AUTHOR'S NOTE: IT SEEMS I'VE MADE IT IN TIME FOR THIS CHAPTER, THANKFULLY, HOPEFULLY I WILL MANAGE WITH THE NEXT ONE AS WELL. I HOPE YOU WILL ENJOY THIS CHAPTER, THERE ARE SOME BITTER MOMENTS BUT IT'S VERY SWEET AND I ADORED WRITING IT.
She was turning her head all around thinking it was not possible that everyone got a car except for her. The airport was almost empty when she finally spotted the shape of a man, very far and blurred, in the early morning fog. But as the shape approached and came into focus, she recognized a familiar face and the moment she realized that it was Blake, all her bags simply dropped from her hands.
- "I thought you would have liked it if someone would have come to get you. Well, here I am... I got you a rose" Blake said in the most excited, trembling voice.
At the sight of this young, handsome, somewhat awkward but tremendously fascinating man, Julie's smile brightened that dark spring morning. She took the rose in her own hand and got closer to it with her face to smell it: its petals felt like velvet against the tip of her nose and smelled surprisingly fresh and soft.
After a brief while, the focus of her eyes caught Blake's that had never detached from her, nor even for a second. And then, to his most unexpected surprise, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. He was unaware that her eyes were sparkling with tears of gratitude but he definitely felt her relieving all her tension as his arms wrapped around her body. Words couldn't explain how they felt when they hugged each other for that very first time, they had been waiting for that moment for so long even if they had never confessed nor admitted it to each other, he found himself wishing to be able to hold her for the rest of eternity.
It wasn't before several minutes that Blake helped her to recollect all the bags from the ground, taking them all in her place.
- "May I invite you for breakfast? You must be hungry after that flight" he never broke the eye contact
- "I'm starving" she admitted with the sweetest giggle.
In no more than half an hour he had brought her in the most quiet place of all: high on a hill, where they could have enjoyed the last minutes of dawn while satisfying their tummies with tea and croissants.
Despite the timid silence that filled the first moments of that morning, before they could realize it, they got into the longest conversation they had ever shared. He told her about all the unfortunate, hilarious struggles he had been through to be able to reach her in time that morning and she told him every little detail she couldn't write on the letters about Barbados - all the endless working hours under the hot sun in the morning and the humid air in the evening, the beautiful landscape and all the hilarious behind the scenes stories.
They felt as if they had known each other all their life.
More often than not, Blake found himself getting completely lost in the melody her voice produced, it was like a muse's song and her laughter, oh he thought he had never heard a most heavenly sound in his whole life. Some of the times, when her eyes got caught into his, Julie would notice the familiar enchantment in his which caused her to stop as she felt her cheeks blushing a little bit before continuing her stories.
Unaware of each other, they were convinced it was being the best day of their lives: spending time with a special person, lying next to each other alone on a hill, without any thought bothering them.
Delighted in the company of each other, they passed from enjoying a dawn to a sunset, painting the sky in the softest shades while a gentle late afternoon breeze tickled their noses. It didn't went unnoticed to Blake that from time to time her skin got covered by goosebumps so he shyly reached out his arm, wrapping it around Julie not to make her feel cold.
"Thank you" she spoke in the softest voice as she allowed herself to better settle in the circle of his arm so that he could warm her up, she felt so grateful for his gesture. So grateful for everything he had done that day, it had been really generous of him.
Only, they wished time hadn't passed by so fast, they knew they would have had some more time after Blake's offer to accompany her back home but it was sad to realize it was already time to go. If only it would have been possible they would have remained there forever.
Julie stared at Blake, carefully placing each one of her bags on the entrance steps and once he was done with them, her eyes followed his head raising up to look at her.
- "Time to say goodbye …" she sighed, sure that she, nor even him really wanted to.
They got lost lingering in the tender look they offered each other and everything around them seemed to fall silent as thousand thoughts went through their minds. For the very first time they were finally alone, both struggling hard to resist the irresistible attraction they had for each other. Their looks became more and more intense, sharing an unspoken affection that in the past weeks had grown into something way more meaningful. And despite all the efforts to hold everything back, they failed to realize their heads were slowly getting closer and closer. Blake gently placed a hand on her soft cheek in a tender caress as she abandoned herself on it. Then his thumb ran delicately on the side of her lower lip and as she was brought closer, she unconsciously tilted her head slightly. She realized her breath was getting heavier and heavier as she inhaled with difficulty, desperately seeking for air from that suffocating feeling and then, a split second before she could exhale, he glued his lips to hers, stealing a kiss from her and catching her breath into its sweetness. He simply couldn't resist anymore.
