The finish line was near. Only those who get there with you are worth it.
Chapter 25
London Airport. 2019
It had been a difficult decision, something he had been thinking about since Stefan asked her. It wasn’t a decision taken lightly.
The day they left the hospital, they went to Elsa’s apartment, which was nearby and it would be the best place to be so they could talk and catch up, although there wasn’t much to know.
They were seating in a coffee shop at the airport, waiting for their boarding time. They were waiting for Corina and Alicia to arrive to say goodbye to them. While drinking a soft drink, Elsa couldn’t help but remember that moment in her apartment. After four years away from each other, they were reunited again and they could join their bodies.
They arrived and Elsa turned the light on. The apartment was small, just one bedroom, an open-plan kitchen, and a bathroom. The best thing about it was the views to Big Ben. That was the main reason why she rented such a small flat.
“Wow!” Stefan exclaimed as soon as he stepped out to the balcony.
“Do you like it? Sometimes I have dinner out here, looking at nothing, thinking about a thousand things… Well, thinking about you, always about you.”
That explanation made his chest swell with love and hugged her from behind, still staring at the monument. Stefan kissed her neck gently. Her body shivered and felt like dying when she felt his hands on her breasts over the thin fabric of her shirt.
She looked up, fixing her eyes on him, and Stefan kissed her, deepening the kiss with all the desire he felt growing without restrain. A moan escaped from her lips as soon as Stefan’s tongue caressed hers. She tasted so good and he had missed her so much. It was like reliving a dream once and once again.
“You are so beautiful, most beautiful,” he whispered in her lips, unable to pull apart.
He put his arms around her waist at the same time that she put her arms around his neck. He made her turn around so he could feel her chest heaving, beating against his own chest.
Little by little, they started disappearing among caresses, taking off every item of clothing that prevented them to feel the other’s skin. Once they were naked, Stefan hugged her and didn’t care about interrupting their kisses. He just wanted to count her heartbeats, joining them to his.
“You have no idea how much I have dreamt about this moment, my love. You don’t know how much,” he repeated in her ear, sending shocks all over her body.
He grabbed her hand and, after kissing her softly, pulled her to go to the bedroom. He wanted to adore her, to kiss every little corner of her body to make it his, proclaiming himself the owner of every little detail hidden in her perfect body.
He looked at her with adoration at the same time that he made her lie down on the bed, placing her on her side so he could caress her whole body. He had the intention of making her be delirious, of making her enjoy an unforgettable moment. But that wouldn’t last long because he felt her hand groping for his penis, wanting to pleasure him. Stefan grabbed her hand and kissed her before positioning himself over her body. As gently as he could, he made Elsa open her legs so he could get in between them and, with a single thrust, he entered her. It was the fucking paradise. It was much better than his dreams, much better than his memories. He made love to her that night with all the passion he had repressed for years, for months, for long hours he couldn’t contain any more. He made love to her as he had dreamt so many times before.
A smile appeared in her lips when her memories got to the point when Stefan made her feel more alive than ever. Before, she had felt as if she were hibernating, as if she had been in an induced coma. She didn’t live, she just went ahead with fears, with nightmares, without smiles, without love.
Once they finished, Stefan looked at her moved and said, “I want you to come with me, Elsa. I want you to live in Madrid with me. I refuse to leave without you.”
That was why they were at the airport, about to board a flight that would take them to their home, a home created by both of them. They couldn’t be any more nervous and excited. Especially him, since he thought she would say no when she told him she needed to think about it. At that moment, he wanted the ground to split open and swallow him. He didn’t contemplate the option of leaving without her and he had to do it soon because of his job.
“I need to use the restrooms for a second,” Elsa announced, standing up.
She kissed him in the lips and headed to look for the toilets, but someone called her before she could enter. She turned around and saw Luka. She looked at him wide-eyed, since she hadn’t seen him since the wedding day at the hospital. She had assumed he wouldn’t want to hear from her again, since she phoned him several times but he never picked up.
