Short Stories

Infinity

She bit her lip and turned away from me.

She was hiding something, and I had a feeling that I knew what it was. But if that was the way it was going to be, then I wanted to leave her with one last parting message.

I didn't know what to say.

"I - I just don't think it's going to work out..." she trailed off.

"Look at me," I commanded gently. 

She stared at me but deliberately avoided my gaze, ashamed. "I understand. I know this is hard, and it's even harder for me to say this, but I just wanted to let you know."

She tried to force her expression into a smile, but her eyes were still full of sadness.

"I love you, and there's nothing that you can do to change that. Even if you leave me here and go, I'll still love you, forever."

She rested her head on my knee. "I wish I could say the same."

"I just want you to know this, before you leave. If you don't want to give me another chance, fine. But I wanted to tell you that I will love you forever. I'll love you for an infinite amount of years."

I was such a dork. An infinite amount of years? How cheesy was that?

I pressed on.

"And if you - you take just a small amount of that infinity, you'll still have enough love for over a lifetime. And we can still love each other, infinitely. You can take some of my infinity, and we'll always love each other."

She finally met my gaze. Tears were beginning to overflow, staining her cheeks and running onto her shirt.

I couldn't do this. I couldn't cause her any more harm, any more pain. She obviously didn't love me anymore, and she'd moved on to someone else. The longer I talked about her, the more I tried to convince her, the more hurt it was causing.

"If you don't want to, that's - that's okay too," I stuttered.

It wasn't okay, not at all, and she knew that. What would I do without her?

I looked away, embarrassed.

"Look at me," she said, turning my head with a gentle touch.

"I'm sorry. Is it too late now to accept your offer of an infinite amount of love?" she asked. And as she spoke, I saw a tiny glimmer of hope in her eyes.