When Love & Hate Collide [Completed]

Chapter 100 - Looks Like We Made it

I stared at him with gawky eyes looking at him strangely as if he had spoken Korean. My throat dried off as I continued to hold my breath without realizing I was blocking of oxygen to my vital organs, including my brain which refused to function.

"Mela?" Norberto's hands gave me a slight delicate tug pulling me out of my stupor, thankfully reminding me in time of breathing again. 

Why should I be shocked as if its unexpected? Weren't these simple words what my crazy little heart always craved for and in absence of the same, was duped into believing the worst of what we had?

Well, I guess the answer was simple. The heart can want what it wants but that doesn't mean it will be prepared for it when it actually happens.  Drawing a deep breath of air into my empty lungs, I finally said, "I know."

Of all the things I could have said when the love of my life finally says I love you after ten years of hide and seek with real emotions, I know  was definitely not in the list. But like I said earlier, nothing prepares you to finally hear those golden words from the lips of someone you love dearly. I wasn't expecting this early morning rendezvous to turn into marking as the happiest morning of my life. But then neither was Norberto prepared for a insipid response to his verbal declaration of love.

"You knew?" He asked raising his right eyebrow.

That's when the penny dropped.

"I meant I knew but I.. I wasn't expecting this so suddenly. I mean you never said it before and now, just like that! Out of the blue! I mean, no I am not complaining. Don't get me wrong. I am okay. No, I am great! I am ecstatic. You finally said it! You finally said it!

"Mela! Mela! Hey, hey, listen to me. Here, look at me. I know I should have it before. I should have told you long back. To be precise ten years back. But fuck me, I was an idiot back then. I still am but the loser in me didn't really know what I was doing or feeling. And then at some stage it became an ego thing. Part of me thought you knew. You ought to knew. With all that I said and did, the dick in me assumed you would see my feelings and come running to me. Obviously that didn't happen and I just kept wasting opportunities after opportunities, years after years. You were the one for me. The only one who saved me from the living hell my life was and yet I couldn't ever tell you in these simple words. I love you, Melanie Griffin Fritz. I love you. I love you. I love you. I want to keep saying it. I want to shout it from the top of this world. I want everyone to hear me and know so there is never an iota of doubt ever again. I loved you yesterday. I love you now and I'll love you forever.

"Oh, Norberto! Rob, my love. I thought I'll never hear you say those words. And you are right, you are an idiot. What took you so long?" I cried as tears of happiness and satisfaction broke through my self control and gushed across my face.

Pulling me to his heart, he grabbed me in a tight embrace. "I am an idiot. But your idiot. Don't ever any of my idiocy fool you otherwise."

"I love you, too. Forever and ever." I whispered, hugging him back. My arms went around his back to lean into him, skin to skin. Uncontrollable hiccups kept flowing through my body as he smoother his hands across my back. Closing my eyes in peace, I squeezed the tears blinding vision to finally drop off. 

We sat in each others arms for long, till my quivering finally subsided and the tremors stopped.

"Will I ever stop causing these tears in your beautiful eyes?" He asked when I finally pulled back to look at his face. I could see he was genuinely upset for causing me to cry.

"I am not too sure. May be you will. May you won't. But there is definitely something else that gives me faith that you are mine. And I am yours," I replied, wiping off the traces of tears that had been running wild across my face few minutes back.