Carrots With Ketchup

Part 17

The sky was cloudy and dark. The streetlights were a blur as I ran. Thunder rumbled in the distance. My bare feet slapped the street as I ran. There were no cars out this late so I wasn’t worried about getting hit. My breath was ragged and my lungs felt like they were being shredded by knives, but I didn’t care. I needed to get to Louis as fast as possible or I felt like I was going to die. The wind bit into my face and brought tears to my eyes. I was halfway there when I saw a figure at the end of the street running towards me in a similar fashion. I slowed slightly as I recognized the figure.

“Louis?” I breathed, barely believing it. Then I broke back into a full-on sprint. “Louis!” I yelled.

“Josée?” he called back, running harder. We met in the middle of the street.

He put his hands on my face and my tears fell on them. I put my hands on his face too.

“Louis, I’m so sorry! I should never have-”

He cut me off by placing his lips on mine. My eyes slid closed and I immediately began kissing him back, our mouths moving in synchronization as we pulled each other closer. The sparks and fireworks that were going through me made me lightheaded. I went weak at the knees and began to collapse. He caught me, but our lips separated. We were both gasping for breath. He looked into my eyes and whispered, “I love you.”

I smiled and giggled as tears streamed down my face. Then I laughed out loud. “That’s exactly what I needed to hear,” I whispered, kissing him again, hard, crushing our mouths together like we couldn’t get enough of each other. It was like we both expected the other to disappear. “I love you too,” I breathed between kisses. My broken heart was fixed. I had been wrong. It wasn’t Louis’ forgiveness I needed to heal my heart; it was Louis’ love to make the wound as if it never existed. He kissed me again and I shivered. Suddenly it began to rain. There was little warning. It just began to pour.

“Oh!” I cried out, laughing. “Oh my God” I turned and took his hand. “Come on! We’ve got to get under cover!”

“Wait!” he said, pulling me back. “There’s one more thing I’ve got to do.”

“What? In the pouring rain? We’re getting soaked! Come on!”

Catching me off guard, he spun me back into his arms and kissed me senseless. The rain trickled down our cheeks. I threw my face to the sky and laughed. “Louis this is perfect!” All of a sudden I noticed the peachy liquid running off my face. I threw my hand up to cover my scar, instantly embarrassed by the imperfection.

“No,” Louis whispered, taking my hand away. “Don’t.” Gently, he wiped the last of the foundation off my face. He leaned forward and very deliberately kissed my scar. “You’re beautiful.”

“Lou, it’s ugly.”

“No,” he repeated, kissing it again. “It’s perfect.” Leaning down, he kissed me on the lips again before continuing. “And now this is perfect.”

I giggled and took his hand again. We walked into the only place open and sat down. I gasped in recognition.

“This is where we first met!” Louis said, speaking my thoughts.

“Oh my God.” I gazed around the café.

“This is where you entered my mind and refused to leave,” he teased. “Seriously, you’re like a parasite! Stealing all my attention and I can’t get rid of you!”

I made a playfully insulted sound and gently punched his arm. “Wow. Hurtful.”

He laughed and pushed a stray strand of wet hair off of my face. “Hey, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Remember what Harry said when you first met him? I couldn’t shut up about you!”

I blushed and Louis fell silent. “You know,” he whispered after a while, “I wanted to kiss you so badly tonight.”

“When?” I whispered back.

“From the minute the wedding started. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you. When you met my gaze I wanted to run over there and kiss you. When you kissed Harry I want to yell ‘No Jimmy protested!’ When you tripped I wanted to catch you in my arms and then swoop down on you with a kiss. And when we were in the hallway together, I almost gave in. I thought you didn’t love me, so I forced myself to get mad and push you away.”

“Like you did at the hospital,” I responded.

He ran a hand through his gorgeous hair. “Oh man. When I heard you’d been in an accident I began to panic. If I’d lost you I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself. I was at the hospital faster than Harry was. I told him I was there for him, for moral support, but really I just needed to know that you were okay. I was going to make things right between us. But then I saw how Harry was around you. I realized I couldn’t do that to him. So I hurt you instead, and I am so sorry for that. As soon as I left the room I realized that I should’ve kissed you. And when you texted me on my birthday, I actually cried. I needed you so bad. I felt so stupid for pushing you away.” He paused. “I loved you from the beginning. When did you start to love me back?”

His words had brought tears to my eyes and I laughed through them now. “Oh Lou! I’ve loved you since before I met you, since I became a fan in high school!”

“But…you chose Harry when I came to you!”

“Yes because you still had feelings for Eleanor and she still needed you. Believe it or not, you needed her too. I had recently developed feelings for Harry that I used as an excuse. I regretted it the moment you left. I would’ve stopped you, but I looked through the peephole and you were already gone. I was so upset I…punched the door.” I was slightly embarrassed by that last part.

“But Josée! I wasn’t gone yet. I was sitting on the floor leaning against your door, praying it would open again. When you hit the door, I thought you were sending me away.”

I got up, went around the table, and hugged him tightly. “I would never send you away, Lou.”

He pressed a gentle kiss to my temple. “And I’ll never leave you again. I’m sorry for all those times I hurt you. I love you.”

“I love you too, Lou.”

“Now, what do you say we get a hotel room and sort this mess out?

We called a cab and went to the hotel I stayed in on my first trip to London. We showered and slept together for the first time, in the most innocent sense of the word. We stood in towels drying our clothes in the hotel laundry room. When my PJs and his sweats were dry, I put his shirt on over my tank top and we merely curled up and fell asleep, Louis’ arms around me. The last thing I heard as I drifted off into the most peaceful sleep of my life, was Louis, under the impression that I was asleep, whispering, “I’ll love you forever, Josée.”