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If anything, Amanda seemed like she was the supposed mastermind behind this community conspiracy with how she deliberately continued to be infuriatingly vague about it.

Aunty Wells, the grizzled nicotine-smelling wolf lady, flashed me another look, looking more quizzical than anything – and yeah, at this point I feel like they’re both just taunting me now. Digging the knife of ignorance into poor ol’ unknowing me.

“Amanda, I’m dying here,” I gave her a little shake, rattling her lingering smile all around like a life-sized bobblehead. “Gonna wind up dropping dead before I’m able to find out whatever surprise you have in store, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Hush, you’ll make it,” she said, assuring me tenderly with a fleeting stroke on the chin. “Look at the silver lining, ‘least we’ll both suffer squirming and aching together on the way there, right?”

“Whose silver lining?”

“Quit the whining, already – don’t be a pussy,” Elder Wells said, polluting the air even more with her haughty scoffs. “You’re nearly there anyway. Just a bit further up.”

Again with the ‘up’... what is up?

“Speaking of which,” Amanda gave my arm a firm tug, like she was pulling on a leash telling her pupper here to get a move on. “Aunty Wells, if you don’t mind…”

.....

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” she scooted us off, waggling her hand with already another cigarette tucked between her fingers. “Don’t let me keep you lovebirds on my account. Enjoy the night. And yourselves for that matter. Oh, and Amanda, the next time you visit me again better not be at my own damn funeral, or I swear to God – ”

“I’ll work something out, I promise,” Amanda said, hauling us past her with a hearty wave back. “Bye-Bye Aunty Wells. I love you!”

“Fuck off,” she waved back, her hard eyes soft and loving. “Don’t stay out too long, alright? And you, boy!” she barked at me, staring with significantly less endearment. “You treat her well, and you’ll want nothing else. Trust me on that. So you better do as I say. Or else…”

Whatever ‘or else’ was, wound up being just another mystery to elude me as Amanda whirled us around the next corner and out of sight. Frankly speaking though, I think I was much better off for it anyway. Ignorance was bliss, after all.

Now it was just the two of us left alone once more, with the blowing wind ever-mounting, and still with a steep mound ahead of us. Just a bit further up, huh?

“She likes you,” Amanda said, wrapping her beaming smile back underneath her scarf. “Aunty Wells doesn’t just like anyone too.”

“Yes, I tend to have that kind of effect on women,” I said with all the pompousness of stale bread. “It can get quite troublesome, to be honest.”

“Ego much?”

“Okay, maybe not so much the first part – but the second?” I gave her a look, which she mirrored back with pure innocence. “You’re an entire continent’s worth of trouble and you know it.”

“What can I say? You’re the only person to me that’s worth troubling.”

“Lucky me,” I muttered. “Where are we going, Amanda?”

“Won’t you relax?” she said, apparently finding my concerns amusing more than anything. “As if I’m even in any condition to plan anything crazy or something. I just want to take you somewhere nice, full stop.”

It wasn’t as if I didn’t believe her, but it also wasn’t as if this was the first, second, third, millionth time I heard something along those lines. Classic girl who cried wolf dilemma here… and I’m always a sucker for her cries, ain’t I?

A few more minutes, a few more turns, and the climb grew ever steeper; any notion of a leisure stroll was long gone with every hiking step forward. My feet were starting to whine and complain, and fair enough, the shoes I had on weren’t exactly for mountaineering conditions… which made the fact that Amanda was persevering all the more astonishing.

Granted, she looked and sounded utterly worse for wear, gasping hard for breath before coughing it all out in an endless struggle for some air, gradually pausing more and more in her tracks; swaying precariously, all the while parading a demeanor of being just fine and dandy.

But if being with Adalia has taught me anything, it was that girls like her seriously had no idea when to stop… that they’d rather drop dead than waste the moment.

It’s admirable… but one day, they really gotta learn that a little break was not the end of the world.

“What? Huh? Hey – !”

Amanda yelped – probably thinking she was about to fall and roll all the way back down the slope – only to quickly cut herself short, realizing where exactly she had landed; her wide hazel eyes bemusingly darting up towards mine.

I grunt slipped past my breath, and I felt a creaking snap pull at my arm sockets as I redoubled my grip.

“You’re pretty heavy,” I managed to wheeze out, holding her a little higher, a little closer, dangling her long legs over my arms.

“Thanks,” she muttered not-so-appreciatively, her eyes blinking rapidly in thought, still processing the situation. “Why are you…?”

