The Beast

T W E N T Y S I X : A N E W S T A R T

Theo looked up as Karina got into his apartment with a large smile on her face. Jessie was right. Maybe he had not set enough boundaries. He watched as she kicked her shoes off and came to settle on the couch next to him with a loud sigh.

"Tired?" he asked, looking at her. Theo liked Karina. But he had never once put her under the romantic box in his head. He had only ever thought of her as his friend. Just like with Gracie. And see where that had left them.

"Tired doesn't even begin to explain it," she responded, then she looked at him with a small pout. "You didn't even let me know when you were leaving."

"You were busy," was all Theo said. His mind was all over the place. He didn't want to presume too much. Karina had never done anything to give him the impression that she was in love with him or anything like that. And he didn't want to sour up their friendship by asking her that.

"You look so far away," she remarked, placing an arm on his bicep. Theo looked at her.

"I'm just thinking," was his response.

"About?" she asked, then without giving him the opportunity to answer, said, "Jessie?"

Theo stared at her for a little while. He wanted to ask why her mind had gone straight to Jessie but he stopped himself. That was a pretty dumb question. He was sure it was obvious to everyone that he was pretty much obsessed with Jessie every time they saw them together.

So he ignored Karina's question and decided to move on to other things, like making things clear between them. The last thing he wanted was to lose Jessie again because of a someone he didn't see as anything more than a friend. That would be the end of everything to him. Losing the love of his life twice? Nah Theo would not survive that if he was being honest.

"I think we need to have a serious talk, Karina," he said, after clearing his throat.

The smug expression on Karina's face disappeared. She looked much more serious and it was obvious that she had picked up the final note in Theo's voice.

"I'm listening," she said, after pausing for a few moments.

"Did I ever make you believe I wanted something more than a platonic relationship with you?"

Karina looked at Theo for a while, clearly at a loss on how to answer the question. Then she turned away from him and said, finally, "I don't know Theo, you've never said anything clearly.
But... you never minded when we did things couples do so I don't know... I just assumed that we were on our way to something."

Theo sighed. So Jessie was right. He had thought he was doing the right thing by not bringing their relationship up. But it was clear that he had been hurting Karina in the process, something that had never been his intention.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I never made things clear between us. Karina, I love you, truly I do. But maybe not the way you'd expect me to. I thought by not saying anything about our relationship, I was protecting your feelings. My intention was never to hurt you," Theo said earnestly.

Karina was silent and she still couldn't look up at Theo. "It's fine," she finally replied in a small voice. "I mean, I was hoping, but you never did tell me we had a chance. I just built castles in the air and thought that eventually, we could grow into something. I guess that's not going to happen," she said with a sad smile.

"I'm sorry," Theo said again. He felt terrible guilty like he had led her on.

"It's okay. Thank you for being honest with how you feel about me. At least now I know where I stand. I'll move on from this, don't worry."

The smile on her face was clearly fake but Theo didn't want to push it and hurt her even more than she was in that moment. He already felt guilty and the last thing he wanted to do was worsen her pain.

"I'll leave now."

"Let me go drop you," Theo said.

"I brought my car it's fine," was Karina's response.

"Let me walk you to your car then," Theo said, leading her out of the door.

"Stop trying to assuage your guilt by proposing to do things for me. I'll be fine. I just need some alone time."

"Okay," Theo said after a while. He watched as she walked to the elevator and stood there until it started going down.

He felt guilty but he couldn't deny that the relief he felt was way more than any guilt. There was nothing standing between he and Jessie anymore. After all they had been through, they could finally be together without anyone trying to stop their love from flourishing.

Theo was not so naive that he thought everything would magically be good and whatever they had would be perfect. But this was already a great start.

***

"She didn't make a scene?" Jessie asked quietly.

It was about two days later, and after a short talk over the phone, she had confessed that she would feel more comfortable if they had dinner in a place where only the two of them would be.

So Theo had done his best to transform his apartment into something out of the movies, something he knew Jessie would love. And with the small smile that had graced her face as soon as he had let her in, he knew he had succeeded.

They were done with dinner and they had moved to the sitting room. Theo couldn't keep his eyes off Jessie. She looked even more beautiful that evening and he couldn't exactly put his finger and what was different. But he knew that he would rather pluck his eyes out than stare away from her.

"Why did you leave?" he asked unexpectedly.

Jessie's wide eyes found his then she looked away before looking back at him. "I wasn't sure of anything... I wasn't sure of the place I occupied in your life, I wasn't sure about how you felt about me, I wasn't sure of anything, especially not after your friend disrespected me and you let it slide. And I thought the best thing for me to do was leave," she said earnestly.

Theo nodded. He understood her, and he wasn't going to try and defend himself. He had not stood up for Jessie when he truly needed to and the only time he had realized that was when she had left. By then it had been too late.

"I know this is probably a very presumptuous request to make of you. But can you give me a chance? A chance to show you that I truly love you and that I can make you happy? Can you give me a chance to make you mine, a chance to be yours?"

Theo had already readied his mind for Jessie to say no so when she gave a hesitant nod then open her mouth to speak, his grip on her hands tightened a bit.

"I love you too Theo. And all I'm asking is for you not to break me."

Theo gave a silent promise that he well intended to keep. Then his lips descended on Jessie's, sealing their words with a short and sweet kiss.

"I love you," Theo said.

"I love you," Jessie replied.

If they could stare at each other forever, they would have sat there holding each other's arms until both of them old and withered...

THE END

hi loves. yes this is the end of this book finally. I will publish an epilogue after my exams just to tie up all the loose ends.
I hope you enjoyed
🤗
essie