I've Loved You Ever Since

Part 13

"I had a massive crush on you, when we first met." Stevie said as she walked away from Lindsey to sit down again. He gave her a look as if asking, are you kidding me? "I swear. You were the most gorgeous man I'd ever laid my eyes on and you always made me laugh."

"Why didn't you say anything then?" Lindsey was still standing, where she left him, leaning against the kitchen counter, arms crossed over his chest.

"I was different back then." Stevie shrugged. "I was shy, I didn't think much of myself. I definitely didn't think that you'd be interested in someone like me." He sighed heavily, running a hand over his face. "It's true! We also became friends so quickly that I thought it was too late to explore-" She paused, waving her hand around for a second. "To explore something romantic between us. I waited for a long time, you know. I waited for you to ask me out, but you never did." She lowered her eyes, a somewhat sad smile crossed her face. 

"Yeah because I was terrified of you saying, no. Why do you think I insisted on making you laugh so much?" Lindsey shook his head in disbelief that there was a time, when she was waiting for him to muster up the courage and ask her out on a date. "It certainly wasn't because I was an aspiring comedian." That made her laugh too and he smiled. 

"Why didn't you ever ask me out?" Stevie looked back up at him and this time it was Lindsey, who shielded his eyes from her as he turned his back to her and picked up a knife to proceed making dinner.

"I didn't think that I was good enough for you." Lindsey said after a moment of silence. "You were so beautiful and so damn cute." He was relieved to finally be able to say that to her face. "I was awkward and insecure. I had only had one girlfriend before you and she left me for my best friend at the time. I'm also a year younger than you and there's a big difference between women and men at that age. Every girl I knew was dating someone older. I didn't think that you'd want me." She saw him shrug his shoulder, she felt terrible, hearing him say those things. "When I finally thought about maybe saying something to you, you told me that Joe, whatever his last name was, asked you to be his girlfriend."

"I'm sorry." Stevie gave him a sympathetic look even if he couldn't see it. 

"You have nothing to be sorry about, it's my own fault." Lindsey added. "You two broke up and you turned to me, looking for a friend to confide in. I couldn't say anything then because you would have thought that I was taking advantage of your vulnerable state."

She did ask him to be honest, but the more Lindsey talked, the worse Stevie felt. She couldn't believe how unaware she was for such a long time. Her eyes misted over and she quickly rubbed the tears out before he could notice. It didn't help.

"Then there was someone else and someone else after that." Lindsey continued. "Before I knew it, I was introducing myself to Tom. I kind of gave up hope at that point."

"W-why?" Suddenly choked up, Stevie could barely get the word out. 

Lindsey turned around and saw tears brimming her eyes. He dropped whatever he was holding in his hand and rushed to her side. He knelt before her and carefully, afraid that she might pull back, touched her face to wipe away the tears that had escaped. 

"Why are you crying?" Lindsey asked, concerned. Maybe he shouldn't have said some things, maybe he should have worded them differently. 

"You've been hurting because of me for years. I- I'm a... I'm a horrible p-person." Stevie hung her head low, but Lindsey gently gripped her chin and made her look at him.

"No, you're not." Lindsey shook his head. "I chose to keep my feelings to myself, you didn't do anything wrong."

She sniffled, bringing her hand up to wipe her cheeks. "I bet you don't think I'm so beautiful now, huh."

Lindsey smiled, taking her hand in his, he pressed a kiss to it. "There's never been a single moment, when I didn't think that you were beautiful."

Stevie managed to calm down and only when Lindsey was absolutely sure she was okay, he stood up straight and walked away to get her a glass of water. Neither of them spoke for some time, until Stevie asked him, why he had given up hope, again.

"Your relationship seemed serious." Lindsey simply replied. "I truly believed that I would be giving a toast at your wedding. You were happy with him, until you weren't. I know, you loved him. I didn't want to stand in the way. After all, all I've ever wanted was for you to be happy."

"My God..." Stevie breathed out heavily, she took a sip of water. "I'm so sorry, Lindsey."

"Stop saying that, there's nothing for you to be sorry for." Lindsey repeated to reassure her. "But in case you want to do something nice for me, I could use some help. Otherwise, we're gonna eat at midnight." He joked, hoping to lighten up the mood.

Stevie laughed lightly. "We don't want that." She said as she stood up and went over to the sink to wash her hands. "I might have to stay the night then." She glanced at him briefly, a suspiciously innocent looking smile on her face.

~

AN: I know this was a pretty boring part, but the night's not over yet! There might be some more kissing. Or is it too soon...? Thank you for reading ♥