Two years later…
She slapped him across the face. Hard.
***
She just could not believe it. It wasn’t true. It wasn’t happening. Not with them! Her brain simply refused to process this information.
That evening was supposed to be happy! They haven’t seen each other for four months as he was running his clinical studies away from their home town, and tonight was supposed to be the night of their happy reunion. Her gut feeling told her it was not a good idea to accept the invitation to that party, but almost all of their friends were expected to show up, and they hadn’t seen each other for ages, what with all their jobs and busy social and love lives… and he also wanted to catch up, so they went.
It was a loud party, and everybody was happy socializing, drinking, singing, fooling around, just as usual. They had quite a bunch of crazy friends, but though she loved them all to pieces she could not help a slight frown on her face, just because….. she wanted him all to herself! She loved HIM more!!!! How could she not love him, when he was the one to pick up all the shattered bits and pieces of her heart Vlad left scattered on the ground? Not only had he picked her up with gentle and careful hands, he also put her together and glued her back seamlessly, perfectly without realising how in fact damaged she was at the time. Nobody knew, actually, and nobody could guess because she was so good at hiding her pain and depression behind almost-real smiles and almost-honest laughs. You’ve surely heard of such stories – one moment a girl is blissfully in love, and the next moment – “It’s not you, it’s me. You deserve so much better than me! I’m not smart enough, I’m not handsome enough, and oh, I’m leaving to another city because of my work, and I don’t think I’m cut out for long-distance relationship. I’m leaving in two days, by the way”. And the girl is left to try and breathe – inhale and exhale, in and out, inhale and exhale …. Six months…. Six f*cking months!.... in and out, inhale and exhale …. going through the motions of living, breathing, keeping a presentable façade…
Then HE came. She’d known him for almost three years by that time, he’d been a good friend of hers, and she even learned to be nice to his girlfriend, Lana, though she honestly never understood what he saw in that girl, she was so arrogant and full of herself all the time. She never loved him, just wanted a sweet and caring boyfriend by her side. Oh, to hell with her!
She only saw him for the first time for real when she was heading to their party, it was their two-year anniversary or something, and she was late as usual. That stupid jerk in the shop wanted her number otherwise he refused to fill the balloons with helium, so she gave him a number as fake as her smile, but wasted an awful amount of time in that shop.
He met her in the doorway, she looked in his pitch black eyes, and all of a sudden – be still, my heart – she saw him! Later that night, or better to say, earlier next morning, she was seeing him off after long hours of talking and numerous cups of coffee, hugging him, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that they’d been friends for so long and had never been as close as they were that night. She hugged him goodbye. He was so tall; she had to reach all the way up to throw her arms around his neck to pull him closer to give a light kiss on the cheek, to inhale his scent…
Inhale…
She felt his soft lips peppering feather-light kisses all over her face and froze.
Exhale…
He kissed her hair, her eyes, her lips, he didn’t let go of her when he took off his coat and returned to her apartment, he never stopped kissing her, never stopped saying how much he loved her…. He loved her back to life. Her birthday was the next day, and that year she received the best present ever – the ability to breathe effortlessly.
So yes, she loved him… and God it hurt!
Another woman!
He told her he had another woman in St.Petersburg! He got wasted at that party, he was angry with her for saying that he’d have to sleep on the couch because of his alcohol breath, and he just told her he had another woman…
She felt as if all blood was drained from her, she could not think, she could not process his words; she could not breathe… again. What surprised her most was that she didn’t cry, she just stared at him for a while, and then a lone thought registered in her mind, “I’m so f*cking sober!”. It was 3 a.m. and no chance in hell to get drunk anywhere but at the party they were at, so she turned on her heels and left. The longer she spent looking in his gorgeous black eyes, the more dead she felt inside. Her apartment was on the other end of the city but she didn’t give a f*ck… she just walked, and walked, and walked…
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
Silence.
“Stop right now! Are you crazy? Have you utterly lost your mind wandering in the dead of the night like that?!”
Silence.
“Look at me!”
Silence.
“Baby, stop! Look at me! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean it! There’s no-one, I swear! I was being a jerk, I just wanted to hurt you, you’ve been smiling at him!”
“Him?”
“Vlad! He was there, and you talked to him…. You smiled at him, dammit! After all that he’d done to you, you actually smiled at him! I got drunk and I lost it…. Forgive me, love. I don’t need other women, I just don’t see them….when I’m not with you I think of you all the time, and I dream of you every night. These four months apart were agony…. I love you, honey, say you’ll forgive me. Say you’ll be mine for the rest of my life. Say you’ll marry me!”
Her mind went blank. Totally. White noise filled her ears. BBbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzz….. She looked at him kneeling at her feet in the middle of the street, holding open a black velvet box with a glittering ring in it. He was sober and shaking with regret, his eyes were scorching black fire, begging her silently to breathe…. Inhale, exhale. In and out.
“I love you so much, baby, please, don’t leave me. Marry me!”
So she slapped him across the face. Hard.
And said, “Yes”.
:)
*******
Dedication here goes to Catherineparady :) Not only she's an awesome writer, but she also kind of inspired me to write something of my own :)
