I Told You, You're Mine
By: Heather C. AdamsHis eyebrows furrow in thought, “You’re right that is a lot. It was never that way for me though,” his eyes look so deep inside me, making the nerves in my stomach dance.
If this isn’t love I don’t know what is.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“I always wanted you. I never gave up hope,” he slid our fingers together interlacing them.
“You didn’t?”
He shook his head, “You made the choice to leave, you made the decision that we shouldn’t be together. I never wanted that.”
“But Liza?”
His head jerked to the side in a scowl, “Liza was a place holder. I shouldn’t talk about her like that but she was. I was beginning to lose hope that you would ever come back to me and I fell into a rut. Every time I’d go to functions with dad, all our friends, family, and other long time business contacts would pester me more and more, asking when I was going to get a woman and settle down. I thought maybe if I gave in to the idea, I could convince myself to move on…that I could fake it until I made it.” His hand squeezed mine tighter pulling it to his lips and kissing it softly. “But I couldn’t. Nothing and no one could ever replace you.”
My heart fluttered and my cheeks grew flush at the love this man just shared. All that time I thought he had gotten over me. I thought I was the only one that had these feelings, but it was never like that for either of us. It had always been us…and it would always be us.
“I want to be with you,” His words sear my heart.
“I want to be with you too but,” I pause trying to take care how I share this information. I reassess myself and start again, “I know why I ran. I know now what upset me so much.” I gulp down the lump in my throat.
“Okay, what is it?”
“I know you said you’d do anything to make us work, even starting over, but I don’t want to run anymore. I don’t want to have to live a lie to be together.”
I sigh and continue “I don’t want to have abandon dad’s business and I don’t want to have to abandon my progress at NYU.”
My eyes are nervously trailing around Blade, but he finds me and holds my gaze. His arm wraps around my waist and pulls me back into him.
“I don’t want that either, but I want you to know that if that’s what it takes to be with you I’ll do it…no questions asked. I’ll do anything to have you next to me forever.”
“And I love you for that,” I rest my head onto his chest. “I guess this means we need to try to tell people.”
“Yeah…so how do you want to start this process?” his business side speaks up.
I shrug, “I mean, I guess we could start with friends. Maybe…when I come visit, we can do things in public together and let it come out on its own. Or we can call a meeting and tell people,” I giggle joking.
“Yeah, we can do that,” he pauses and I can see the wheels turning, “Actually, McIntosh holds a fundraiser for Cancer Awareness every August. We can lead the function together. We won’t give anyone a chance to question it. We’ll just be together…for everyone to see. You and me. We can do it Avery.”
Hope glimmers in his eyes and radiates to me, “Okay.” I smile. “I’m scared. What if this ruins McIntosh Industries?”
“It can’t. There’s more to business than who’s in my bed. And if there’s pushback, we’ll figure it out,” his words encourage me, and I hope he’s right.
Hope.
We made love again in the shower and moved the conversation to school as we got ready to head out for breakfast. I love how he respected my independence. I couldn’t have asked for a more supportive partner. I was able to communicate my thoughts on my degree and career, and he was completely on board with me staying at NYU to finish.
Blade decided to stay the weekend to help take care of some things, although I wasn’t quite sure what that meant until we headed out for breakfast. As we made our way to the bottom floor, he stopped us veering us towards the office.
