Tripler medical center, Honolulu, Hawaii, 4:45 PM
"Well, what happened between us?" asked Catherine suddenly.
Today, the doctor asked Cath to go for a walk in the hospital to stretch her legs. We could not say that the landscape was extraordinary, but she did not complain.
Steve had insisted on accompanying him and, with a small innocent voice, Catherine had asked him this question. And she had barely finished her sentence that she saw the man before her pale and stare at him with his blue eyes.
"Cath... Why this question?" he asked, passing his hand in his hair.
"Because I want to know, sailor. It seems like a big part of my life, so I think it makes sense to ask you that," she said.
"OK, Cath, he gave in. But it's going to be long."
"I have all my time!" she exclaimed.
The serious look that Steve displayed slightly worried Catherine, but she reassured herself mentally by thinking that it should not be so serious.
Steve's POV
Cath and I are going to sit on the closest bench and I'm starting to think about how I'm going to tell my story, where I'm going to start.
USS Enterprise, September 2000
We met aboard the USS Enterprise, where we worked in the Navy Intel. The first time I saw you, you were focused on your computer screen to flush out terrorists in Afghanistan using coded information. And you got away with it, as always. A few days later, I was named C.O of your unit and so we started talking together. Very quickly, we started to become friends but what I felt for you was stronger than friendship, I knew. Still, the Navy regulations forbade us to go any further and I didn't want to get you in any trouble.
However, when I was accepted at BUD/S and then at SQT, I could have revealed my feelings to you. But I didn't, for reasons that were unclear, because I didn't know if these feelings were reciprocal.
On my last day on the Enterprise, I told you I was leaving, and you congratulated me by saying that I was capable and that you were happy for me. We talked for over an hour, but I couldn't tell you what I thought. And I left, my head full of regrets.
Afghanistan, early 2001
The next time I saw you, I didn't expect it at all, I confess. My Seal team needed you, and seeing you, I felt like you were even prettier. We worked together on a mission and I remember that Joe, my mentor but also my superior in this mission, had noticed that I was particularly distracted. Which was true, because I was more busy looking at you. Yet, I understood myself well, they can't tell me otherwise. We talked, as usual, but nothing more. But this time, I promised myself not to let you go without saying anything...
Los Angeles, early 2001
We landed in Los Angeles at the end of our mission. On the way, you were chatting with a friend and I was staring at you.
When we arrived, you walked towards me, as usual smiling and I still remember the conversation today.
"Hey, sailor," you called me
"Hey, Cath," I said
"Do you know where your next mission is?"
I took this question as a sign and I started.
"If we talked about it in front of a good dinner? I had offered you. Because MRE is not bad but I really want a good restaurant. Would you come with me? I'll pay."
You looked at me, apparently quite surprised, then a smile appeared on your face.
"All right, you nodded. But I choose the place!"
"Great," I smiled
I believe that this evening was one of the best of my life, I am sincere. And when I dropped you off in front of your house, I decided it was already over. I looked at you and when I saw that you looked a little discomfited, I sort of concluded that you thought the same thing.
"I have something to tell you," I said
You turned your head towards me with a faint smile on your lips, and you were so pretty that it made my stomach understand, so I wanted to kiss you.
I couldn't hold on. And I don't think you did either. We kissed and I think it was the most beautiful kiss I ever had.
When I finish telling my story, our story, Cath looks at me smiling. And I understand. I understand that even though the years have passed, I am still as much in love with the girl in front of me.
"It's a beautiful story. I'd like to relive it or at least remember it," says Catherine
I am catapulted years back just with this sentence because the same desire to kiss this girl takes me and I begin to fix her lips.
