Please, please, choose me again.
I will spend my life trying to make myself a person who is worthy of you. I will work until my dying day to give you the beautiful life a beautiful person like you deserves. I will prove to you that forever is not just a word, not just a measurement of unending time, but that forever is a place where I will treasure your heart.
Yours always, Leo
Tears streak down my cheeks as I clutch the two letters to my chest. I sit like that for long minutes, making a decision.
I take a quick shower and pull on jeans and a turquoise peasant top and my brown boots.
I decide to call a cab. I finish putting on some makeup, partially dry my hair and smooth it back into a low ponytail.
When the cab rings my cell phone, I run out and jump in quickly.
I look up the address of Leo's company and give that to the driver. I lean back as the city goes by, my heart beating peacefully in my chest. I feel sure and calm. I feel like all the pieces have fallen into place. I feel like this was always my path, and now I'm finally back on it.
I walk into the huge lobby of the mostly glass building. As I'm walking towards the deskman, I spot an all glass elevator starting its ascent. I see an unmistakable pair of broad shoulders among the group riding the elevator but his back is to me. I rush towards it, looking up at it and catch the eye of a tall, dark haired man who smiles at me. I start waving my hands and pointing at Leo and the man finally understands, tapping him on the shoulder and gesturing out to me. He turns around as if in slow motion and I will never, ever forget his expression, not until my dying day. He is confused at first but as he sees me smiling up at him, I mouth, "I choose you," and understanding dawns and a look of raw emotion like I've never seen fills his beautiful face.
He starts pushing through the people to the front of the elevator and it stops suddenly at the next floor.
Then he’s running towards the escalator nearest him, even though it’s going in the wrong direction.
I run towards it as he starts parting the crowd, leaping down three and four stairs at a time to the yells and disgruntled sounds of the people trying to go upwards.
He doesn't care though. His focus is singularly directed at me as he finally leaps over the railing close enough to the bottom not to hurt himself.
We rush into each other's arms, him spinning me around, his face pressed into my hair as I laugh and cry and continue to chant, "I choose you, I choose you, Leo. Always."
We suddenly realize that people are stopped around us clapping and whistling and he grins at me, his face beaming with love and happiness.
"I love you, Evie," he says, his face sobering.
"I love you, Leo, my loyal lion."
"You still believe that, after everything?" His eyes are wide, looking deeply into mine.
I nod, "Even more. You found the courage to jump through fire for me. You found yourself on the other side, didn't you?"
He looks at me for long moments, "I guess I did. But you were the one holding the ring."
"That's the easy part, my beautiful boy. Believing in you is effortless. It always was."
He continues looking at me, that fire that I love entering his deep brown eyes. Then he grins. "I'm going to take you back to my den and maul you now."
I grin. "Yes, please."
And we walk out the door, hand in hand, into our forever.
EPILOGUE
Seven years later…
I stand on the balcony of our home watching my wife play in the pool below with our boys, Seth, six, and Cole, four.
As always, the sight of my wife in a bikini has my attention, first and foremost.
But then I laugh quietly as my youngest tries to dunk his older brother in a stealth attack.
I walk back into our bedroom, pulling on my swim trunks. I smile as I glance at the laptop, open on Evie's writing desk. Her first book is almost done and maybe I'm biased, but I think it's brilliant. She says she doesn't care whether it's a hit or not, the success for her is in writing it at all, in stepping out of another safety zone.
The empty cup sitting to the side of her computer says, World's Greatest Mom. She bought it for herself.
I step out onto our patio and my boys shout, "Daddy!" in unison as I run and cannonball into the pool, drawing a shriek from Evie as my splash drenches her. She jumps in too, wrapping her arms around my neck and we're both laughing and kissing as our boys shout, "Ewww!" from the other side of the pool.
Our first born, Seth, is the spitting image of me and yet has the gentle, steady spirit of his mother. He is easy to smile and the first to lay a hand on your shoulder if you've had a rough day. He finds the beauty in everything.
We hadn't waited long to have him. We were young but our forever was something that we were eager to begin. Time had taken enough from us.