Romantic Short Stories [DUBREDO]

VI. Afire Visage

It was late at night when Leni finished her errands at the office. Coincidentally, Rodrigo was about to enter his car when she entered the parking lot. She paused for a second upon seeing him and she rushed towards her car to avoid him but she ran after her.

"Leni, please—"
"What do you want?!" She yelled at him.

"Leni, I..." he exhaled as he figured out how to begin. "What?!" She glared at him. "Do you wanna have sēx again? Fine! Let's do it in the car because that's where you're good at isn't? Banging and leaving." She grumbled.

"I'm sorry, Leni. I'm sorry if I disappeared but I just needed time to think." He explained. "Think? About what?!" She retorted. "About you, about us. And I figured out that I can't pursue you because I'm not in love with you—"

"How dare you, Rody. And you're telling me you reflected for days just to tell me this?!" She scoffed.

"I know, I'm a mess. I'm sorry. I just don't want to be unfair with you—"

"And this is fair to you? Can't you be more of an aśshole?!" She rebutted.

"No, because every time I see you, when I kiss you, when I touch you, when we're together, I feel so good but only because you remind me of someone so dear to me." He explained but it didn't help in calming her down.

"Wow, Rody. Just wow. So is that like a nice way of telling me, I'm done with you?" She refuted, he hated how he is making it worse. "No," he exhaled heavily.

"I just don't wanna be unfair to you. You're special to me—"
"God, Rody—"
"Please let me explain, first." He begged.

"You're special to me but I only figured out that you became more special to me because you remind me of Elise." He explained shaking her ground. Leni was left speechless upon hearing it from him.

He sighed, "You don't know her and she's gone but she was the woman I loved the most—"

"Please, Rodrigo. Don't you dare tell me she was the woman you loved the most—"
"Leni, it's true. I loved her but—"
"No you don't and you never did!" She yelled interrupting him.

He was silenced for a moment. "Please don't take this negatively." He pleaded. "I'm not taking this negatively, I'm just stating a fact that you never loved Elise so stop talking as if you were madly in love with her." She groused.

"Come on, Leni. Don't question my love for Elise just because you're mad at me—"

"I am not questioning your love for her, I told you, I'm just stating the fact that you never loved her because if you did, you would never leave her!" She shouted.

"Leni, she's dead! Have some respect for her—"
"Yeah! She's dead because of you!" She cuts in startling him. "Because you ruined her." She followed with a cracking voice.

Rodrigo looked at her in deep confusion. "You don't know her, you don't know our story so don't talk like you know everything." He requested.

"I know every single thing about her and you." She replied making him even more baffled.

"Because I am Elise." She divulged.

Rodrigo felt so blown away upon hearing her revelation. "No, that's not possible. Don't drag her into this issue. She's long gone—"

"I am Elise, Rodrigo!" She insisted.

"I saw her grave! She's gone! What you're saying is impossible—"

"That grave is empty! I requested for it because I wanted to forget everything." She repulsed. "Because I wanted to erase the fact that I loved you more than anything in this world but you managed to hurt me, betray me and leave me behind." She broke down.

"Of all people, I never thought it would be you who would drag me down to the deepest and darkest part of my life." She cried. "I loved you, Rody. But you betrayed me."

"I never left you. You were the one who left me." He refuted making her flummoxed.

"How can you say that? You cut all the communications between us because you found new love abroad. Someone better, someone prettier." She questioned. "What? I never loved anyone abroad. I was in love with you the whole time." He defended himself.

"Come on, you told your mother not to give me your new phone number because you wanted to just end it all without all those dramatic confrontation and talks." She rebutted. "I didn't do that." He replied trying to vividly recall the past.

"My phone was robbed, I wasn't able to message you for days—"

"Weeks." She corrected.

"Okay, weeks; I told her to give my new number to you. You even texted me. We continued talking after that." He recalled. Leni couldn't determine if he was making up stories to cover his errors up or if something really happened in between.

"Then you told me you just don't see our relationship going anywhere so it's better to end it all. I didn't want to end it but you insisted. I called you but you never picked up until your number could no longer be reached." He narrated. "I waited for the semester to end that time then I booked a flight back here to the Philippines to talk to you but then you were gone." He followed making himself feel so lost again with the idea that Leni is Elise.

"I looked for you everywhere but my search lead me to your grave, Elise. Sto. Tomas." He nearly cried as he recalled how distraught he was when he learned about her death. "I talked to your doctor to know what happened and he said you were just found unconscious at your house and overdosed yourself." He continued.

It finally sank to Leni what happened, it was the biggest misunderstanding of their lives. "Dr. Sonny is the name of the doctor." He remembered.

"He's my foster brother." She informed him. "He's a plastic surgeon and he helped me change... to this face." She began explaining. "He helped me start a new life so we worked on changing my name from Elise Sto. Tomas to Leni Gerona. I told him not to tell anyone and that if anyone asks, just tell them I passed away." She followed. "He had that grave made with my permission, an end to Elise' cruel past and a beginning for me." She added making him understand the complicated change that happened while he was gone.

It took him a while before he absorbed everything she said. He looked at her in the eye, it was clear to him now why Leni reminds him so much of Elise — it's her. By looking at her eyes, his favorite feature of Elise' face, he knew Leni was telling the truth.

His eyes sparkled as she gazed at her face. He stroked her cheek with his thumb and her hair at the back of her ears. He couldn't believe that he was staring at the love of his life, the woman he loved the most his whole life.

"You don't know how happy I am to know that you're here with me." He uttered with his eyes slightly teary in bliss. "When I thought I already lost you." He swallowed the lump in his throat.

He grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her tightly. She reciprocated his embrace and buried her weeping face in his chest.

"I would never let you go again. Ever." He promised.

— THE END —