Good afternoon! Sorry for the delay. This is the last chapter. I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you so much for taking your time to read this story despite the hiatus. ;)

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE

: Chapter 45 – Not Too Late:

I'm ecstatic about how good everything is between us now. It seemed like this was not possible, but I guess I finally deserve some happiness. The only two problems I have in mind are that Emily still has a girlfriend and that we still have a pending conversation where we should talk about what happened in the past. I am a little bit nervous about that, things could go wrong in a matter of brief time depending on how she reacts to my explanation. I hope everything goes smoothly and I finally get what I want, the woman of my dreams. We are supposed to meet after work, and the last time I saw her she couldn't get her hands off of me, so I have a feeling we are both happy about where our future is going, at least if she ends things with her girlfriend. I feel optimistic. I wait for her sitting on a table at the pub we agreed to meet at, the place that brings back so many good memories. She had to stay at work for a bit longer because of a meeting she had with a client, so I decide to go before and wait for her. The pub is almost empty when I make the entrance. I order a beer and wait for her while I check my phone from time to time to see that she didn't text me. I take a book from my purse and decide to read while I wait.

A few minutes later a voice startles me. "Hey, gorgeous." I sense a caress from behind and my body suddenly relaxes. Her soothing voice and touch makes me feel more in control of the situation. I feel the urge to kiss her, but I know I have to be patient. She's supposedly dating another person and I don't want to give her any trouble although I know Maya won't be casually making and appearance. The hospital is next to the pub, so it could possible, but that would be something really improbable to happen. I erase that thought from my mind and try to relax. She orders another beer and sits right in front of me. She looks tired.

She takes a big gulp of beer and sighs. "How are you?" I ask, trying to be break the ice before opening my heart.

"I couldn't have a better company, so I'm happy," she jokingly adds. She reaches out her hand to make physical contact, caressing my finger. I smile at her.

"So... I guess the time has arrived, am I right?" I take a deep breath and look at her. I am a little bit nervous.

"We have been delaying this talk and taking into account what has happened in the last few days, we can't delay it anymore."

"I know, but it's tough to open my heart like this." She knows I am not good at this kind of conversations, but I need to vent off and get rid of all the bad feelings related to our past story.

"You know my side of the story. I left, maybe I was coward to deal with it, but I felt left out. Now that I think about it, I should maybe have fought harder. But you need to understand that I only sensed ignorance from you. You were rude, Paige. I guess you had a reason to behave like that, and I hope you can explain it to me, but you shut me out. I tried to be nice and understandable, but you were so rude and always rejecting to be with me that I thought you were not interested anymore. I ended up thinking that you were falling out of love of me or maybe getting bored about our relationship. I didn't understand what was going on, I felt misunderstood." She looks sad and that makes me angry.

"Don't ever say that," I answer immediately. I cup her cheek and then raise her chin so she looks me in the eyes. "I was a fucking moron. You can't imagine how much I regret it. I know my explanation will make you angry, that's why I am nervous." Her sad look disappears and she frowns at me. That sudden change makes me feel anxious.

"Was it because you met someone else? Alison?"

"No, no!" I yell. "I was in love with you, Em."

"Then what happened?"

I decide to come straight to the point. "You know that I've always been a very independent person. I have changed a little bit since I met you. But you could even say I was even an anti-social person. I never had fallen in love with anybody and when I met you and my feelings about you grew so quickly I realized I couldn't ever be apart from you because I would feel miserable. I had never felt like that, those feelings were unknown for me, I had never been so in need of someone to be a part of my life. And when I thought of losing you, maybe if you eventually decided to break up with me, I knew I couldn't live with that burden and that frightened me like hell. The saddest part of it is that I ended up losing you. It's very embarrassing." I look down, afraid to look at her and see her reaction.

I look up and realize her serious face expression gets tougher. It doesn't look good. She looks surprised too. "So you acted like that only because you were so in love with me and felt so attached that you were afraid of the impact of losing me would cause you? Are you serious?" I just nod. I'm so embarrassed that I'm not capable of saying a word and try to make things better. It wouldn't be useful. I guess silence is the best choice to show her my embarrassment.

After a few seconds I speak. "I'm really sorry, Emily. I feel like shit." I try to reach her hand, but she takes her hand away. My happy face when I entered the pub and saw her huge smile drastically turns into sadness.

