The Broken Hearts Story

      Two weeks later. The morning is gone, and lunchtime has come. Frederick was recently released from the hospital and came back home. The doctors were absolutely right when they said the man would get well soon. He is really very enduring and has quite strong health. That’s why Frederick quickly got better. But despite feeling much better, his doctors gave him some recommendations about his day mood. For example, a ban on getting excited and overworking. And he must spend at least one hour per day outside. However, that man does it with great pleasure because being deprived of the opportunity to move is something like torture to him.       Alicia has been next to Frederick and Raquelle all this time, helping her niece take care of her grandfather and doing everything he needs. The girl is madly grateful to her aunt for the help because she would hardly do this all alone. However, she is going to have to watch Frederick on her own because the woman will be back in London very soon and will be doing her business.       After a short walk in the city, Alicia, Raquelle and Frederick come back home and sit at the table to drink a cup of hot tea and eat something delicious. The woman does not hide she is sad because her niece does not still even think of coming back to Terrence and wants to do her business as she believes her niece may regret the thing that is absolutely thoughtless. Alicia does not hide it but promises herself to support any decision of Raquelle and be by her side anyway.       “Haven’t you changed your mind about the breakup?” Alicia asks with sadness in her eyes, taking a few big sips from her cup.       “Nope, Aunt, I haven’t done,” Raquelle replies quietly, knocking at her cup with her fingers. “Now I’ve more or less come to myself… And I understand this decision is final.”       “Did you talk with Terrence about it?” Frederick asks with sadness in his eyes, drinking tea from his cup.       “Nope, I haven’t talked with him after our last talk in the hospital. But I am gonna have to do this very soon. Yes, he knows I don’t know we could continue our relationship. But I’m gonna ask him about a meeting and tell him that our breakup is final.”       “My girl…”       “Everything was decided a long time ago. I see no meaning in discussing something.”       “You haven’t barely talked about your relationship yet. You haven’t asked each other if you think your relationship is hopeless.”       “Of course, we think. So, none of us will mind it.”       “Raquelle…”       “And thank God, we didn’t get married. Or we would’ve spent a lot of time on the divorce.” Raquelle sighs heavily. “But in case we did it, I would demand nothing from Terrence. I don’t need money, a house, a car, and any other property… And if we had children, I wouldn’t ban them from meeting him. So, everything would be fine. We’d sign papers, wait for some time, and become officially single.”       “And what now?” Frederick asks. “What are you gonna do after you broke up with your boyfriend?”       “I don’t know, Grandpa…” Raquelle sighs quietly. “But you and Aunt know my approximate plans…”       “Do you still wanna leave?” Alicia wonders.       “I can’t say anything. But it’s possible.”       “Wouldn’t you regret that some time later?”       “I doubt it.” Raquelle folds her hands on the table and looks into the distance with sadness in her eyes. “I wanted to decide nothing ‘cause I was waiting for Grandfather to get better. But now he’s finally been released from the hospital. It means I can start thinking of my life and what to do.”       “Do you really think it’s the best solution for your situation?” Alicia wonders. “Is running away from your problems the best solution?”       “I’m not running.”       “That’s wrong, honey. If you’ve got a problem, you should solve it, no matter how hurt you feel.”       “What kind of solution could this problem have? The affair of Terrence and me was doomed from the beginning! If I had behaved differently, we would’ve probably avoided everything that happened between us.”       “Honey, but any relationship can’t be perfect,” Frederick notices confidently. “Do you think everything was fine about me and your late grandmother Rosella? Or Alicia and her husband Dominick? No, Raquelle! We all fought, slammed doors, and regretted playing a wedding. But we stayed together anyway. Your grandmother and I took a very long way before we got used to each other and learned to solve problems peacefully.”       “You all just had love. But unfortunately, there was no love in my relationship…”       “No, don’t say that, my sunshine,” Alicia says with sadness in her eyes, softly caressing Raquelle’s hand. “We all saw your shining eyes at the beginning of your affair.”       “Maybe, there was something between us. But after we began to live together, the fire faded away.”       “Right, you stopped to support your love and forgot you should’ve always worked on your relationship together and given something new to it. You didn’t think you should’ve taken care of your beloved person.”       “There’s no meaning in working on the relationship that has no love.”       “You just don’t want. You’ve never wanted.”       “I don’t regret living with this man for a few months and being a girlfriend of him. But now it’s time to go separate ways and start a new chapter in our lives. The life that will have no place for Terrence. That will probably start in a new place…”       “Listen, honey, of course, a breakup is your business. But think about whether you should leave forever. Where are you gonna go?”       “Sometimes I think of returning to Kingston. Yes, I’ve always said I don’t wanna come back there. But it’s been many years. Everything has changed there. Much of what hurt me has been gone.”       “Alright, how are you gonna live? Live on? With who? If you’re gonna quit your modeling career, how would you feed yourself up?”       “I don’t know. But I will think up something. I will get a job and will be working.”       “Alright.” Alicia falls into silence for two seconds. “What about your grandfather? Are you gonna leave him here? I didn’t hear you wanted to take him where you decided to go.”       “It goes without saying, I shall take Grandpa with me and will not leave him here,” Raquelle says confidently. “But if I don’t manage to do this, I will be visiting him very often and helping him with everything I can.”       Raquelle sighs quietly with sadness in her eyes.       “I’ll never make the mistake I made,” Raquelle promises. “When I forgot all of you because of the problems that rained thick upon me like out of the blue… And my work is also the reason why I couldn’t find time for you… And I’m very sorry about not giving you as much attention as I should’ve given and being maniacally obsessed only with my career and wish to reach more.”       “We understand it, my sweetheart,” Frederick replies quietly. You couldn’t leave everything and come to us faster than the wind. Every one of us has something to do. We can’t immediately leave everything and go to the one to need our help and care.”       “I know, but I forgot you at all. I didn’t let you know about me since I took my stuff and moved into Terrence’s house.”       “Please, Raquelle, stop blaming yourself for that. Your aunt and I completely understand that you were busy with your work and personal life. Nobody makes you be with us all day long. We are able to take care of ourselves.”       “But I didn’t want it all to happen.” Raquelle sighs heavily and looks at her hands. “It shouldn’t have happened… Shouldn’t have done…”       “Don’t blame yourself, my sunshine,” Frederick says softly. “We should’ve let you go and given you freedom early or late. You’re no longer a little girl that we should be with. You need to take care of yourself. That’s wrong that you’re living with us. You needed to buy a place to live and live on your own. Moreover, you were able to buy a good apartment or a house.”       “I will take care of you. Now, when this nightmare is over, I’m able to live a quiet life and do my business.”       “Yeah, thank God, the nightmare is over, and we are all, thankfully, are alive and healthy,” Alicia notices with a slight smile and drinks some coffee from her cup. “And thank God, Simon paid a high cost for his wish to take revenge.”       “By the way, don’t you know what happened to him?” Frederick asks, moving his eyes to Alicia. “It seems like Raquelle said he fell from the roof of the five-floor building.”       “As the doctors said, he was diagnosed with serious traumas and brain damage after the falling,” Raquelle replies quietly. “Now it’s clear that man will be confined to a wheelchair his whole life.”       “Yeah…” Alicia pronounces with sadness in her eyes. “Yes, being happy about someone’s grief is bad. Especially something like this. But that’s good when there is justice in the world.”       “That’s right,” Frederick nods confidently. “That stinker paid a great cost for all his sins. But if I’d known what he did earlier, I would’ve brought him to prison many years ago.”       “Even despite the fact that Simon became a disabled man, he shall not avoid getting a sentence,” Alicia notices thoughtfully. “I heard he would be on trial very soon. They would announce the verdict for many crimes.”       “That’s good I don’t have to be there,” Raquelle says quietly. “The good lawyers will be representing the interests of all the victims. Including the ones, who he got money out of, and who are now actively working with the police. I will be regularly told about the process and the sentence for him. But I think Ringer will get a great term and will not avoid his punishment soon.”       “Nobody doubts it,” Frederick replies confidently. “I do believe the law is by our side, and the judge will give a great term to that stinker.”       “With God’s help, Grandpa, with God’s help…”       Silence settles in the air for two seconds, during which Alicia eats a little candy and drinks some coffee with no sugar.       “By the way, have you read today’s newspaper?” Alicia asks. “They’ve published something about him!”       “Yup, I read what they wrote,” Raquelle nods without emotions. “They wrote about him and also me… Everybody wonders where I suddenly disappeared. They wanna know the reasons for my breakup with Terrence and my wish to quit my career…”       “I know… People are excited and anxious, and the media says that your representatives have given no comments yet.”       “Right…” Raquelle sighs quietly and looks around, leaning on the table with her elbows, and runs her hands over her hair from the top to the back of her head. “But in the next few days, I’m gonna tell the whole world that Terrence and I decided to end our relationship. And tell everyone I want to suspend my career for a while and probably retire some time later.”       “Doesn’t anything click inside you?” Alicia wonders.       “Of course, I’m very sad it happened. That time was interesting, despite its ups and downs. Scandals and intrigues. Rumors and gossip. Maybe, I keep working, but I’ve lately lacked a wish to do it.”       “Listen, Raquelle…” Frederick pronounces softly, looking at Raquelle with sadness in his eyes, and puts his hand on her hand. “You know that I’ve always disliked the fact that you’re working as a model. First of all, the reason is that it’s a very insidious profession. Everyone knows you. People of all ages watch you, and sometimes they may not have the best thoughts about you.”       “I know, Grandpa,” Raquelle nods.       “I’ve always said all those models and mannequins are sexual objects that sell their bodies and show themselves to everyone. Because there are those, who show themselves naked, and some perverts are happy about it and impatiently wait for a beautiful girl to show everything. And the worst thing is that many people do all of that at their will.”       “You’ve always said it.”       “Right.” Frederick takes a couple of sips from his cup. “But I didn’t want and don’t want to make you sure to quit the business. Because I count on your decency and believe you have brains. Your aunt and I think we educated you right, and what at least your boyfriend or husband must be will be hidden from everyone.”       “Sure,” Raquelle nods.       “But now I’m asking you not to make too quick decisions and to think about whether you should do that. Now you just need to suspend your career for some time and just have a good rest. I’m sure a couple of good rest would be good for you, and you would start to work with greater pleasure. Working non-stop has never led to anything good. And you didn’t spare you at all.”       “I think I’d really decide to leave everything and think I wanna do something different after the rest.”       “But, sweetie, you’ve always loved this business. And I’ve never banned you from doing what you love, even despite the fact that I dislike the modeling business.”       “I love my business now,” Raquelle sighs tiredly. “I’ve just got no wish or motivation to reach something. I currently want only one thing – to forget what I had to get through. And live where there would be nothing that would remind me of what happened.”       “Honey, do you want to lie on the sofa all your life, looking at the ceiling with dead eyes?” Alicia wonders.       “I dunno, Aunt…”       “My God, what happened to you? Is the phrase ‘stay strong, stay brave, stay happy’ no longer the rule of your life? Even the scandal of Simon’s slander didn’t break you down. You managed to find the will to keep moving on. So, why are you giving up now?”       “I just feel absolutely emptied and deprived of any energy. Nothing makes me happy and upset… I don’t care about what’s happening, you see…”       “We completely understand you, my girl,” Frederick replies with sadness in his eyes. “And we know why you have a condition like this… You really need a good rest… You worked like crazy for a few years. I never worked until total exhaustion when I was young and always took a break when I understood I was getting tired.”       “Your grandfather is right, Raquelle,” Alicia agrees softly. “You really had an unhealthy love for your job. You could exchange it for anything. Even your friends.”       “I just loved my business. And I gave myself to the one.”       “That was wrong. You should know when to stop. Everything has a limit and an end.”       “I know.”       “Believe us, when you forget about your work and have a good rest, everything will be back to normal. And you will be able to clearly understand if you really lost interest in the modeling business.”       “Maybe… But there are things that I will not change my mind about. For example, my breakup. I’ve decided everything about it. I should only tell Terrence about it. Let him know that everything is really over between us.”       Alicia and Frederick say nothing and shake their heads with sadness in their eyes, and Raquelle quickly drinks what she has in her cup.       “Okay, I wanna go to my room and lie down a little…” Raquelle says very quietly and thoughtfully. “Maybe, I will go somewhere to walk later… I wouldn’t like to stay home in such good weather. Excuse me…”       Raquelle quickly gets up from the table and goes to her room, while Frederick and Alicia watch the girl with sadness in their eyes. Although they know why she is so sad and depressed, none of them finds the courage to talk to her about it.       Silence settles in the air for a few seconds, and then Alicia moves her eyes to Frederick with sadness in her eyes:       “She can say nothing about her problems,” Alicia says confidently. “But we both know why my niece looks so sad.”       “Yeah, you’re absolutely right,” Frederick sighs tiredly. “She doesn’t want the breakup. She doubts if she made the right decision.”       “I think Raquelle is just afraid she might run into disappointment and pain again. She probably doubts whether she could be better. That’s what stops her.”       “I must confess that after Terrence kept his promise, I got a little softer to him. And I am even starting to believe he’s really ashamed of his behavior.”       “Really?”       “But I still don’t understand how much they were supposed to fight to break up.”       “I did tell you that you would change your mind someday,” Alicia smiles slightly. “So, do you see Terrence is really regretting?”       “Now I do. And you know, to be honest, I feel kind of sad that my granddaughter decided to end her relationship with that guy.” Frederick glances aside. “At the beginning of their relationship, Terrence was very good. Educated, gentle… He was taking care of her so well. And how my granddaughter looked at him! If only you knew how happy I was because she finally met a man that she became interested in. I began to lose hope, but Terrence did something impossible and got her attention on him.”       “Agree…” Alicia nods.       “I wish they were the same. I wish they looked at each other the way they did before. When these two really were in love and enjoyed each other.”       “Me too…” Alicia sighs heavily. “If only you knew how much I miss that time… At that time, Terrence was so kind, sweet, and caring… And Raquelle seemed so happy. She even thought of her work much less.”       “Yeah, she began to spend much more time in front of the mirror and checking her clothes for hours. She wanted that the guy to like her.”       “Yeah…” Alicia leans back in the chair, glancing aside with sadness in her eyes. “Fate prepared a test for them, but they failed it at all.”       “I think both of them are guilty,” Frederick assumes. “We’ve gotta admit she is also guilty of the ruined relationship. That girl didn’t understand she should’ve taken care of the man. Instead of forgetting him and choosing her career over him. I do even understand Terrence in this case…”       “You and I are also partly guilty,” Alicia notices hesitantly. “We didn’t explain to her what being a good girlfriend meant. We just forced her to get married and said a girl must not have lived alone, without a man. She doesn’t know why she needs it and doesn’t aim to create a family. At least now.”       “Right, we’re also guilty of the fact that the affair of my granddaughter wasn’t good. We wanted to make it better, but alas… We imposed our point of view and didn't think if Raquelle actually wanted the same. When she would love to do it…”       “But everything was possible to fix. Yes, Raquelle and Terrence stopped loving each other when they dated, but they lived in peace and didn’t fight. Their relationship got worse because of Simon. That stinker got them to fight and make their by far not perfect relationship much worse.”       “I think you’re right,” Frederick replies as he shrugs. “First, Raquelle was the one to blame as she got too busy with herself and her career, and then Terrence added fuel to the fire. And he burnt down the bridges, which they would’ve let them come back and fix something. Moreover, he said he was also busy with his job.”       “Now both of them get it.”       “I’m sorry a human understands right things too late. They do it when there is no way back.”       “There is a way back in this case. But nobody wants to come back and do something.”       “And I’m sorry they don’t want to try to talk about their relationship. Don’t want to find out what they actually think about it. Maybe, everything is not as hopeless as Raquelle wants to show us.”       “I hope she does know what she’s doing and won't regret that later.”       “I wish… I wish…”       Silence settles in the air for a few seconds, but Frederick breaks it later after drinking some tea.       “By the way, could you tell me what actually happened between her and Terrence?” Frederick asks. “One day, I asked her about that, but she said nothing, probably, not to make me nervous. And you did not want to talk with me about it and avoided that.”       “My God, Mr. Cameron, I’ve explained the situation to you,” Alicia gets a little nervous. “They just shouted at each other loudly and blamed each other for all the sins… That’s all!”       “I think it’s not everything I know. My intuition tells me that something much more serious happened. More serious than the fact that Terrence shouted at Raquelle. My granddaughter should understand that people don’t break up after such a stupid thing.”       “You were recently released from the hospital and shouldn’t get excited,” Alicia says with sadness in her eyes. “Your doctor told you that and said you would get much better only in this way.”       “I’m much more nervous because I know nothing. This secrecy makes me think you are all hiding something terrible from me. You, your niece, her ex-boyfriend…”       “Don’t think about it, Mr. Cameron…”       Alicia looks at her cup of coffee, getting more excited and tenser.       “Nothing terrible happened…” Alicia adds hesitantly and swallows up nervously. “If something terrible happened, Raquelle wouldn’t be silent ‘cause she trusts you and me. She would ask us for protection from that man and be running away from him like a ghost.”       “You know, Alicia, if just an argument happened and became the reason why they fought to the hell, these two would hardly say almost the same,” Frederick replies confidently. “And ending a relationship after every single fight is a stupid thing.”       “Mr. Cameron, for God’s sake…”       “No…”       Frederick shakes his head and drinks some tea.       “Something is not right, I don’t doubt it…” Frederick adds confidently and moves his look to Alicia. “And you do know it well.”       “Even if something happened, it’s her personal business.”       “So, am I right?”       “Listen, I don’t want to make my relationship with Raquelle worse. She wouldn’t be happy if I told you everything. And I understand you don’t better know it.”       “But, Alicia…”       “I can only say that something really very serious happened. And this is a great reason to break up.”       “Understand me, my darling, I do need to know what’s happening to Raquelle,” Frederick says quietly, bending forward to Alicia. “Although she’s no longer a child, I will always be worried about her.”       “I completely understand you, Mr. Cameron,” Alicia replies with sadness in her eyes. “But if I tell you everything that happened to her, you may get excited. And now you are not allowed to get stressed and worried.”       “Please, Alicia, at least drop a hint on what happened between them,” Frederick begs. “I promise I will not talk to Raquelle about it. I just need to know why my granddaughter decided to break up with her husband. She should know that telling everyone about the end of the relationship after any kind of fight is stupid. And before I know the full story, everything looks like she really wanted to do it because of his shouts. She didn’t take the fact that someone shouted at her.”       On the one hand, Alicia completely understands that Frederick would know what happened between Raquelle and Terrence early or late, no matter how hard she hides it. But on the other hand, the woman wants to pity the old man, who left the hospital literally two days ago. She knows Frederick might get worse if he knew all the truth. But Alicia cannot let it happen and is not going to kill the close person of her niece.       “Mr. Cameron, please, pity you,” Alicia begs with pity in her eyes. “If you don’t feel sorry for you, think at least of Raquelle. For God’s sake, don’t give her pain.”       “I want to see my granddaughter happy, Alicia,” Frederick says with sadness in his eyes. “And I’m ready to do anything for that. I should know the reason to understand how to protect her or help her make her relationship with Terrence better. What if he is dangerous to her? What if we should save her from him instead of pushing her to him?”       “No, no, don’t worry, Terrence is not dangerous for Raquelle, and she can spend time with him quietly. If he wasn’t the one he wanted to be, I wouldn’t let him come to my girl. You do know me: for my sweetheart, I’m ready to tear anyone. Even her own boyfriend. If he is guilty, of course.”       “Do you really think I can have no worries because she is going to have to meet Terrence at least once to tell him about the breakup?”       “Of course, my dear, you can calm down,” Alicia says softly, clapping Frederick on the hand. “But now stop thinking about it and focus on your health. Your granddaughter wouldn’t take another heart attack of yours.”       “Ah, I always think of Raquelle…” Frederick sighs quietly and looks at his hands. “In the past few years, I haven’t thought of anyone but my granddaughter… She’s the only one I have in this world. Sadly, I lost my son and wife many years ago… And when I think she needs me, it always makes me find the will to keep living for her. I do know I must live for my little girl, who will always need my help and love.”       “I also have only Raquelle,” Alicia replies with sadness in her eyes, being happy that the subject is changing little by little. “Many years ago, my sister died in that horrible car accident as well as your son. And my parents have been dead for ages…”       Alicia sighs heavily and drinks almost all the coffee she has.       “And I lost my husband a long time ago when I was much younger,” Alicia adds with sadness in her eyes. “It’s been many years, but I still can’t take it. I can’t believe he died so early. From such a terrible illness like cancer.”       “You know, if I didn’t have Raquelle, I would hardly wish to live so hard,” Frederick confesses thoughtfully. “If I didn’t have my granddaughter, I wouldn’t have a reason to live! I’m living for my granddaughter and my future great-grandchildren that, as I hope, my girl will give me someday.”       “Ah, Mr. Cameron, I’m living for Raquelle, as well…” Alicia sighs tiredly. “But I’m gonna have a new meaning soon… Because I want to adopt a girl and feel like a mother…”       “You think you can do this?”       “I think so. After literally raising my niece, I’ve got enough experience. It would be enough to raise my adopted child. And I think I would have enough experience for the future children of my beloved Raquelle.”       “Raquelle will always be our beloved girl,” Frederick replies with a slight smile. “We will be by her side while we live in this world. I will not surely leave her!”       “Me too,” Alicia smiles shyly. “While I’m alive and healthy, Raquelle will never stay without the support of her aunt Alicia. My girl has always been like my own daughter, whom I love with all my heart. Whom I can’t leave at a hard moment…”       “Grandfather Frederick will also always be by her side. And she knows it well.”       Alicia says nothing and just smiles shyly, being happy she avoided the talk about the situation of Raquelle and Terrence, at least now. But next time, luck might not be by her side. The woman knows she will have to confess everything, early or late. But she decides that she would better tell everything much later, not now. Anyway, Alicia hopes she will manage to keep what happened a secret and not to let Frederick know what happened to the couple that has probably already stopped existing.       

