ECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECEEECEEECEECCECCECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECECE
Nadir pulled up and opened the door to his car as Christine pulled herself back over the railing. He watched as Christine stopped in front of Erik. He started walking towards his friend, hoping to stop him before he did anything that he would regret.
"You're right. It's not worth it. Maybe it never was." She moved to walk past Erik. The hand that she was expecting never came. He made no move to grab her arm and stop her as he had done so many times in the past. Christine didn't know what to do with this. It wasn't like Erik. She decided that she would wait until she got out of Erik's sight before she lost her pride, crawled into a corner, and cried.
"Why did you buy the dress, Christine?" Erik made no move to turn around and face Christine. He didn't think that he could handle seeing any more of her tears, not when he was trying so hard to let her go. He didn't think anything would be worst at this point in time than Christine's tears. She was supposed to be happy about this. It was, according to Nadir, the one thing that she wanted all along.
"Why is that you never know what you want? You seem so determine to always have your mind made up, but then you change it without any reason."
"What is that you want Christine?"
"What I want is to know that the man I love is going to come to bed at night whether he thinks that life couldn't get any better or he has some suspicion that everyone is out to get him. I want to know that despite the fact that we almost never seem to get along there is that one person who loves me more than anything else in this world. I want to know why when I suddenly figure out what I want in this life you don't love me. Why, Erik?"
"Christine, I will love you for eternity. After the stars have fallen from the heavens and Satan has admitted defeat to God, I will still love you, but in this moment, this instance in time, I can't love you. I can't allow myself to feel for you the way that every bone in my body wishes to. I can't love you because if I did I would cage you again instead of setting you free. Letting go of you requires me not to love you right now."
"Where the hell did you come up with this notion?" Erik refused to answer her. He had always considered himself a strong-willed person, but with Christine, he would do anything for her unless it wasn't in her best interest. And letting her go was for the best. It was the best thing that he could do for Christine. "Dammit, Erik, you look at me. You look at me and tell me that this is truly what you want. Screw Nadir and everyone else. This is and will always be about the two of us. If we walk away right now, not saying another word, we are both going to spend the rest of eternity thinking about how we should have fought harder. How, if we had just been a little more stubborn and fought for a few minutes more, things could have turned out differently. So what's it going to be Erik? Are we just going to settle for what everyone else tells us is right or are we going to fight for that few minutes more?"
Christine waited a minute for the reply that never came. "So be it." Christine turned on her heels and started back towards the hotel. She wasn't expecting to be turned around as fast as she was, causing her to become a tad dizzy. Nor did she expect the lips that drew the breath out of her own. When she was finally able to breathe again, it took her a moment to reclaim her balance before she stared into the eyes looking down at her. "Eternity is long time to love a corpse."
"Eternity is a long time to be without the man I love."
Nadir didn't believe the sight that had just unfolded in front of him. He turned to see the Sultana's servant with his mouth wide open. "Tell her majesty that Erik has been delayed, and he will send word in the next few days."
The servant merely nodded before leaving. Nadir was sure he would be getting a call from her majesty any moment, but he didn't know exactly how he was going to handle the situation.
"I believe, my dear, this belongs to you." Erik slid the ring back on Christine's finger, exactly where it should have always stayed.