"Well it seems as if my work is done. See you later, Jasp," Luna says breaking the moment between the two of us and walking out the door. I pull Jasper inside and I close the door following his sister's untimely departure. I take a couple of deep breaths in order to slow down my racing heart. I start to walk back into the living room, but he grabs my wrist and smashes his lips back against mine. His hands move from my face and settle on my waist. Mine arms naturally place themselves around his neck.
After a few minutes, I pull away and I walk away.
"Please don't break my heart again. Last time you walked away you did just that," Jasper says following me. I turned around and faced him biting my lip.
"It was never my intention to hurt you," I whisper. Tears that I didn't know that I was holding back start to fall down my cheeks.
"Then why did you do it?" He asks, sounding hurt. I quickly wipe my cheeks with my sleeves.
"Philophobia." He looks at me confused.
"Philo-what?"
"Philophobia: the fear of falling in love or becoming emotionally attached." His face lights up in recognition.
"That's why you were seeing Rose." I nod my head once again, having to wipe the tears from my eyes.
"Yeah, and I thought that I was making progress. I mean, I went back to work, I met my sister, you became my best friend. It was okay, but then I started falling in love with you and it scared the hell out of me. I thought that I was doing you a favor by telling you to go. I thought that it would be easiest to prevent us from getting hurt, cutting us off before we even started. I'm sorry. Okay. That's all I can say." He looks at me for a second and then in two quick strides he is in front of me pulling me against his chest.
"You have no reason to be sorry, we both made poor decisions last night. If I had known that you were scared I wouldn't have done what I did." Oh god, he is regretting it.
"No, no, don't regret it. If anything it made me realize that I needed to pull my head out of my ass to see that you weren't going to hurt me by leaving. You haven't left now and I don't think you are ever going to leave, even if I wanted to, which I don't." I say looking up at him.
"Don't worry, I don't regret plus I don't plan on going anywhere without you." I chuckle against his chest.
"I love you, you know that right," he says with me still in his arms.
"I know because I love you too. What's 'I love you' in Spanish?" I ask.
"Te amo. Then what's 'I love you' in Italian?"
"Ti amo."
"They are way too similar, but you learn something."
"Te amo," he says, giving me a kiss on the forehead.
"Ti amo anch'io."
A couple of hours later...
We eventually moved to the couch where I elegantly decided to lay on top of him. Okay, so it wasn't elegant, but it was comfortable and Jasper didn't mind. We watched some movie for a while, just enjoying each other's presence, then dinner came. Figuratively and literally. (We ordered take-out.) We started eating and everything was fine until...
"How did my sister know where you live?" He asks randomly.
"She said something about Levi giving her my address because he was worried about me, or something like that," I say taking another bite.
"Why was Levi worried about you?" He asks slowly. Oh shit, did I tell him the truth or do I get myself out of this?
Start a relationship with honesty, Ophelia. Step one. No, wait, step two. We already made it past step one.
"Um, I sent an email to Levi resigning," I say quickly. Jasper finishes chewing his bite and then puts down his utensils.
"What do you mean resigning?" I stand up from the table and walk into the living room.
"You better not be running again," he says jokingly. I roll my eyes and I grab my laptop off the coffee table. I walk back to the table opening it up and signing in and my emails pop up. I hand it to Jasper. He skims over them and then closes the laptop handing it back to me. I put it on the kitchen counter and sit back down across from him.
"Why were you resigning? I get that you needed time, but I didn't think that you needed it from work."
"I didn't want to go to work and see you. I was avoiding you and I know that it sounds harsh, but my mind was all over the place. You and I both know that it would have been hard to see each other after what happened."
"Why haven't you emailed him back and told him that you are going back to work."
"Because I don't think that I want to go back right away."
"Why?"
"I just need some time away from everything, not including you. After I met my sister, I thought that everything would be normal again, but it wasn't. My sister is struggling with her parents and I don't know how to help her. Also, I never thought about it until I saw my parents again, but how did the rest of my family not know that I was left behind. Is there any other family out there?" I start to ramble on with these questions. They have been on my mind since I met Daphne.
Do I have more family out there? Did they love me? If they did, then why didn't they come and find me. Why did I get sent to foster homes, labeled as an orphan?
"LIA!" Jasper yells, pulling me out of my ramble.
"Hmm," I hum out. Wait, he called me Lia?
"You want to see if you have any family out there besides your sister."
"I guess. It just kinda feels weird that they were able to leave a 10-year-old behind and no family stepped up. Was I that undesirable?" I ask with tears forming in my eyes.
"No, never," he says rushing to my side. He wipes my tears and pulls me against his chest.
"Then why did the people that are supposed to love you forever let me grow up without a family? The only people that I allowed to call me Lia left me. Tell me, Jasper, why?" I say hysterically. All the built emotions over the past 15 years finally come spilling over.
"I don't know, Lia. I just don't know." He lets my cry into his chest. He picks me up out of my seat and he carries me bridal style to my bedroom. I fall asleep as soon as I hit the pillow and he pulls a blanket over my body.
As Jasper watches me sleep, in the least stalkerish way possible, he pulls out his and slips out my room and makes a phone call.
¡Hola!
"Maria, you need to tell her."
Tell what to who?
"Lia, Ophelia. She just had a breakdown about not knowing her family. She doesn't understand why nobody came after her."
This isn't something that I can just spring on her. She is going to have so many questions that I may not have the answer to and she is also going to be hurt.
"I know, but she needs something that isn't me or Daphne. She needs to know that someone has loved her and she didn't know it." Maria sighs.
Okay, hijo. Just bring her to the restaurant and I can explain everything to her. Daphne will be there too.
"Thank you, Maria."
Take care of my niece.
The call ends and Jasper walks back into my bedroom and looks at me for a moment. How can anyone not love you, he thought to himself. He walks over to the side of the bed and pushes some of my hair away from my face. He leans down and gives me a kiss on the temple and whispers in my ear, 'I love you.'
He slips off his shirt and moves under the covers with me wrapping his arm around my waist pulling my flush against his body.
"I love you too," I mumble in my sleep.
I just wish I knew about the news that was going to change my life.