That very moment meant the achievement of all their dreams. For the first time in her life Julie was experiencing the precious joy of the genuine love from a man, Blake, that left in his kiss all the feelings he had held inside for moths. That kiss was chaste and sweet, so pure and truthful, so genuine and meaningful; they couldn't hide they were madly in love with each other anymore. Blake was in love with every little thing about her: her beautiful soul, her golden heart, her bright personality, her angelic face, her heavenly voice, in love with those soft lips he was kissing tenderly.
It was then that he knew he never wanted to kiss other lips but hers.
But unfortunately, that long-dreamed kiss lasted very little. Julie was clearly in love with him as well but she had to let her moral prevail and backed with her head, preventing him to go any further.
Blake tried to hold the hand she had placed on his chest in an attempt not to let her go but she quickly freed herself from his delicate grip.
- "Blake, I like you ... very much. But I know about your problems with Patricia, and I don't think this is the way to solve them. I don't want to ruin you, you should love her, not me. Good night Blake", she backed a few steps, getting to the entrance of her house
- "Please Julie, I …", he tried to speak but he wasn't given any chance
" … goodnight Blake"
She looked down, breaking their long-lasted eye contact and closed the door right in front of him. She wouldn't have had the courage to do that looking into his eyes.
As a deep sadness pervaded his heart and he came to realize her choice was understandable, Blake brushed his fingers against the door in a vain attempt to feel her presence. While Julie, once the door closed completely, was overwhelmed by a wave of breathless sobs that soon broke out into copious tears. She was feeling miserable for what she had just done. She had just let go the only man she had ever really been in love with.
Blake walked away from the entrance slowly, vainly hoping that she would change her mind but unfortunately she didn't and by the time he came home, his eyes were red and full of tears.
"And how was the project? It took all of your day ..." Blake was asked by Patricia but he didn't answer, he only wanted to sleep. If he only would have managed to. He spent another sleepless night thinking back of how wonderful it had been to kiss the woman he was in love with and the heartbreaking moment when they had separated. Now that he knew she was in love with him too, it was impossible for him to stop thinking that she wouldn't have left him if it wasn't for Patricia, he had to get out of that situation and solve it. As soon as possible.
The next morning as Patricia went out for work, Blake tried to phone Julie, despite the risks that would have followed, he needed to hear her voice again, to try to tell her again how much he was in love with her or at least save the friendship they had cemented.
The phone rang endlessly for several minutes and Julie knew it was Blake. But she left it ringing over and over and didn't answer: she didn't want to get carried away by what had happened the previous night. Blake had his own girlfriend, she had nothing to do with them. She didn't want to fell for him again or at least, she had to try to hide it.
Blake felt terrible about it, he would have rather died if Julie didn't have wanted him anymore. He wanted her back at all costs and from that moment on, since he couldn't get in touch with her by phone, he decided to present her every day with bunches of fresh, plump fowers, one color for each day of the week. Julie received her flowers daily and she fought as hard as possible with herself not to get involved again. By the end of every week her house was full of every kind of flower: roses, tulips, daffodils, violets, daisies ... every bunch was sent along with a handwritten note saying 'I am sorry, please forgive me. I love you Julie, more than anyone I've ever loved ... Your Blake' and every time she read those words, she would look at them and break into tears, torn between her love for that man and her duty not to break his relationship with his girlfriend.
She hoped that not answering him would have convinced him to stop trying to get in contact with her but Blake never gave up his hope. No one day he doubted she wasn't answering back because she didn't want him. Besides, he felt that he wasn't doing enough to take her back to him and by that time he was sure of the next step he had to take: if he wanted her back, the only alternative was to propose to her officially and let Patricia just be a shadow of the past as she already had become in his mind.
He decided to buy her an engagement ring and planned to give it to her the next morning, and, as he always did, hid his most precious gift in the third drawer of his bedside table.
He was very scared of what Patricia's reaction could have been but he was determined to not let Julie go and he had no other alternative. After all, their couple life wasn't the same anymore. Day after day it felt more and more like a forced love.
The following morning, no flowers were delivered to Julie and she felt somewhat sad about it. She was supposed to feel relieved now, after all she had achieved her goal. But what if she had ruined everything once again? Her heart ached just at the thought that maybe their friendship too was lost forever. She forced herself to pretend not to miss Blake's care and attention but she still loved him as she did when they first met at the airport and wished with all of herself that he could be there so that she could explain him everything. She sat down on her couch and lowered her eyes down to the side of her lap where one of the small letters from Blake was opened between several crumpled handkerchiefs.
