Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 299: For Ten Lives

Andrew stood outside the bright and crowded amusement park, he was dressed in a black hoodie that hung loosely on his broad frame, the thick fabric softening the sharpness of his shoulders. The hood draped behind him, it’s drawstrings resting against his chest. His hands were buried in the pockets of black joggers, it was an outfit Anne had suggested as he wouldn’t be seen wearing something like this outside.

He glanced at Anne uncertainly as she stopped to look back at him wondering why he had suddenly stopped.

Andrew looked up at the giant rollercoaster in the distance recalling a past memory of a kid passing by this very park with his mother holding his hand, a rare occurrence, the kid had stared hard at the rollercoaster and the entrance of the amusement park then looked up at his mother, but he hadn’t dared make any requests.

"Andrew, let’s go!" She called for him and he grabbed her hand dragging her back when she was about to hurry into the park.

"You can’t go on any rides Annelise, they’re not safe for you." Andrew said strictly, "Let’s just go somewhere else."

Apart from the fact that this park reminded him of a past he wanted to forget, especially now that he had Anne in his life, most of or even all the rides couldn’t be considered safe for a pregnant woman, so Andrew was planning to drag her out of the unsafe environment if he had to but Anne didn’t move.

"Wait, wait, Andrew! Tsk, we won’t go on the rides then. There’s so much to do here than the rides. I promise it’s safe. Come, I’ll show you."

Without waiting for him to say anything else, she pulled him along as she ran towards the park.

Seeing the impatiently excited look on Anne’s face, Andrew let out a sigh of resignation.

"Are you that excited to be here?"

Anne bobbed her head several times. "I haven’t been here in a very long time."

Seeing that there were too many people on the line to buy tickets, Andrew looked around, finding a bench beneath a tree, he took Anne’s hand and led her there and she looked at him with a confused look in her eyes as he made her sit.

"I’ll get the tickets, stay here."

She smiled up at him, that dazzling smile that made something inside him melt and he couldn’t help but smile back.

He went to the stand and bought the tickets, and also two bottles of water which he unscrewed one for her because it was imperative she stayed hydrated.

When they went into the main park, it was parked with different kinds of people. Children with their parents, couples holding hands, and groups of friends here and there.

Andrew hadn’t been in a place so filled with people, sounds of laughter, happiness and glee filled the air.

"Let’s go over there." Anne pointed somewhere and before he could even look properly she was already running in that direction.

"Stop running." He ended up saying to himself because she had already gone far, with a shake of his head he followed her with long strides.

She stopped at a game stall where people were shooting at targets to get gifts.

Anne handed the man at the stall some coins and he in turn gave her a rifle which shot darts.

"Why are you standing back there? Come here." She called for him when he stopped some distance behind her to watch her, she motioned her head to her side and Andrew walked up to her and the man handed him another rifle.

"Let’s see who can get the most shots." Anne said excitedly before she started to shoot without even waiting for him.

He was tempted to tell her that she wouldn’t be able to win against him with a gun, but he found himself freezing for several moments, lost in staring at the positively blissful look in her eyes, the adorable way she stuck out her tongue slightly while trying to aim and how she laughed so purely and happily when she hit her target.

"See? I got two shots already." She told him excitedly and he nodded, 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Good job, love."

To keep that smile, that laughter in her eyes, Andrew diverted his aim several times so he missed.

The thought of winning seemed to fill her with even more glee. Maybe he should deliberately lose at more things in the future if it would make her this happy.

In the end, Anne won a huge panda which she happily hugged to her chest and showed it to him proudly.

"Look, such a cute prize. I shot so many targets and I got the biggest one!" She exclaimed while showing him the large panda she was holding so happily.

"My wife is really good, I didn’t stand a chance at all." He added while patting the top of her head proudly and it made her laugh more.

She dragged him along to several more gaming spots, in between he would stop to get her something to eat or drink, when she took him to an ice cream stand, he unhesitatingly bought her some but she ended up insisting he get a cone for himself.

He couldn’t associate a bad memory to the taste of the ice cream, not when she looked so cute and happy like a child. He truly did want to pamper her like a child.

She made every game they played a competition, challenging him and he, without any reluctance let her win every one.

He stopped her when she was walking a long distance to a spot she said she absolutely wanted to show him, the sun was still shining so brightly and being under the heat of the sun walking this far distance wouldn’t do her any good.

Looking around, Andrew spotted a bicycle stall, a few minutes later, Anne was sitting at the back of the bicycle hugging Andrew’s waist from behind as he rode the bicycle while she gave directions. Riding on the roads within the park that led to where Anne wanted to go.

They reached the spot Anne took him where they watched a show. Because there was already a crowd in the front, Anne found it a bit hard to see the stage well enough. She stood on the tip of her toes supporting herself with a hand on Andrew’s shoulder so she could see clearly, but a second later, her feet left the floor. Andrew had picked her up, with his arm below her butt so she could see clearly from his height.

There were times Anne made Andrew run because he was trying to catch her, constantly reminding her not to run but she wanted to make him loosen up and have fun so she wouldn’t stop and he would have no choice but to follow her. And there were times she made him laugh by telling a lame joke about something, there were also times he stopped to kiss her by the fountain which she sneakily took a picture of, actually she sneakily took a lot of Andrew’s pictures during their day there and saved them as memories on her phone.

Lastly, Anne took him to the wishing bridge where couples tied a red knot to the bridge, a myth said to keep couples together for ten lifetimes. Andrew calmly played along, and tied the red knot with her.

"Do you realize you’re sentencing yourself to be with me for ten lives if you do this?" Anne asked him playfully as he was tying the strings.

He turned to look at her seriously then looked down at the knot he was holding before he asked, "Can I tie ten of them? For a hundred lifetimes." That caused her to laugh.

They left the park around sunset, Andrew holding her hand and Anne swung their hands back and forth playfully, Andrew was smiling, however the smile on his face suddenly froze and he stopped in his tracks.

Outside the park, he was staring intently at a certain spot.

Anne who was looking at his face lost her smile as well, replaced by a look of curiosity.

"What’s wrong?" She asked him in a warm voice but he didn’t seem to have heard her, staring unblinkingly at a direction.

When she followed his gaze, a look of realization showed on her face as she glanced at him sympathetically.

There was a park bench some distance away. It was the very same park bench that woman had left him and never returned.

Anne saw as a look of pain crossed his rigid face, the warmth and smiles were completely gone from his countenance and her heart broke as his eyes began to freeze.

Moving closer to him, she touched his face. He jolted slightly as if her touch had brought him back to reality. He glanced down at her and the coldness in his eyes began to dissipate.

He let out a broken, ragged breath, closing his eyes and parting his lips as if to say something but no words came out for quite a while, eventually he sighed and said,

"Let’s go home." He held Anne’s hand, forcefully keeping his gaze away from that park bench but Anne didn’t move when he made to walk her along.

Anne held both his hands in her own.

"We can never run from our reality for too long Andrew. Come with me." She said to him before pulling him towards the bench that held terrible memories.