"Success isn't just about what you accomplish in your life; it's about what you inspire others to do." --Unknown
Chapter 55: Weakness
Clear View University
Stunned I asked, "Wait what?" Did I just hear wrong because I could swear I just heard Nikolai telling Ava that he loved me! His head turned to me so fast I wonder if he had whiplash but then he looked around the hall and took a deep breath.
There was a crowd forming around us as I waited for him to talk to me. "This wasn't how I wanted to do it but it's the truth." I looked at him with wide eyes.
He looked around the crowd again and said. "Yes, I Nikolai Moretti, the biggest playboy in Clear View University is in love with you Tatiana Aksakor. You turned me into a One-Woman-At-A-Time man."
I gulped and he looked down. "I love you Tatiana and you don't have to say it back just yet but it doesn't change anything." I was silent.
I remember the promise I made myself at the beginning of this year when I met Nikolai, the bad boy of Clear View University. I promised that this would be no cliché story but the truth was; that I changed my mind after Nikolai asked me out.
For some people, it might be too quick. The truth was we didn't decide whom we fall in love with; there was no book full of instructions that said you had to be with someone for a certain time before you could fall in love.
It was at that moment when I realized, between the silent crowd waiting for my answer and Nikolai's face that only held the truth that I too was in love with him. I gulped again and said the 4 words that in my world meant weakness
"I love you too."
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'Da Pasquale' Headquarters
"Tatiana, he is going to be your weakness." Silva stared at me with a surprised expression on his face. "I know. What I don't know is how it happened but all I know was when he told me he loved me I knew I loved him too." I chewed my nails sitting on one of the chairs in his office.
It's been 49 hours 5 minutes since I said those three words to Nikolai. 49 hours since I last saw him and 2 hours since his last call to me. After I realized what I said I had run, in my line of work, love meant weakness. I have never had a weakness since my mother died.
"How do you do it?" I looked up from my lap at Silva. How did he get over the fact that Grace was his weakness? How did he get over the fact that she could be taken from him in a split second?
"Tatiana, I never got over that fact. Every night I go to bed thinking how much I love Grace and that I could lose her but then I think about all the amazing things she brought into my life. If it wasn't for her, you wouldn't feel like family to me and I would have hit rock bottom years ago."
