the hallway.

‘Aika! Aika! Wake up!’

I ran without delay. Oh no oh no oh no. Lord I am not ready.

I arrived to a scene that will forever be burned inside my mind. My father and mother were hugging each other. He blinked slowly as he took in the environment he was in, confusion knitted his brow. When his gaze landed on me, my knees gave out.

‘Papa,’ I shrieked. I crawled and scramble to grip his hand like he might disappear if I let go. His fingers squeezed back.

The room erupted. My aunt cried openly. My mother laughed and cried at the same time, hands fluttering uselessly. Nurses smiled, doctors nodded, words like stable and positive floating through the air. I gave space for them to check his vitals.

I looked toward the doorway. Caleb had arrived, probably to drop by before his daily ministry tasks. I had forgotten that he was a morning person. He just stood there quietly, with fingers crossed. Definitely praying inside his head. He smiled when our gazes met.

His smile was pure joy. He was incredibly relieved and happy for me. I grinned back and when I notice my family looking back and forth between us, I stopped entirely acknowledging his presence.

What about you Caleb? What makes you happy? I’ve never gotten the chance to express my interest in getting to know him. I was too inundated with personal things that I failed to show interest in his.

I wondered then how carefully he had been holding himself back.

*****

By afternoon, someone suggested a celebration.

‘Not big,’ my aunt insisted. ‘Just something small. On the roof. Fresh air.’

We brought up boxes of takeout, cheap paper plates, bottled drinks, and a single sad-looking cake someone had rescued from a convenience store like an afterthought.

The sky was blue for once. The storm had passed sometime before lunch, leaving the concrete damp and the air moist and clean. Clouds drifted lazily overhead, breaking the sunlight into soft, uneven patches. The city below felt distant and muted, like it had agreed to look the other way for a while.

Everything was so still and so unnervingly calm that I wouldn’t have been surprised if Caleb could hear my heart going feral in my chest.

It was just us.

Caleb had just returned from his daily rounds, jacket off, sleeves rolled up, blonde permed hair slightly mussed from the wind. For some reason, everyone had made sure the celebration aligned perfectly with his schedule.

Meddling people. Absolutely shameless.

He stood near the makeshift table, carefully unboxing containers like they held relics instead of fried chicken. Too earnest for grease-stained cardboard. Too gentle for plastic cutlery and crumpled napkins.

I watched him longer than I meant to. He looked glorious even when doing the mundane. His gentle movements didn’t match the now obvious muscles he was hiding underneath his black cassock the whole time.

God does have favourites…

I noticed he sorted through the food the way he did when he was nervous. The same way he gets overly finicky while he was in church, in front of multitude of people seeking his guidance and word. The subtle shake in his hands that doesn’t show at first glance. I knew cause I had the same jitters back when I was an idol.

‘You’re overthinking it,’ I said.

He got startled and flinched like an old lady clutching her pearls. He hadn’t realized I was behind him the whole time. After avoiding his gaze the entire day, I’d finally spoken to him.

Sorry, Caleb.

‘I just don’t want to spill anything,’ he said. He smiled at me politely and went back to unboxing.

‘It’s chicken,’ I teased. ‘Not communion.’

He smiled sheepishly, then laughed under his breath. ‘I suppose that’s true.’

I edged closer to him slowly, until I could smell soap and sunlight on him, and reached into one of the boxes.

‘Try these.’

He eyed the wings suspiciously. ‘What are those colors? Why do they look ominous?’

‘My favourite,’ I said. ‘Spicy wings. From my favourite local place. Very important. You won’t find anything like it anywhere.’

‘How spicy?’ he asked cautiously.

I grinned. ‘Enough.’

He took a step back. ‘You try it first.’

I scoffed. ‘Ho—-ho! So our dear Caleb isn’t scared of exorcisms or demons, but he draws the line at chicken wings?’

I bit into one dramatically to prove my point, chewing with exaggerated ease. He watched me closely, still clearly unconvinced. I offered him the whole box, nudging him to go for it. He picked one up carefully, inspecting it like it might bite his fingers.

‘You don’t have to,’ I added lightly. ‘I won’t be offended.’

