TN: Here’s today’s friendly update. Enjoy!
…
"Sapphire… I"m falling," he whispered. "Can you please catch me?"
"J-Johann…" Her mouth opened up and then she closed her eyes. Her arms also moved up to embrace him. "I-I don"t know how this works out but… I… I-I like you, too," she confessed. Eh, why deny when he already admitted it before her?
He slightly distanced his body to her to grab her shoulders. "Really?" he exclaimed in disbelief, his squinty eyes becoming rounder.
She lowered her head. "My heart was beating fast this morning because of this reason… I looked bothered, because I… I"m confused, alright? I just don"t know if I"m falling, too, because all of these are new to me. I"m already twenty-eight years old but… this is the very first time I encountered something like this."
Johann snapped his fingers. "I knew it, eh!" He shouted in glee and then pulled her to him for another hug. "Look here, you actually won"t admit it if I didn"t take the initiative to confess."
"Ahm… so what do we do now?" she said clueless.
He faced her and met gazes with her. He smiled gently before cupping her face. "Let"s take it slowly without pressuring ourselves to deepen our feelings. Like, let time ripen it while we enjoy being together." One of his hands traveled down to her hand and intertwined their fingers. "Let"s work this out."
"What if it won"t work out? Can we still be friends after that?"
He frowned. "Don"t think about it, yet. It"s a faraway matter. The important thing is what we are right now."
"What are we right now?"
"Wife, we"re now more than friends," he said with a grin. He pulled her hand and held her by the waist.
She suddenly remembered something. She put her hands on his chest. "Wait, how about Czarina?"
He tilted his head. "What about her?"
"Y-You love her…"
He sighed. "But when I"m with you, I can forget her."
She gulped. Her cheeks began to heat up. "M-maybe… maybe you"re just confused… Let"s not work this out this relationship if you still love her."
What if he only intends to make her a rebound girl? Her? A rebound? No way!
"I"ll be honest with you, Sapphire. I don"t know anymore what I feel about her but if it"s you, I"m sure I"m already falling. That"s why I asked you to catch me, alright? Falling and ending up on the hard ground is painful."
"That would really be painful. And I"m falling, too. Will you catch me? What if it"s me who will end up broken on the ground when the woman you loved for more than a decade returns? Between the two of us, I"m the most pitiful one."
He rubbed his forehead. "Don"t think about her. Mind what I"m saying to you."
"You said you can forget her when I"m with you. So when you"re not with me, the one you think about is her?"
"When you"re not around, I"m thinking about what you"re doing or where you are going or if you have eaten already. When I"m teaching, I see your face on the chalkboard. When I"m in the gym, I"m imagining what your reaction will be when I gained abs. When sleeping, I dream of you."
She faintly frowned. "That"s creepy."
"Yeah. It"s maddening. You occupy my mind so much, I no longer knew where to squeeze her in."
"What if she returns - "
"What"s real? You"re the one thinking about her, eh."
She sighed. "I"m just scared, okay?" she admitted. "I don"t know how to handle things like this. I don"t want to end up like my Mom who always looked crashed by the world when left by her boyfriends. I don"t want to be like my cousins who needed to be locked up with their exes before they could move on."
Johann released her and covered his face with his hands. He looked so frustrated. "Sapphire, what the? Why are you thinking of being hurt? Why are you thinking like that? If you want to become happy, you have to think of trying to love. We"re not stepping on people when we decided to love each other. We"re even married," he said in attempt to convince her. He grasped both of her hands. "I understand that you"re being careful to not get hurt. You are new to this, but believe in me. Just trust me," he strongly said.
He put her hands on his left chest.
She stared at her in shock when she felt the strong beating of his heart which seemed as loud as hers.
"Just take this chance with me. O well, don"t catch me. I"ll just catch you."
She blinks and gulped for several times. It seems, all her body organs were now dislocated.
Say "okay", Sapphire!
She could see in Johann"s eyes that he"s hoping. It was her first time seeing his eyes looking like they"re begging her to agree. His hands were also trembling while holding hers. And his heart beats quickened once again as he waited for her response.
Should she agree with him? Should they work this out? Should she choose happiness?
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