“Because you’re sick, you won’t wanna take a rest or turn back, and because – little known fact – I’m also your boyfriend,” I interjected, answering all the questions swirling in her stare. “What, don’t tell me now you don’t actually wanna be carried.”

“I’m-I’m not complaining! It’s just, you know… it’s just a little…”

“A little what?”

And right at that moment, a car zoomed by honking and beeping a little too enthusiastically as it sped away; a few straying stares of people walking by lingered a little longer than normal, and I think I even heard someone whistle in the distance.

I glanced back at Amanda, and she was almost as scarlet red as her scarf.

“Superstar like you, and you’re embarrassed?”

She squirmed. “It’s an embarrassing position…”

“You wanted this.”

“Yeah, but...”

“I can always put you down again if you want.”

“No, no! Don’t! Just…!” ” She hastily said, her legs shooting up in a mild panic, before limply falling back down. “Just keep going, alright? It’s just up ahead. Keep walking forward… and don’t you dare slow down for anything.”

As requested by my dear princess, I soldiered on ahead at a steady silent pace. I could feel her moving, feel her breathing… she wasn’t as stiff, wasn’t as strained, but more notable than both, she was also unusually reserved.

Or maybe immersed was the more accurate term. The wind in her hair, the gentle sway of my steps; I felt her lay her head against me, eyes closed shut, and for that brief moment of walking, carrying, and feeling, it was the most peaceful I’ve ever seen her tonight.

Apparently, I was just as much into the moment as her because before I even noticed, the terrain had already gotten flatter, it was no longer an uphill climb, and wherever the heck we were now, we had finally reached the top of it.

“Ooh! Okay, stop us here, horsie!” Amanda exclaimed, excitedly springing out of my arms and back on her own feet. “This is it! We’re here! C’mon, follow me, it’s just right over there.”

In the final stretch now, she broke into a full-on sprint, with me scurrying closely right after. I felt us leave the streets, step over the bump in the sidewalk, and before long we were wading through the thick mounds of freshly fallen snow.

“Here we are,” Amanda declared, stopping short right in the middle, turning back toward me, and unveiling the pressing mystery finally with open arms and a smile in her eyes. “Up.”

I took a moment, I had to take a moment, slowly waddling closer to her, the openness of the sky above, the vastness of the space around us, it was all too much to take in at a glance.

We were standing on a plateau of sorts, and an expansive one at that. Trees surrounded the boundaries, with shrubbery littering the ground beneath them. There was more to say that I’ve probably missed, that I did miss, benches, structures, all sorts of other stuff, but that’s only because of the next thing that caught my eye.

Just up ahead, in a grand vista of twinkling skies, behind rooted wooden fences, the cliffside opened to the view of the town in its entirety and then some. I could see the pinprick glows of cars speeding down the distant highway ahead, the wide tundra of white for miles and miles, and in the furthest glimmer of light – the city glimmered on like a beacon in the night.

It was like I was staring at a painting, a scene ripped out of a brochure, magical, fantastical… and so, so very special.

Now I get it. Now I understand why Amanda was so insistent on this.

This truly was a view to die for.

I blinked, and suddenly I found myself far ahead, my hands against the fence keeping me from unknowingly falling to my death, and right beside me, Amanda was just simply soaking in my reaction.

“So?” she asked, sounding both giddy and smug. “Did I disappoint?”

As if she didn’t already know the answer. But I guess, if I was being moaned at constantly, I’d want to feel the least bit vindicated as well.

“Yeah, okay,” I nodded, leaning just slightly over the edge, taking in more of the scenery. “I will never doubt you ever, ever again. This is… this is amazing.”

“The view, right?”

‘Everything,” I sighed, eyes still wide and watery. “I can see why you wanted to come here.”

“Actually…” Amanda said, shifting a little closer, her left arm colliding with my right. “To me, this place is more than just the view.”

“Oh,” I glanced at her. “Got memories here too, huh?”

But she shook her head.

“Not my memories,” she clarified in a small wispy voice. “Right now, where we’re standing, this is exactly where my grandparents chose to celebrate their marriage.”

I heard her, and finally for a time, I was snapped away from the view, my focus shifting entirely onto her, and the tender gleam in her eyes.

“And some years later, on this very same spot,” Amanda went on. “My father chose to finally confess to my mother.”

I kept staring.

She kept staring too.

“So, with that in mind, one must only wonder, you know?” her scarf slipped away, unveiling her beautiful smile, echoing her lovely giggle across the air. “What happens now?”