A MAN'S SORROW CUTS DEEPER

On the sails of hope...

Learning to love was never easy for Can. One might say the word love was as foreign to him as the words selfless trust. It's not that he was a man of interest. No, by any means. He was an honest man with a heart in the right place. But life dealt him cards he had to learn to play with.  He judged quickly. He was reserved and always cautious. And he never would have believed that a loud and unpretentious carefree Sanem Aydin would change it all...

Sailing on the Bosphorus, swaying to the rhytm of waves gently caressing their boat, Can and Sanem felt more in love than ever before. They realized that their love never faded away. Never disappeared. The ups and the downs of that once in a lifetime love encompassed their hearts, and sang in their souls. They were one, in more ways that could be counted. She was his. He was hers. That aching yearning they both had felt for over a year was finally fulfilled, and they could not have been happier.

To a man like Can Divit finally belonging for the first time in his life was a strange feeling to have. He was loved by Aziz and Emre, and Hüma on some level as well. But to be loved by a woman was a complete different matter. And to accept that love unconditonally was yet so much more. There was a time when he did not know what to do with that feeling. He told Emre a long, long time ago that he fell in love with Sanem. But what did those words mean? He did not know at the time. He was curious, he was falling for her. But he did not understand that to love meant to give himself to her too. She was a free spirit, so free with her love that he demanded she limit that love only to him. And that is where he went wrong. She trusted people in ways he never could. And learning to trust became one tough challenge to pass...

To trust meant that he had to open his heart. And that would have proven impossible in the past. He trusted Metin, and lost his friend, so it seemed. He trusted Emre, and the brother he was almost lost his life all because of his sick ambitions. He also trusted Sanem, which broke his heart because he himself feared to trust her. And the year he was away made him realize that to love meant to trust. The year he was away made him realize that as much as Sanem hurt him and brought pain to his heart, her love also freed him to trust people again. He forgave Emre and gained his brother again, with a bond they never knew could be stronger than strong. He also got his friend back, by forgiving Metin. And he learned that Metin got his back in all matters of life. But above all, he got Sanem back.

He begged the stars when his lonely journey began a year ago that he could forget Sanem. But his heart knew so much better what he needed in life. Each day that passed made him realize that he could not forget her, because he needed her more. Needed her to breathe, needed her to survive. And the fact that he was sitting with her on their boat now, with her heart next to his, still felt like a dream that finally came true. He sold that boat for her, and she bought it back. If he wasn't sure of her deep love for him before, he knew it now. And yet, he feared...

He asked her to leave with him and sail for two years. Galapagos they would sail to, and he knew what that meant. He never forgot her dream she revealed to him long ago. She was so honest back then, sitting close to him on that pier. She spoke of Galapagos to him, and of her love for albatrosses as well. It was that single moment that would make him realize just how much the Albatross she met and kissed in the dark meant to her. The bird of albatross was a symbol of her attainable dream, a real testament of what she held dear to her heart. And the man Albatross meant that much to them both. Each time he heard that simple word from her mouth he knew what she meant. The day he revealed to her he was her true Albatross he watched the light in her eyes shine only for him. Him Can Divit, not just Albatross himself...

She agreed wholeheartedly to leave all behind. To sail to Galapagos, with him by her side. Those words felt like the sweetest melody to his heart. And yet, somehow something stirred within him deep inside. He could not pinpoint what that something could be. But there was something that sprouted the slightest seed of fear in him. Did he ask her too soon? Did she agree way too fast? Would she change her mind? Was he limiting her life the way he attempted to limit his when he sold his boat?

He told her she could draw inspiration for her book from their adventures. He would add his part to her books with the photos he took.  She could write children's books, not just for their kids. He saw how much love and deep admiration Sanem felt for him when he told her that she had dreamed her dream for two. Yet he missed his chance to reveal to her how much his life changed when he dreamed of them too. He hoped for that dream to come true in their future. He was sailing on the sails of hope, and he hoped the good and kind winds would carry them together in the same direction for all the days that lay ahead...