Courage

Chapter Twenty-Two

[Maya]

When I got back to the apartment, the door wouldn't open even though I unlocked it.

"Franny? Mila?" I knocked on the door harshly. I was sure I was at the right apartment, which made me feel worried. Did something happen to Francesca and Camila while I was gone?

Luckily Fran opened the door before I could become more worried. The lights were off but there was still light from the candles she set up.

"Keep that on," she said as I almost took my arm out of the sleeve of my jacket. I then crouched down to untie my shoe laces. "Keep those on as well."

"Wanna tell me what's going on?"

"You'll see, follow me." She grabbed my hand and I followed behind her out the door.

We walked up a few flights of stairs that tired me out. There was a door on the top step. I couldn't fight my smile as I saw what was on the other side.

A table for two. The kind you see at fancy restaurants.

"Is this a date?" I asked Fran.

"Yeah, I told you I owed you one."

She didn't owe me anything. She set up a date, made spaghetti tacos, and I hadn't even told anyone about us.

I grabbed her face in between my hands and kissed her fervently. As I kissed her, I realized how much I didn't want to lose her. I didn't even want to think of losing her, I couldn't bear the thought.

She pulled back first. "Want to eat?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "So you made this?" I asked as we got seated.

"Camila helped me," she admitted.

"But it was your idea," I stated, she nodded. "Thank you for this, I really, really, really appreciate you."

"No problem." She smiled and I could feel the butterflies in my stomach.

"No, I mean, I really appreciate you. No one's ever made me feel so . . ." I struggled to find the words.

"Exceptional," she helped.

"Yeah, exceptional," I laughed lightly.

"I'm only treating you the way I see you; an exceptional person."

"But you know you making me feel special is not the only reason I like you so much, right? I genuinely think you're a good person, and you may not feel that way about yourself, but my perspective of you is different from yours."

She looked down, deliberated, and smiled.

"You know I've never felt the feelings I feel for you toward anyone else," she finally said.

I raised my eyebrows, remembering her previous girlfriend.

"No, not even Delilah," she continued with a laugh. "With Delilah, I wanted to give her everything she wanted. But at the same time, it felt kind of forced, I felt like I had to spoil her and have a future with her. With you, it doesn't feel forced." She paused. "When Delilah broke up with me, I was upset, mainly because I was offended by her words and because some asshole called me a bitch on the street, but we're not going to talk about that."

"So, you didn't see a future with her?"

"I did, but then again, that was forced. With us, I don't care for the future. I mean, yes, I want a future with you. But now is now and I want to enjoy and savor the moments I have with you now. And in the future, I'll do the same," she elucidated in a soft voice.

"Fran, I can't even bear to think about you leaving me," I admitted.

"Me neither, I'm terrified of that," she deliberated for a moment. "Okay, so you know how my brother Eliomar was dating Lia last year?"

"Yeah." Eliomar would only always talk to Lia or his siblings at school, no one else.

"Well, at one point they broke up and I'm scared that if we were to break up, I would go through what he went through."

I reminisced back to senior year, last year. There was a point where Eliomar would leave school during lunch, zone out during class, and just looked numb. While that happened with Eliomar, Lia looked happy majority of the time but her happiness did look forced, like she was pretending to be okay for the sake of the people around her. So they wouldn't worry about her.

I have to make sure that whatever Eliomar and Lia went through when they broke up— won't happen between Fran and I.

"Well I won't leave you," I promised.

"And I won't either," she reassured me.