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He drew me close, and I had to crane my neck to look into his face. “I’m sorry I hurt you,” he said quietly.
“You didn’t hurt me, Jason. You broke my heart. You’re breaking my heart.”
“You think I don’t know that? This whole situation has been killing me too.”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “You pushed me out of your life like I was nothing.”
“You know that’s not true, Daphne. You are everything.”
“Is there a point to this conversation?” I said, my eyes wet. “You never thought about how I felt, how it felt for me knowing you were dealing with this alone. I thought we were a team, but when push came to shove, you decided you were better off alone.”
“I wanted you to be better off, without me.”
“I don’t want to be,” I cried. “How hard is that to understand? I only want to be with you.”
Silence followed my outburst. A cricket chirped. Jason reached into his jacket pocket and gave me a small envelope. “After that day at the facility, I went to get the test.”
He handed me the letter, and my fingers curled around it. At that moment, it felt like whatever was in the envelope was the source of all my pain. Without thinking, I crumpled the paper and tossed it in the lake.
“I told you I don’t care. I don’t care if you’re affected. I don’t care if one day you forget who I am. I will always know who you are. I don’t care if we adopt beautiful babies or go through a complicated in vitro fertilization process or whatever if we want to have children. I don’t care. I just want to be with you.”
His eyes were glistening as his arms tightened around me. My anger melted as I relaxed in his embrace, and he buried his face in my hair.
“I don’t deserve you,’ he whispered.
“You do,” I said heatedly. “You deserve everything. You deserve the world, and me, the very best parts of me.”
“All of you,” he said softly. “I want all of you.” He looked toward the lake, and I saw his lips curve in the moonlight. “I think there are strict rules about littering around this neighborhood,” he said, amused.
“I can’t believe you’re joking.” I sniffed. “I’m sorry I threw your test results away.”
“It’s okay.” He shrugged. “I already saw it.”
My heart stopped, and a wave of hope threatened to drown me. I closed my eyes. “Don’t tell me.”
“I’m not affected.”
I started to sob. “Oh my God!”
He wrapped his arms around my shaking body as I sobbed for a long time, relief and happiness making me forget my makeup, even the party.
“These past few weeks…” His voice shook. “I’ve been half a person without you.”
“You didn’t have to be,” I scolded. I was still angry, and even my happiness couldn’t drown out the weeks of pain. “You hurt me.”
“I’m sorry.” He kissed my forehead, and I sighed. “For what it’s worth, it felt like I was tearing myself to pieces every moment. Every time you cried, I died inside.”
“It was unnecessary. You made promises to me, Jason.”
“I know, but I thought I was doing the right thing for you.”
I took a step back and searched his face. “What if the test results had come back showing that you
were affected? Would you be here right now, or would you still be pushing me away?”
“Daphne…”
“You can’t think you’re only good enough for me when you’re perfect,” I said. “That’s not how this works.”
