Too Late

“I never stood a chance, did I?” He said looking down at the cup of coffee in his hands, the steam billowing out of the rim.

“That’s the sad part… you did once.” The words were brittle as they slipped off of my tongue, I felt the sudden relief of saying them. I refused to look into his eyes.

Heath moved and laid a hand on mine, it was warm from the coffee. This was a feeling I always longed for. Being able to touch him like this. I closed my eyes and retracted my hand, moving it into my lap.

“Stella, please. Will you look at me?” Heath always had a way of turning his voice into honey.

I looked at him quickly before the tears formed. I glanced away and stared at the wall covered in hand drawn flowers. “Heath, why did you ask me here? It’s been ten years.”

“I know it has been.” He leaned forward, moving his coffee to the center of the table so his hands were free now. “But, I couldn’t live the rest of my life knowing that I never got the chance to tell you how I actually felt.”

I looked into his deep blue eyes and felt my breath catch in my throat. After all of these years, the butterflies never faltered. Always chasing each other in the pit of my stomach, sending shivers down my arms. “You’ve known from day one how I’ve felt about you.”

Heath reached for both of my hands and pulled them closer to his chest, bringing his face a few inches from mine. Eyes hopeful and set on my own he said, “Do you still feel that way?”

I closed my eyes and nodded slowly. “There hasn’t been a day I stopped hoping that feeling would leave.”

“Why fight it any longer?”

Reality slapped me out of nowhere. I was in this cafe with Heath, so close that I could kiss him. Life had a funny way of somehow giving you exactly what you always dreamed of in the completely wrong way. Time had separated us over and over again, and now it had brought us back together.

“All this time, I thought about how we might somehow end up with each other." I began, the words suddenly flowing out of me. "Romanticizing about this moment and how you would confess your love for me. I would tell you that all those years ago, at least once, I wish that I had kissed you… that I had told you the truth. And now, being here with you––” I pulled my hands away from him tears streaming down my cheeks. “I realize you were the one that left. You were the one that treated me as if I were never enough. Ten years is a long time to think about this, and the fact is you waited too long.”

Heath’s eyebrows furrowed together as the gloss of fresh tears started to blossom in the corners of his eyes. “I’m in love with you. I always have been. But, there were so many people trying to pull us apart. So many voices in my head telling me this was wrong, even though I knew it was right.”

He placed a hand on my cheek and slowly wiped a tear from it. Leaning in he placed his lips on mine and it was better than I had ever imagined it. A rush of warmth overwhelmed me and the sensation of finally being alive for the first time shook me to my core.

I pulled away from him quickly and took in a deep breath. “Heath, I will always be in love with you.” Slowly and without looking at him again, I stood to my feet and walked towards the door leaving the cafe. “I wish that you had fought for me. But, you didn’t then. And I know you won’t now.”