"You don't love me." Her face was stoic and her tone level.
Her words felt like a punch in the face.
"What?"
"You don't love me." The beginnings of anger rose up in the phrase. "You don't know what love is. You're in like. People are always confusing the two. Like is temporary. Doomed to fail from the very beginning." She paused for what seemed like an eternity. "Love is incomprehensible. It is joy and ache and sting and tears of every kind. Love is a burning. A warmth that doesn't fade. Love of the truest kind endures no matter what." Her eyes, oh man, those eyes, were a kind of intensity he had never seen before. "Love doesn't give up even when hope leaves. And... love is fear. Fear of losing those you can live without." She looked me straight in the eyes. Hers, tear-filled. "You say that you feel all of this for me? You do me a great disservice. You do not love me." She stared through me. "No, not me."
I took her hand in mine and she looked into my eyes. I felt her pain, like a shotgun wound starting from my heart and radiating throughout.
I put my hand to her face and she didn't shy away from the touch.
I leaned in and kissed her.
My whole world exploded.
It was incomprehensible. It was joy and ache and tears. Happy tears, sad tears, confused tears, hopeful tears. It burned inside of me. It was the kind of warmth like Christmas day. I couldn't breathe.
I looked at her and her eyes were still closed like she was dizzy. I was dizzy too.
"Are you sure about that?"
