How to be loved

78 - It finally ended.

How to be loved

78 – It finally ended.

Freen's POV

"Today," she said, her voice low and steady, "I'm telling you the waiting has ended."

I froze.

The air left my lungs all at once.

A chill ran through me, sharper than the cool rain still clinging to our skin. My heart lurched—not with relief, but with dread. Those words—the waiting has ended—they didn't feel like hope at first. They felt like closure. Like goodbye.

No. No, please.

For a heartbeat, the world narrowed to the sound of my breathing, fast and shallow. My legs nearly gave out right there, and I had to steady myself against the railing.

This was it, wasn't it?

She was about to let me go.

She brought me here to end things quietly. Far from the city. Far from the people who would've seen the cracks forming between us. My mind spiraled with every half-finished sentence, every look I mistook for love. Was that why she was distant? Was that why she couldn't talk about the future? Was it because I was never part of it?

I blinked, my voice a brittle whisper. "What?"

I didn't mean to sound so broken, so terrified—but I was. I was hanging off the edge of something I wasn't sure I could survive.

Becky looked at me, and for once, she didn't look away. Her smile was soft, but her eyes... her eyes held something so serious, I braced myself for the pain.

"You waited for me," she said, and her voice was gentle, reverent. "Through everything. Even when I didn't deserve it. And I kept thinking I needed more time... more space... to figure myself out."

My heart squeezed so tightly I could barely breathe.

I waited for her. Every damn day. Through confusion, through silence, through the ache of loving someone who kept parts of herself hidden from me. And I did it willingly. Because she was worth it.

But now... now I wasn't sure if all that waiting was about to end in a goodbye.

She paused, and I could see her swallow hard. "To heal and be perfect for you."

My chest ached.

This was it. She was about to tell me she couldn't be what I needed. That I deserved someone who didn't come with all her ghosts. I could feel the moment unraveling. I could feel the scream rising in my throat—the desperate plea I didn't know if I had the right to say.

Please don't leave me.

But then she stepped forward. And instead of pulling away, her fingers slid into mine—warm, grounding, real.

I hadn't even realized I was shaking.

She looked at me with more honesty than I'd ever seen in her eyes. No barriers. No defenses.

"I thought I had to fix everything before I could love you right," she said. "That I had to come back whole. But all this time..." Her voice faltered, just for a second. "You were the safest place I could've healed in."

I couldn't hold it in anymore. Tears stung at the corners of my eyes. But I didn't let them fall—not yet. Not until I was sure this wasn't a cruel dream.

She held my gaze.

"I'm not perfect, Freen," she whispered. "But I don't want to keep you waiting anymore. I'm here. Fully. Finally. And I'm choosing you—right now."