***

      Meanwhile, Edward is slowly walking in the city, rushing nowhere and examining everything around himself with interest. For the past two weeks, the man got on well with Terrence and his friends, Peter and Daniel, and got closer to them. He is madly happy that he was warmly accepted by then, even if they still keep treating him with suspicious due to his great wish to impose his friendship on MacClife.       “That’s good I managed to find a common language with Terrence, and he didn’t reject me,” Edward thinks with a slight smile, slowly walking down the street with his hands put in his pockets. “And that’s cool I got on well with his friends. Daniel and Peter treat me quite amicably and seemed cool guys to me… Yes, the guys treat me with suspicious at the moment. But I’m sure that everything is gonna get better soon.”       Edward sighs silently.       “I mean… That I will win the trust of Terrence… Become as close to him as possible. To wait for one beautiful day and tell him what he should know. What’s been hiding from him for ages. It doesn’t mean that Terrence won’t wish to reject me after that. But I will better confess everything when we become friends. Or… It would be kind of stupid to show up on the doorstep of his home and make some shocking confessions. I hope everything is gonna be okay for the time being. And my real identity will not be revealed. Now it’s not time to reveal myself… Not time…”       Edward fixes his hair, which got disheveled because of the strong wind that suddenly blows.       “I will just keep doing what I planned …” Edward thinks with sadness in his eyes. “Since I started all of it, I should bring it to an end. And then things can happen as they want. The most important thing is to reach the finish line.”       Edward stops sharply near a bench that he sees on his way, sits on it, and thinks of something. It’s been two weeks since Natalia and he spent time together last time. The man has tried to contact her many times, but she has been unavailable. It seems like she is ignoring him on purpose. That’s why Edward starts to worry more and more, even though he does not know why the girl suddenly stopped contacting him.       “I don’t understand why Natalia suddenly stopped answering my calls and doesn’t wanna talk to me…” Edward thinks with sadness in his eyes. “What did I do to her that she’s doing this to me? I did say no bad words to her! But it seems like she’s really mad at me… She’s been ignoring me for two weeks… How could she do this to me after what happened between us? After the kiss, which I will remember my whole life. That was just incredible! I never felt so cool when kissing any other girl. Everything was otherwise with her. In a good sense…”       Edward cracks a slight smile.       “I’m starting to understand more and more that I need Natalia,” Edward thinks. “I don’t wanna stop communicating with her. I don’t… I don’t want her to meet another man. I wouldn't just accept it!”       Edward sighs quietly and glances aside.       “Did she decide to stop speaking to me just because she believed I’d allegedly leave her after meeting Terrence?” Edward asks himself with sadness in his eyes. “Natalia didn’t definitely believe me when I told her I wasn’t gonna do that. Even though I’ve really never thought of using her only for meeting that guy. I would’ve continued to speak with her even if I hadn’t fallen in love with her. She’s so cool and sweet… Very nice to talk to… Talking to her is such a pleasure! And kissing a beauty like her is a much greater pleasure.”       Edward moves his eyes to a couple of old people going by him in a slow step and whispering with each other. The woman is holding a little dachshund on a leash while it examines every single corner and little thing that it sees on the way. Later, the little doggy comes to Edward sitting on the bench and starts to examine the shoes that the man is wearing now. Seeing this dachshund, the man looks down and chuckles quietly, being absolutely quiet and definitely feeling no fear of dogs. And later, he hears the old woman calling the dog:       “Molly, get off the young man! Don't damage his shoes! Molly, come here! Molly! You hear me?”       “Molly, come here!” the companion of the old lady exclaims. “Molly, stop!”       The dog named Molly obeys her owner not at once. She immediately pays attention to what is near the bench, where Edward is sitting, and some other things she sees in her way.       When a couple of the old people and the doggy go somewhere some time later, Edward looks at where they went for a few seconds. And then he moves his eyes into the distance and sighs silently.       “Ah, how much I wish I met her right here and now,” Edward dreams with a slight smile and sadness in his eyes. “I’d like to see her for a moment… I would even say nothing to her and not try to ask her why she did that to me… I just wanna see that girl again…”       Edward sighs aloud, feeling the light, nice wind gets his hair a little disheveled.       “But I don’t know what I’m gonna do if she feels nothing for me,” Edward thinks. “If she lied about her sympathy for me. Anyway, I wanna know it personally from her. To know what to expect. To know if I can count on something. It’s gonna be hard to take it, but I have to do this. Have to give up on her…”       After spending some time in his mind, Edward slowly leans on his laps with his elbows and runs his hand through his hair, which he gets disheveled. And then the man doubles over, closing his face with both hands. He silently asks himself if there is a chance to see Natalia again – this eternally beautiful blonde with blue-sky eyes and an angelic smile. Lockhart is truly worried because the girl suddenly broke contact with him and is ignoring him, even if he did nothing bad to her and is guilty of nothing.       Edward does not know how much time it’s been since he sat on the bench and began to be sad because Natalia was doing such a bad thing to him. Not paying attention to anything and still keeping his face closed with both hands, the man does not notice someone comes to him shyly and carefully puts their hand on his shoulder. Lockhart shakes slightly in surprise, slowly moves his eyes up, and is surprised to see Natalia in front of himself, who is looking at him with sadness in her eyes. She heard his wish about meeting her here and decided to make him a little happier.       “Natalia?” Edward pronounces surprisingly. “What are you doing here?”       “I was walking here not far and saw you sitting here, doubling over and closing your face with your hands,” Natalia replies with sadness in her eyes. “I thought you felt bad and decided to come.”       “Why?” Edward shakes his head. “Why have you been ignoring me for two weeks? Why haven’t you answered my calls and messages? I’ve sent thousands of them! Or maybe, more!”       “I know…”       “Did I do something bad to make you run away from me and refuse to talk to me?”       “No, no, Edward, you did nothing…” Natalia sits on the bench next to Edward. “It’s okay… I just thought I needed to give you the time to let you much more about Terrence…”       “Is that why you disappeared for two weeks?” Edward wonders.       “You wanted to meet him so badly. And I thought I would bother you.”       “I got very upset because of what you did. I was racking my brains for two weeks. Reflecting on the reason why you refused to speak to me.”       “I know… Please, forgive me for what happened… I didn’t really want it…”       “I can’t believe you began to ignore me after what happened between us.”       “Sorry…” Natalia puts her hand on Edward’s shoulder, looking at him with greater pity in her eyes. “I didn’t think it would get you so upset.”       “But it did get me upset!” Edward exclaims. “Very upset!”       “Edward…”       “I always tried to be gentle and didn’t do what would scare you somehow.”       “I know.”       “I always watched my mouth not to say something wrong. I always treated you with care and respect.”       “And I’m madly grateful to you for that.”       “No, Natalia, you don’t definitely appreciate it.” Edward slowly and hesitantly moves his eyes to Natalia. “You keep being sad and depressed. You keep suffering because of something.”       “No, I…”       “Okay, maybe, am I doing something wrong? Tell me! Tell me, could I do something nice to you? I would do this with pleasure!”       “You’ve already done very much to me.”       “You don’t definitely want me to help you. You’re running away from me as if I did something bad.”       “No, no, Edward, it’s not true!” Natalia shakes her head with pity in her eyes. “You’ve done nothing to me!”       “But why? Why are you doing this to me? Did you decide to break contact with me just because you believed I was sitting and thinking about how to give you hurt?”       “How could you think so?”       “It’s stupid, Natalia… Ignoring me for that reason was really stupid…”       “I know, but…”       “And it would’ve been okay if you’d said what was wrong. But you disappeared. Disappeared and said nothing. As if it should’ve happened.”       “I get it…”       “If I did something wrong, tell me. I will get it and no longer do that.”       “I think we need to talk about it…” Natalia replies hesitantly. “Could we talk right now about…”       Natalia falls into silence, looks down, and exhales sharply, nervously tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.       “Could we talk about us?” Natalia asks. “About what’s happening between us?”       “Yeah…” Edward pronounces thoughtfully and moves his look into the distance for two seconds. “I’d also like to talk to you about it. I want to know how you’d explain your behavior that I can’t understand.”       “I’ll explain everything, I promise… Just listen to me… Please…”       An awkward silence settles in the air for two seconds, and then Edward breaks it a little hesitantly:       “Alright, speak first. I’m listening to you closely.”       “So, if you want that, then…” Natalia replies hesitantly as she shrugs. “Let it be…”       Natalia tries to do her best to brace herself, but then exhales sharply and bravely looks into Edward’s eyes while he looks at her with sadness in his eyes.       “Listen, Edward…” Natalia starts hesitantly. “I… I don’t know how you actually treat me… Whether you feel something special. But I want to tell you all the truth about my feelings. And… I will understand you if you wanna get up and leave after what I’m gonna say.”       Natalia gets quite nervous and constantly touches something with her fingers: either her bracelet or a sleeve of her light violet jacket. Edward softly caresses the blonde girl's hand with a slight smile, even though he feels a slight shake on his skin from the thought that the girl is going to reject him here and now.       “Don’t worry, I will not leave even if you say something that’s gonna get me shocked,” Edward promises softly. “And whatever you say, we’ll speak well. If you want it, of course.”       “Erm, you see…” Natalia pronounces hesitantly, sometimes looking down. “When we met at the café, I… I didn’t think I’d consider you someone else but a familiar man. But something got me attracted to you and… I wanted to know everything about you. I wanted to spend as much time with you as possible. Just as friends… Friends can also spend a cool time together and feel comfortable.”       “Right…”       “So… Erm…” Natalia moves her eyes down for a second and smiles slightly. “The more we learned about each other, the more I caught myself thinking I was thinking of you too much. And I realized more and more that I wasn’t… Indifferent to you… And… At some moment, I stopped considering you just a friend of mine…”       Natalia sighs heavily.       “That’s why I began to be terribly afraid we’d stop meeting almost every single day shortly after you met Terrence,” Natalia adds with sadness in her eyes. “And when we met, I believed that my mission was completed. It would mean we’d never meet again.”       Natalia sniffs quietly.       “That’s why I left you and Terrence alone on that day,” Natalia adds. “I was scared. I was afraid you’d piss me off. Yes, I didn’t believe it when you said you weren’t gonna do that. I didn’t believe in your sympathy for me. I didn’t actually believe you at all. I thought you were playing with me. You wanted to hurt me. Well… Wanted to play with me and leave me like a kitten after getting sick of me.”       Natalia shakes her head while a tear slowly rolls over her cheek.       “If you wonder why I was afraid that you used me for meeting Terrence…” Natalia says hesitantly and quickly wipes off a tear under her eye. “It happened because men had left me many times after getting what they wanted. After promising me very much, they got out. They used my kindness, my beauty, my naivety… Nobody took me seriously. Everybody just wanted to play with me and get something. Nobody ever cared what was happening inside me. Everybody cared about my body. My youth.”       Natalia shakes her head.       “So, when I realized I wasn’t indifferent to you, I got obsessed with the fear,” Natalia confesses. “The fear that you’d piss me off after getting what you wanted.”       “No, that’s not the truth!” Edward protests confidently. “I swear, I never thought about it. I already said it on the day we had the last talk.”       “I know… But I was afraid, you see… I’m afraid to be betrayed again. For the millionth time.”       “I understand, but I’m not like them. I like you. I care about your life and everything that’s happening to you. I am not indifferent to you.”       “That’s why I stopped trusting men and started to believe everyone wanted to deceive me. It has to do with even friends among men. I’d say I didn’t trust Terrence for some time.”       “You’ve got no reason to worry, Natalia. As I’ve said, I never thought of doing that to you. And Terrence wouldn’t do that. I guess he’s very happy to have such a wonderful friend like you.”       “Now I don’t doubt it, and I know that he will never do that to me…”       Natalia looks down and bites her lip.       “And you don’t seem to be one of the shameless people, who did that somehow,” Natalia confesses.       “If I can do something to get this thought out of your mind, let me know,” Edward says softly. “I’m ready to do much for you.”       “You’ve done too much to me,” Natalia smiles shyly. “You helped me to come to myself after what happened to me. And became the only one to do that much better than the others…”       Natalia moves her eyes down for a second.       “I must confess that nobody has ever been worried and caring about me as much as you do,” Natalia adds a little hesitantly. “It conquered me… Got me attracted to you… And made me afraid that we’d have to stop communicating someday.”       Natalia sighs quietly.       “Now I understand I feel something more than friendship for you,” Natalia confesses shyly and sniffs quietly. “It’s true, Edward. I’m not trying to lie to you or give you false hope. That’s what I actually feel. What’s happening inside me.”       After finding the courage to look at Edward for longer than two seconds, Natalia moves her eyes to the man slowly but rightly, while he is listening to the girl carefully.       “I can’t keep it inside anymore,” Natalia adds. “I can’t keep being silent about getting love for you. I can’t live a day without thinking of you. I really like you. And it’s the truth. I’m not lying to you. I would never lie to someone that I love them when I actually don’t.”       Natalia exhales sharply, closing her eyes for a moment.       “I’m really sorry I made you think you did something terrible and hurt me,” Natalia expresses regret. “Maybe, you really needed time to get to know Terrence better. But I shouldn't have given it to you in this way… Disappear…”       Natalia cracks a smile.       “Honestly, all my friends think I’m an idiot ‘cause I sharply stopped speaking to you,” Natalia confesses shyly. “But they’re right. Because I really did not do a very good thing… And now I understand that I don’t wanna stop speaking to you… But I can’t be sure you won’t get mad at me for what I did to you. You don’t deserve it, but I hurt you somehow.”       Natalia sniffs quietly.       “And if it’s the truth, I’m asking you for forgiveness for my stupid act…” Natalia apologizes with sadness in her eyes. “I didn’t wanna hurt you… I didn’t wanna get you upset and make you suffer.”       Natalia sighs heavily and wants to stand up and go as far as possible, being obsessed with shame and awkwardness. But when she gets up and takes a step, Edward takes the girl’s hand quickly but softly and slightly pulls her on himself.       “No, wait!” Edward exclaims with a part of despair. “Stay with me! Please! Don’t go!”       Natalia does not go and silently sits down where she was sitting before, inclining her head slightly and starting to look at her hands. Edward says nothing for two seconds before he starts to speak, looking at the girl or something else.       “Everything you just said… It’s all about me, too… I’ve said many times that I liked you.” Edward moves his eyes to Natalia. “And you know, when I didn’t know your name and just saw you from afar, I realized that you got me attracted somehow. I’m gonna be honest, I never met such beautiful girls. You’re especially beautiful and memorable. I would notice you among others. You’re not like other ladies. You’re way better.”       Edward falls into silence for two seconds.       “And even though you were saddened, I decided to come to you and try to find out you you were,” Edward adds. “Agree, there’s nothing bad with meeting a new person. And my words about the taken tables at the café weren’t a reason to pick you up and flirt with you. The tables were really taken by someone.”       “I know…” Natalia pronounces quietly, still looking down.       “First, there was no hint of love about my wish,” Edward confesses, moving a strand of hair off that gets into his eyes. “I was just gonna meet a new person. And I thought I would hardly love you… But the more I learned about you, the more I wanted to meet you. The more I wanted to get closer to you. That’s why I tried to find as much free time as possible to invite you somewhere.”       “Just like I did…”       “Every single day, I started to think of you more and more and couldn’t literally focus on anything… But at some moment, I realized I began to fall in love with you. I realized it quickly but kept it a secret for a long time. I told nobody that the most beautiful girl in the world conquered me.”       “You make me blush…”       “Maybe, these feelings aren’t too strong. But it was enough for me to know that I felt bad and sad when you weren’t with me. And the kiss that we shared on the day I met Terrence proved that I wasn’t wrong…”       Edward smiles slightly, thinking of his first kiss with Natalia, which became a truly magical moment for him.       “I’ll never forget the hurricane of emotions that I felt,” Edward adds shyly. “I had many different kisses, but this one is the first one that made me feel something more incredible. It never happened to me before! Only one kiss couldn’t wake up those emotions inside me.”       Edward falls into silence for two seconds.       “And I think having those emotions is enough for me to prove to myself that I can say confidently say…” Edward adds. “Say what I’ve wanted to confess for a long time.”       Edward closes his eyes for a moment and exhales slowly. And then he takes Natalia’s hand and grips it not strongly while she looks at him with her widely open eyes for the first time in a while, realizing that she already feels hot, and it’s a little hard for her to breathe.       “I need you,” Edward confesses. “I need you so badly. I want to be with you and see you every day, every minute. Every second that I’m living in this world.”       “Really?” Natalia asks hesitantly.       “The time we’ve spent together is just unforgettable. With you, I’ve always felt absolutely happy… I forget any sad thoughts and smile widely… You’ve always listened to me, understood me well, shared my feelings with me, sympathized with me, and been happy with me… That’s so great to meet someone, who understands you so well. Who cares about you and doesn’t behave as if they don’t care.”       “You’ve become a very close person to me,” Natalia smiles shyly. “With whom it’s always been very interesting.”       “And you made me believe that if you wanted something, your dream would come true.” Edward sighs with sadness in his eyes, but then smiles shyly. “And thanks to you, I met not only a new friend but also the girl, who, as I hope, would become something more for me. And who would understand that I wish her only the best and would never dare to betray her as cruelly as those thankless people she met before.”       Edward falls into silence with a little scare in his eyes, waiting for Natalia’s reaction. While she gets so touched by the man’s words that she gets tears in her eyes. She gets a bright gloss in her eyes and puts on a true, happy smile that makes him stop hiding his own.       Natalia says nothing for two seconds and then closes her mouth with a hand, pronouncing very quietly:       “Edward…”       “My life won’t be happy if I don’t have you, Natalia,” Edward says with a slight smile. “The reason why I wake up every day with a belief and hope for the best. Everything happened so suddenly that I didn’t even notice how I got caught in the trap… That I don’t wanna get out, by the way… Because I want to be with the one, who makes me feel truly happy. I think it might happen only once in your life.”       “I doubt something like this would happen to me for the second time,” Natalia assumes.       “Me too. But I’m absolutely sure about one thing…”       Edward looks down for a second but then moves his eyes full of some despair to Natalia.       “I don’t want to lose you,” Edward adds with pity in his eyes, takes Natalia’s hands tightly, and shakes his head. “Please, Natalia, don’t let it happen… Give me a chance to prove that everything is not what it seemed to you.”       “I will not,” Natalia shakes her head.       “Don’t ignore me and make me think I did something bad. I’ve been trying to be the best and do everything to make you feel good all this time.”       Natalia says nothing and just smiles shyly. And two seconds later, she caresses Edward’s cheek a little hesitantly, making him show his cute smile and feel the warmth that her soft palm spreads.       “It will no longer happen,” Natalia promises with a slight smile. “I promise I will not ignore your calls and messages. Never.”       “I believe you,” Edward nods.       “But don’t leave me, too. Don’t break my hope and my little dreams. Please, Edward… Don’t make me disappointed in men again.”       “I won’t, I promise you,” Edward smiles shyly and softly caresses Natalia’s wrist of her hand that he is holding tenderly. “I will not do this at my will. And others will not change my mind.”       “Really?”       “Really.” Edward shyly moves a strand of hair off Natalia’s eyes and tenderly runs his hand over her cheek. “If it’s your first serious love, I’ll do my best to make it your last one. You will see, you will feel much better with me than with anyone else.”       Natalia says nothing and just smiles widely. And then she moves closer to Edward and takes him in her tender hug, closing her eyes from pleasure, putting her arms around his neck, softly caressing the nape of it, and running her fingers through his hair on the back of his head. He answers it with pleasure, putting his hands on the girl’s back, softly caressing it and breathing in the sweet smell of a perfume that she usually uses. But at some moment, the brunet puts his nose in the blonde’s neck and runs his fingers through her feels-like-soft hair, tenderly caressing her head and cutely kissing her on the top of her head to answer her short kiss on the cheek that makes him smile much wider.       A few seconds later, the young people stay away a little and look into each other’s eyes with a slight smile. Along with this, Natalia softly caresses Edward’s face, and he either plays with her hanging earring or touches the soft golden strands of her hair. They can feel how strongly their hearts are beating, and how they are shaking slightly because they are a few centimeters away from each other.       But after a short eye contact, Edward, reading Natalia’s mind about what she – and he – wants more than anything, puts one hand on the back of the girl’s head and another hand on her cheek. Then he slowly but confidently connects his lips with the soft lips of the blonde and gets her involved in a continuous kiss, feeling her frequent, hot breath while Natalia’s hand slides from the top of his head to his fingers that she locks her fingers with.       What’s happening brings them back to the day when they had their first kiss. That makes them feel an ocean of amazing emotions, and the nice warmth that spreads all over the whole body and warms them up in the sunny but not very warm weather. Every new second, the girl wants this moment to never end. She is madly afraid these magical moments might be just her sweet dream, and Edward would leave her and no longer wish to speak to her. But luckily, it’s not a beautiful dream that she would be thinking about all day long. It’s reality. What’s really happening now.       Edward feels almost all the same as Natalia does. Kissing this sweet girl, the man gets great pleasure. Maybe, kisses with other girls were also good and exciting, but none of them was able to make him feel such dizzying emotions that he is getting from the one, who is kissing him more confidently than she did the last time. Just a little touch of the lady's tender lips to his mouth is enough to make his heart stop for a moment and then start beating like crazy.       Anyway, Edward and Natalia got a reason that is going to make them very happy and help them feel like they are needed. They are finally loved. They are treated very tenderly and softly… The way they always wanted. And they want to believe that the heart showed them the right way and belongs to a good person.       It seems like it’s been forever since Natalia and Edward kissed and let themselves get much closer to each other. But some time later, they slowly break the kiss and step away, looking into each other’s eyes with a wide smile. The man does not refuse to tenderly kiss the girl on the cheek, and she answers him back with a slight blush on her face. They say nothing for a few seconds and just share a tender ogle, but then the girl breaks the silence shyly:       “It seems like life is getting better.”       “Gotta agree with you,” Edward agrees softly.       “I thought this nightmare would never end. But no! It ended!”       “Yeah…” Edward falls into silence for two seconds and smiles shyly. “Now I feel much better. I was right when I said everything would get thousands of times better if you were with me.”       “I’m glad your life is getting better,” Natalia says softly. “Not only do you want everything to be fine with me. I also care about your life and wanna know you’re healthy and happy. And I’m always ready to help you if I have a chance to do it.”       “I know. And I will always remember who I can ask for help. I am sure such a charming girl wouldn’t refuse to support me, at least by staying by my side.”       “Of course, she will,” Natalia smiles widely. “I’m at your service.”       Edward’s smile gets much wider, and he tightly embraces Natalia with his arms and presses her to himself, cutely kissing her on the top of her head while she puts her head on his shoulder and then closes her eyes with a sense of absolute peace.       “Hey, haven’t you reconciled with your friend?” Edward asks. “You don’t say anything about her.”       “I reconciled with her two weeks ago,” Natalia confesses with a slight smile.       “Really? You and Raquelle reconciled?”       “Yup! After I left Terrence and you in the café, I received a message from her some time later. Raquelle asked me about a meeting, and I didn’t refuse.”       “And what?”       “So, Raquelle and I talked about everything and apologized for everything we did and said. And then we had a girls’ party to celebrate it. We invited one more friend of ours and spent a great time together. For the first time in a while, just saying.”       “Cool!” Edward rejoices truly with a wide smile. “I’m so glad you’ve reconciled.”       “Oh, how happy I am! You can’t imagine!”       “I’m happy your life is getting better little by little.”       “You know, when we said, ‘sorry’ to each other, I felt a great relief,” Natalia confesses shyly. “That was a heavy burden… What was weighing on me for a long time. I was ashamed of everything I said to her in anger.”       “I understand. But luckily, everything is over.”       “I think Cameron got better, too. I couldn’t stay indifferent when looking at her. She was in despair and regretted everything she did. She was crying much on my shoulder…”       “I knew this story would end well. You just needed to wait for a while and get cool.”       “Yup, and I’m madly happy it’s all over. I’m glad I got through that. Not without your help, of course.”       “I know…” Edward caresses Natalia’s cheek softly, while she strokes the hair on the back of his head. “I believe you didn’t waste time when you and I didn’t speak.”       “Yeah, my friends and I spent a lot of time together and called the memories about the good old times,” Natalia confesses. “It was great to reunite with the girls again and spend time in good company. We didn’t hang out together for ages! I went to Mexico, Raquelle was busy with her job, our fight… Oh…”       “Well, I didn’t also waste time…” Edward shrugs. “I spent a lot of time with Terrence… We managed to get to know each other better, and he introduced me to some friends of his.”       “Friends?”       “Yup, two men. He met them some time ago. They got mad at him because of the situation with Raquelle and believed a girl, who said some lie about him. But one day, they came to him and apologized.”       “They’re good?”       “Yup, those guys are cool. I got on well with them quickly enough. They accepted me to their party.”       “That’s how.”       “So, everything’s cool!” Edward smiles slightly. “Terrence accepted me, and his friends are nice to me. Yes, they don’t stop reminding me of their suspicions, but I don’t lose hope for making everybody sure that my goals are absolutely nice.”       “I’m so glad Terrence accepted you and didn’t reject you.”       “I guess he was just lonely. So, he decided to give me a chance. That guy has pleasure of spending time with me an telling me a lot about himself. And I answer his questions about myself with pleasure.”       “Great,” Natalia smiles widely. “I’m very happy for you.”       “Yeah, but…” Edward moves his sad eyes aside for a moment. “I’m upset because of what’s happening between Raquelle and him. Terrence is suffering from his love for her.”       “I can imagine,” Natalia nods with sadness in her eyes.       “Terrence thinks he wouldn’t get that girl back ‘cause she will never forgive him. Even though that man helped her get off that sick stinker, who almost killed her.”       “Raquelle thinks almost the same.” Natalia steps back from Edward a little and glances aside. “My friend believes the reconciliation between Terrence and her is impossible. Even though she loves him.”       “Do you think she loves him?” Edward frowns slightly.       “She said she started to understand it. Understand that she actually loves him. And she doesn’t wanna break up deep inside.”       “Is she afraid something like that is gonna happen again?”       “Yes, she is really afraid. And she ain’t sure she could be a good girlfriend.”       “But she can try.”       “Yeah, but Cameron doesn’t want it. Anyway, I understand her. I don’t excuse Terrence’s act, and I don’t hide that I judge him. But even if he says he would never do that again, it means nothing. Moreover, Terrence has a hard character. He can’t hold himself down. He has never been able to do it. MacClife does know it, but either he can’t do this or he doesn’t wanna change a thing.”       “So, this is the final breakup.”       “I think so. And we will have to accept it.”       “Okay…”       Edward shakes his head with a quiet sigh.       “Terrence knows that their relationship is actually over,” Edward confesses with sadness in his eyes. “But he doesn’t wanna accept the fact that it happened.”       “Yeah, I can’t believe everything is over…” Natalia sighs heavily. “But knowing they were fighting like a cat and a dog from the beginning, something good would’ve hardly happened between them.”       Natalia cracks a slight smile with sadness in her eyes.       “Anyway, I still remember their happy faces and wide smiles when they talked about each other or were together,” Natalia adds with sadness in her eyes and sighs again. “But alas, it’s gonna be just the memories.”       “Terrence said,” Edward pronounces with a slight smile. “He was sad and happy at the same time when talking about it. As he said, that time was the best in his life.”       “Although Raquelle says the decision about the breakup is final, it’s clear she doesn’t want it. She does it because she’s mad and not sure if the second chance is gonna be successful.”       “Anyway, at the bottom of my heart, I still have a little hope that it’s gonna get better. Well… These two will understand they might make mistakes if they didn’t give each other a chance. It wouldn’t be so hurt to break up after using a second chance to come back.”       “Sometimes I want their relationship to be saved,” Natalia sighs heavily. “I don’t want such a beautiful couple to break up because of one horrible man. The sick man that went crazy from the love for the mother of my friend.”       Edward says nothing and just nods. And seeing Natalia looking at her hands with sadness in her eyes, he embraces her tightly again and cutely kisses her on the cheek.       “Listen, let’s not talk about bad things,” Edward suggests, tenderly caressing Natalia’s head. “You said we needed to believe in the best. Moreover, something tells me that these two will make peace one beautiful day.”       “I’d like to believe it,” Natalia replies with a slight smile. “Nevertheless, this decision will be made by our friends. We will have only to take it and support both of them, whatever they decide.”       “Right. But let’s believe it’s gonna be okay.”       “I’m trying.”       Silence settles in the air, during which Natalia looks at what’s happening around while Edward holds her around the shoulders, watches her with a tender look, and does not hide his shy smile, slightly fixing her hair that gets into her eyes.       “What about going somewhere to walk?” Natalia suggests shyly and steps back from Edward slowly.       “Wonderful idea!” Edward exclaims. “I agree.”       “But I don’t know where we could go.”       “Oh, I know many good places where we could spend a good time.”       “Let’s walk here a little and decide where to go on the way.”       “Okay!”       “Are you not going anywhere?”       “For you, I’m ready to save everything for later.”       Natalia says nothing and just smiles shyly. When they share a tender ogle, Edward and he get up from the bench and slowly go somewhere straight, talking about something and sometimes laughing shyly. The man puts his arm around the neck of the girl and sometimes shows his love by cutely kissing her on some part of her face. The blonde smiles shyly, presses closer to the man, and tightly hugs him on the way, holding his back with a hand with a feeling of absolute protection and not hiding her happiness caused by the fact that she is next to the man that she just adores.       

