Because he loved him..

Epilogue

banks of a river,
sky and sea,
dusk and dawn,
you and I
forever close
never one.

A young boy was walking up a hill with a girl in tow.

"Where are we going Arlo?" She asked.

"It's this place, my grandfather used to take me. You will see. Come along."

"Okayyy!" She panted but kept walking uphill with him, rambling about things every now and then.

Around an hour later, two men reached the base of the same btaa hill. One of them had a few grays in his hair and a slight paunch. He walked with a nostalgic air about him, looking everywhere, as if trying to commit it all to his memory.

The other one was leaner, with beautiful hazel eyes and a slightly sad but content smile.

"So, Ray and Christina are getting married, huh?." The man asked, sneaking a look at the leaner man.

The man turned to him and smiled.

"Yeah and I am so happy for them. I think they will do very well, Sam."

"I guess, as well as people married to their polar opposites can do!" Sam supplied and even Amay chuckled at it. Sam looked at him with a fond smile.

"I never thought I would live to see the day Ray Merchant settled down." Sam joked.

"Oh yeah! We all have had our doubts but Christina evened out his jagged edges really well and Paul told me that the cafe is doing great too."

"Yeah? How is Paul? How is his moving in working out for you guys?"

"He says that he just wants to be there as a friend and that he is willing to wait for me for as along as it takes."

"Wow, the guy really likes you Amay! Why won't you give him a chance?"

"I..--" Amay shrunk a bit, "He is kind and sweet and everything but I can't help but feel like if we started going out, he will only end up getting hurt." Amay looked at the horizon, reminiscing about the past.

"All I have done is hurt people I was close to. You, dad, your mom, Sally, Karim, Arlo. I can't do this to him also. Paul deserves better, Sam."

"You think you don't deserve him?"

Amay looked at Sam, shaking his head.

"Come on! I know how you think.  You think he deserves better. Amay, we all have our pasts but there comes a time when we need to accept it and--- move on." Sam spoke like it hurt him to actually say them out loud.

Amay sighed at it.

"And you didn't hurt anyone Amay. You have always acted out of selflessness. Take me for example,  it was my choice to drown out my grief in alcohol. I could have found other ways to cope but I--"

"You coped with what you knew back then, Sam. Even Karim--"

"Do you miss him? Is he the reason you are holding yourself back?"