THE STORYBOOK

H7: PART 3 END (ENGLISH)

A WEEK LATER....

Earth looked towards the restaurant's door once more, waiting for Sam to appear.

It had already passed some days from that night in with Sam has asked him for his hand in marriage and ... the truth was that he had finally made a decision.

Decision that ... without a doubt ... was going to surprise the young man who, at that very moment, was making his appearance through one of the entrance doors of the establishment.

"I just hope to be doing the right thing ..." Earth told himself as he pressed the rings' case  that was inside his pocket tightly.

- "My love ... I'm so glad you called me, that means you made a decision, right?" - Sam commented with a cheerful and hopeful expression on his handsome face. All that while sitting in one of the free seats that was in front of him.

Earth felt that he was choking ... that the nervousness he was feeling had started to make his hands sweat under the table cloth.

After all... now that he was in front of the young man with whom he had shared so much, and for so many years, he had started to feel that ... he should never have even accepted to dine with him the first time ... let alone all the later times.

He had done it because Sam kept chasing him ... sending him gifts and all those words of love and regret. And, after all those days, he ... he had felt that he deserved, at least, to be heard and that ... that he should try to see if there was a way to save their relationship.

He had really tried and... he even almost went back to him but... he had to accept the reality of their situation.

He had tried to deny it to himself ... he had wanted to convince himself that he was only confused ... that it was the fear of suffering again what had been preventing him from giving Sam an affirmative answer to his proposal. After all, nobody would be so stupid as to give someone like Sam a new opportunity without being truly in love ... especially after everything that had happened between them.

But, now that time had passed ... he had to admit that he had done it not only because he still felt something for the young man but also because ... because a part of him felt guilty for ... having done what he did after his first deception ... for ... having taken revenge in the way he had done it.

"I thought we could save our relationship ... which, as in other cases, could even get stronger," he thought as he shied away from the expectant look of the young man that was in front of him, "but in the end ... it wasn't like that ..."

And the worst part of all that was... was that, until that damn night in which he had discovered his deception, he had continued to trust that everything would be solved ... that the love that united them at first could return to be as it was during those lovely first years together.

Without realizing that ... that nothing could be as before.

Yes ... he still feels something for Sam but ... he had to admit that something had changed, something that had become much bigger as the days had passed ... as all those weeks had passed in which they were away from each other.

The truth was that ... he didn't know why but ... his feelings for Sam had changed ... had cooled.

His love ... that used to burn like the sun itself ... now it was an embers that, honestly, hardly made him feel anything when Sam was staring at him as he was doing now.

"Before... a look like that would have made my body awake, making me want to... want to ...", he though to himself while, with a sudden movement, he left the box with the rings on the table - "and to think that now it just makes me feel uncomfortable ... "