***

      Anna has been living in the house of her boyfriend for a few weeks. The girl left her home because she could not take permanent control of her parents, who always made her do what they wanted, not listening to their only daughter’s wishes and thinking they were doing everything for her best.       Anna does not know if her parents noticed she left home. But the girl knows that even if they are looking for her, she will not be back home. She will not be back where she felt like a bird in a cage. The girl has always reached freedom and wanted to decide how to live, who to talk with, and what to do. Anna got what she wanted and has not regretted her decision to leave her home. The girl is living with her boyfriend very well.       Since he does not spend too much time at his home and is busy with something, Anna often spends time all alone. However, the girl is not bored and either does the homework or spends her time differently.       “Thank God, Mr. Cameron has been released from the hospital…” Anna thinks, looking through the window in her room and watching everything that's happening behind it. “I’m so glad he’s fine. And I hope he will get well fast thanks to his good doctors and the wonderful care of his granddaughter and her aunt.”       Anna sighs with sadness in her eyes.       “But I still remember Raquelle saying she is gonna get busy with her life after he gets better,” Anna thinks. “She talked very much about her breakup with Terrence and her possible move to a different place… Maybe, even Kingston…”       Anna shakes her head.       “Oh…” Anna sighs tiredly. “Of course, it’s the business of my friend, but I think she is gonna probably regret it soon. Raquelle often does thoughtless things, not thinking of what she might get in the end. I ain’t sure she wants to break up… As if she is trying to make herself think it’s the truth. But Cameron actually doubts and isn’t sure about what she is doing.”       Anna moves strands of her red hair that get in her eyes.       “Her heart is definitely bleeding from just thinking nothing could be changed…” Anna thinks with sadness in her eyes. “She doesn’t want it, she doesn’t want… Neither break up nor quit her career… Raquelle will surely regret that some time later. I’m sure about it. And when she wanna get everything back, it will probably be too late to do something.”       Some time later, Anna steps back from the window and decides to get down. While she quietly goes down the long halls of the second floor and then goes downstairs, holding the railing, she hears the sound of the keys. She can hear someone opening the door that can be locked and unlocked from both sides. The girl stops sharply on one of the stairs, moves her eyes aside, and goes down to the first floor much faster. Meanwhile, the one to confidently enter the living room is… Daniel?! Who shows his perfect smile when he sees Anna going downstairs.       “Hey, beautiful!” Daniel pronounces with a slight smile.       “Hey, sweetie!” Anna greets shyly, not hiding her wide smile. “I didn't think you'd come back home so early.”       “Circumstances just were very good for me,” Daniel replies in a quiet, nice voice. “So, I can spend much more time with my beautiful lady.”       Daniel takes Anna in his tender hug, putting his arms around her waist and kissing her cutely on the cheek.       “My friends understood everything and let me go to you kindly,” Daniel adds and rubs the tip of his nose against Anna’s cheek.       “Yeah, but they decided to laugh a little before,” Anna laughs shyly.       “I don’t deny it.” Daniel smiles much wider when Anna gives him a short kiss on the cheek. “But I know they do approve of my relationship and are very happy for me. So, if they’re happy, I feel good.”       Daniel caresses Anna’s face tenderly with both hands, while she wraps her arms around his waist and looks into his expressive brown eyes with a slight smile.       “So, excellent,” Anna says with a slight smile. “So, I wouldn’t have to miss you until the late evening.”       “I can’t deny it…” Daniel replies with a mysterious smile, presses Anna closer to himself, and caresses his head tenderly. “The rest of the day is gonna be free. So, it means I can spend time with my beloved red-haired girl.”       “I’m all yours, pretty boy.” Anna caresses Daniel’s cheek softly and slaps him on the nose with a finger playfully, getting his quiet chuck. “I am ready to reflect on any suggestions for our possible pastime.”       “I have one,” Daniel purrs in a much lower voice. “And I’m sure you’re gonna love it.”       “I’m interested.”       “I’ll tell you everything. But at first, I want to tell you the amazing news.”       “Really?”       “I couldn’t wait to tell you everything as soon as possible.”       “M-m-m, you’re intriguing, Daniel… I can’t already wait to find out everything.”       “First, I’ll tell you the news, and then you’ll know about my little surprise.”       “So, c’mon, tell me!” Anna exclaims happily. “I’m dying from the curiosity!”       “So, if you want to hear the news from me and know more about it, you, Ms. Seymour, have to come with me,” Daniel replies confidently with a slight smile.       “For you, Mr. Perkins, I’m ready to go to the end of the world. Just to know why you came here so happy and funny.”       “Let’s go then, princess!”       Daniel lets Anna go forward, and she comes to the sofa in the living room with a slight smile. The man smiling mysteriously and tenderly holding the girl by the back slightly follows her. The lovers sit on the sofa, and Anna folds her hands in front of herself, letting him know she is ready to listen to Daniel, who definitely has a very good mood.       “So, I'm ready to listen to you,” Anna says softly. “You can start to speak.”       “Okay,” Daniel nods. “Do you remember when I told you that my friend and I left the band that we played before?”       “Of course, I do,” Anna shrugs. “You wanted to leave the band for a long time, but that girl literally forced you to do that.”       “Yes, true. And after that, we started to think about how to keep living…”       “I know…”       “So… You know that my friend and I decided to perform some songs and record videos of us doing that. We’ve recorded a couple of good covers and published these videos on the Internet. And Terrence, who turned out to be an amazing guitarist, recently joined us. But we could be talking about his talent for singing forever.”       “Does he really sing so well?” Anna smiles shyly.       “Too well! I never heard such a strong voice before. And I’m really surprised that nobody had noticed his great talent and offered him a chance to start a musical career. Trust me, Anna. To the man, who knows much about it.”       “I believe, sweetie. And Raquelle somehow said that Terrence had an amazing voice. She was nicely shocked when she heard him for the first time. Of course, I’ve never managed to hear his play and sing, but I completely trust my friend and don’t doubt that man is really talented.”       “You must hear it. And I promise, I will give you a chance to do it someday.”       “I’d be happy to.”       “Good.”       Anna says nothing and just smiles shyly.       “Okay, I will continue to speak,” Daniel says with a slight smile and clears his throat quickly. “So, our videos have received tons of views for a few days, and people like what we’re doing.”       “Wow…” Anna wonders truly.       “But we haven’t even promoted ourselves and posted nothing on our Instagram accounts… My buddy watches the view statistics and sees what kind of comment people send that contain lots of positive things.”       “I think you’ve gotten popular so quickly thanks to Terrence,” Anna assumes shyly. “Maybe he doesn’t work on major projects anymore, but he still has a loyal fan base.”       “We think so… And we continued to play for ourselves and get pleasure from that…”       “If your videos are already very popular on the Internet, there is a chance that someone might notice you.”       “That’s what I wanna talk to you about.”       “Huh?”       “Peter and I recently found out that the band ‘The Loser Syndrome’ saw one of our videos and liked it very much.”       “What?” Anna opens her mouth slightly. “‘The Loser Syndrome?’ The famous worldwide male pop-rock band?”       “It is!”       “My God! Unbelievable! You’ve been noticed by such famous guys!”       “We even saw good comments from three members: Brad Charles, Zach Jefferson, and Nathan Chadwick.”       “Bloody hell…” Anna puts her hands on her cheeks with a wide smile.       “And yesterday, Peter called me and asked me to go to his home shortly. I came as soon as possible and found out that the man named Liam Caulfield contacted us.”       “Come on? Liam Caulfield? The lead singer of the band sent you a message personally?”       “Yup, personally.”       “I can’t believe it…”       “Rose showed me the message from Liam and said he didn’t believe it, either.”       “And what did he say?”       “Liam said his band liked our videos so much and motivated us to keep doing that.”       “That’s awesome…” Anna shows her happiness with a wide smile.       “That’s not all. Today, in the morning, Liam messaged us again. He talked with Nathan, Zach, and Brad, and they decided to offer Peter, Terrence, and me to become the opening act.”       “What? Opening act? You? The opening act of ‘The Loser Syndrome’ themselves?”       “We’re still shocked, to be honest.”       “My God…”       “These guys are gonna start a tour in the cities of the USA that will last for one month. Another band was supposed to be an opening act, but Liam said someone would have to get surgery on vocal cords, and they would not be able to perform for a long time. So, the guys were looking for someone to replace them, thought about us, and sent a direct message on Twitter.”       “Aren’t you kidding? Did those guys really suggest you go on the road with them?”       “I swear, Anna, it’s the truth,” Daniel replies confidently. “I almost got my eyes popped out when Peter showed me that message from Liam. We were dumbfounded for a long time and couldn’t believe we got successful so soon.”       “And I hope you didn’t make a stupid mistake and refuse to go on the tour with Liam, Zach, Nate, and Brad?”       “Pete and I immediately told Terrence everything, talked with him about it for a long time, and decided to accept their offer.”       “Really?”       “It would be a sin to decline that chance,” Daniel shrugs. “The guys from ‘The Loser Syndrome’ contacted us themselves! Not their managers, the guys themselves! They took the thing into their hands and suggested we perform with them. We couldn’t refuse when we caught our luck.”       “That’s cool!” Anna exclaims happily. “My gosh, Daniel, I’m so happy for you! Madly glad!”       Anna takes Daniel in her strong, happy hugs and catches a moment to kiss him on the cheek cutely, but she steps back from him a few seconds later and takes his hands.       “For you, it’s an amazing chance to get famous!” Anna adds enthusiastically with a slight smile. “You did want to continue to work on music even after leaving the band of Albert. And now you have a chance to stick it to that mean girl and the one, who controlled your work.”       “Yeah, it’s an amazing chance to show Marty and Albert that we aren't as talentless and dusty as they think,” Daniel replies confidently with a slight smile.       “Wow, what luck!”       “Don’t doubt, Anna, they will see how successful we will be and will be kind of green from envy. That arrogant girl will be especially mad. It’s gonna be a great hit for her. We’re gonna be loved and famous, but she will keep dreaming of a solo career and millions of fans that would praise that queen.”       “That’s right!” Anna smiles slyly. “And when they know ‘The Loser Syndrome’ themselves invited you to be the opening act, they’re gonna be mad.”       “It will happen!”       “They will regret insulting and humiliating you like that many, many times.”       “But we have some problems that we need to solve… For example, we don’t have our own songs that we can perform. We can’t perform only covers.”       “You can do this anyway. I believe it’s gonna happen.”       “But Peter and I recently wrote a couple of songs for fun and liked them very much. We played them on our instruments and recorded some snippets on our phones not to forget… And after listening to what we got, we decided to perform them as the opening act of ‘The Loser Syndrome.’ Well, if we get time to write something better, we will replace those songs ‘cause they aren’t perfect. We need to work much on them.”       “I don’t think having two songs would be enough. At least four or five, not less…”       “I know… We’re now thinking about it and looking for inspiration to write a few more songs.”       “And how’s going on?”       “Everything is going on well so far.”       “I hope I will hear them someday.”       “Undoubtedly, my sunshine! You will be one of the first to hear my own creativity and give me your rate. That’s undoubtedly going to be fair. Because you said you also knew much about music.”       “I’m sure I would love everything written and performed by you.”       Anna runs her hand over Daniel’s hair with a hand from the top of his head to the back of this one.       “You’re my best and most talented one, who deserves to get only praise,” Anna adds with her head proudly raised.       Not hiding his pride, raising his head up, and spreading his shoulders, Daniel caresses Anna’s cheek tenderly with a wide smile, and she closes her eyes for a moment, getting pleasure from feeling the soft, warm hand on her face.       “Yeah, but…” Daniel pronounces hesitantly with sadness in his eyes, moves his hand off Anna’s cheek, and glances aside. “Peter and I are a little upset because Terrence treats it without any interest.”       “Really?”       “Yes.” Daniel takes Anna’s hand. “When we told him everything, there was no happiness in his eyes or even a hint at it. Terrence reacted too quietly. While Pete and I were yelling from happiness and couldn’t calm down and believe that luck for a long time.”       “He doesn’t wanna go on the tour?” Anna rounds her eyes.       “I don’t think so. Peter thinks Terrence agreed to do it not to make us upset and deprive us of the chance to make our dream come true. He’s just doing what he should and acting like a professional. But it all has no heart.”       “I think it’s clear why…” Anna moves her eyes to her hands. “Terrence is worried because of the breakup with Raquelle and can’t think of anything else. Of course, he doesn’t care about it all…”       “I know…” Daniel nods. “And nobody knows what’s gonna happen later.”       “I guess Raquelle is gonna meet him soon to tell him about the final breakup. To put an end to this story.”       “Terrence is trying to accept the fact that he broke up with Raquelle. It's very hard for him.”       “I’m so sorry they broke up…” Anna sighs heavily. “They looked so good when they were together. The entire show business admired their couple and made them one of the most beautiful ones. And all their friends and relatives couldn’t stop being happy for them.”       Anna falls into silence for two seconds.       “Their fans dreamed of seeing them together,” Anna confesses with a slight smile. “They said they should’ve started an affair.”       “Yeah, I know…” Daniel nods. “There were many articles about their couple on the Internet. And some fans of them really wanted to see them together.”       “My gosh… It’s so sad to realize so much time was wasted for nothing. But it’s much sadder to realize that my friend might make a great mistake, not thinking about her decision well and not talking with Terrence about it.”       “Get it… Nevertheless, he’s getting ready for the fact that nothing will be changed.”       “Did he give a damn about himself and lose a wish to do something?”       “When the blond and I just met Terrence, he had a wish to reach something. He looked quite confident and knew what he wanted, so to say… But now…” Daniel shakes his head. “Now he has lost his wish to reach any successes in his musical career.”       “Poor Terrence…” Anna pronounces with sadness in her eyes.       “Sorry… He’s really a talented man and could reach great success if he wanted it. Peter and I read comments that people send us, and everyone says that Terrence has just incredible vocals.”       “You did say he changed after meeting my friend at a club, where she fought with a blonde that came there with Terrence and was kissing him.”       “Yeah, it’s true,” Daniel nods. “But Terrence didn’t defend that girl. Actually, he never loved Rachel and used her for his benefit.”       “That was a bad thing of him, however.”       “I agree. And that man got jealous of your friend Raquelle and a policeman. But he was just told she was cheating on him and got no proof of it.”       “I know. Raquelle also got jealous of Terrence and that girl and was ready to pull her hair out.”       “I think if they hadn’t been at that club but another place, they would’ve surely killed each other.”       “Yeah…”       “I don’t judge her… Jealousy… Any guy would also get enraged if he saw his girlfriend with another man.”       “You know, I could understand her feelings, too. Because I might also get very jealous of my boyfriend and any girl and even be ready to fight with her.”       “That’s how?”       “Yes, yes, Perkins! I can be shy and dainty, but I can show my claws and be quite cruel.”       “I don’t think you’d have to.”       Daniel embraces Anna around the shoulders, cutely kisses her on the temple, and starts to stroke her red hair with special pleasure.       “You’ve got no reason to pull anyone’s hair,” Daniel adds with a slight smile.       “Remember, Perkins, if I get you caught with another girl, I will leave you immediately,” Anna says confidently, threatening Daniel with a finger. “I did say that I would not forgive a betrayer.”       “Don’t worry, my sweetheart, I need nobody but you.”       Daniel cutely kisses Anna on the cheek first, but then leaves two or three kisses on a curve of her neck and rubs his nose against it, making her smile shyly and relax a little.       “How could I betray such a beautiful girl that I feel so good with?” Daniel wonders. “Think yourself, princess!”       “Well, I don’t even know…” Anna rolls her eyes with a sly smile and shyly starts to stroke Daniel’s hair, the color of which is associated with dark chocolate. “But I wanna believe you.”       “Do you dare to doubt the sincerity of my words?”       “How could I dare to doubt you?”       Anna chuckles kindly and, softly grabbing Daniel’s face, cutely kisses him on the tip of his nose.       “Especially after I look into your charming eyes,” Anna adds. “And remember that you’ve done as much as nobody else has ever done before.”       “Oh, yeah, I’ve always had attractive eyes,” Daniel purrs with his head proudly raised and softly caresses Anna’s wrist, which he takes with both hands with a mysterious smile. “No person has been able to resist their beauty yet. And trust me, you would not resist for a long time.”       “We’ll see if you’re able to resist my charm.”       Anna shyly runs her finger over Daniel’s lips, which she looks at for two seconds, and moves her eyes to his eyes, grabbing him softly by the chin.       “But you didn’t actually resist me much for the first time and gave up too quickly,” Anna notices thoughtfully, sticking her chest up proudly.       “Why would I resist what makes me happy?”       Daniel leaves a short kiss on Anna’s lips and gives a curve of her neck and the front of it a few more ones, knowing how much she likes it, judging her wide smile and the fact that she closes her eyes for two seconds.       “And I think you can do something that would make my day more beautiful,” Daniel adds in a low, nice voice. “If you don’t refuse something I want so badly now…”       “So, what can I do for you, Daniel Christopher Perkins?” Anna smiles shyly. “Any caprice of yours will come true immediately.”       Deciding to waste no time, Daniel presses Anna closely to himself, tenderly grabs her grabs in his hands, and slowly connects his lips with the red-haired girl’s lips, feeling her hot, little uneven breath. He gets her involved in a tender kiss that Anna answers with pleasure, feeling how strong her heart starts beating after the barrel touch of his lips, and slides her hands over the male chest while his fingers get her hair a little disheveled or caress her head or face.       It’s not a shy and awkward kiss between two people, who are kissing for the first time. It's quite sassy and even passionate one. That makes them feel incredible emotions that make everything turn upside down. It seems like the longer these minutes last, the more amazing and exciting emotions they get every new second. Sometimes it seems that the heart is about to jump out of the chest and perform a crazy dance because it’s beating like crazy or stops for a moment.       It’s been much or little time since Anna and Daniel got each other involved in a tender kiss that became more passionate by this time. At some moment, the man breaks it and leaves lots of kisses on different sides of the girl’s neck that make her often close or roll her eyes and give quiet sighs, letting him know that she madly likes it. At this moment, his hands slide down and caress her knees and thighs for a long time. While the green-eyed beauty runs her hands underneath his outside clothes and gets a little blush after she runs her hands over his naked torso, underneath his T-shirt. It makes him chuckle kindly, look into her eyes for two seconds, and then give her a more passionate kiss on the lips, holding her by the back of her head with one hand and by her neck, which he caresses tenderly.       However, some time later, Daniel and Anna slowly step away from each other with a little heavy breath and, not breaking the hug and not stopping to caress some part of each other’s faces, look into each other’s eyes, smile shyly, and laugh. And then the girl kisses the man on the cheek several times with a wide smile, and he grabs her nose with his mouth and bites it slightly with his teeth, making her laugh quietly.       The lovers say nothing for a few seconds and just share a tender smile. But then Daniel thinks of something and looks at Anna with a mysterious smile, calling the memories of his wish to make a surprise for her.       “So, now it’s time to go to an interesting place,” Daniel says with a mysterious smile.       “Time to go where?” Anna rounds her eyes.       “It’s a surprise, but you’re gonna love it.”       “But what is that?”       “You will know soon.”       “Drop a hint!”       “I can’t.”       “But…”       “Time can’t wait, princess. Go to get ready. I’m waiting for you here in two minutes.”       “But where do we go?”       “Have patience, Anna Charlotte Seymour,” Daniel smiles mysteriously.       “But, Daniel!” Anna moans with a pitiful look.       “Beautiful….”       “Okay, I will be back soon! I will put on something different.”       “You should be ready in two minutes.”       “I can’t promise anything.”       While Daniel laughs shyly, Anna gets up from the sofa, goes quickly to the stairs, and goes to the second floor. The man stays in the living room and waits for her return patiently, sometimes looking at the watch on his hand. However, he does not have to wait too long because the girl comes back to him very quickly, putting on the clothes that she saw first and doing nothing to do her ponytail.       The happy Daniel takes Anna’s hand with a mysterious smile and takes her to the exit of the house, while she places her little purse with everything she might need above her shoulder. Later, she ends up outside the house as well as her boyfriend, who takes the keys and quickly locks the hall door.       When Daniel finally deals with the hated locker, he takes Anna’s hand again, not letting her look at the little mirror and fix her hair and makeup a little, and takes her somewhere. The man does not answer any questions of the girl that she always asks and just assures her that she is going to love it much. She does not have time to understand how the brunet helps her get into his car, seats himself in the driver’s seat, starts the motor, and goes on the road, going to the secret place and not doubting his plan is going to make his beloved girl happy and not to leave her indifferent.       

