I pulled my keys out of my pocket and opened the mailbox and then with the mail in hand I took off up the stairs to my apartment. Ero was waiting there for me, to this day I still think he's a figment of my imagination. He sat like a god stretched out on my futton couch, watching me with those ice blue eyes I couldn't help melting under. My spine tingled as I set the mail down the situation seemed diffrent, something felt a little out of place.
Ero moved, shifting his entire toned body to sit up straight. "Good Afternoon, Eve." I loved his voice, it was perfect. But today it seemed somehow distracted. He stood towering a good 4 inches above my head and embraced me. I felt his soft lips on my cheek and was over whelmed by his scent, something like rasberries.
"Good afternoon, too. So...."I pursed my lips. All of this quick suddenness in his movement alarmed me. He pulled closer and spun me around until we both landed on the couch. He was so warm, I could feel his heart beat through his shirt and it seemed to meld with mine.
"How was work today?" He began the usual questioning. Ero, for some reason that never made much sense to me, couldn't leave the confines of my apartment. Since the day that he first apeared he had never left. Never walked down the streets of L.A and watching the blinking lights at night, though somehow if it wasn't rasberries, he smelled like oleander; and everyday he allways wore something diffrent.
"It was okay, like any other. I did some filing, did some typing, got chastised a bit." I answered him. Sometimes it varried though, if it wasn't filing it was running erands. I chuckled and layed my head against his stomach. And then Eros moved, forcing me to sit up, but the gap between us closed as he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close again.
Again I sensed something was out of place. "I can leave the apartment now," He said into my hair. I stopped and blinked, tilting my head sideways, confussed. It was a habbit of mine, that and chewing on my lip, which I was sure I would be doing in just a second.
"Well, lets celebrate, there's this really cool chinese place down the block. Or we could go to the beach, I found this really cool coast thats all secluded and private. Its really -" He put his fingers to my lips, a habbit of his. Whenever I talked to much, or rambled on he would just gentley touch my lips and usually kiss me, but not this time.
"No," he averted his eyes, "I have to leave." Now I was chewing on my lip, trying to digest this information.
"What?" I asked, thoroughly confused. Why now, why did he have to leave. It made no sense to me. "Where are you going," I asked. That was the first of it. I could feel my heart begin to crumble, tiny pieces falling off already.
"To the place where I came from." He spoke. I shook my head, he didn't come from anywhere, he had always been just there. Always waiting for her when I returned, I asked the only thing that would escape my lips, "Why?" My mind had stopped working.
"Because it has suddenly grown very dangerous here."
I took a deep breath and tried registering the words, "Why is it dangerous, whats the matter?" I felt myself pleading, trying to keep my heart in tact and keeping the tears back.
"Our love. Our love is conflicting with certain pieces of destiny."
"Destiny? What? Why does our love have to do with this?" I could hear the pitch in my voice rising. He pulled me to my feet and looked down at me through his deep deep ocean blue eyes.
"Its complicated," he said, averting his eyes again. They all said that, all of them. My entire paradise shattered with those words and it kept the last bit of my sanity to keep the tears back.
I layed my head against his chest, listening to his heart beat. "Please stay here. I'll brave the worst of storms if you stay bye my side. Please, please don't do this."
I felt Eros's arms around me, his breath on my ear as he whispered. "Eve, its one thing to face guns and knives with a brave heart but it takes true curage to actually let go of something instead of keep it protected. I must go."
"I can't. You've been the best thing thats ever happened to me. Since the day I walked in to find you sitting on my couch eating patato chips, I don't know what I would do without you."
"You would go on living, just like you did before me-"
"I wasn't living before you, I was just an empty soul."
"That wasn't true. Eve, its not like I'm your air, or your water, or your food. You don't need me to survive, you've done it before, I must leave now."
I knotted my hands into the back of his shirt, "Please don't," a tear rolled down my cheek. "Please don't go. Yes your right, you'r not my air, nor my water. nor my food; but you are wrong also.I live now because I have you to look forward after a hard day of work. I need you. Without you I'll return to nothing, an empty vessel."
Eros hugged me tighter, "Shhh, don't talk like that. You were never nothing and you won't be. Trust me, everything will be much better form here on out."
"No. Its true and you know it!" I finally sobbed, clutching him even tighter.
He combed through my hair with his hands and again whispered soothingly into my ear. "No, its not." We stood like that for long moments while I cried into his shirt.
Finally I gained my voice back, I looked up through him, my make-up probobly smeered all over my cheeks. "I love you," I felt the power behind every word. I meant it, I had never felt so strongly for someone before.
"I love you to, and for that reason I must depart. I pray that you will try to understand my motivations, I fear for your life and whilst I am here, it is in jeopardy. If you were to die because of me I cuold never forgive myself. So you must stay, continue on like I had never been here. We will meet again someday, our paths where meant to entertwine, just not now, not here. I will be looking forward to it, but until then, I must say goodbye my love."
I choked on a sob and suddenly I couldn't see. I leaned forward to embrace him one last time, to here his voice in my ear, to feel his lips on mine; but I fell to my knees, sobbing. He was gone, just as quickly as he had appeared 5 months ago. "Goodbye," I whispered into the carpet, trying to soak up his smell but that too was gone. I sobbed and sobbed, I was sure I stained the carpet. I don't know what happened next. Everything was a blur. Like a memory long since gone, faded and torn at the edges like a phtograph.

I sat on my plastic chair, my skin baking under the hot light of the L.A sun. It had been 4 years since that. Ero had been right. I pulled myself together after who knows how long, I quite my job as a secretary and began to write. A secret passion of mine. The first book was a hit, covering the shelves of bookstores, it came easily. Like some even more sureal dream. I had almost forgotten his face, those five months. It really had been like he wasn't there. Earlier today the memory hit me, I almost broke down in tears again in the coffee shop.
I don't know why, it was more of an apiphony for another idea. I had brought my notebooks down to the secret beach I had found all to myself, set out my lawn chair and parasol and began to write. I had figured out the name but I had trouble with the story.
Heart Breaks and Angels.
I looked out to the ocean where the turqoise waves pranced, tipped with white horses rolling towards the shore and then thunderously crashing, spraying water and sand about. I heard a dog bark and turned my head. A black lab ran down the beach and back up again disapearing and then down again once more. It pranced through the waves and then doubled it back up to where I couldn't see it. I laughed lightly to myself.
It came out again this time right up to me. I laughed as it sniffed my legs and licked me turning back and barking. the labrador's owner finally came into view jogging up to the dog. "Sorry miss. He's a bit of a ladies man."
I looked up to meet ocean blue eyes. I blinked once or twice and stood up, removing my white hat. He stood there sparkling with sweat and the spray of the ocean against his perfeclty tan skin. "Oh, its nothing." I said, barley a voice. I blinked again, "Uhh...I'm sorry. Do I know you?" I asked, could this be Eros. He tilted his head and took the dog by the collar. "I do believe so."