22
JASON
Well, my friend, you’ve outdone yourself. You deserve a round of applause. If this is what you mean by taking things slowly! What the fuck was Ithinkingof? Talking about touching her, holding her…
“Okay,” she says resolutely, while I’m on the verge of a total panic attack.
“O…kay?”
“I also want it all with you. And I don’t want to wait. We might not have—”
Time. We might not have time. That’s what she’s trying to tell me.
“I know, Alex. I know about the operation and all the rest.”
She nods and closes her eyes.
“I just wish you could have told me sooner and most of all, that you would have been the one to tell me.”
“I am sorry. It wasn’t my intention to keep you in the dark. I couldn’t imagine what I would have found coming back here and I could not have imagined that you would want—”
“—To be with you?”
“I thought you forgot about me.”
“Never, Alex. That will never happen. Get that out of your head, okay?”
She sighs. “Are you scared?”
“Yes, Alex, terrified.” I can’t lie about it. “I’m scared at the idea of losing you and not being able to live every instant together, but I’m not going to go back now. I don’t care. I prefer to have you with me for three minutes than to have not had you at all.”
“Really?” she says, biting her lip.
“Really.” I smile back at her, despite the fact that I’m dying inside. “Alex, I’m not sure if this is clear to you or not, but I’ve been in love with you for my entire life.”
She looks down and her cheeks flush with embarrassment.
“Well, the fact that I kicked Rick Murphy’s ass in the school hall should have been an indicator for you.”
She busts out laughing.
“How old were we then?”
“You were fifteen and I was seventeen.”
“Wow, what a memory!”
“I remember that I wanted to see his blood for what he said to you.”
“That I had nice tits?”
I can’t even think about it.
“It was a compliment.” She smiles, drinking a sip of her coke.
“Sure, a compliment from a pervert!”
“Really. How come? You never thought so, huh?”