She walked towards him and sat in one of the benches available all over the airport for the passengers to rest.
“How are you, Luka? I called you several times. I was worried,” she said honestly.
Although she had never loved him, he was her best friend and, if he suffered, she suffered too.
“It has been very difficult to gather the courage to see you again,” he lowered his head. “I couldn’t face you and realize I had lost you…”
“You didn’t lose me, Luka. I will always be there for you,” she interrupted him.
“Yes, Elsa. I have lost you. I know you will always give me your friendship, but I want you in a different way and you don’t correspond my love. But that doesn’t mean that, as your friend, I can’t be happy for you. It’s taken me time to accept it, but I did it. I just came to say goodbye.”
His words moved her so much that she couldn’t avoid her tears, falling relentlessly down her cheeks. Luka wiped every single one of her tears with his fingers and smiled so she could stop crying. He loved her so much that he’d rather have her as a friend than not having her at all.
She spent a few minutes talking with him, telling him she would live in Madrid, and inviting him to stay over if he ever went to Spain. Luka hesitated, since he was her ex-boyfriend. He didn’t believe Stefan would agree and, when he told her, they started laughing. After that, they said goodbye and they went their separate ways.
Elsa used the toilet and, when she went back to Stefan, Alicia and Corina were hugging him effusively. In the end, she was leaving a mother and a sister behind. She loved them so much although they were mistaken in the past.
“About time. Where were you?” Alicia asked.
Elsa hugged her warmly and they started crying. That was goodbye, a moment when to give a step ahead and leave behind everything that hurt.
When she pulled apart from her stepsister, she hugged Corina.
“How is he?”
Elsa enquired about her father in her ear so only Corina could hear her.
“Don’t worry, he will come to his senses,” she replied softly, knowing it wasn’t a good sign. “I wish you all the best together with my brother, sweetie.”
They kissed and separated when the loudspeakers started to call the passengers for the flight bound for Madrid.
Stefan grabbed her hand and both started walking towards the boarding gate, the right way to start a new life.
“Call us from time to time, Elsa!” Alicia yelled, waving goodbye.
“Take care of her, Stefan!” Corina said, waving like her daughter.
Elsa and Stefan waved before they disappeared among the rest of the passengers.
A few minutes later they were seating inside the plane, nervous about what was starting, anxious for arriving to their destination.
Time passed by, and now hours were ticking by slower, or that was what it felt for them. Now they were living everything like in slow motion, watching every minute of the life they deserved, enjoying what people had stolen from them once. Life in Madrid was absolutely a happy one. They were so happy that it was hard to believe it.
It was now when every word written on that old notebook made sense. Now they had to let time
pass by so they could go back to being happy. Sometimes, life could change in just a second. No matter how much time passed, they would continue loving each other as strongly as before.
Madrid. 2019
A few words written on a blank piece of paper could mean more than words said out loud. The unusual could also become perfect. You didn’t have to follow the path of life like everybody else; you could establish your own goal and live your life your own way.
Elsa woke up one day after having lived her dream for a month. It could be too soon, but when she saw that piece of paper written in his handwriting, a sentence that held so much love as the one he showed her every day, she knew those words were making her promises and more days waking up in the same fashion.
That piece of paper was under a red rose and a white gold ring. It wasn’t like that like the rest of people did it, but it was equally beautiful.
“Marry me.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement. It was a statement that filled her soul. She read it out loud, what helped Stefan to know she was awake. He opened the bedroom door and walked towards her so he could kneel before her bed, where she was sitting.
“So what do you say, my love? Will you marry me?”
She only needed a few seconds to nod with a smile and throw herself to hug him.
“I do.” She kissed him while laughing… that laugh that brightened their little home.
Those were instants in the world. They were puppets in the hands of desire and passion. It was what moved everything around them. It was what people call love.
Epílogo
Madrid. Some time later.
