I Choose You

29.5. Bliss (Edited)

*listen to this song while you read the chapter and you might just cry
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Edited 

It was quite some time before the judges called Aiden and I into the back rooms of the stage. I had expected that Aiden and I would be interviewed together, but as we both made our way to the back room, it seemed that we were being split up into two different rooms, each with two sets of judges—a man and a woman. The hallway we walked down was quite lengthy, with four doors on each side of the hall, all leading towards the end of the hall. Two women with earpieces directed us to the two open doors that were on opposite sides of the hallway. And when it finally registered in my brain that Aiden wasn't going to be there with me for the interview, I felt panic starting to rise inside me.

I think he could sense my panic, because he turned to look at me just as I had turned to look at him. My heart was pounding through my chest, beating so hard I thought it might break through my sternum.

"What if I don't get chosen?" I whispered, looking up into Aiden's eyes. The two women standing on either side of the doors seemed to notice that we needed a moment and left us both standing there.

Aiden looked into my eyes, reaching up to stroke my cheek with his hand. And as I stared into his eyes, I felt like there was so much he wanted to say to me, but just didn't know how. There was so much emotion in his eyes, that I couldn't tell what he was thinking, or even try to begin deciphering the thoughts that might have been running through his head in that moment. Aiden was such a mystery to me sometimes, a puzzle that only he could decipher, and every day I learn something new about him. Every day he gives me a new piece of himself.

"You will," he whispered, staring at me with such intensity I was afraid to even breathe, "just be you, Emery. Be you and they'll see what I see in you." he leaned forward and a pressed a sweet kiss to my forehead, causing the butterflies to flutter inside my stomach. "I believe in you." he said, before pulling away from me and heading into his interview.

The interview only took me close to twenty minutes, and to be honest I thought it was going to take much longer than that, so when I left the interview room, shutting the door behind me and heading down the hall, I couldn't help but stop when I heard Aiden's voice through the door across the hall. I knew I shouldn't be listening in on his interview, but a part of me wanted so badly to hear his answers to some of the questions they had asked. To know Aiden more deeply than I already did.

"Yes?" one of the judge's faint voices carried through the door as I pressed my ear closer.

"I know I'm not supposed to say anything about Emery, and that whatever I say—" Aiden said a few things that I couldn't quite make out, but what he said next...I heard every word.

"—I've never met a girl as selfless and forgiving as she is. She always puts others before herself. She always forgives no matter how much she's been hurt—and I'll admit that sometimes I get mad at her for it. Because sometimes the people that she forgives don't deserve her forgiveness, but that's also what's so amazing about her—that she has the courage to do that when every single one of us wouldn't." he paused. "She always puts everyone else's happiness before her own and her number one priority is making sure that everyone gets treated the way they deserve to be treated."

I felt my heart get caught in my throat.

"She is the definition of beauty. Inside and out. She has the purest and kindest heart. And if anyone deserves to win this fashion show...it's her. Because despite how many people have wronged her, she still chooses to see the good in them, no matter what."