Leap of Faith

23:54

“You promised you wouldn’t freak out,” Theo harrumphed from above, hurt lacing every word.

I placed a palm on his chest, above his rapidly beating heart, and smiled stupidly to myself.

“You love me?” I wanted to double check. And triple check as I ask again. “You love me?”

“No,” Theo’s words cut me down. “I am in love with you. Big difference.”

Was there a big difference? Granted my history in the love department had been limited to just Adam, and even then who knows what that was, so this statement confused the hell out of me. I was still trying to work it out when Theo’s lips met mine crushingly.

From our brief history together, when his lips connected to mine in a kiss this heated, I would have just given in and let him ravish me, but I just kept playing his words over and over again. I needed to know what the difference is, so I know where I stand.

“Theo, wait,” I beg him as I push him away with the hand that still rests on his chest. “What do you mean ‘big difference’?”

He kisses me gently before brushing strands of my hair from my face. “You can love anyone and anything,” he starts. “I love action movies. I love turtles. I love how a sunset makes it look like the sky is on fire.

“I love my car. I love my best friend- in a strictly platonic way, of course. I love my computer. I love math. I love the stuffed caterpillar my uncle bought me for my third birthday. I love the color blue. I love the smell of freshly cut grass. I love English accents.

“I love detective novels. I love 3D movies. I love the sound of my sister laughing. I love how my step-brother can kick my ass on the X-Box and he’s only ten. I love the number seven. I love the smell of baby powder, strangely. I love strawberry milkshakes. I love butter pancakes. I love my cell phone.”

He stops to take in a breath while I process everything he’s just said. I still didn’t have an answer to my question, but I did have answers to a ton of other ones that I had yet to ask.

“I love a lot of things,” Theo continues as if he hadn’t stopped at all. “Friends, family and objects. I love them all. But I’m in love with you. With you, I can feel it in my heart, in my soul, in every corner of my being. Now that I have met you, I can’t imagine being without you. And I think I might die if I never get to see you again.”

Holy Hell.

What can a girl say to that? And here I was, scared to the core that he was going to break me. Now I’m terrified that I might be the one to break him after a declaration like that.

“Catherine,” he whispers to me. “I need to know who you are. Not right now, but before we leave, I need to know.”