I saw for the first time in ten years this evening. He hadn't changed a bit. Only his eyes: the once warm topaz replaced by solid gold, hard as rock and cold as ice. But he still held the cloak of eternal youth, and the gracefullness with which he moved was remeniscent of the day he left.

 Part of me wanted to run straight through the park, like a bullet into his arms. For a moment, I was a young girl of seventeen, head over heels for the boy – the vampire – of my dreams.

 Then I remembered: I wasn't a young girl of seventeen. I was a thirty year old woman, with a husband and a son. Things weren't as they used to be. I had seen to that.

 I froze. In the dying light his pale face took on a warm hue. His head was low, his copper hair dappled in the shadows of the leaves. His shoulders were hunched in a tight fitting beige jumper, and his hands were in the pockets of his designer jeans. If only I could stop the clock, and watch him in his elegant walk forever, never noticing me, never breaking the promise we made.

 But all things end. I knew that well enough.

 He was mere feet away, opposite me on the path, when he looked up. In all the time I had known him, I had never seen him looked so shocked. His gold eyes widened. His mouth opened in a neat "o". His arms hung at his sides.

 "Bella…" he breathed, and his voice was the same, oh, just the same.

 "Edward…"

 How long we stood there, I'll never know. A minute, an hour, a year, it didn't matter. Then, slowly, Edward approached, unblinking as if too afraid to close his eyes in case I disappeared. I barely moved. I feared I might collapse if I did.

 He stood before me, the perfect angel that had been haunting my dreams every night since the day we said goodbye. He raised his hand cautiously, then traced the line of my jaw, and it crackled with electricity. I hardly breathed.

 "Everytime…" I murmered.

 Edward smiled his crooked smile, just as I remembered, and dropped his hand. Now, I realised, despite his youthful appearance, he had aged greatly in the decade since we last saw each other. His eyes were old. His smile was old. His movements were old. He seemed weary, tired.