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“Yes. But for one reason only.”
“What is that?” I asked.
“Because it’s a special place to you. And I want to know as much about you as I can,” I said. “You mean a lot to me, Mayson.”
I pulled her into my arms and said, “I feel the same way. When I picked you up at the airport, I had no idea that you were about tochange my life. But you have.”
“Mayson, there are things we need to talk about,” she said.
I placed a finger across her lips and said, “Let me finish first. Because there are things I need to voice. After that, I will gladly listen to anything you have to say.”
She nodded. “Okay. As long as you promise to listen to me after.”
I kissed her, then said, “I will never break a promise to you. Now, come. Let’s go and find my secret hiding place and I’ll tell you everything.”
Holding her hand, I led her down the overgrown path. It’d been long since I’d come here last. Some of the bush had covered it up, but I could find my way anyway. I could tell she was nervous and clung to me as we made our way down, but the small cave shaped ledge finally appeared.
Once inside, she stepped back from the edge and sat down. I sat beside her, and we looked at the view for a few minutes just taking it all in.
“I see why you would come here. It’s spectacular. How did you ever find this place?” she asked.
“When my mother left, Orion would go off and I was stuck finding things to do on my own. Not smart, and I must have been only seven or eight years old, but I decided to challenge myself by climbing cliffs.”
“Oh my, God. That’s dangerous. What if something had happened? No one would’ve known where to look for you,” she said, eyes wide open.
“At that age, you don’t think of things like that. I was just trying to have fun. And I was. If you look around, you will see that I had everything I needed here.” I pointed to a stack of books, a very old blanket that I wouldn’t touch, and a flashlight, the batteries in which had been surely dead a long time.
“I’m sorry you had such a... difficult childhood.”
“Funny. I didn’t find it hard. I was off having fun. Not safely, but damn I had fun. Orion on the other hand, didn’t. He was angry all the time. There was no talking to him. And at times, I thought he hated the entire world. As I grew up, I realized he was just angry at our mother. Not that helped any, because I... I was too young to remember good times with her. The little I can recall; I only remember her crying.” at the world.
That probably is why I can’t handle seeing a woman cry. It reminds me of my mother.
“I’m very sorry about that, Mayson. I’m sorry for you. For Orion. And for your mother,” she said.
“I don’t want to talk about her. That’s not why I brought you here,” I said. If we went there, it was going to be a bitter conversation, and she would never hear what I needed to say. “I wanted to talk about me. You. Us.”
“Us?”
“Yes. Us. I know what I told you. That I am a confirmed bachelor. I was prepared to carry that title to my grave. Then you came along, and now the title doesn’t have the same appeal that it once held. For the first time in my life, I don’t feel...alone. I’ve always had people around me, my brother, my grandparents, and friends. But I’ve always felt alone. With you, I don’t.” Lifting her hand to my lips, I kissed her fingers and said, “And I never want to feel alone again.”
“Mayson, I... I really need to tell you something.”
“And I need to finish,” I said. “I’ve never felt like this before. I’ve been thinking about you and trying to figure out what this is. Nothing about us makes sense. We’ve only known each other forabout a week, and I can’t get you out of my head. Even while you sleep in my arms, I wake up just to look at your beautiful face, afraid that I’ll find it was all a dream. This is all too good to be true. You are with me in a place that I have never brought anyone else. The place where I escape from the world. But the difference isnow you are the one I want to escape with. I’m...I’m falling for you, Crystal. You might not have set out to, but you got through my walls, and I don’t want to put them back up. I want to see where this can go. You and me.”
That was a lot. Lot more than I had intended to say. If I didn’t shut up, I may have said more. Like I love you. She didn’t look ready to hear that. Or maybe I wasn’t ready to say it. That didn’t change how I felt.
“You’re...falling for me?” she said.
I nodded. “Yes, I am. Does that scare you?”
“No. I thought it would, but it doesn’t. I’ve been drawn to you from the moment I met you. I told myself that I would keep my distance, and we would just be friends. No matter what I told myself, my heart had other plans. The more time we spent, the deeper I fell.”
She was saying everything I wanted to hear, but I knew there was a but coming. I wanted to block that out.
“Crystal, I know our time is short, but this is just the beginning. We will find a way to make this work.”
“Mayson, why don’t we just make the most of the time we have now, and talk about the rest, later.”
