Chapter 18 Sunsets

I was sitting under a tree watching the sunset on another day in Africa when I noticed that he had sat down beside me. It was nice to see a friendly face so far away from home.

"How are you Abby?" He asked me.

"I've been better Luka." I replied.

"Watching the sunset alone?"

"Yeah." I casually replied.

"What happened?" I heard him ask.

"I don't know Luka. It started looking like we were going to be okay and then all of a sudden we were not. It was as if we had fallen into the same circle we had been stuck in back in Chicago." I said to him. I knew that I could bare my soul to Luka and he would not think any less of me for doing so. "It's as if he has completely given up on us. He says that there is someone new and that he doesn't have room for me anymore." A tear escaped and started to roll down my cheek.

"Have you given up as well?" He said looking at me.

"I don't want to. I really do not want to. I have never loved a man as much as I love him." I said realizing that I probably should not be saying that to him, "I'm sorry Luka."

"Don't be sorry Abby. Everyone in this world has a soul mate. Yours just happens to be Carter not me. I had my soul mate but she is gone and there is nothing that I can do about that. But you and Carter, you have each other; you're both just too damn stubborn to realize it." He said to me.

"That's not something that is easy to over come." I said to him.

"No it's not, you both need to set aside your pride and work for the love that is in each of you for the other. You need to sit down and listen to him. He needs to listen to you too, there's a hidden pain that is buried inside of him Abby and I don't know what it is." Luka said as I felt his hand squeeze mine.

I looked up at him, thinking about the way that things were left between us. Everything that had happened. "I think I have an idea about what it is, but all I can do is be sorry that it happened. I can't change it." I said to him. It was almost as if Luka held some hidden wisdom inside him. I think that it came from what he had gone thru and learning to deal with his loss. Listening to him, I was able to get a better understanding of what had gone wrong with Carter and I. It was as if the sun setting on the day was slowly opening my eyes.

"I think that you need to be telling him that and not me." Luka said his eyes fixed over the setting sun.

I let go of Luka's hand and got up from where I was sitting. "I know." I said.

"Go talk to him; get what you can out in the open. I hate seeing my best friends hurting, and the two of you definitely are hurting."

"Thank you." I whispered as I headed off in search of Carter.

A/N: please read and review let me know what you think so far.