Shortly afterwards, someone knocked her door. The sound made her look up after minutes spent with her head buried between her hands. The knocking sound was heard more insistently once again. She got almost angry about it, what reason was there to keep ringing when no one was going to answer? She gave a deep breath and while heading to the door, she did her best to wipe all the tears and try to look fine as much as she could.
But when she opened, what she was dreaming about happened: it was Blake, with the same single red rose in one hand and an open box with the engagement ring in the other. He had knelt down and by tearfully looking into her eyes, he had declared to her saying that he loved her and that he was about to leave Patricia because his heart belonged to her now. He wanted to love her every day of his life, he wanted to fall in love with her every day of his life and was ready to do anything to have her back.
Julie couldn't hold the tears in her eyes as well, she took the rose and gently stroked Blake's chin to get him up. Once he was, she directly looked him into his eyes with the sweetest gaze of gratitude and remained in silence, without saying a word.
After that pause, she pressed a timid, brief, tender kiss on his lips. She broke it quickly, backing with her head but Blake immediately reached her waist with his hands and drew her closer to him as the touch of his lips became more and more passionate. This time he was not willing to let her go.
- "I know you're thinking we're rushing but I am ready to love you for the rest of my life. So what do you say? Will you take my love?" Blake whispered breathlessly against her lips, breaking the kiss for a brief while
- "Yes, yes, yes, yes!" she replied in a trembling voice, wiping the tears with the back of her hand and smiling with irrepressible happiness.
With his hand shaking like a leaf, Blake slid the beautiful ring down her fine finger, and after holding her hand tenderly for a while, planted a kiss between her knuckles. She invited him to come in.
Julie's house was beautiful and Blake became fond of it immediately. As they entered, there was a huge living room with a comfortable sofa on the main wall. It had a soft round carpet under it and in front of the sofa, there was a rustic and adorable fireplace whom fire was warming the room. But warmer than that, was their love and they spent a beautiful afternoon together. They sat on the floor, in front of the fire, surrounded by many, many of soft pillows. They didn't need to do much, they just wanted to experience the happiness of being in love without needing to hide it from anyone.
They spent hours getting lost into each other eyes, holding hands and kissing, kissing and ... kissing.
Every kiss lasted minutes and was always followed by tender cuddles: Blake loved to cuddle Julie. He loved to caress her blushing cheeks, to stroke her soft hair and kiss her on her neck, to kiss her lovely nose and her adorable lips; he loved to look at her blue eyes so in love with him and so deep that he could get lost in them, to hold her in his arms and make her feel safe. And by cuddling her, Blake obtained what he was aiming to. Julie felt protected in his arms, she felt as if no one could hurt her, she had butterflies in her stomach every time Blake kissed her and got goose bumps every time he stroked her skin.
It was an afternoon of tender love and they wished it to never come to an end. They would have loved to dine together, Blake would have loved to prepare her dinner, he was a very good cooker, and Julie would have loved to have the company of the man that she loved so deeply and not be alone for one night; but unfortunately, it was not possible. At least not yet. Blake had to come home for dinner and Julie fully understood him, knowing that soon she would have had his company every night.
- "I wish I didn't have to leave you alone" he said, stroking the sides of her arms with his palms
- "Oh Blake we already discussed this. Let's not make this more painful than how it already is"
- "Alright. But don't expect me to survive another night without you" he warned with a tender smile
Julie stood up on her toes to kiss him briefly and when she came down, her lips revealed the cutest smile.
- "Could this be of any help?" she then said, getting a smile out of him too.
Blake promised her that that very night he would have talked to Patricia and tell her that their relationship was over, that now he had found his happiness. He finally kissed Julie one last time for that day and wished her a good night while walking out of the house, never taking his fond eyes off her. They would have been physically separated in distance, but close with their hearts and the thought of their tender love in their minds made them come through.
That evening Julie didn't felt alone as she used to, Blake's heart was with her and even if she knew that she was not having a proper behavior by loving a man who was already engaged, the thought of the end of their story the next day relieved her immensely.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: AS YOU'VE READ, I WAS SO VERY IMPATIENT FOR THEIR FIRST KISS TO ARRIVE. BUT THINGS WON'T BE AS EASY AS IT CAME FOR THEM TO REALIZE THEY WERE IN LOVE. SO STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!