But Daddy I Love Him (Tayvis Short Story)

eight

Only when the very faintest peeks of sunlight started to appear in the sky did Travis and I realize that our time really was up. Sharing longing touches and slow kisses, we helped each other to dress, knowing we only had so much longer to do so. It hurt my heart, but we did not have another choice.

"I must go from here." I whispered to Travis as we stopped at the crumbled dip in the wall, turning to face him. "You have no idea how much I will miss you, my love, my prince."

"My princess." Travis pulled me into his arms, enclosing me in a desperate hug. I rested my head against his chest, sinking into the last embrace I would get before I belonged to another man. "I will miss you so, beautiful princess. You are the only meaning of true love I will ever know, and we only had so little time." 

"Here." I took the blanket he held, rubbing it against the cracked bricks until a rip formed. Tearing the blanket down the middle, I handed a piece to Travis. "Remember me." I whispered, my eyes glazing over with tears. 

"I will always remember you princess, if you remember me." Travis reached for my cheek and rubbed his thumb across it.

"Always." I blinked, a tear falling that he immediately wiped away. "Goodbye my love." I breathed, shaking my head in denial. Travis stepped closer, giving my lips a gentle brush of his, a last kiss. 

"Goodbye my princess." He said, his voice shaking as we parted. 

Travis helped me up onto the wall, and I looked back at him as I paused there. He nodded, a teary smile on his lips. I pushed off the wall, landing with a flutter of snow on the grass beyond. Tears started to pour down my cheeks, I clutched my half of our blanket close and started to run as fast as I could across the snow so that I would not turn back. I could not turn back.

Rushing up to my room, I collapsed onto my bed and started to sob, my heart crumbling. The man I had met less than a week ago, who I loved, who I would love in every life, had slipped away from me. We could not have our love story in this life, and that hurt more than anything I had felt before. Love so strong that only a few days had been enough to know it would be forever. But forbidden had carved a knife through our love, forced us apart, and I was breaking.

I must have fallen asleep, because a sudden bustling woke me with  start. Shooting up, I blinked my eyes open to see Maggie and a few other staff coming in, carrying all sorts of things. Maggie smiled at me as she draped a big white dress over a hook, coming to take my face in her hands.

"Sleep in princess?" She asked. "You know you have a wedding to attend today."

"Do I now?" I asked weakly, but I could not form a smile to match my voice. 

"Come on princess, we must get you washed up and start to get ready." She urged.

More reluctant than I had ever been in my life, I rose. Hiding the blanket into one of the cases that had been packed with things for me to take with me to my new home, I let Maggie push me in the direction of the bathroom.

Things were a blur after that. I was washed and dressed, hair sculpted and face smoothed with tiny fragments of makeup. Flowers were woven into my tied up hair, feet slipped into soft shoes, a veil placed upon my head and moved over to cover my face. The four women who had been helping me cooed and gasped in wonder around me as I stood there clad in white, staring miserably through my veil at my reflection. I could not hear anything that was being said through the aching loneliness in my heart, knowing my prince was out there somewhere and I would soon be another mans wife.

"Oh look at you princess." Maggie placed her hands on my lace clad shoulders from behind. "A beautiful bride."

"Yes." I whispered, tears hazing my vision before I blinked them away.