Instead of answering, I took the piece he was holding.

Ok, that’s the wrong one. The secret one. You can have the rest, just not this one.

This place was known for it. One utterly unhinged wing hidden among the rest, designed purely for suffering. He couldn’t have known. To him, they all looked the same.

‘No,’ he said, straightening a little as he tried taking it back. ‘I trust you.’

The words landed far warmer than they should have. But for this one instance, he absolutely should not have trusted me. His fingers brushed mine as he tried to take the wing back, but I didn’t let go. I stepped back and tucked it behind me like my life depended on it.

‘You’re too weak for this one, Caleb.’ Poor boy is about to spit fire. Better not harm the angel praying over my family.

‘I can handle it.’ His voice was calm, but his face was determined. ‘I’m strong. No matter how soft I look, Aika, I am still a man.’

The sentence hit me harder than it had any right to. Men had ruined that word for me. Twisted it. Weaponized it. But coming from him, standing there, taller than me, close enough that I had to tilt my chin to look up to meet his gaze, it didn’t make my skin crawl.

I felt unsettled in a different way. A dangerous way. A man huh…

I tried to banish the thought before it could take shape, but I was already biting down on my lip before I knew it.

He reached for the wing again. This time, he didn’t bother being quick. His warm hand closed around my wrist. He was unyielding. He stopped me mid-retreat. For a split second, old instinct flared. I panicked, then it faded.

Caleb… Oh… He isn’t hurting me. He isn’t rough. He is not like the rest. He held me firmly but gently. He searched my face, looking for signs of discomfort. I don’t know what he saw, but instead of retreating and giving me space like he absolutely always did, he went on and fully trapped me against a wall.

My other wrist was caught before I realized I’d stopped resisting. He held me in place securely and kindly. Nothing like the hands I remembered hating. Nothing that made my stomach turn. If anything, it made my breath hitch.

Still, I didn’t let go. I pressed the stupid chicken wing to my chest like protecting it was my last mission on earth. The sharp and smoky spice wafted in the air, but it had nothing on the spicy thoughts building up inside me.

He is so close.

Close enough that I could see the faint crease between his brows when he focused. Close enough to see the steady rise and fall of his breath brushing my cheek.

Oh my.

My pulse pounded as he leaned in. The gap between us had almost gone that I could feel the warmth of his body before he pressed himself against me. For a brief, foolish second, my thoughts slipped free of my control.

He looked unfairly good in the sunlight. Blond hair a mess but it somehow formed a halo. Green eyes bright with something playful. Lips curved just enough to suggest trouble.

I imagined his mouth where it didn’t belong. Imagined if it was capable of unspeakable, utterly unholy things. Imagined the spice being the least dangerous thing between us. Imagined leaning forward and pretending it was an accident.

I forgot the wing entirely at that point. Forgot what I was protecting to begin with. I completely forgot everything except the way my body tilted toward him on instinct, like it already knew the ending. I closed my eyes.

Then, he bit down.

Not on me. On the chicken.

Wha… What…

The sound he made was soft and crunchy. Reality slammed back into place so hard I felt dizzy.

‘Oh no, Caleb!’

The words tumbled out too fast as I realized what I’d done. My hand shot up toward his face without permission, stopping just short of his skin as awareness crashed over me.

He hadn’t been leaning in to kiss me. He was still trying to steal the hell-level spicy chicken from my hands.

And I was left standing there, heart sprinting, imagination fully unclothed and exposed, wondering when exactly I’d started wanting him to lean in for a completely different reason.

Wow.

I stayed frozen for an embarrassing amount of time. My heart was arguing passionately with my brain. Caleb, meanwhile, was fighting for his life. An internal war raging entirely inside his mouth. Him versus the spice. Him versus the wall behind me. Him versus regret.

Between my imagination and his reality, I was the only casualty. I alone was left to pretend that nothing strange had just happened.

I felt like an absolute idiot.

This innocent-by-all-accounts man was so focused on his chicken business that he hadn’t realized the emotional property damage he’d just caused. He chewed, coughed, blinked tears, and kept going, blissfully unaware that there was an entirely different entity that could eliminate him now.