"I don't know what to say. I'm really in shock." She doesn't look me in the eye.

"This is the truth. I can only apologize. So what happens now?" She averts my look.

"I need to think this, okay? Just give me time."

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"Remember we are not dating, Paige. I'm just saying that I need to think about it."

"Okay." I feel abandoned. I understand that she didn't expect that was the real reason of my behavior five years ago. It's way too pathetic to be truth. She stands up, even if she didn't finish her beer, then gives me a shy smile.

"I will see you tomorrow at work, okay? Have a nice afternoon." She says goodbye using the same words that a work colleague would use. The neutral tone she is using makes me feel like shit.

I turn around and yell her name before she is about to open the door to leave the establishment. I don't know if she heard it and decided to ignore me or my muffled voice wasn't strong enough to be heard from that distance. Either way, I feel devastated". I finish my drink and head home with a sad look on my face.

The next morning I have the same feeling when she enters the office and greets me. She uses that same tone that made me so sad yesterday. She is treating me like I was any other person in the office, like we met yesterday and only have a work-related relationship. It hurts like hell. The day goes like this, when we share looks she gives me a shy smile and behaves like everything is good between us. Just before she is about to leave the office, she says goodbye and I can't help but speak to her. She already had the night to think about yesterday's conversation and I don't know how much time she will need before I start losing my mind.

"Is this going to be like this?"

"What do you mean?" I sigh. I don't want to be rude to her, but she is being a little bit annoying.

"You're behaving like nothing happened." She averts my gaze before answering.

"I asked you time, I hope you're understanding enough to be a little bit patient, Paige."

"I already apologized, I told you I'm totally in love with you. I don't know what else I can do. I can't wait forever." I shouldn't have said those last words. I regret it the moment I see her defying look.

"That sounded like an ultimatum."

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." She doesn't reply back, she just leaves the office and I feel lonely again. I feel like I can't escape from the shit hole that my love life is at this moment. I'm ruining everything after the effort I had to put onto this relationship. I feel like crying but the office is not the best place to do that.

I take a hot shower and turn on the TV while I wait for Spencer to come home. She knows that I'm feeling bad because of Emily and she told me we would order pizza and watch a silly movie. According to my friend that always has helped her whenever her heart was broken. A beeping noise of my phone startles me. I look at the screen and I see her text. 'Are you home?' The simple fact that she contacted me accelerates my heart rate. I type as fast as I can. A few seconds later I hear a knock on the door. I open the door and I see a huge smile on her face. I didn't expect her coming to my place.

"Hey," she greets me. I am still in shock. "Are you going to let me in?" she teasingly asks.

"Sure." I close the door and she follows me to the living room.

"I'm sorry," I insist. She laughs at me.

"Will you please stop saying those words? You repeat yourself like a broken record."

"It will never be enough. I will continue apologizing until the day I die," I jokingly say. Her laugh warms my heart.

"I came to say that I didn't expect what you told me yesterday, that's why I needed your patience. I needed to put my thoughts in order. I started to think that I would suffer a lot if you would do the same in the future and I wouldn't have the strength to face another breakup. I don't want to handle that. I'm sick of breakups and broken hearts."

"I wouldn't do that you. I love you, Em. You are the only one I want, I need you to understand it. I would never lie about something like that." I hold her hands, trying to assure her that I'm being serious.

"I hope you are being honest. However, if you are not sure about it just say it now, please."

I smile at her. "I guarantee you I will love you for the rest of my life."

"Are you asking me to marry you?" she teases me. I blush and she starts laughing loudly.

"Don't flatter yourself," I joke. "Not yet." She closes the gap between us and kisses me hungrily.

She stops when we are both breathless, so in need to take some air in. "By the way, I talked to Maya."

I look at her with my eyes wide open. "And?"

"It's over. I'm all yours." I bend to kiss her again.

"I guess this deserves a celebration, right?" The shine in her eyes makes me want to merge with her.

And just like that, the problem that I created five years ago comes to an end with a happy ending. Sometimes life can be unpredictable. I guess it is never too late when two people are meant to be together. And let's be honest about it, Emily and I were meant to be together since the minute I set eyes on her.

THE END