If someone had told her that evening everything that would happen during those months, she wouldn’t have believed them. When she decided for both of them, pushing him away from her, she felt how her world fell apart; she felt her heart breaking into pieces. Now those were just memories of a perfect love, a lasting love that was stronger than ever.
Everything happened so fast, although Elsa wouldn’t change anything that had happened if the reward was to be with him and live every day in utter happiness.
Time wasn’t a problem any more, since they didn’t pay attention to it. Well, that was until she learnt something Stefan didn’t know yet. It was quite a surprise, taking into account she hadn’t finished her studies. It was something quite unexpected. But it was another one of the reasons that made her immensely happy. She was so young, true, and maybe she would commit mistakes more than once. After all, who hadn’t done that?
After a week, after she was sure, Elsa woke up earlier than him. Since it was the weekend, she had no problem to do it because Stefan always slept until past ten o’clock. She made breakfast and placed her surprise after the dome covering the tray. She left it on the bed, remembering the day when he proposed to her. They got married one month after he proposed; it was a beautiful ceremony with just the two of them. She left the bedroom, slamming the door to wake him up.
Stefan rubbed his eyes while sitting up slowly. He looked at the closed door and then he noticed the tray with its cover. Frowning, he lifted the dome to discover a box and a piece of paper that said, Read me out loud. He smiled while doing it and fell in love with her a little more. He opened the box and found an envelope from the hospital. Surprised, he opened the envelope.
“Pregnancy test: Positive,” he read as he had been ordered to do.
Elsa entered the room and found Stefan staring at the paper with tears in his eyes. It was something he would have never imagined but, at the same time, it was the best news he could get. She walked towards him as soon as Stefan saw her. He got up to kneel before her and kiss her still-flat belly.
“Is it true we are going to be parents?”
He was moved and happy.
She nodded.
He stood up and hugged her tight, loving her more deeply than he thought it was possible. He cupped her cheeks and kissed her lips, giving her all the love she deserved, all the love he felt.
Days later
She was pondering the idea of talking to him, of showing him what was making her so happy. She already had in her hands the first sonogram of her baby, and it was now when she needed him the most. She just needed him to know it, so he could decide whether his resentment was stronger than the love he could feel for his daughter.
She grabbed her mobile phone and took a picture of the sonogram. After looking for her father’s number, she sent him a Whatsapp message with the image. She attached the picture and wrote a single message.
Elsa: Dad, you are going to be a grandfather.
I hope you don’t turn your back on
this baby as you did to me.
She left the phone on her bedside table and got into bed. She got closer to Stefan and fell asleep while hugging him from behind.
Because everything in life happens for a reason. Because if they hadn’t been apart that night, they wouldn’t be like this now. Because it was the purest and most beautiful love they could feel. Because it was worth waiting for four years. Because… no matter how much time passes, their love will be forever.
THE END
TIMELESS LOVE
Blurb:
Life can change in a second. You can say “see you tomorrow” and be gone the next day. They couldn’t even say goodbye to each other. It happened so fast…
Elsa’s life changed and the emptiness inside her filled with a love she couldn’t escape no matter how she denied it. She fell in love. She fell in love with the most unexpected person, the person she wasn’t allowed to feel more than just sweet fondness.
But, what happens if he feels the same love she does? What happens when your hearts start beating so strongly that they could even hurt other people?
They say their love is a forbidden one. They say it is better to keep them apart. They say, they say… Everybody talks, everybody has an opinion. But no love, when it is real, should be denied and destroyed.
THANKS
How can we thank so many people? It's complicated. To my nieces for always being a support in my follies. My Fanny. Thank you for listening to me for long minutes when I keep talking. Great patience is what you have. To my Toñi for all the love and support he gives me. To my husband for giving me my space to work for hours and not get when he practically sleeps alone. And finally, I thank all those people who are waiting for my stories, who send me those beautiful messages that help keep teaching what my crazy little head has hidden. A big hug. All I have left to do is tell you that this story is now yours. Life is full of stones along the way, you just have to know how to skip them.
Timeless love Page 16
