Slow Poison

EPILOGUE (PART 2)

Christopher

I stand behind Nicole as she unlocks the door to her apartment. On the way here, I had noticed the reason why she has chosen this apartment. I guess mainly because of the convenience it serves. Nicole doesn't have to worry about her commute, as this place seems still close to her clinic. She opens the door and gets in and I follow her. Before I can realize something jumps onto me. I see the big furry thing over me and realize that it's Frosty. I smile when he begins to lick my face. Damn! He has grown really big. I don't even remember when I saw him last time. He wags his tail and barks at me.

"Yeah, I know. I didn't miss you either." I say patting his head. When I look back at Nicole, I notice her smiling. What I wouldn't do to keep that smile forever on her face. Her eyes meet mine and her smile instantly fades away, making my heart sink. I watch her as she walks over to Frosty.

"You can go back to sleep, buddy." She says, rubbing his head and Frosty immediately runs back inside the house.

I straighten up and stand there and look around in disbelief. I still can't believe that I am standing in Nicole's apartment. It feels so fucking surreal. Never in these past 6 months, I would have imagined getting a chance to see her face again. Damn! Only I could know the torture that I went through in all these months without having her in my life. The moment I saw her back on that bench, I wanted nothing more than to grab her and hold her in my arms forever. Fuck! I can't express in words how much I fucking missed her.

It's true that in the last 6 months, she didn't leave my mind even for a second. Every single day, I went to bed imagining about holding her, kissing her, and showing her in every possible way that how much I loved her. And that's why being away from her became so fucking painful to me with each passing day. As much as I tried to believe that what I did was the best decision in her favor, I knew I couldn't move on in my life without tormenting my soul for that particular judgment.

At that very moment, I had the realization that I wasn't going to stay away from her forever because I knew it was never an option and never could be one, no matter how much I tried to deny it. And yesterday when I got the call from her dad letting me know that he was relieving me of his promise, it felt like a blessing in disguise. I don't know what made him do it, but from his voice, I sensed like he was finally regretting making that decision for his daughter. His words made me feel like a huge weight was being lifted off my shoulder. That moment I fucking knew I had no reason to wait anymore.

I was aware that stepping into Nicole's life again after going missing for entire 6 months would be a dangerous task. For obvious, I had to face the consequences for my deeds. I had to suffer for causing her this pain. So I kept myself prepared to endure the wrath of Nicole because I knew what I did was totally wrong. I knew she would be angry and frustrated with me for leaving her like that. I was even ready for her to let out her anger on me by any means that she can use because I knew I fucking deserved it. But honestly, the thing that tormented me the most was not her rage, but the thought of finding her moved on in her life with someone else. And the worst part was I couldn't even question her because she had every fucking right to move on with her life after how I left her.

What if she forgot about me? What if she is happy without me? What if she has a boyfriend now? What if she has started hating me? What if she doesn't want to see my face again? I had been weaving all these what-ifs in my mind, but what I didn't expect was to find about her being pregnant. It was one crazy moment when my eyes fell on her swollen belly. To say that I was just shocked would be an understatement. I wouldn't have expected that even in my wildest dreams. That discovery not only caught me off guard but also filled my entire body with pure joy. It made my eyes fill with tears of happiness and I couldn't really know how to express the emotions that I was feeling at that moment.