***

      The time of lunch is gone. The sun hid, and the blue sky that made everyone happy this early morning and at lunchtime, got covered with gray clouds. Even though the weather got worse, there is no rain now, but there is a possibility that everything might change very soon. Terrence did not want to stay home in this weather and is now walking slowly on the coast where he and Raquelle love being often. But the man does not know that the girl also loves coming here. They never walked here together – only alone. This place gets both of them attracted because nobody usually visits it.       Wearing a black leather jacket, a black t-shirt, jeans, and shoes and having quite a noticeable bristle on his face, Terrence is slowly walking at this place, watching the exciting waves with interest, breathing in the fresh air and often fixing his hair that got disheveled because of the strong wind.       Terrence is already aware of the fact that the famous pop-rock band “The Loser Syndrome” suggested Peter, Daniel and he go on a little tour in the cities of the USA. They gave the rising stars that could be very successful a chance to show themselves as the opening act of those, who could make them popular and help them get into the music business. It seems like anyone is supposed to be happy about this opportunity that the talented guys got so quickly like children. But only Peter and Daniel reacted to this piece of news with enthusiasm and got very happy with the chance they got. And Terrence reacted quietly, just shrugging and giving his agreement with a false smile.       Yes, the man agreed to go on the tour, but he does not have a wish to do something. Terrence does not just want to betray his friends, who have been dreaming of fame and worldwide recognition for a long enough time. Because of his duty to Daniel and Peter, he accepted their offer. But even though MacClife does not openly talk about what’s happening to him, and why he lost his motivation, his friends completely understand why their buddy is so depressed. And the reason for his suffering is a girl named Raquelle Cameron…       Someone would be happy to help Terrence get an interest in life again, but nobody knows how to help the man, who has been quite secretive lately and rarely talks about something personal. The man discusses only questions about the band with his friends and anything except for what hurts his heart. He literally does his work and automatically and does not give his soul to it.       Walking on the beach and watching how much the waves got enraged because of the strong wind that started now and could destroy the man’s hairstyle, Terrence thinks of all the happy moments that have happened to him. One of them was his first meeting with Raquelle. The man will never forget the first minutes that he spent next to the girl, who got him attracted him almost at once. That conquered him by not behaving in the way other girls did. Not the way he is used to…       Every time when Raquelle showed insubordination and clearly let him know she would not be one of those, who would incline the head for him, Terrence felt a much stronger affection for the young beauty. Who got him conquered when he saw her wearing a gorgeous red dress that she put on for their photoshoot together. Which they barely needed because they could not forget about their hate and focus on their work. It was impossible to stay indifferent and subdue a wish to give the girl a tender kiss that became the first one in her life. That became one of his best memories. That moment still makes him feel warm feelings. It makes him smile and feel sorry that something like that would hardly happen again.       Terrence falls into his memories so deeply and literally lives them again with a slight smile that he does not realize that the phone placed in the pocket of his leather jacket starts to vibrate strongly. But the vibration makes the man wake up, after all. He slowly stops, puts his hand in his pocket with a tired sigh, takes his gadget, and is surprised when he finds out that he received a new message that was sent by Benjamin Parker.       "Hey, Terrence, it’s Ben Parker. Sorry for distracting you from your business, but I would really like to talk to you about what happened between us. I think we need to talk about it and decide what to do. What do you think? Can we meet?"       Remembering how strongly they fought the last time, Terrence did not expect that Benjamin would love to text him. However, this message makes him understand that he is really missing speaking to the one that he has known since childhood and his jokes, which have always made his mood much better. He calls some memories of the days when they were kids and had fun playing together.       These memories make Terrence sad and good at the same time… Because he understands that he did a very bad thing to his friend, who said the absolutely right things and just tried to change his mind and wake him up. So, the man thinks he should apologize to his former friend if that one showed a wish to meet. So, after thinking a little, Terrence decides to solve this question tonight. The man quickly types a message and sends it to Benjamin to let him know that he agrees to do it.       "Alright, I agree to meet you. Now I’m not home, but I will be back soon and go nowhere. So, if you want, you can go to my home by seven or eight o’clock. I will talk to you."       Terrence gets an answer message from Benjamin somewhere a half minute later.       "Great! So, I will go to your home between seven and eight o'clock. I will try not to steal too much from you and leave shortly after I tell you everything I want."       After getting the positive answer, Terrence smiles slightly. And then he decides to walk and enjoy the time that the man spends in this quiet, very beautiful place.       

***

      Meanwhile, Raquelle is walking on the same beach where Terrence is. But she is quite far from him. Neither the girl nor the man guesses that they are currently in the same place. By the way, Raquelle is even dressed up in a similar way: black jeans, a shirt, and a leather jacket with many zippers and rivets that she did not put on before. She is now slowly walking on the beach and watching the ocean getting enraged, bringing up and bringing away big waves. The strong wind blows up the girl’s long brown hair, which the girl decided not to brush up into a tail or topknot. Her hair always gets into her eyes or her half-open mouth accidentally. But the girl does not care about it and takes it quietly.       By coincidence or accident, Raquelle also decides to think of something that has to do with Terrence. Who many wonderful memories are related to. But there are those, who gave her the best feelings. The memories of her first kiss ever that happened during the break at their photoshoot left a bright print in her memory. The girl would not have thought fate would decide that he was the one to be supposed to become a boyfriend of hers. The man, whom she disliked from the beginning. Who she suspected of spreading the false rumors. The life of whom she wanted to destroy because she believed that her nightmare began because of him.       Raquelle puts on a smile when she thinks of Alicia reminding her of Terrence and persuading her to confess that she began to feel sympathy for him. She called the memories of the feelings that she forgot. And how mad she got when she suddenly met Terrence where he should not have been. How strongly they fought! What a strong hurricane was happening inside both of them. The hurricane that calmed down after a hot kiss, which eventually brought them to an honest confession of love. Put a start to the best stage of her life when the lovers began to date.       Raquelle was enjoying what was happening for a few months. She clearly remembers every single moment she spent with Terrence. She remembers that she was too excited when he was going to introduce her to his mother, Rebecca. She remembers that she was nervous when she had to introduce her boyfriend to Alicia and Frederick. How much she was afraid those people would not accept her choice. But luckily, everything ended well, and the lovers kept dating. Later, they decided to live together, even though their relatives did not approve of the wish of the unmarried couple to live together in the same house. Everything was so beautiful and easy… Everything was so good… It seemed like nothing bad could happen.       But who would have thought their story would be over after a few months of their affair. Would be over in a bad way… With a breakup. That the girl is going to tell the man about at the nearest time. Yes, it’s madly unpleasant for her to do it. But Raquelle thinks it would be much better. This is the only way to do something good for herself and Terrence, whom she would hardly make happy. For whom she would hardly be good. At least, she truly believes it. She believes her relationship with the man came to the end, and they cannot bring it back to life.       While Raquelle is walking on the beach and thinks about all of it, she does not notice she has taken quite a long distance from the point where she was to the place where she is now. She gets so busy with her thoughts that she does not notice she accidentally runs into someone. Runs into Terrence, who does not also notice the girl and thinks of something. When they see each other, they shake slightly in surprise and sharply step back, and the man holds the girl’s arms for one or two seconds.       “Erm, hey…” Raquelle says quietly, smiling with the corners of her mouth, getting a little nervous because she does not know what to do to her hands.       “Hi,” Terrence greets a little hesitantly and swallows up nervously.       “Sorry, I didn’t notice you. Got busy thinking.”       “It’s okay. I’m also sorry about running into you. I just got busy thinking.”       “Didn’t I run into you too hard?” Raquelle shows anxiety. “Didn’t I hurt you?”       “No, no, everything’s fine,” Terrence shakes his head with a slight smile. “And you?”       “I’m fine, too. Don’t worry.”       Terrence nods and moves his eyes to the enraged ocean for a moment, while Raquelle sighs quietly.       “Erm, can I know what you are doing here?” Raquelle asks quietly, tightly embracing herself with her arms.       “I'm just walking,” Terrence replies thoughtfully as he shrugs.       “Walking?”       “Yeah… I like this place. It’s so quiet and beautiful…”       “I didn’t think I’d meet you here…”       “Actually, I often come here when I want to be alone and calm down.”       “That’s how!” Raquelle wonders truly. “How long ago did you find this place?”       “I dunno, I don’t remember, honestly… But I think I didn’t do it earlier or later than you did.”       “Maybe…”       “You like it, too?”       “Yeah, I also like being here… It’s the only place where I can run away from everyone and stay alone when I need it.”       “I get it… I’m here for the same reason…” Terrence glances at his hands. “It’s probably going to be one of my last walks here…”       “What?” Raquelle frowns slightly.       “I’m thinking of leaving this city more and more. Going to a different, much quieter place.”       “Did you decide to leave?” Raquelle asks hesitantly and swallows up nervously.       “Yeah, but it will not happen at the nearest time.” Terrence moves his eyes to the ocean. “There are some people, who I should do much for before I take my stuff and run where my eyes look.”       “And where do you wanna go?” Raquelle asks quietly with sadness in her eyes, sighing heavily.       “I don’t know, Raquelle… Maybe, I will just be traveling around the world for some time and discovering new places where I’ve been for my work. Places that I’ve never even thought I’d visit.”       “And how are you gonna live?”       “I can say nothing. Now my future is quite unclear and indefinite. But I think when the time comes, I will choose my way where I want to keep moving on.”       “I see…”       Raquelle moves her sad eyes down, comes closer to the water, squints down, and starts to pass her hand over the crystal-clear surface. Terrence silently watches her with great sadness in his eyes, being a little nervous either because he is afraid that they would start talking about their breakup, or because he is still ashamed of looking at her after behaving so disgustingly toward her.       “Erm, as we met…” Terrence pronounces hesitantly. “Don’t you want to walk with me?”       “Walk?” Raquelle rounds her eyes.       “We’d talk a little, see what there is here… We can’t say goodbye shortly after we welcomed each other.”       “Erm…”       “But if you don’t want, I don’t insist.”       “Okay.”       Raquelle quickly gets up, moves her eyes to Terrence, and comes closer to him.       “I will walk with you,” Raquelle agrees with a slight smile. “I would be happy to join you.”       Terrence says nothing and just nods. And then he, putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket, starts slowly walking across the coast. Raquelle follows him, putting her thumbs in the pockets of her black jeans. At first, the awkward silence settles in the air, during which every one of them often looks around, trying to find something to talk about to hear the voice they got used to. But later, Terrence decides to break the pause first:       “Maybe, I never said that before… But I’ve often had to come here.”       “Really?” Raquelle wonders truly. “Why?”       “Well… The case is that nobody usually walks here… And I like being where there are no people. Moreover, I love the sounds of the tidal waves. They always do good things for me.”       “Can't deny it,” Raquelle agrees with a slight smile. “I also love being here for the same reasons.”       “Yeah… As it turned out, we love being in the same place.”       “I found it by chance when I was driving in the city and went on the road that was not far from here. I decided to stop and see what there is here… And I really liked it. It’s very quiet and calm… Nobody would bother me if I wanted to run away from everyone and spend time alone.”       “The same happened to me.”       “You were driving the car for nothing?”       “Sort of.”       “I see…” Raquelle cracks a slight smile.       “Hey, I heard this place used to be a beach, but people got banned from swimming here later. So, people stopped coming here at some moment.”       “I don’t know why.”       “I don’t know. Maybe, the flow is too strong. Maybe, some predatory fish love swimming here. I dunno.”       “That’s good they just forgot about this place, not banned people from coming here.”       “Hopefully, it will never happen. Or I’d have no place to walk…”       “Me too.”       The awkward silence settles in the air again, after which Terrence decides to speak first while Raquelle fixes her hair, which got a little disheveled because of the strong wind.       “You know, I thought of something…” Terrence pronounces too hesitantly. “On the day we fought for the first time, I went to the bar first… And when I drank a glass, I went here. I was here until the morning, killing time in all ways or not watching time and looking into the distance. And it happened almost every single day in the same way.”       At this moment, Raquelle calls the memories of her talk with Benjamin that happened two weeks ago because he mentioned what Terrence was doing after fighting with the girl to hell.       “But why did you actually decide to start to drink?” Raquelle wonders with sadness in her eyes. “You do know well that you wouldn’t solve problems in this way. You can only get a headache and forget about your problems just for a while… Moreover, you always said you never tasted too strong alcohol and drank to the hell.”       “Don’t deny it,” Terrence pronounces without emotions. “But I thought it was the best solution for any situation.”       “You probably had some examples… I think someone of your friends also ran into problems and went to drink them.”       “I did, but I didn’t think about it… I really needed to get lost somehow. Or I would’ve gone insane. I could be sitting and worrying about what was happening all day long. So to say, it was my defense reaction… My salvation from falling in the hole that I could’ve been in if I’d kept being sober and always thought of that.”       Terrence falls into silence for two seconds and sighs heavily, while Raquelle watches him with sadness in her eyes and listens to him closely.       “There were moments when I wanted to leave home someday, disappear and never come back,” Terrence confesses. “Or to fall asleep and never wake up…”       “No, Terrence, don’t say it!” Raquelle begs with pity in her eyes.       “I thought it would be better if everyone thought I was dead or missing. And I’d feel easier…”       “Nobody would get better if you were dead or missing. Many people would suffer if they knew it.”       “I think when everyone learned about my actions, they really wanted me to die and disappear…” Terrence swallows up nervously. “If for not the duties for some people, I would’ve made their wish come true. I would’ve run away where nobody would find me.”       “Think of your mother, who’d always support you,” Raquelle advises. “What would she feel if she knew you’re missing? And what about lots of friends, who could give you help? And…”       Raquelle sighs heavily, getting ready to mention herself, but something stops at the last moment, and she says nothing.       “Yeah, my mother will always be by my side, it’s out of a discussion,” Terrence sighs tiredly, moving his sad eyes down. “And I’m making my relationship with my friends better…”       “Excellent! Not everything is lost!”       “But I don’t have a wish to reach something. I want nothing.”       “Terrence…”       “Even if I had one hundred friends, I wouldn't get happier… Because I don’t have the most important thing… What makes me feel like a human… An alive human…”       Raquelle rounds eyes full of pity and feels something jams inside her. The girl does not have to try to guess what Terrence means because it’s clear he is talking about her. On the one hand, she wants to tell the man what she actually feels and how much she is afraid to lose the man, to whom she is attracted in one or another way. But on the other hand, her mind says she should stay far from him. It tells the girl to stop speaking to Terrence, forget him and everything she got over next to him.       No matter how hard Raquelle tries, her mind gets a win over her feelings that woke up inside her literally after a long sleep. They woke up when she was about to lose what she did not appreciate somehow.       “I know what you’re talking about,” Raquelle pronounces quietly. “Completely understand…”       “It’s all really amazing…” Terrence notices thoughtfully. “You live quietly and don’t suffer ‘cause you lack something. But then someone, who makes you go forward, despite not wishing or feeling tiredness, comes into your life. Yes, that person never told me encouraging words and motivated me to reach what I wanted. But… It was easier next to the one…”       “I know.”       “Nevertheless, I had the motivation. I heard praises. I heard someone motivating me to make my dream come true. My dream of becoming a musician. I doubted if I should’ve done it. But when you suggested that I try to work on music, I understood I should’ve tried. Moreover, you supported my wish. But then it was gone. You stopped caring about it. And I did nothing. Nobody wanted to work with me.”       “I understand, but you know well we can’t be together anymore,” Raquelle replies in a much lower voice with tears coming to her eyes. “After what happened between us, we will never be able to trust each other.”       Raquelle swallows up nervously.       “Maybe, we had a chance to establish our relationship,” Raquelle adds. “But now we have to do nothing but accept our breakup.”       With these words, Raquelle sits on the sand in front of the ocean and starts watching the big waves that the strong wind brings up and brings away. Terrence sits down next to her, feeling the unbearable pain after these words and wishing to realize what’s happening is just a nightmare. But he subdues his wish to scream at the top of the beach about his pain and tries to hide his feelings under the mask of indifference.       “I know,” Terrence pronounces without emotions in a low voice. “That’s why I don’t hope for anything.”       “Now I came to myself more or less,” Raquelle confesses thoughtfully, sighing heavily. “I began to understand everything more or less clearly… And… I see no meaning in… Delaying the talk about the breakup…”       “And…” Terrence bites his lip slightly, feeling like he is getting more obsessed with great excitement and realizing it’s a little hard for him to breathe. “So… Are we… Breaking up?”       “Yes…” Raquelle moves her sad eyes to Terrence. “There is no need to torture each other. It would be much better if we broke up and lived our lives. Without thinking of what happened between us.”       Because of these words, Terrence gets much gloomier and more upset, feeling like someone stuck a knife into his heart. But the man does his best not to show how bad he feels. Even though it’s impossible to hide the sadness in his eyes, and it clearly lets him know what he actually thinks of it. However, Raquelle herself holds herself down as well as her wish to tell all the truth and beg for one more chance, putting on something like a smile and trying to stay as quiet as possible.       “Alright…” Terrence pronounces in a low voice. “I understood you.”       “Don’t worry, I’ll say nothing bad about you,” Raquelle promises quietly. “I will not tell everyone you’re a terrible man and shower you with mud somehow.”       “Just like I will not do. I will treat you with respect and will not say a bad word about you.”       “Yes, maybe, we fought much and were like a cat and a dog. But now I want to put an end to this conflict and do my best for us to solve this problem without scandals.”       “Yeah, sure,” Terrence nods. “I understand you. And I support you.”       “I’d like to believe it. Anyway, I don’t want to fight with you anymore and blame you for something. What’s done is done. Let’s not think about it.”       “You’re right.”       “At least, we didn’t get married. Or the divorce processing would’ve lasted for a few months. We would’ve had to wait for a long time before striking each other out of life.”       “Right… If we were married, we would have to share the joint property. And if we made children, our divorce would last forever.”       “Yeah,” Raquelle cracks a slight smile. “But now we can just say goodbye to each other and go.”       “Of course, it’s gonna be hard to accept the fact that we’re breaking up,” Terrence says hesitantly in a low voice and swallows up nervously. “But we need to keep moving on. We should… Let each other go…”       “Yeah…”       “Moreover, I also understand we made too many mistakes, which are the reason why… We can’t be together…”       “You’re right…”       Raquelle also feels her heart is squeezing from having to see Terrence so sad and much more depressed after she told him about her wish to end their relationship forever. Although the girl thinks it would hardly help him, she tries to comfort the man somehow while he barely holds down his emotions and tries to keep the mask of indifference on his face.       “At least, you can always call me if you need help or amiable advice,” Raquelle says in a lower voice.       “So…” Terrence pronounces hesitantly. “We can… Remain… Friends?”       “Of course, we can! Although we’re ending our romantic relationship, it doesn’t mean we couldn’t speak and be friends.”       “Yeah, sure…” Terrence pronounces quietly in a much lower, quieter voice, getting gloomier and gloomier. “I think people, who decided to start a relationship, get closer in one or another way. They could hardly be strangers while dating. We… Lived together for some time…”       “Right… Despite nothing, you became a very close person to me.”       “Really?”       “I really felt good with you. I don’t regret what happened between us. Thanks to that, I got many new impressions and the experience that I would need in the future. If I decide to… Fall in love with someone again.”       “Glad you think so…” Terrence cracks a false smile while his sad eyes slide over Raquelle’s face. “That time was wonderful. And… I shall never forget it.”       “Me too,” Raquelle pronounces quietly, still smiling falsely but wishing to scream loudly and cry. “That time was truly amazing. Even despite what happened between us. I’ll always be truly grateful to you for the wonderful memories you gave me.”       “You also gave me many amazing memories that I will remember with a slight smile on my face,” Terrence replies in a low voice, putting on something like a smile on his face. “And I also got the experience that will help me keep living. Without making the same mistakes.”       “I believe you,” Raquelle smiles falsely. “And if you decided to leave this place, I wish you luck. And…”       Raquelle swallows up nervously.       “I wish you to find a girl that would make you much happier than you were when you were in a relationship with me,” Raquelle adds hesitantly.       “Thank you so much, Raquelle,” Terrence thanks with a false smile. “I also wish you luck. And I hope you won’t get hurt by Simon Ringer anymore.”       “I wish.”       “Remember, you’ve got a tough character. If you really want, you can reach any goal you have.”       “Maybe…”       Raquelle swallows up nervously, starting to get sick of pretending. She thinks she has only two ways: either running away as far as possible, continuing to make Terrence think she feels nothing for him, or taking off the mask of indifference and telling him about her real feelings. But no matter how much she wants to open all the cards, her mind does not let her choose the second way. It does not let her open her heart to the man, to whom she is getting attracted again.       “You also have a tough character,” Raquelle notices in a low voice. “I know you can take anything. Whatever happens to you.”       “Maybe…” Terrence shrugs.       “Please, never give up. Reach everything you dream about. Don’t let anyone or anything prevent you from making your wish come true.”       “Yeah…”       “Don’t turn into a reclusive, and don’t withdraw into yourself. Think of your close people and reach everything you want, at least for them. For those, who are happy about your success.”       “Sure…” Terrence smiles falsely. “I will try…”       Despite being experienced enough in acting and being able to put on any mask, it’s madly hard for Terrence to pretend that he accepted the breakup. He is getting closer to breaking down. No, not screaming at someone or beating someone to half-death. He just wants to scream about his pain at the top of his lungs. That’s why Terrence understands more and more that he should leave this place before he is able to control himself somehow.       “Okay, I’ll leave…” Terrence pronounces in a quiet, low voice. “Anyway, you know my numbers… If you have some problems or questions, I’m on the line at any time. Friends should help each other. So, I am ready.”       Terrence gets up on his feet too sharply, realizing that it’s quite hard for him to breathe from the great excitement and being quite tense.       “Farewell,” Terrence almost whispers. “I wish you luck in finding the happiness that someone but me could give you. You deserve only the best… Something much better than what I gave you. I don’t doubt someone else would be much better than I am.”       Wasting no time, Terrence leaves in quite a quick step with a wish to find a place where there is nobody to stay alone, finally lets his emotions go out and stops pretending that the words about the breakup with Raquelle did not hurt him, and he wants to put an end to this story.       But it’s almost done. The time that gave Terrence and Raquelle much happiness and many unforgettable emotions will be just their memories. There is no way back and there will not be! The war of two opponents came to an end. The mind won. It made them sure that it would be better to forget the old love and start to write a new book called “Starting over again.” Unfortunately, their feelings were much weaker. Yes, they tried. They were fighting. But they lost. But it hardly gave happiness to the people, who were going to go separate ways.       When Terrence gets up and leaves nobody knows where, Raquelle finally lets out her emotions that she had to hide under the mask of indifference. She watches the ocean with her half-wet eyes for some time, then bends her legs at her knees, buries her face in them, and starts crying bitterly. Being is in despair because she lost the man, feelings for whom are getting stronger and stronger. They are so strong that she believes she would hardly love someone else so much. Terrence reached a too high level that someone would hardly reach. The love for him woke up inside her and let her know she would lose a part of herself by breaking up with that person forever.       However, not only her… Raquelle paid attention to how much Terrence changed when she told him that reconciliation between them would never be possible and told him about the end of their relationship. That’s why she gets tears in her eyes, and her heart starts squeezing. She realizes she is actually attracted to Terrence much more than she thinks. Even if he is by far not perfect. Even if he has done many bad things that did not show the best side of him.       But because the mind got obsessed with Raquelle’s mind and made her stop thinking she loved Terrence, the girl could say nothing and said they would not be together. Even though so much pain and disappointment were hidden under these false emotions. The girl is starting to understand that people were right when they said she should have at least tried to give the man one more chance. She realizes she pushed him off by succumbing to her mind, not her real feelings. Because of being helpless, she has only to cry, regretting not telling him everything and not letting him know that if the man wanted, she would be happy to give him a second chance to keep the promises that he made to her relatives and her.       Raquelle watches the big waves that come and leave for some time, sniffing quietly sometimes and wiping tears off her face. By this moment, the wind is getting stronger and blowing the girl’s hair much more. She realizes more and more that she does not want this turn of events. She does not want to break up with Terrence. She does not want to lose the one, without whom she feels bad, lonely, and sad.       “No…” Raquelle shakes her head with tears in her eyes, sharply moving her hair off her face. “No… No, I can’t let him go so easily at all! Can’t… I don’t wanna lose him. I don’t want!”       Raquelle closes her mouth with a hand and sniffs quietly.       “I can’t find the courage to break up with him forever…” Raquelle thinks with sadness in her eyes. “I can’t do that… I can’t! My heart bleeds from thinking he would be a stranger to me. I don’t want it! I don’t want! No!”       Raquelle nervously starts to pull down a sleeve of her black leather jacket with the hope that it will help her calm down a little.       “Yes, somehow that man gave me pain and made me disappointed in him,” Raquelle thinks. “But he didn’t bury his head. He didn’t want to sit and wait for me to come to him. He did just something! He decided to prove his regret by doing something, not saying something. Terrence didn’t talk to the wind. I saw that his actions were caused by the wish to prove his fault. That was true. I felt it! I knew it!”       Raquelle sniffs quietly again and cracks a slight smile.       “He was so brave at that moment…” Raquelle thinks. “So confident… He was ready to tear that stinker Simon apart after one look at me. He was worried when I fell off the roof… And he stayed with me in the hospital and supported me… I would’ve probably gone crazy if I had been there all alone while waiting for the news about Grandpa… But thanks to him, I got over that time…”       Raquelle swallows up nervously.       “Everything he was doing for me is a wonderful proof of the fact that he does care about me,” Raquelle thinks. “I really believed he regretted it and tried to prove he did all of that for me, not for a good image and a show…”       Raquelle starts to breathe heavily and carefully wipes tears off her face.       “Now, when my brains are working more or less well, I surely know I don’t wanna break up with him,” Raquelle thinks. “Because I love. Yes, I really love Terrence. And I’m really sorry for giving a damn about him and always ignoring him. My God… I was such an idiot when I preferred my career over my beloved man. He stopped loving me because of what I did… I am the only one to blame for what happened between us. If I had shown much more love for that man, nothing would’ve happened. And I wouldn’t have to look into his eyes and lie that I didn’t see any other way but to accept the breakup… I don’t want it… I don’t want!”       Raquelle closes her face with both hands for two seconds and runs them over her hair, blinking often to get rid of tears, because of which she sees everything a little blurry.       “You’re about to make a great mistake, Raquelle,” Raquelle thinks with sadness in her eyes. “If you do this now, you will never fix everything. The people were right when they said you would regret it. Because I am already regretting it. Regretting the fact that I actually began to talk about it. I wouldn’t forgive myself for not giving a second chance to the man, who deserves it. Everyone makes mistakes. Nobody is perfect.”       Raquelle shakes her head.       “It sounds like an excuse, but…” Raquelle thinks. “Terrence didn’t beat me. He didn’t terrorize me… He just shouted at me, blamed me for something, and slapped me only once… His reaction was more or less unpredictable… Moreover, I wasn’t afraid to provoke him. I should’ve been silent, but I, idiot, argued, screamed, and waved my hands… I behaved like a hysterical lady.”       Raquelle glances at her hands.       “If MacClife had constantly beaten me, I wouldn’t have been with him,” Raquelle thinks. “And my relatives would’ve strangled him with their hands if it had happened. They would’ve done their best for me not to be with him.”       Raquelle sniffs quietly and locks her fingers tightly.       “I must try to get over myself and at least give him a chance to say what he actually wants,” Raquelle thinks. “I’ve gotta find out if he has a wish to save our relationship and start everything over again. I would always break up! Nothing would happen if I decided to give Terrence a second chance or at least talk to him about the future of our relationship.”       Raquelle nervously looks around and then glances at the simple silver ring that she is wearing on her right hand, doubting that her decision about the breakup is wrong more and more.       “Something tells me it’s not too late to try to fix everything,” Raquelle thinks, getting more confident. “It’s not too late to change for the better. It’s not too late to keep my promises and become a good girlfriend.”       Raquelle tucks a strand of hair behind her ear with a heavy breath.       “Maybe, I listened to my mind, which told me to forget that man at first, but now I will do what my heart says,” Raquelle promises. “Whatever happens now, I will never regret deciding to open my heart and saying I don’t actually want to break up.”       Raquelle exhales sharply, gets up on her feet quickly, runs some distance, stops at some moment, and starts looking around, trying to understand where she should go. The beach is large enough, and Terrence’s tracks are already gone. He could leave this place and go to a different place. So, she might not have a chance to talk to him.       “Where do I find him?” Raquelle asks herself, moves her hair off her face with a sharp movement of her hand, and looks around with a heavy breath. “Where? I should find him before he leaves. Oh… If he hasn’t done yet…”       Raquelle looks into the distance, being obsessed with the excitement and sometimes sniffing quietly and wiping tears off her eyes.       “Something tells me that he’s still here,” Raquelle sniffs quietly. “He’s here, I feel it… I just need to find him and call him…”       Raquelle sighs heavily, still looking around.       “But where do I find him?” Raquelle asks herself. “Where? While I’m running on the whole beach, he may leave. But I can’t let it happen! My God, help me. Where is he? Show me the way.”       Raquelle looks around for some time and then starts to realize that she looks at the same side too often. She thinks of something for a few seconds and decides to go there with the thought that she will always be able to come back in case the way is wrong. At first, the girl walks quietly but quickens a step more and more every second and actually starts running at some moment. The more Raquelle runs, the more she believes she is very close to her goal. It seems she needs a little. Little… Too little…       So, after a short run on the coast, Raquelle frowns slightly, looks into the distance better, and sees a male silhouette somewhere far away that she would recognize anywhere, no matter what he is wearing. That’s Terrence. Who, as the girl noticed, is wearing almost the same clothes she put on. It seems like the goal is almost here, but something stops Raquelle again. She gets obsessed with some fear that does not let her brace herself and come to the man to tell him all the truth.       So, the girl watches the man for a long enough time while he, slouching strongly, is walking on the other side of the beach in a slow step with his head inclined and his hands put on his pockets, and saying something under his nose, being devastated and looking like he is about to shed a tear. Seeing Terrence being so broken, Raquelle’s heart squeezes, and she understands she no longer wants to see him like this. So, the girl silently promises herself to do her best not to let this story end in a bad way. The brunette braces herself quickly and puts all the doubts aside. When she understands she is ready, Raquelle exhales sharply and comes to the man confidently.       

***

      Terrence does not rush to leave this place, not even suspecting that Raquelle wants to come to him. After hearing her words about the breakup, he lost any hope. He did not almost have it, but now he does not doubt he cannot change anything. He feels much more upset than before because his greatest fear has come true. The girl’s words became a strong slap that hurt the man much more than anything else. It becomes one of many reasons why he really wants to leave this place and hide from everyone. He will definitely do this after Raquelle let him know her wish to do it is final.       “It’s all over…” Terrence whispers, slouching strongly. “She told me about the breakup… The final breakup… What I was afraid of has happened. I can’t change anything more.”       Terrence shakes his head.       “I’ve really lost her…” Terrence adds. “Forever. And I will hardly be happy. It’s impossible without her…”       Terrence sighs quietly.       “So, I can quietly sell my house, take my stuff and get out of here as far as possible,” Terrence whispers. “Even tomorrow! I could take my stuff and get out of here tomorrow.”       Terrence slowly stops and raises his head up with a quiet moan.       “I hope I’ll quickly find someone to buy my house…” Terrence expresses hope with sadness in his eyes. “I would like to end it all quickly and finally get out of here. For some time, and then I will see. Maybe, I will find a good place.”       After walking to this place, Terrence decides to leave and go to his home. To wait for the arrival of Benjamin, who showed a wish to talk to him. Sadly, this is the last walk of him here. He will no longer come back here. That’s what makes him upset, because he got the love for this place that could help him calm down just a little.       When he silently says goodbye to this beach, Terrence exhales sharply and, slouching slightly, wants to come to his car that is parked not far from here to go to his home. But when the man quickens a step, he hears the very familiar voice of Raquelle, who is coming to him quickly from nowhere:       “Terrence!”       Hearing his name, Terrence turns around quickly and sees Raquelle, who is coming to him confidently. He has to put on the mask of indifference again not to betray his feelings and emotions. Moreover, he wonders what the girl needs because they talked about everything. Nevertheless, MacClife keeps standing in the same place and watching the girl running up to him closer and closer. And then the girl breathing a little heavily starts to speak confidently but confidently:       “Wait, please…”       “What’s wrong?” Terrence asks without emotions.       “Please, don’t go! It’s all wrong. It shouldn't be happening like this…”       “What?”       “We both will make a mistake if we do this. If we really go on four sides.”       “What’s going on? Why are you so excited?”       “Maybe, we stop playing this cruel game that gives both of us so much unbearable pain and many sufferings?” Raquelle asks quietly, putting her hands on her hips.       “Cruel game?” Terrence frowns slightly. “What kind of game are you talking about?”       “The game named ‘Pretend that you got outta love with the one to be dear to you and lie to them about it.’”       “I don’t get it…”       “You get it all.” Raquelle crosses her arms over her chest. “Do you really want to keep pretending that you don’t want what I want?”       “Erm…” Terrence stutters, being surprised by what he hears.       “Stop pretending, Terrence, I’m sick… I’m sick of hiding what I actually feel. And from now on, I am no longer going to be silent.”       “What?” Terrence shakes his head sharply. “Wait, wait… But you just said our conciliation is impossible. You did just say our relationship ended!”       “Yes, I said it, but…” Raquelle nods.       “Did you change your mind for five or ten minutes?”       “Erm, you see…”       Raquelle moves her eyes down and then, embracing herself with her arms, slowly steps aside.       “What?” Terrence asks slowly.       “I can’t take this anymore,” Raquelle confesses in a depressed voice, moving her half-wet eyes to Terrence, and shakes her head. “Can’t…”       “What can’t you take anymore?” Terrence asks surprisingly, with a scare in his eyes.       “With lies.”       Raquelle sniffs quietly, barely holding down a wish to cry too bitterly because she might not be able to tell Terrence what she wants.       “I’m sick of lying that I can do what I can’t change or fix,” Raquelle confesses with a part of despair. “What I can’t find the courage to do. I’m so tired that I want to stop this show right now that gives me great pain.”       “Sorry, but I don’t understand you,” Terrence frowns slightly, putting his hands on his hips. “You said our reconciliation was impossible, and we broke up forever, but now you run up to me and say you want to end this show.”       “It’s true. I want to put an end to this show.”       “What do you want? What do you actually want?”       “It’s madly hard for me to keep indifference. Because every time I try to say what’s actually not the truth, a crazy hurricane of emotions wakes up inside me. I… I lost control of it…” Raquelle sighs heavily and shakes her head, glancing aside for a second. “I thought I learned to hide my feelings well. But it’s not the truth. One of the things I will never be able to do is keep my emotions inside and pretend that nothing happens.”       “I understand your feelings,” Terrence pronounces thoughtfully. “Because I have to feel all the same. When I lie to the one that means a lot to me.”       “And how it’s unpleasant for me to lie to someone I can’t treat indifferently. I do wanna slap myself for any false word he hears…”       “In my mind, I’ve beaten myself to half-death for everything I’ve done…” Terrence sighs quietly with sadness in his eyes. “One slap wouldn’t be enough for me…”       “Listen, erm…” Raquelle inclines her head for two seconds but then moves her eyes to Terrence slowly, hesitantly, embracing herself with her arms. “Can I ask you about one little thing?”       “Yes, of course,” Terrence shrugs. “You can ask me anything. If I can do something for you, let me know.”       Raquelle says nothing for two seconds, looking at Terrence with tears in her eyes.       “Don’t leave me,” Raquelle begs with despair and tears, shaking her head. “Please, Terrence, don’t go! I do know it would probably be worthless to do something after what happened. But… You can’t even imagine how bad I feel when I realize I won't see the one, who means so much to me either today, tomorrow, or after tomorrow.”       Raquelle sniffs quietly.       “I feel very bad,” Raquelle adds in a little shaking voice. “I feel bad ‘cause I understand I might put an end to everything possible… Take a wrong step that I might regret much later…”       It’s getting harder for Raquelle to breathe because she is too excited and cannot stop giving sobs.       “I’m really afraid to lose you forever, Terrence,” Raquelle confesses with tears. “But I completely understand that I did. Because I made too many mistakes and wasn’t the one I should’ve been.”       Raquelle locks her fingers tightly.       “Yes, I’m guilty of everything, it’s the truth…” Raquelle recognizes her fault. “And it’s very hurt. It’s hurt to understand that I fix nothing.”       Raquelle inclines her head.       “It’s always hard for me to talk about it to someone,” Raquelle adds. “Because I lie when I make myself sure that I really got out of love with you. But that’s not the truth! I have never stopped loving you! You’ve always meant very much to me. And now I understand that I don't wanna lose such a close person.”       Raquelle falls into silence for two seconds and looks down.       “Don’t believe me if you want, but I lied to you many times when I said I didn’t love you,” Raquelle confesses in a little shaking voice. “It was an absolute and insolent lie by me… I said I never loved you and just used you. But that’s not the truth. I dated you because I wanted it. Yes, the pressure from my family was colossal. But the decision was made by me.”       Raquelle shakes her head.       “Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe it,” Raquelle adds. “Everybody said I lied when talking about my eternal love for you. But that’s not the truth. I didn’t lie! I really felt good with you. Even though my feelings fell asleep because of my ambitions and my wish to prefer my job over my beloved man. But they’re awake… And I’m starting to understand that I’d make a great mistake if I let our story end. I would never forgive myself for that.”       Raquelle sighs heavily and goes two steps back from Terrence.       “I don’t believe my words could change something…” Raquelle says with pity in her eyes. “I can talk about my feelings as much as I want. I can prove that I’m really regretting bringing everything to the wish to break up… But I… I needed to tell you the truth ‘cause I… I kept it inside for too much time… And I couldn’t be silent any longer. I… I let you know what I actually think about it. And it’s the truth. I am not lying. Now my words are true. I am saying what I think about. What I feel.”       Raquelle makes a quiet sob, inclines her head, turns her back on Terrence, and goes a few more steps back. Two moments later, she wants to run away as far as possible because of shame. But the girl does not manage to go far because the man runs up to her instantly, grabs her tightly under an arm, and turns her on himself.       “No, no, Raquelle, please, don’t go!” Terrence jabs with pity in his eyes. “Please, stay…”       Raquelle says nothing and just sniffs quietly, seeing well that Terrence looks at her with pity and despair in his eyes.       “Don’t go!” Terrence begs with despair. “Don’t leave me! Everything you said is about me, too. You described everything that’s happening inside me…”       “Terrence…” Raquelle pronounces in a little shaking voice.       “I also tried to make myself sure that I felt out of love with you, saying there could be nothing between us, and I made myself think our breakup was unavoidable. But it was a lie. The absolute lie. I never lied as insolently as I did… It’s still very unpleasant and hard for me to talk about it, but a bigger part of talks with some people has lately been about what happened.”       Terrence exhales sharply, still being very nervous and breathing a little hard, and lets Raquelle’s arm go by this moment while she looks at him with true sadness in her eyes.       “But I feel bad not because of that, but because of the reason for our breakup,” Terrence confesses excitedly. “Even a little memory about that day makes me shake. As if everything happened some time ago.”       Terrence swallows up nervously.       “It was hard for me to get over that,” Terrence adds. “And I don’t feel better now… Because I was never such a stupid moron… I was deceived like a brainless idiot and believed the lie that eventually turned me into a beast.”       Terrence shakes his head.       “Damn, I’m really stupid…” Terrence swears. “Just an idiot…”       Terrence glances aside, while Raquelle looks at the man with sadness in her eyes and listens to him closely.       “Do you really want me to stay?” Raquelle asks hesitantly.       “Really want…” Terrence pronounces with sadness in his eyes and softly takes Raquelle by her forearms. “Please, Raquelle, don’t do this. Don’t go. At least, give me a chance to explain everything again and prove that I’m not a heartless scumbag, who regrets nothing. I’m an alive human! I have coincidence and shame.”       “If you ask me not to go, I will not leave. I shall stay here.”       “Really?”       “I came here for that. To stay and do my best not to see you being so broken…”       “Raquelle…”       “I do see well how bad you feel now. And I can’t quietly watch you suffering. It’s hurtful for me to watch it.” Raquelle sniffs quietly. “I’m sick of pretending to be a heartless doll… Moreover, I was fighting with my feelings for a long time but couldn’t get rid of them. Now I understand that my love for you is still alive. And it probably got a little stronger… As they say, you start to appreciate it when you lose it… So, I lost it and… I realized that I was a stupid idiot.”       Terrence smiles truly for the first time in a while. Even if these words are going to be one more fleeting passion and will be forgotten later, he feels much happier anyway. These words are like something warm that warms up the soul. They are like a great relief. Like the loss of a heavy burden. The man wants to feel happy, at least for a while, and believe that everything is really the truth.       Two seconds later, Terrence takes Raquelle in his tight hug with a little bit of greed, while she accepts it with great pleasure, burying her nose in the man’s shoulder and putting her arms around his neck. While he puts his hands between the brunette’s scapula, buries his face in her shoulder for a moment, and softly caresses her head when hearing her quiet sobs.       Sometimes people say that even a little hug always brings them great happiness. Raquelle and Terrence are happy to feel each other again, and breathe in the smell that they have already memorized somehow. Even if it’s going to be one more fleeting passion that they cannot resist, just like they had it at the hospital when Frederick was taken there, the couple is enjoying what’s happening. Enjoying the pretense of each other. Moreover, every one of them gets very little hope that not everything is lost. They are still able to do their best to fix everything. To try to become happy next to each other.       After getting a little dose of happiness, Raquelle and Terrence slowly step away from each other and look at each other hesitantly, as if they are asking what happened and forgot all the past offenses. They put on a slight smile and got a fire in their eyes for a moment that people had not seen for a very long time.       “Maybe, we sit down and watch the ocean?” Raquelle suggests hesitantly. “And talk about everything we’re worried about.”       “I agree,” Terrence nods with a slight smile. “I don’t know what it would lead to, but as they say, trying is worth it.”       “Yeah…”       Terrence and Raquelle crack a smile and slowly go closer to the water, which they are far from. When the young people come to the right place, they sit down in front of the ocean. The strong wind that is not definitely going to get weaker still blows up the girl’s long, beautiful brown hair and gets the man’s black hair disheveled. But both of them do not care about it and quietly fix their hair at times when it gets into their eyes or mouth.       The young people spend a few seconds in silence, watching the big waves with a slight smile on their faces. And then Terrence, on the shoulder of who Raquelle’s head is resting, decides to break the pause, succumbing to his wish to run his fingers through the girl’s hair. And she reacts positively enough, judging by the fact that she closes her eyes from pleasure.       “You can’t imagine what kind of idiot I feel…” Terrence confesses quietly. “Because I stopped controlling my character. Of course, I’ve always had to pay for the consequences of my acts after stopping to keep my emotions under control. But now I outdid myself…”       “So, do you often have flashes of aggression?” Raquelle asks.       “Unfortunately, yes. I’ve suffered from my tough character since childhood… When I get my control weaker, I get into some bad situation.”       “That’s how…”       “But this time, I stopped watching my emotions and did what I wanted. And it led to such terrible consequences… Because of which I fought with a bigger part of the people I love… Even though I’ve lately managed to explain everything and make my relationship with them better…”       “Really?”       “Yes, those, who turned their backs on me because of the situation with you, are coming back to my life again. Saying it’s the business of you and me.”       “I’m glad it’s getting better.”       “Yeah, but…” Terrence swallows up nervously and shakes his head. “I would give literally all I have to get what I had before back. Well, or at least try to get everything I had back… And do my best to never lose it again because of my crazy character.”       “Agree,” Raquelle pronounces with a slight smile. “But I’d give much to strike out what I want to erase from my memory forever.”       “Me too… What happened is like a nightmare… The endless nightmare…” Terrence exhales quietly with sadness in his eyes. “I think it impacted all of us very much. We’ve changed so much that we can barely recognize someone we knew some time ago.”       “Yeah, it really changed me much,” Raquelle confesses quietly. “I was different… I mean… I realized that I didn’t change. I stayed the girl I was in childhood.”       “Huh?” Terrence moves his questioning look to Raquelle.       “I used to think I’d get over any shock. That I was strong, confident, and fearless. But it was just auto-suggestion. That had worked before I met Simon. That man made me feel unprotected and helpless. Made me understand that I’m still the weak, unprotected girl that I was in my early years. When I was shamelessly insulted and humiliated.”       “That man turned everything upside down,” Terrence says, starting to look at the horizons across the endless ocean. “But if Simon had been caught many years ago, nothing would’ve happened.”       “I managed to get over the case when he slandered and humiliated me for everyone,” Raquelle says quietly. “But the hell that we lived in for two and a half months, was the worst time of my life. It was much easier for me to complete with other models when I just started to build my career.”       “I’ll never forgive that stinker for daring to tell me such a disgusting lie about you and making me turn into the opposite version of me.” Terrence chuckles quietly and gets a little gloomy, still looking at the horizons. “A vengeful, shameless, and enraged bastard that wanted to take revenge for what’s never happened. Who was terribly worried about his reputation and afraid that people would stop loving and praising him. I believed the bullshit like a little naïve boy. I succumbed to his provocations. Let him put me under the pressure and play with me in the way he wanted.”       Terrence growls quietly.       “I wanted to kill him at first,” Terrence confesses. “Strangle him with my own hands.”       “And I wanted to strangle him when he began to make my life worse,” Raquelle replies gloomily. “And I will never forgive him for what he did to me and my life. For what he did to my parents, who would’ve been alive and healthy if that scumbag hadn’t killed them.”       “Yeah, this is the first time I meet the one to commit murder because of the rejected love,” Terrence says thoughtfully. “He really went out of his mind because of revenge! He planned something for so many years, waited and revenged… And killing two people wasn’t enough for him! He wanted to deal with their daughter.”       “If I’d known it before, I would’ve preferred revenging him for my parents’ death and doing my best to put him in prison. And my family would’ve surely brought that scumbag to jail for the tricks, because of which two innocent people died.”       “The important thing is that everything’s clear now.”       “I hate that bastard. I hate.” Raquelle shakes her head. “Before I met Simon, I hadn’t known people, whom I literally wished to die. But Ringer… That snake… I hate him…”       “I also never wished anyone death or terrible tortures,” Terrence replies, nervously pulling a sleeve of his jacket while Raquelle’s head is still lying on his shoulder. “And there was nobody, who I madly disliked… But Simon became the first one. That bastard came into my life and turned everything upside down.”       “I’m surprised you actually got in touch with him.”       “Oh, I’m shocked, too.”       “You did say you got problems after you met him.”       “Yup, right…” Terrence presses Raquelle closely to himself and caresses her head tenderly. “I didn’t just know good people from bad. And I easily believed Ringer when he told me about how bad he lived. But if I had known how dangerous he was, and two innocent people died because of him, I would not have even talked to him.”       “If that man hadn’t had some familiars, he wouldn’t have done half of what he did. His ability to speak beautifully and wash someone’s brains and the stolen money that he paid them to ruin my life wouldn’t have helped him.”       “Oh, yeah! He really got a wonderful charm. He knows how to get what he wants. You wouldn’t notice that you’d start to serve him and look into his eyes.” Terrence simpers evilly. “He knew that just because he was so ugly, he could at least use his skill to speak… So, he surrounded himself with an army that helped him bring the plan of revenge to an end and make you feel terrible.”       “I will never forget.” Raquelle grabs a rock and starts to draw some figures on the sand. “I’m still shaking from everything I had to get over when I met him face-to-face. I was frightened to be in that terrible place without protection and worried about my life.”       “And I was shaking from thinking that man would’ve done something to you,” Terrence replies with sadness in his eyes.       “But you knew it.”       “I could imagine what Simon would do. And my suspicion was confirmed.”       “And were you sure he would love to try to rape me?”       “No, I couldn’t think he’d go so crazy that he would love to rape you.”       “At the bottom of my heart, I understood Simon made me go there to kill me. But I wanted to believe it wasn’t the truth until the end. I would manage to persuade him to give up and leave me alone. But when Ringer took a pistol and pointed it at me, I realized Grandpa and Auntie were right.”       Raquelle sighs heavily.       “Yes, one day, I had to be under the gun…” Raquelle adds, tears her head off Terrence’s shoulder, and looks down. “But I had the protection. And this time, I was going there all alone. There was nobody around. I was really scared…”       “When…” Terrence pronounces with sadness in his eyes, embracing Raquelle around the shoulders. “When I saw Simon putting a gun against your head, I wanted to give a damn about everything and do my best to get that freaking pistol out of his hand and shoot at his head. I didn’t care about myself… If he’d shot me, damn it! I was just ready for anything for him to leave you alone and do nothing to you.”       “You know…” Raquelle moves her sad look to Terrence slowly. “When I heard your voice, I got great relief. I didn’t expect to meet someone there. But then you came as well as all those policemen… I suddenly got better. I did because I wasn’t alone. Someone could help me get off that sick stinker.”       “We didn’t know where to go when we were examining that building,” Terrence replies quietly. “We found you thanks to your voices. When you began to scream loudly and cursed him. That was the only way to understand where to go.”       “I thought my hell would end. But as it turned out, it was getting started. Because what I will never forget happened. Even if I make myself stop thinking about it, I’m gonna see it in my worst nightmares.”       “I got really frightened when Simon took you away nobody the hell knows where,” Terrence confesses, getting a little tense. “The panic was strong… I wanted to fret and fume. At the thought that he would kill you. After raping you.”       “That man got nuts at all. He saw my mother in front of him, said he wanted to make love with her, and dreamed of having a child with her.”       “I think if not for the policemen, I wouldn’t have braced myself and gone to find you. They got, so to say, wake me up. And we quickly became a team: some people went to find Simon’s accomplices, and the others went after you and that bastard.”       “I will never forget everything he wanted to do to me…”       Raquelle feels that a tear rolls over her cheek slowly.       “It’s even unpleasant for me to talk about it,” Raquelle adds in a lower voice. “Unpleasant… Hurt… That sick man wanted to rape me… Yes, Simon thought he saw a different person… But that was me. He wanted to rape me.”       Raquelle sighs heavily, getting quite tense and nervous.       “First, I wanted someone to help me out and do something,” Raquelle confesses with quiet sobs. “But later, I stopped caring… And I almost lost my voice after shouting… So, I was just crying quietly. Trying to accept the fact that it was worthless to scream, 'cause someone would’ve hardly heard me. And I got horrified from thinking that sick man would take his pants off and rape me right there…”       Terrence moves a sad look on Raquelle, hugs her around the shoulders, and softly caresses her head, while she uses it and presses herself closely to the man.       “It was madly unpleasant for me to see that scene,” Terrence says with sadness in his eyes. “I thought I’d kill that bastard or bury him alive right there… I was obsessed with such a great evil that I had never felt before.”       “I must confess…” Raquelle pronounces a little hesitantly and moves her eyes to Terrence. “I did want you to come to help me out.”       “I know. I heard your voice well. Your beg for help.”       “All my hopes were on you. And thank God, my plea was heard, after all.”       “I didn’t hold myself down and attacked him, despite the policemen’s order not to do stupid things. Nobody would've held me down. I didn’t have the strength to hold myself down, and my wish to take revenge on that stinker for all the suffering was much stronger.”       “I remember your fight,” Raquelle confesses quietly. “But I barely realized what happened… First, Ringer wanted to take off his clothes, and then you showed up and started to beat that stinker.”       “And I was doing it with great pleasure. I did want to hit him strongly and make him pay for all the terrible tricks. I got obsessed with a demon! I didn’t hold myself down.”       “I saw it.”       “But in that case, I don’t regret being so aggressive. That’s the thing that I’ll never regret.”       “You know…” Raquelle smiles shyly, looking at Terrence. “You were different at that moment. Not what you had been before.”       “What do you mean?”       “No, I don’t wanna say you behaved badly or made me fear you. Vice versa! I got some pride! I was so happy you were trying to save me from that stinker in any way. I saw the other side of you and understood you could be a wonderful protector that I could always count on.”       “I did like myself at that moment,” Terrence laughs quietly. “But I’m sorry that I didn’t beat him enough and fight with him longer. Because he got out and put the gun against your head again.”       “Oh, I believed in the hopelessness of the situation again. I started to say goodbye to the people I loved.” Raquelle swallows up nervously. “I lost a wish to fight. So, I decided just to wait for my sad fate. I was getting ready to go to my parents.”       Raquelle falls into silence for a second.       “And then, that man took me to the roof…” Raquelle shakes her head. “You can’t imagine what I felt when standing on the edge. When looking down… I felt dizzy and had my whole life before eyes.”       “I was mad because the policemen couldn’t neutralize him when they were trying to shoot at him,” Terrence says thoughtfully. “That moron managed to avoid getting a bullet. I couldn’t also get into him when I grabbed a gun.”       “And I couldn’t run. He caught me shortly. And… He dragged me with him when he started to fall.”       “I’m still surprised by how you managed to climb up.”       “I magically grabbed a shaking construction and climbed on it. Then I… I decided to take a break for a few minutes. To find the strength to get up.”       “The case was so hopeless. No hope for the best.”       “I didn’t also understand how I was so lucky. And I was madly surprised when I ended up on that construction. When I looked down and… Saw Simon… Lying in blood… Unconscious…”       “And did you try to climb up to the roof from that construction?”       “Yup. Though, I had to take a risk ‘cause the beam, on which I was hanging, was too far away. I needed to jump aside. High. Across the gap. But I had no strength just to stand.”       “You could just scream and ask for help. We would’ve understood it.”       “My throat hurt after all those shouts. I literally lost my voice. And at that moment, I felt like an exhausted kitten trying to meow and ask for help but being heard by nobody.”       “Anyway, you didn’t give up. You braced yourself and went ‘till the end.”       “Adrenaline helped me. And no matter how hard I felt, I didn’t want to die.”       “I get it.”       “But honestly, I just managed to recall what happened after falling from the roof. I had had a hole in my memory before. There was a shooting… But next, I was lying on the floor in your arms, crying, and not being able to stop…”       “And what happened next?”       “Nope… Someone was running somewhere, doing something, and saying something,” Raquelle looks at her hands. “Everything was in a daze… I remember someone coming to me and asking something… The doctors doing something, while I was lying on the sofa powerlessly… Not understanding where I was and what happened… I can’t even remember what they asked. And what I told them. Though, I remember that you were sitting next to me and holding my hand.”       “I get it.”       “But I clearly remember the fateful call of Aunt, who told me about Grandpa’s heart attack… And I will not forget how shocked I was when I heard the piece of news. Everything went black for a moment… If I hadn’t sat on the sofa, I could’ve fainted for the second time.”       “I was also so dumbfounded that I did everything automatically…” Terrence replies quietly. “Answering questions and asking something… Someone giving me some papers to sign…”       “By the way, I don’t actually remember how we reached the hospital.”       “Well, knowing that you didn’t move your eyes off the window and were thinking of something, I’m not surprised,” Terrence shrugs with a slight smile.       “Yeah?”       “I sometimes watched you in the rearview while being on the way and saw you weren’t changing a pose after you got into the car. When you struck a pose, you kept it and said nothing.”       “As I said, I had a strong shock,” Raquelle shrugs with a confused smile. “So, I even forgot half of everything that happened…”       Raquelle sighs tiredly.       “But I would’ve rather forgotten what that stinker was doing to me…” Raquelle wishes. “The way I almost said farewell to everyone.”       “Maybe, you will forget it later,” Terrence expresses hope.       “Hardly.”       “Well, you won’t forget… You won’t just think about it.”       “I dunno… Maybe…”       Terrence says nothing and just cracks a slight smile.       “But I came to myself more or less after…” Raquelle wants to say thoughtfully.       “After we started a talk?” Terrence adds.       “Well, yeah… But we argued a little, called the memories of the past offenses, and got a little jealous of each other… I mean, I got obsessed with it…” Raquelle laughs shyly. “But later, I calmed down a little. And we talked quietly. Probably, for the first time in a while.”       “I think we never had heart-to-heart talks before,” Terrence says thoughtfully.       “And I must confess that talk helped me get lost for a while. So, I need to thank you for that. Because if you hadn’t been there, I would’ve gone crazy before Aunt’s arrival…”       “That’s why I couldn’t leave you alone. You had such a bad condition that you could’ve done anything. So, I must’ve stayed. I must’ve stood all your hysterics.”       “And I’m really grateful to you for that,” Raquelle smiles shyly. “I really needed someone to talk with and to hug someone tightly to get better. And after breaking a barrier, I was ready even to communicate with the one, who I hated some time ago with a wish to ruin his life.”       “Don’t think I was doing all of that because of a sense of shame about you and your relatives’ plea to help you. I mean… Because of that. But it’s not the main reason why I decided to help you get off Simon and stayed in the hospital until Alicia’s arrival.”       “Really? What’s the main reason?”       Before saying something, Terrence exhales sharply and smiles slightly, not being afraid to talk about it and being sure about his words.       “The main reason is that I love you,” Terrence replies confidently without nervousness or shyness. “I was doing that for my feelings for you… That are still alive… That have lately gotten much stronger…”       Raquelle cannot hide her smile after hearing these words. At the bottom of her heart, she dreamed of hearing something like this for a long time. But the girl cannot say anything for a few seconds and just shakes her head with her widely open eyes.       “Terrence…” Raquelle pronounces with a slight smile and steps back from Terrence. “I…”       “Listen, Raquelle, I understand that we’ll hardly fix everything,” Terrence replies quite confidently. “I know that we’ve decided we will break up forever. But remember that even this fact will not make me stop thinking of you.”       “Really?”       “My emotions and feelings are too strong to try to do that. And now, as I think, they got much stronger…” Terrence cracks a slight smile. “I tried to do that somehow when I got mad and wanted revenge. But I got nothing good. And I made much more sure that running away from what would happen was worthless.”       “Right…” Raquelle nods.       “The relationship with you is different. Not what I had before. It’s different in a good sense.” Terrence moves his eyes down for a second. “I’ll no longer deny it. Even if we broke up and live our lives, I will not stop saying I love you. I doubt I would love someone much stronger. Because you’re special.”       “I think we would try to give our relationship a second chance if both of us wanted it,” Raquelle says thoughtfully. “Knowing all the mistakes we made…”       “Would you like it?” Terrence moves his eyes to Raquelle and looks into her eyes confidently. “But please, answer honestly. Let’s not try to find excuses and lie. Let’s just tell each other what we actually want. I mean, let’s answer the question, “Would we like to try to save our relationship and give it a second chance?””       A tense silence settles in the air that lasts literally forever. Of course, Raquelle would love to try to give Terrence a second chance and save their relationship so badly that it has a chance to be renewed. But her feelings and mind start a cruel fight again, trying to strike one another again.       The heart is loudly screaming that the girl should give a positive answer to help the man looking at her with pity in her eyes stop suffering. But her mind makes her call the memories of the times she tries to forget so badly. It makes Raquelle give Terrence a refusal and strike him out of her life forever, deciding not to come back to him and forgetting about this talk and everything they told each other. Rejecting him would mean suffering from the love for the rest of her life, but giving a positive answer would not mean everything would be alright and careless.       What does she do? What does she do? Doom herself to suffering and reject him? Or really listen to Terrence’s advice and tell him about her real feelings? The worst memories keep attacking the girl and making her give a negative answer and lie. But she does not have the strength to fight, she does not want to obey her mind. She wants to listen to the sound of her heart, which is literally bleeding from just thinking of the possible consequences that her refusal might lead to. Who knows, maybe, Terrence would actually disappear and give a damn about himself without her. She does see that he lost the meaning of living and reaching something. He definitely needs a source of the energy to continue to reach his goals…       “No, no, I don’t wanna succumb to my mind and give a damn about my feelings again,” Raquelle shakes her head with her eyes closed. “I don’t want! I did it the first time, but it gave me no happiness! My heart is gonna be bleeding from thinking that it will happen…”       Raquelle sniffs quietly.       “I can’t do that…” Raquelle thinks. “I can’t leave the man, who needs me so badly… That I need… No, no, I must get over me… I must at least try. And this time, I will do what my heart tells me. Which tells me I would also lose the meaning of life if I left him. I would always manage to break up. But I would probably never get happy.”       After a few seconds of fighting with her thoughts, Raquelle exhales sharply and moves her eyes to Terrence quite confidently.       “Yes, Terrence, I want it,” Raquelle nods confidently and puts her hand softly on Terrence’s shoulder. “Really want…”       “Really?” Terrence smiles slightly.       “I want to live those wonderful moments that happened to us when we didn’t think everything could get much worse.”       “Me too…”       “Believe me, my feelings didn’t fade away, and I didn’t get cold to you… They’re still alive. And now I actually understand that I love you much stronger than before and would hardly accept our breakup.” Raquelle swallows up nervously. “Who knows, maybe, my feelings will get much stronger every single day. I am not sure if I can love someone else. Because you need to fall out of love with someone you love to fall in love with another person. But I can’t do this. No matter how hard I try.”       Raquelle moves her eyes to her hands for a second.       “Despite the pain that you – I don’t doubt against your wish – gave me, my love for you is still alive,” Raquelle confesses. “And I could give you a chance to save our relationship if you wanted the same…”       Raquelle sniffs quietly.       “I told everyone I no longer loved you and used you to make them and myself sure about what wasn’t the truth,” Raquelle says with sadness in her eyes. “Although I got the support, everybody thought I was lying. They saw me through and understood I still loved you deep inside… And they were absolutely right.”       Raquelle shrugs with a confused smile.       “I think so…” Raquelle pronounces quietly. “I’m really not able to change what’s out of my power… No matter how hard I resist and try to run away, I am powerless.”       Raquelle moves her eyes to the ocean.       “Maybe, someone would say I just don’t wanna forget you and look at other men,” Raquelle assumes. “And they would be right. I don’t really want it. And I will no longer make myself sure that I am ready to move on. Yes, maybe, you’re not perfect. But who is perfection? All of us have our own demons! All of us have some weaknesses. But when you love someone, you either try to take it or give the person the motivation to change it and get better. I will not try to change you, but I hope you will learn how to control yourself with my help.”       This is probably what Terrence wanted to hear so badly. He saw well that Raquelle was trying to struggle with her doubts that she got obsessed with every time she had to make some important decisions about their relationship. But she got over her doubts and fears and told him all the truth. It makes him realize that not everything is lost. As many people assumed. They were right because anything is possible if you really wanted it.       “I think it’s the best thing I’ve lately heard,” Terrence says with a slight smile and falls into silence for two seconds. “Because I also really want to try to do my best to live those wonderful moments again. I want to be happy and make you feel the same.”       Terrence swallows up nervously.       “Yes, I am not perfect, and I know that I’ve got a hard character,” Terrence confesses. “But I’m trying to change. Trying to control myself. And I will give much more efforts. Because I don’t wanna lose my close people.”       “I’m sure you can do this,” Raquelle smiles shyly.       “I wanna prove to the people in the show business and my fans that I am not so terrible. I grew up and realized everything. I want everyone to believe that I do good things at my will. I would no longer do something just to whitewash me.”       Raquelle says nothing and keeps smiling shyly at Terrence, being happy with what’s happening like a little child and almost forgetting about the offense against this man for the pain he gave her and her wish to take revenge on him.       “I’m glad to hear it,” Raquelle says shyly.       “I’d sacrifice a lot to fix everything,” Terrence confesses quietly. “Very much… I can’t change the past, but I can change the future. I can do my best for people to talk about my good acts and forget all the bad things I did when I was young and stupid.”       Raquelle glances at Terrence, presses herself closely to him, and puts her head on his shoulder. He smiles unconsciously and embraces her tightly with his arms, snuggling his nose in the top of her head that he caresses softy. This hug makes them feel a nice warmth and makes them understand they have a close person by their side. And the man smiles much wider when the brunette slightly rubs her nose against his cheek. It seems like they are getting closer to each other as long as they touch each other and understand how much the beloved person means to them, and how much none of them wants to break up.       “Hey, did you really decide to leave?” Raquelle asks hesitantly, starting to doubt if she should agree to end the relationship.       “Yes, this is my final decision,” Terrence shrugs, doubting his wish is right but not going to tell Raquelle about his doubts. “But not shortly, ‘cause I should find the one to buy my house and get money for it as soon as possible.”       “But what about the servants? What do they do if you sell the house and leave?”       “I’ll try to find them a good job… I have a familiar man, who’s looking for new servants. I’ll try to talk to him and suggest all three candidates. Maybe, he’ll like someone and give at least one of them a job…” Terrence shakes his head. “I don’t want to fire Blair, Violetta, and Christiana and leave them with no job. They aren't living the best life. And they aren’t so rich not to worry about losing a job…”       “Yeah…” Raquelle sighs quietly with sadness in her eyes. “They really have a very hard life. Blair is the only one to provide for her mother and younger brother. Unfortunately, they can’t work because the boy is too young, and the woman has bad health. Violetta is raising a little child, whom she needs to raise, feed, dress, and teach. She has only a mother, who’s sitting with the girl while Violetta is working. And Christiana…”       Raquelle falls into silence, thinks for two seconds, and shrugs.       “I don’t know what’s happening to her…” Raquelle confesses. “Christiana loves talking about everything, but she has never told me about her family problems.”       “Christiana doesn’t like to talk about it, but she somehow told me her daughter has a hard illness,” Terrence replies with sadness in his eyes.       “She’s ill?”       “Yes. But I don’t know what. I only know that she has had a certain disability category since birth.”       “My God…”       “That girl needs a hard surgery that she can get somewhere abroad, but it costs very much, but it’s a great amount of money for Christiana.”       “Is she trying to earn it?”       “Yes. Somehow, I wanted to suggest my help to her and pay at least a part of the amount, but she refused and said she would find the money for the therapy.”       “Wow!” Raquelle closes her mouth with a hand. “I didn’t know she had an ill daughter with a disability category.”       “I was also shocked when I found it out.”       “My gosh… I always thought Christiana had a wonderful mood.”       “Yeah, but it just seems. She actually has trouble.”       “Oh, God…” Raquelle sighs heavily and presses her knees against herself. “Sometimes life may be too unfair towards some people…”       “That’s right,” Terrence nods. “That woman has never shown her emotions, always done her work brilliantly, and commands others. Many rich people could be dreaming of such a wonderful servant. Even though all my servants are good. Anyone to give them a job after I let them go and leave would be really lucky to get such hard-working people.”       Terrence falls into silence for two seconds, looking at the horizons and tidal waves.       “But as I’ve said, I have only one familiar man, who's looking for servants,” Terrence adds thoughtfully. “Of course, I will surely ask the others and ask them if they need servants. And I hope I will do everything before I sell my house.”       “Do you really want to leave?” Raquelle asks with sadness in her eyes.       “What do I have to? I wanna forget all the bad things that have ever happened here. I want… To start my life over again…”       Terrence swallows up nervously, actually doubting if he should leave and deciding to make Raquelle sure that he does not want to stay in his motherland on purpose. He does it because he wants to see her reaction. He wants to know if the girl wants to save their relationship and stay with him so badly. Whether she tries to stop him or quietly let him go without crying and pulling her hair out.       “Maybe, you think about your decision better?” Raquelle shakes her head with sadness in her eyes.       “I already did,” Terrence pronounces confidently.       “Please, Terrence, think better! Are you ready to leave the people, who’ve been your friends? Who you loved…” Raquelle falls into silence for a second and sniffs quietly. “Who you still love…”       “No, Raquelle, everything’s decided!” Terrence shakes his head. “I should do it. I should start my life over again.”       “Do you want to leave everything because you lost the motivation to do something?”       “Right… My motivation is gone.”       “What about your acting career?”       “I will quit it.”       “And the musical career that you wanted to start? You do have a great talent for music! You sing and play the guitar so well! Your talent mustn’t be hidden! And you should’ve actually shown it much earlier!”       “After unsuccessfully trying to get into the music world so many times, I began to think being a musician wasn't my destiny.”       “It’s fine, you can’t get everything at once, without problems. I’m sure that there will be someone, who will want to help you record at least one song.”       “I ain’t upset because of that. Everything happens for the best…” Terrence cracks a slight smile. “After I got nothing, I will be looking for something different.”       “But many people try to do something and meet a failure many times. If you really want to do something and reach for your goal, you will meet your luck early or late.”       “Now I want only one thing – to leave as far as possible and live where nobody even knows my name. Where I would be a common person for everyone… Maybe, I will even get a new name and become someone else, not Terrence MacClife.”       “But…”       “I’m sure I’d find a place that would perfectly fit me after a few weeks of traveling.”       Terrence sighs quietly with sadness in his eyes, deciding to use his acting skills to seem much truer to Raquelle and let her know that he is kind of disappointed in himself and his luck.       “I don’t know where I’d live,” Terrence adds in a lower voice. “I’m not afraid of difficulties, hunger, or coldness. If I want to live somewhere on an island, it won’t scare me.”       “No, Terrence, please, don’t do this,” Raquelle begs with pity in her eyes, not suspecting she easily got caught in Terrence’s trap and seriously believing he really wants to leave everything and give a damn about himself and his great talent.       “I don’t know where I’d go. But whatever I am, I am sure I will feel much better. Because there would be nobody I know.”       “For God’s sake, don’t do this. I don’t want you to leave! Neither today, tomorrow, nor any other day!”       “Sorry, but I decided everything,” Terrence shakes his head with sadness in his eyes. “When I find the one to buy my house, I will leave and never come back here.”       “No!” Raquelle exclaims in despair. “You can’t leave me here!”       “I will stay here until I sell my house, and then I will buy a ticket to a country with calm in my heart and travel around the world. Looking for a new home.”       “I don’t want to lose you again!” Raquelle sniffs quietly. “I don’t want!”       “You should care about it,” Terrence pronounces without emotions in his eyes in a low voice.       “But I do care!”       “Don’t worry, Raquelle, you’ve become single and can do anything you want. I don’t have to do with you anymore. And someday you will meet someone, who will love you and give you much more than I gave you.”       “I don’t need another man,” Raquelle shakes her head sharply. “I need you! Only you!”       “Stop…”       “If it happens, I will also lose the meaning of living and a wish to reach something,” Raquelle makes a quiet sob. “I wouldn’t take this pain…”       “You’re a strong girl,” Terrence softly caresses Raquelle’s shoulder. “I’m sure you can take anything.”       “You’re hurting me…”       “Please, don’t worry about me. I will take it somehow. And I hope I will get happy.”       “No…”       “I’m giving you a chance to be happy and do anything you want. Letting you go with a light heart and wishing you all the best.”       “No, Terrence, no, don’t say that!” Raquelle begs in despair with tears coming to her eyes. “I don’t want it to happen! I don’t want!”       “I’ve made up my mind. I did it a long time ago. I only need to wait for some time and do something.”       “No…”       “I have nothing to do here.”       “Okay…” Raquelle pronounces in a little shaking voice, not holding down tears and feeling more desperate because she thinks it might lead to the end of this story. “Okay… If you wanna leave this place, we will go together.”       “Huh?” Terrence rounds his eyes, looking at Raquelle questioningly.       “I will go with you. Wherever you want. And I’ll refuse from everything I have.”       “Stop, Raquelle.”       “If I make another mistake and let you go, I will never forgive myself for that.”       “Nobody can hold me. Even you.”       “No!” Raquelle exclaims in despair. “I won’t let you destroy yourself and spend your whole life far from people.”       “Raquelle…”       “I will be with you until the very end.” Raquelle takes Terrence’s hand tightly, looking into his eyes confidently. “If we’re still together, we’ll go anywhere. Together.”       “Don’t do it,” Terrence pronounces quietly. “You have everything.”       “But I am ready to refuse everything. For you.”       Raquelle caresses Terrence’s cheek softly.       “I’m ready to do it if you want,” Raquelle adds with pity in her wet eyes. “Somehow, I gave a damn about you and didn’t want to do just something for you. But now I will not make that mistake again. I won’t do it ‘cause I love you too much and don’t want to lose.”       “Sorry, I can’t take you with you,” Terrence continues to play his role.       “Please, Terrence, don’t leave me… Don’t leave me alone. I don’t want to lose you. Please… P-please…”       Raquelle shakes her head with tears in her eyes and hugs Terrence tightly, pressing herself closer to his chest, in which she snuggles her nose, and crying quietly but bitterly. The man swallows up nervously and answers her hug, caressing the girl’s head tenderly and kissing her on the top of her head.       And then Terrence smiles slyly, not hiding his happiness about his little win. He easily managed to start a little show for Raquelle and make her sure that he wanted to leave the city and lost the meaning to keep reaching something. He did it so successfully that she is crying on his chest, terribly afraid he will leave, and literally wants to go after him… No, of course, the man wanted to leave when he thought he would not make his relationship with the girl better. But now he has greater hope that his biggest wish might come true.       At some moment, Terrence starts laughing very quietly and smiling shyly. Noticing it, Raquelle steps back from him and cannot hide her smile and laughter through tears.       “Hey, why are you smiling?” Raquelle wonders through a laugh and sniffs quietly. “Did my words seem funny to you? Don’t you believe me?”       “No, of course, I believe…” Terrence laughs shyly, laughing a little louder and shaking his head. “I just…”       “I swear, I will really refuse everything and go with you to any place. Just tell me you want it, and I will do it. I am ready for anything for you. Everything!”       Terrence says nothing and smiles much wider with quite a proud look, praising himself for good acting and getting the desired reaction that showed him the real feelings of Raquelle looking at him with pity in her eyes.       “Ah, Raquelle…” Terrence sighs quietly. “As it turned out, you’re very suggestible. Anyone could easily make you believe any lie. I guess Ringer understood it quickly and told you all those things.”       “What?” Raquelle frowns slightly.       “And I also made sure that I still had a great talent for acting,” Terrence strokes his hair down. “People are right when they say it’s impossible not to believe me, ‘cause I’m freaking good at playing my characters and showing their emotions.”       “I don’t get it…”       By this moment, Raquelle stops laughing, smiling, and crying, understanding that someone deceived her well.       “What are you talking about?” Raquelle wonders. “What does it all mean?”       “It means you, fool, have been deceived,” Terrence says confidently with a sly smile.       “What do you mean the fool has been deceived? Do you want to say you weren’t gonna leave anywhere? Was it just an act of one actor?”       “Not quite… I really wanted to leave and quit my career. But I wanted it when I thought nothing would change. But now I have a feeling that everything might get better.”       Terrence bends his head aside slightly.       “That’s why I decided to use a moment,” Terrence confesses with a sly smile. “I used my acting skills and charm to look much truer in your eyes.”       Terrence smiles much wider.       “And I got the reaction that I wanted,” Terrence says confidently.       “So, did you have me wrapped around your finger?” Raquelle frowns slightly.       “I knew you’d tell me everything you actually feel if I made you feel pity. And I did it!”       “Bloody hell!”       Raquelle opens her mouth slightly, being resentful of what she hears and getting mad at Terrence for daring to play with her feelings like this.       “You decided to have me wrapped around your finger!” Raquelle resents loudly.       “But you were true,” Terrence notices cheerfully.       “Damn… Was everything that just happened a show? Were all your words a lie? All the words about your wish to get everything back and give much to make everything different…”       “No, no, it’s not the truth,” Terrence protests, putting his hands on Raquelle’s shoulders. “I swear I acted only now when saying about my move and my wish to quit my career. But the other things are the truth.”       “Of course!” Raquelle throws gloomily. “You saw I got weak and decided to play with me!”       “Just a little!”       “How you actually dared to do it!”       “Raquelle…”       You know, MacClife, I will remind you of that!” Raquelle threatens with a finger. “I will show you what it means to deceive a girl! You will know who Raquelle Cameron is. You will know what she can do when someone gets her wild.”       “Hey, hey, okay, calm down!” Terrence presses Raquelle to himself with a quiet chuckle and caresses her head tenderly. “It’s okay. Don’t get so excited… Sh-h-h…”       “Don’t dare to suck up to me!” Raquelle exclaims sharply and steps back from Terrence. “Or you will regret starting this show!”       “But how rightly it worked!” Terrence softly kisses the temple of the gloomy Raquelle and fixes her hair slightly. “I saw your real face, not the mask you put on. And now I don’t doubt you want the same that I do.”       Although the hug from her beloved man helps Raquelle calm down a little, she cannot stop thinking of the idea of revenging Terrence for deceiving her so easily. The girl also uses her acting skills, pretending to be determined to take revenge for deceiving her so cruelly.       “You will pay me for that, liar!” Raquelle shows an offense and sharply steps back from Terrence. “I swear you will pay!”       “C’mon!” Terrence wonders. “How would I do?”       “You will not get off me easily.”       “Would you dare to pretend that you don't have feelings for me after what just happened?”       “What kind of feelings?” Raquelle wonders, rounding her eyes. “What are you talking about?”       “Don’t pretend to be an idiot, Cameron.”       “Don’t tell me I kind of thanked you for saving my life when Lynwood and you pulled me on the roof.”       “You said you couldn’t remember that!”       “Of course, I can’t! Because it didn’t happen!”       “But you do know what you said.”       “I know nothing,” Raquelle smiles innocently. “I know nothing about my dreams of you coming and saving me.”       “You decided to irritate me a little?”       “No, my sweetie, you’re irritating me.”       “Why do you need me, then? Why would you go somewhere with me?”       “Ha, I… I was kidding! I was kidding that I loved you and was ready to go to the end of the world with you.”       “Kidding?” Terrence smiles slyly.       “I don’t actually need you for anything!”       “Do you think I’m blind and see nothing?”       “I dunno what you saw, but what you just heard wasn’t the truth.” Raquelle raises her head proudly. “I just played along.”       “Yeah, played along! I believed you!”       “I understood you wanted to check my reaction. To see what I would do and how I would behave.”       “Your tears were real.”       “Wrong, MacClife,” Raquelle says confidently. “I also have acting skills. It’s very easy for me to cry if I have to do it.”       “That wasn’t an act. That was what you actually felt.”       “Listen, stop seeing what you want. You want me to feel something for you. But it’s actually your imagination. Your wild imagination.”       “Yeah? What if I check it?”       Terrence sharply brings his face closer to Raquelle’s face, glances at her lips, and looks confidently into her eyes while she tenses a little with a quiet gasp but pretends that her heart starts beating much faster even after this.       “What if I check what you actually feel for me,” Terrence adds in a lower voice.       “You can kiss me as much as you want,” Raquelle says with her head proudly raised, looking into Terrence’s eyes confidently. “I wouldn’t care. Because I feel nothing for you.”       “You want it.”       “I want?” Raquelle chuckles nervously and smiles falsely with a shake in her body. “You’re crazy! Ha… I want it…”       “Stop pretending it’s not the truth.”       “I repeat, I don’t need you for anything in the world. And I wasn’t gonna and won’t go with you anywhere. If you want it, you can get out anywhere you want. I don’t care.”       “You’re a bitch…”       Terrence puts his hand on Raquelle’s cheek and brings his face so close to her face that their lips are about to connect. And he notices how heavily the girl starts breathing, while she is pretending that she is indifferent to this kind of intimacy.       “You’re starting to provoke me again…” Terrence caresses Raquelle’s lips tenderly with his thumb. “Starting to play on my nerves again.”       “Get off!” Raquelle demands in a low voice.       “I already understood you would never be a sweet and obedient girl. So, I stopped hoping you would look into my eyes and make my wishes come true.”       “You’ve reached the wrong address, MacClife. If you need someone to make your dirty wishes come true, it’s not my thing.”       “Anyway, denying something is worthless ‘cause you’ve already betrayed yourself.”       “Go to the fuck, scumbag! I’m freaking sick of you.”       “But I am not!”       Terrence wants to get Raquelle involved in a continuous, hot kiss without a warning, pressing her to himself by the back of her head. But when he barely touches her tender lips, the girl pushes him off sharply, slaps him in the face, and watches the man with a sly smile while he rubs his cheek slightly.       “Ah, that’s what…” Terrence smiles slyly.       “If you do this again, you will regret it,” Raquelle says confidently and raises her head up proudly. “But… Of course, you can keep doing what you want. But I will stay indifferent anyway. In the worst case, I would hit you between your legs to make you whine from pain.”       “Okay, cutie, if you don’t wanna give up at your wish, I will conquer the fortress by force.”       Terrence tries to sharply creep closer to Raquelle with a sly smile on his face to strike her down the sand and give her such an exciting kiss that she has never had before. But the girl is not definitely going to give up so easily and starts resisting in all possible ways, pushing the man, throwing sand at him, and splashing him with water from the ocean after getting up sharply. However, the man does not leave it unnoticed and does all the same that she does, not going to stop trying to catch this charming, unstoppable beauty.       Thanks to the great power of Terrence’s charm and his wide, eternal smile that he does not stop showing, Raquelle stops being too serious at some moment, starts laughing truly, and forgets about her wish to revenge and kick this man. When the brunet starts trying to splash her with the ocean water from head to feet, she jumps aside with loud whoops and answers him back. Sometimes they try to strike each other down on the sand and kick enough, but they do not always manage to do this because the opponent resists too hard and does not give up.       Their fight quickly turns into a childhood play. It’s hard to stay indifferent and not to wish to join them, hearing their loud, contagious laughter and seeing true smiles on their faces. It seems like Terrence and Raquelle lacked something like this because they had not had it for ages. Understanding they are no longer kids, both of them held themselves down and tried to behave like mature, smart people. But now the man and the girl decide to give a damn about their age and just have some fun with each other.       The joke fight between Raquelle and Terrence continues for two more minutes, during which they cannot stop splashing each other with water, keep laughing loudly and shouting, but sometimes find a way to avoid an attack from the opponent. But when they get sick of splashing each other with water, the young people start just running after each other on the bigger part of the desert coast with loud whoops.       No matter how hard Raquelle tries, she does not run too far from Terrence and cannot keep being uncatchable for him. He catches the girl for a few seconds, grabs her by the waist from behind with both arms, and holds her for a few seconds while she tries to get out with loud whoops. She also has to take his slight tickling that he gets too busy with. At some moment, MacClife playfully bites the most sensitive areas of her neck and slaps her slightly on her buttocks when she gets out of his grip and jumps aside with loud, resentful comments that she shouts out with a wide smile on her face.       When Raquelle has to catch Terrence herself, who is able to slay her with his smile, she does not manage to catch him because he runs too fast. But not to hurt her, the man decides to play along at some moment and starts running much slower. The girl eventually catches him and easily strikes him down with just one push. However, he quickly gets up, grabs the brunette tightly again from behind, and tickles the nape of her neck with his nose, making her laugh loudly and not holding down his shy laugh and his wide smile. Raquelle starts getting out and doing her best not to let Terrence strike her down and shouts out some threats that sound like something funny or even a little flirt.       But the black-haired guy quickly finds a way to calm down the elusive girl. When she gets out of his arms, he sharply presses her to himself, holding her by the back of her head, and kisses her on the lips without warning to give her the continuous, tender kiss that she is supposed to like. Raquelle resists hard for a few seconds and tries to say something, but later gives up under Terrence’s pressure, relaxes, and answers this sudden kiss, tenderly caressing his face with both hands.       Although the man gets delighted and would be happy to keep kissing her, he does not make this moment too long and steps back quite quickly after a couple of tender pecks on the curve of her neck, trying to make this kiss incredible and make the girl wish for something more. The faces of the young people breathing heavily are very close to one another for a few seconds. Their eyes are sharing an ogle, and at some moment, they put on a slight smile and share it with the one they actually love so much.       Seeing that Raquelle’s reaction to the kiss is positive, Terrence thinks of going further and letting himself relax a little. But the girl closes his face with her wet hand and runs away quickly with a contagious laugh, making the man run after her. And when he catches her, she starts to splash water on him and throw sand on him so furiously that he literally has to save himself by running. And to “torture” her opponent a little more, Raquelle runs and jumps on Terrence’s back for him to ride her, putting her arms around his neck tightly. However, the man does not get confused and starts riding the girl on the whole beach while she whoops funnily, waves her hands, and tells him not to relax and to keep riding her.       Both of them feel too good now. After forgetting their offenses and letting themselves show their real feelings, Terrence and Raquelle are getting as much pleasure from this game as they did not get for the few months they lived together. It’s possible that the separation was actually good for their feelings, made them much stronger, and helped them discover much about each other. The separation helped them understand they were actually much closer to each other than they thought.       Some time later, Raquelle and Terrence understand they are too tired after this long game. Being happy and out of a breath, they come back to the place they had been sitting before they started this fight. It’s possible to see happy smiles on the faces of both of them, and the fingers of their hands are locked. At some moment, they sit down together and press as close to each other as possible. As if they have never had a fight. As if they have always lived in harmony. As if they have been very happy for the past few months.       