Hey guys! Thanks for all the kind reviews, favorites, and subscriptions! Marley and I have really worked hard to make this a quality fanfic where the characters and plot have substance to them. And as for the long update wait... Heh... That was my fault. Not Marley's. I got all caught up with school and life and stuff (don't we all?). But here's Chapter Eleven. Hopefully you think it was worth the wait. ;D

Chapter Eleven

He what?

How in the world could he love me? It was absolutely ridiculous! It was only a few days that he had actually known me. No, wait. He didn't even know me truly. We had only shared a few stories and talked several times. Not to mention we both destroyed his engagement. But that wasn't enough for him to be sure of loving me. It was possible that he felt attracted to me, sure. I felt attracted to him. It might even be pity. He might have pitied me for making such a fool out of myself. Maybe Chase actually really wanted to be with someone now that he no longer had Maya, not very logical, but possible. But… love? I wasn't so sure just yet. He had just gotten through telling me just hours ago he didn't even believe in soul mates because it wasn't logical. So, now he was the newly renowned Casanova? I couldn't believe it for a second. Despite how much I thought of him for standing up for me… and how I had been crushing on him since day one… I couldn't say that, beyond a shadow of doubt, I loved him. No matter how many nice cooking metaphors he could come up with on the spot. I wasn't falling that easily.

"Chase… You don't love me," I corrected, "Maybe you pity me or you're attracted to me, but I'm pretty sure neither one of us are sure about love."

"But I thought you were the one who believed in soul mates? 'The One'? And you're telling me I don't love you?" his tone was dubious.

"I never said that! And I thought you said it was 'statistically unsound'!" I yelled.

His voice caught. I had actually pegged Chase. "Angela, I just made a fool out of myself saying a bunch of gushy things that I don't normally say. In fact, I never say them. I never had to. Before Maya, there was no one. And with Maya, all I had to do was keep cooking and she was as easy to please as a dog with dinner scraps. So now you're trying to say the past few days are nothing to you?"

With any other guy, I would've simply walked away. Saved my breath. Convinced myself he wasn't worth it. But this one was. Chase was worth every bit of breath I could use trying to get him to understand. If only he'd listen. Of course I felt a spark, many sparks actually, when I spent time with him. Of course my heart felt like it was palpitating when I was near him. Of course I felt like he was "The One". But I just wasn't sure. We had only met almost three days ago. Of course, I remembered stories of many a couple who married after only dating a month or two and they stayed together for the rest of their lives. But my mother always told me, "Don't give a boy your heart until you're sure it's right. Not think, not feel… but know." And I just couldn't know that right now.

"I poured my heart out to you! Does that mean nothing, too?" he continued yelling as I sat, deep in thought.

"You don't understand… I really, really like you. A lot. More than I should after this short amount of time," I took a deep breath, "I guess I'm an old-fashioned girl. I want to date, have romance, go steady… And we really just haven't had that these past few days. How could we possibly be in love without… without really and truly knowing each other?"

"You do know that "old-fashioned girls" typically got married after dating only a couple months, right?" he remarked, his temper not as present in his voice, though.

"Chase!" I scolded.

"I know, I know…" he laughed, "God, I know how to make such a jackass out of myself sometimes…"

"Sometimes?" I retorted, joking.

"I just… It's silly, but… For some reason, I thought that telling you that I loved you would make every bad thing that happened today okay. I don't know why I thought that, but I did. And I… I'm not very good with 'moments'. I usually ruin them. Case in point: this whole conversation," he rubbed the back of his head.

"If life were a fairy tale, that would've worked," I pointed out.

"If life were a fairy tale, this whole mess wouldn't have happened. I would've slew the dragon a long time ago and saved you with a kiss. And not too long after that, your fath…–mother would be begging me to marry you," he said, a twinge of sarcasm present.

"And then we would all live happily ever after," I scoffed.

"Exactly."

"But that doesn't ever work," I said.

"Of course, I know."

There was a pause between the two of us. Absolute silence. Things began to grow awkward.

"I've got an idea. How about we start fresh? Like this whole ugly episode with Maya never happened?" he announced, shattering the silence.

"I think that sounds perfect. The name's Angela, nice to meet you."

"Likewise. Mine's Chase."

For once I actually thought everything was just going to be all right. Of course there were still certain things we needed to work through, such as Maya. And making things with her less awkward. But for the most part, I was finally happy. I no longer felt I was a home wrecking slut, and those once forbidden feelings about Chase were admittedly reciprocated. Finally, I belonged somewhere. Maybe I didn't have a full fledged, going-steady type boyfriend yet, but I was happy just sitting there talking with Chase. Happy to know that he felt something for me, too. Something that, with time and patience, might just turn into exactly what I had been looking for for quite a while.

Love, perhaps?