Terrence and Raquelle watch the ocean that is raging not as strongly as before for a few seconds. The wind got a little weaker, but it is still able to ruffle their hair. However, the young people do not need it because their hair is already disheveled, and they still have some sand on their clothes and heads after this funny fight.       “Maybe, you run much faster…” Raquelle says quietly, breathing a little hard and looking at Terrence’s clothes, which are covered with sand. “But I can strike you down much better.”       “I’ve always run very fast,” Terrence confesses and smiles slyly with the same heavy breath. “But I played along with you once. I was running not as fast as before on purpose.”       “I got it.”       “I just didn’t wanna hurt you. You never caught me. So, I gave up on you once…”       “It’s hard not to guess it!” Raquelle laughs quietly. “I think a miracle should’ve happened for me to catch you. Because catching you is impossible.”       “Maybe.”       “Listen, I didn’t know you could run so fast.”       “I actually can do much,” Terrence pronounces with a mysterious smile.       “I bet you run one hundred mills for a few seconds and give nobody a chance to win.”       “Yeah, I could become a runner thanks to running so fast. I would easily get tons of gold medals and become an Olympic champion multiple times.”       “And strike tons of worldwide records.”       “But I must confess that I was running much faster than before. I’m surprised I managed to do this.”       “I do know! A wish to revenge me for slapping you!”       “Maybe… You started it first!”       “You shouldn't have played with the feelings of the girl!”       “I wasn’t playing! I just wanted to know your reaction.”       “If I had known you played with me, I would’ve stayed indifferent on purpose.”       “Late, girl. You’ve betrayed yourself.”       “Yeah, I told you everything.”       “And yeah…” Terrence moves his eyes sharply to Raquelle. “I must confess that you surprised me.”       “Me?” Raquelle rounds her eyes.       “I always thought you could run fast. But you were walking as slowly as a snail.”       “You saw my shoes?” Raquelle laughs shyly, showing Terrence her massive shoes with a little thigh heel. “Of course, I’m not such a good runner, but if I put on snickers, I could show you something and kick you much better.”       “Yeah, running far in these shoes is impossible,” Terrence frowns slightly, looking at Raquelle’s shoes covered with sand.       “Damn it! At least I had fun! I must confess that I never got as much pleasure as I got now.”       “I had fun, too,” Terrence smiles shyly. “I feel much better for the first time in a while. As if I got rid of a heavy burden.”       “Yeah, as it turned out, running after you on the whole beach and beating you is so cool,” Raquelle ruffles Terrence’s hair much more. “Why didn’t I do this before? Kicking your ass is madly funny!”       “Yeah, I'm sorry about not having fun like this before.”       “I hope I’ll get a chance to kick you again and laugh at you.”       “I will think if I give you this chance,” Terrence says confidently with a sly smile.       Raquelle says nothing and just laughs shyly, putting her head on Terrence’s shoulder while he presses the girl to himself and moves some sand off her hair.       The awkward silence settles in the air for some time, during which nobody says a word. Raquelle and Terrence really want to find the courage to finally give each other an apology and try to give their relationship a second chance. Because there is a higher possibility that they could reconcile. It’s getting closer to it. Now the young people are much closer to each other and feel happier next to their beloved person.       At some moment, Terrence moves his eyes to Raquelle hesitantly, being nervous as if he wants to say something very important, while she watches the ocean.       “Erm, Raquelle…” Terrence pronounces quietly.       “Yes, Terrence,” Raquelle says, moving her eyes to Terrence quickly.       Terrence exhales sharply with his eyes closed to relax and get ready to say something.       “Please…” Terrence pronounces with pity in his eyes. “Forgive me for all the bad things I did to you. For everything I am the only one to blame.”       Terrence takes Raquelle’s hand with both hands and squeezes it slightly.       “I’m sorry about shouting at you,” Terrence apologizes. “Forgive me for all the offensive words I said to you, all the false charges, my rude behavior… For leaving you alone when you needed help… I’m really sorry for hurting you so much and making you suffer like that. I didn’t want it to happen…”       Saying all of it, Terrence breathes heavily and gets much more nervous and tenser, trying to find the courage to keep speaking again and again.       “And the thing I will always be ashamed of is the fact that I dared to raise a hand on you,” Terrence says in a little shaking voice. “Please, forgive me for doing that!”       Terrence shakes his head.       “I swear I didn’t know what I was thinking of when doing it,” Terrence adds. “I didn’t want to do one of the most terrible acts for any man. I… I was really wild! Being next to me was really dangerous!”       Terrence swallows up nervously.       “I recognize my fault and understand there is no excuse for my actions. And I am not mad at those, who turned their backs on me because of that with the thought just because I raised a hand once… I would literally become a rapper. But I promise it will never happen! I will not do that. Never! I am much more decent than those people, even though I don’t deny I am by far not perfect.”       Terrence shakes his head with a quiet sigh.       “I really want to do my best to get your trust back and get a chance to fix everything and get much better,” Terrence adds with sadness in his eyes. “I don’t need any other girl but you. Now I completely understand it. And I am no longer going to run away from my feelings and try to make myself sure there is no love. There is the love! There was, there is, and there will be… And nothing can change it.”       Terrence swallows up nervously, squeezes Raquelle’s hand tighter, and caresses it with the hope that it will help him calm down, not stopping looking into the girl’s eyes while she is listening to him closely.       “Please, Raquelle, give me one more chance,” Terrence begs with greater pity in his eyes. “I promise everything will be otherwise this time. I will no longer make the same mistakes and will never behave the way I did. Let me prove that I really love you and want to be only with you.”       Terrence shakes his head.       “Please, sweetie…” Terrence pronounces with despair. “Don’t leave me… Come back to me… I’m madly missing you. I need you so badly. Please, forgive me for all my terrible actions and words. Stay with me… Forever. I’m sorry… Forgive me… Please, please…”       Terrence takes Raquelle’s hands and kisses every one of them tenderly, shaking slightly from the excitement, not stopping looking at the girl with his little scared, begging look and expecting to hear just something from her.       Raquelle herself smiles widely with tears in her eyes, not hiding her happiness caused by the fact that she heard the words she wanted to hear. In which there is so much regret that the girl just cannot give Terrence her forgiveness. The thought of the breakup has already been put aside. Her love for this man is much stronger than her offense toward him. And something tells her everything is really going to be much better this time. Much better than before.       Raquelle says nothing for a few seconds and tries to brace herself. And then she squeezes Terrence’s hand, understanding that tears are coming to her eyes and slowly rolling over her cheeks.       “Gosh, Terrence…” Raquelle shakes her head with pity in her eyes.       “I’ve said I was a brainless moron many times,” Terrence replies with sadness in his eyes. “There is no need to say everything for the umpteenth time… But if I have to do it to get your forgiveness and make you sure not to break up with me and to come back to me, I’m ready to say it many times. I’m ready for anything for you. Anything. Just to hear you’re forgiving me and will be with me.”       Raquelle needs a few seconds to brace herself and start to speak more or less clearly because her voice is a little shaking, and she cannot connect words and cannot stop stuttering. But not to get the white Terrence much more excited, she decides not to waste time and to break the tense pause.       “Terrence, forgive me, too…” Raquelle pronounces in a shaking voice with tears in her eyes. “Forgive me for all the bad things I did and said to you. I was an idiot when I was behaving so disgustingly and giving a damn about you… When I thought of myself and didn’t pay attention to you.”       Raquelle sniffs quietly.       “I’m sorry you had to suspect me of cheating,” Raquelle adds. “I know you heard many bad things and didn’t love even a little bit of love, care, and respect. I know I didn’t take care of you and wasn’t interested in what was happening to you. I know I behaved terribly and was never a good girlfriend to you. But… I’m really very sorry.”       Raquelle shakes her head.       “I got too busy with me,” Raquelle confesses. “My career. I was ready to prefer it over anything. It… It was some kind of obsession. That’s why I forgot you. I forgot that I couldn’t stop thinking of you when we just met. But I swear it’s gonna be otherwise now. I realized all my mistakes and understood that you still mean very much to me. Despite nothing, my heart kept belonging to you. Now I understand it clearly.”       Raquelle makes a quiet sob.       “I also want you to be with me and give me a chance to prove that I can be loving and caring,” Raquelle adds. “I am not a selfish egoist that thinks of herself and her career.”       “Please, don’t blame yourself for the fact that we got cold for each other,” Terrence says quietly. “You weren’t the one to be obsessed with your career… I wanted to become a musician so much that I was thinking of that all day long. I was meeting people, who had to do with the music business. That’s why I had no time for you. Both of us should’ve found at least some time for each other. But instead of that, we were literally running away from each other for a few months.”       “Anyway, there’s a bigger part of my fault for what happened. I was the first one to decide to get obsessed with my job and give a damn about you and your feelings. I forgot I should’ve supported my relationship with my boyfriend and taken care of him… I mean… Nobody explained it to me. I just heard I should’ve found a boyfriend and gotten married. Nobody told me why I needed it. Nobody taught me to be a good girlfriend.”       “I understand. It happens. People often force someone to have a relationship and play a wedding but don’t explain what that is. They say you must do it. A human can’t live alone. So, many people date someone and enter a marriage just to make everyone get off them. But it doesn’t give them the happiness that everyone talks so much about. To be clear, they haven’t grown up for it yet.”       “Right… But if you stay with me, I promise I will not make the same mistakes and will not forget you. I will be doing my best for you not to stop loving me and to admire me and everything I do. I will start to respect you and never treat you like you’re nothing to me.”       “I believe you,” Terrence nods with a shy smile. “And I will love you for your irresistible beauty and for what you are. I will see you as a sexual object and a friend. A partner. A soul mate.”       “And forgive me for having to risk,” Raquelle says with sadness in her eyes, moving her eyes shamelessly for a second.       “What do you mean?”       “The decision to follow me at the meeting with Simon. That was a risk. You could’ve suffered enough.”       “I understood all the risks. But it didn’t stop me.”       “Every time he…” Raquelle moves some strands of hair off her eyes because the wind rises up in different directions and then makes it fall on her face. “When he pointed a pistol at you, I shook and wanted to scream loudly in horror. Because I was afraid… I was afraid Simon would’ve shot. I could’ve lost you. I would’ve hardly taken it… I mean, I will not take it. It will be a strong hit.”       “I’m gonna be honest, I was a little scared, too…” Terrence confesses. “But I would’ve been more frightened if that man had done something to you.”       Raquelle says nothing and moves her eyes down with a slight smile.       “I did that for you,” Terrence adds. “For your well-being. Because you’re the reason why I want to do something and aim for something. You’re the reason why I feel alive.”       With these words, Terrence caresses Raquelle’s cheek tenderly, taking pleasure in using a chance to touch this soft skin with his warm hand.       “I know,” Raquelle smiles shyly. “And you’re the reason why I believe in me and my strength. The reason why I feel much more confident.”       Terrence smiles much wider.       “And yeah, thank you so much for coming there,” Raquelle thanks truly. “I owe you my life. And I will never forget thanks to whom I stayed alive and wasn’t raped by the sick stinker.”       “Ugh-h-h, don’t even want to think that stinker was able to do that,” Terrence winces slightly. “If he’d done that, I swear I would’ve buried him right there. Or I would’ve grabbed a gun and shot at him.”       “And I don’t want to think about what would’ve happened if you hadn’t been there. I would’ve screamed at the top of my lungs for nothing because nobody would’ve heard me.”       “No, no, sweetie, get these things out of your mind!” Terrence caresses Raquelle’s face with both hands and moves a few strands of hair off her eyes while she smiles shyly. “Don’t even dare to think it could’ve happened.”       “Nevertheless, I will never forget what you did for me,” Raquelle replies. “By this act, you proved that you really regretted it and wanted to make amends.”       “I’m madly regretting… And I really want to hear you aren’t gonna end the relationship with me and would forgive me and come back to me.”       “If you’d said it earlier, I would’ve pissed you off,” Raquelle laughs shyly. “But now I can’t do it. I can’t leave the one I’ve always felt good with. And I will leave him. I will stay with him to make him very happy. As he deserves.”       Terrence takes Raquelle’s hands with a much wider, truer smile.       “You’re my love, Raquelle Allison Cameron,” Terrence says confidently with his head proudly raised. “The biggest love in my life. My dearest treasure that I no longer want to lose. Neither now nor later.”       “I will do my best not to make it happen,” Raquelle promises shyly.       “I feel very sad and lonely without you. Sad without the beloved girl, who can make me happier with just her pretense.”       “I will really make you happier this time.”       “Wouldn’t you leave me?”       “I wouldn't find the courage to do it. I would not do this because I love you. You’re also my love, Terrence James MacClife. The greatest love in my love. The first one. And I hope the last one.”       “Glad to hear it,” Terrence smiles shyly. “Very glad.”       “I think the separation was very good for us. We… We needed it. It helped me understand what I really needed to be absolutely happy. Helped me understand I was much closer to you than I thought.”       “I think so, too,” Terrence agrees. “After what happened between us, I realized you were really very dear and close to me. And I was terribly afraid of the day you’d tell me we’d have to accept our breakup. I refused to accept it deep inside. Even if I knew it was… Worthless.”       “You can think you didn’t hear it,” Raquelle smiles widely and strokes Terrence’s hair down. “I can’t do that… I can’t do… I can’t leave the one I love…”       “I’m so happy.”       “Besides, you’re… My first love. The first man that I fell in love with absolutely seriously. Who helped me discover what feeling truly happy and wanted was like. As Natalia said some time ago, it’s a diagnosis.”       “Right!” Terrence chuckles kindly. “Diagnosis…”       Raquelle looks down for a second with a shy laugh.       “You know…” Raquelle pronounces thoughtfully. “I regret many things I’ve done in my life. But there’s something I don’t regret and will never regret.”       “And what is that?” Terrence asks with a slight smile.       “I don’t regret meeting you. Don’t regret refusing to resist my feelings.” Raquelle tenderly touches Terrence’s cheek, which is covered with a bristle, and caresses it, making him smile shyly. “You’re the best thing that’s happened in my life. The best one.”       Terrence smiles much wider, caresses Raquelle’s face with both hands, and moves a couple of strands of her hair aside.       “I don’t also regret meeting you and deciding to be with you,” Terrence confesses. “Because I found what makes me really happy.”       “Terrence…” Raquelle smiles shyly.       “It’s true. The truth that I don’t want to hide. Especially, from the one I love so much.”       Raquelle caresses Terrence’s cheek softly with a true, wide smile and strokes his hair down. They look at each other for a few seconds, then move closer and take each other in a hug. Not just a hug of two best friends or relatives. A much deeper, much more tender, and much more touching hug of lovers. Terrence snuggles his face in the curve of Raquelle’s neck, closing his eyes from pleasure, holding the girl tightly by the waist, and starting to caress her back. Due to the excitement, he breathes a little heavily but exhales slowly with a sense of relief and presses his beloved girl to himself as if he is afraid to let her go. Meanwhile, the girl snuggles her face in the man’s chest, closing her eyes, putting her arms around his neck, sometimes making quiet sobs and enjoying the warmth that his body is spreading.       The young people cannot believe their happiness. They cannot believe they have come back together and solved the problems they had. Some time ago, it seemed impossible, but they are now sitting on the beach and hugging each other tightly after apologizing for hurting each other and promising to get much better. It means the people around them were absolutely right when they said everything was not lost, and Raquelle and Terrence would hardly find the courage to leave the one they loved even more than they thought.       “Damn, I can’t believe I almost lost such a close person,” Terrence says quietly in a little shaking voice with a heavy breath, running his fingers through Raquelle’s soft hair that smells in a special way, breathing heavily and caressing her head. “I can’t believe you’re with me.”       “Me too,” Raquelle sniffs quietly. “I can't believe you’re with me.”       “Will you really stay with me and not end the relationship with me?”       “I will not leave by myself.”       Raquelle hugs Terrence tighter with a wide smile through tears of happiness and snuggles her nose into his shoulder.       “It’s gonna be otherwise…” Raquelle promises in a little shaking voice. “Much better than before… I promise, sweetie… I will never treat you so disgustingly.”       “I believe, my honey, I believe,” Terrence pronounces softly, tenderly caresses Raquelle’s head, and kisses the top of this one. “I will no longer make you disappointed in me. And I will do my best to learn to control my emotions.”       Raquelle says nothing and just uses Terrence’s shoulder to wipe off her tears with a quiet sob and kisses him tenderly on the cheek. The man shaking from the excitement slightly hugs the girl much tighter with great pleasure, not believing she has forgiven him and will not end the relationship with him. He understands how much his heart is bleeding, and how much he wants to shed a tear from the sudden relief he felt, but he tries to hold himself down.       “Damn, we almost ruined everything with our own hands,” Terrence says in a shaking voice.       “I know…” Raquelle pronounces quietly and sniffs. “I know…”       “Our breakup would be the greatest mistake of mine that I would never forgive myself for.”       “I get goosebumps on my back from thinking about it,” Raquelle replies, putting her head on Terrence’s shoulder and starting to play with his silk hair. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t found the courage to refuse the idea of breaking up.”       “You can’t even imagine what kind of miracle you just made,” Terrence exhales with relief. “A real miracle… You gave me the meaning of life and wish to keep moving on! I can feel alive again…”       “I can say the same about you,” Raquelle says with a slight smile, closing her eyes for a second when she feels Terrence caressing her head tenderly.       Terrence smiles much wider, understanding that it’s getting easier to breathe.       “Damn, I…” Terrence exhales slowly with a shake. “I was so scared… I was afraid I lost you forever.”       “Terrence…” Raquelle pronounces slowly, still holding Terrence tightly, stroking his hair and caressing the nape of his neck tenderly.       “I didn't wanna live for a few minutes when I thought you were dead. When I saw you falling off the roof with my own eyes. When I understood that I could not help you.”       “And I heard you screaming. Screaming out my name. It was like a breath of air. That’s why I made myself get up and climb up to the roof in any way. Survive… Not to fall… Yes, I was exhausted, but your voice made me hold on. It… It breathed into me.”       “I wanted to cry out of happiness when you were on the roof. When I hugged you… I couldn’t believe you were with me. At that moment, I didn’t wanna let you go. Never.”       “And okay, you caught me! I remember everything we talked about before I fainted. And my words were true. At that moment, I didn’t think about any fights. I was just happy you were with me. That I could hug you and cry on your shoulder. And I was so exhausted that I had no strength and wish to pretend to be hard to reach. I just needed someone to be stronger.”       “Raquelle… My little girl…”       Terrence exhales with a slight smile, steps back from Raquelle and caresses her face with both hands, looking into her red, wet from tears eyes.       “I briefly thought you died when you lost consciousness in my arms,” Terrence confesses and leans on Raquelle’s forehead with his forehead with a heavy breath, still holding her face with both hands. “Looking at me got me horrified. You looked like you had a little time to live. You spoke literally on your last leg.”       “I was also scared that I saw you for the last time,” Raquelle replies, grabbing Terrence’s wrists. “But I was madly happy you were with me at that time. Even if I had died, I would’ve done it next to my sweetheart…”       “That case made me understand a lot. Understand that you mean much more to me than I thought. That I didn’t feel as good with anyone else as I felt with you.”       “And I understood that you were the only one, with whom I felt safe.” Raquelle takes Terrence’s hand with both hands and starts caressing his wrist softly. “I couldn’t overcome some trouble and deal with mean and evil people on my own.”       “You will not have to deal with it alone, sweetheart,” Terrence promises and puts his second hand on Raquelle’s hands. “Whatever happens to you, I will always be by your side. And I will no longer believe any stinker, who will wish to tell me a lie about you.”       “At least, even if we can’t work it out, I will not regret trying to do it,” Raquelle smiles shyly. “Though, I really wanna believe it’s gonna be okay this time. I will try hard to make it real.”       “I believe you.”       “Anyway, I owe my life to you from now on. I’m sitting here alive thanks to you.”       “I don’t even wanna think that everything could’ve been otherwise.” Terrence kisses Raquelle cutely on the cheek. “That you could've fallen off the roof and crushed yourself.”       “After that, I’m definitely gonna start to fear heights to the shake,” Raquelle laughs shyly. “And I can’t be sure if I can quietly get on the airplane or live in an apartment on the latest floor of a high building. Just like Aunt Alicia was afraid to drive a car after she hit the little girl.”       “What if I’m with you?”       “M-m-m… I could think better.”       “No, you’re my brave and strong girl. A very headstrong one. If you wanna do something, nothing can stop you.”       “But I can say one thing for sure,” Raquelle says in a lower, deeper voice, brings her face very slowly to Terrence’s face, leaves a short, long-lasting kiss on his lips, and looks into his eyes with tenderness, making him feel how his heart trembles nicely in his chest. “I saw you suffering and regretting. But I was too headstrong and hurt and refused to accept it. I was dying of a wish to get closer to you, but I madly wanted to scratch your face with my nails when I thought of everything you had done to me.”       “Nevertheless, fate brought us to each other and gave us another chance to get happy again.”       “Yeah… And I personally hope you’ll use it right.”       “I will. I promise.”       “I will do my best to fix my mistakes and become the one you’ve dreamed about.”       “But I can’t be absolutely sure that situation would never happen again,” Raquelle confesses hesitantly, looking aside. “Yes, I know you didn’t want it and do dream of forgetting what you did, but…”       Raquelle does not speak her mind because Terrence confidently grabs her face and looks into her eyes, making the girl look at him.       “No, Raquelle!” Terrence exclaims confidently. “I swear, anything like that will never happen again. Never.”       “Do you know why I doubted if I should’ve given you a chance?”       “Why?”       “Because I was afraid that situation would happen again. I was afraid the case would lead to something worse than just a slap.”       “Raquelle…”       “It’s the truth, Terrence. I wasn’t sure you wouldn’t raise a hand on me again. I’m silent about being insecure about my ability to become the best girlfriend. But still…”       “If you need something else to see that I’m not lying, let me know. For you, I’d do anything. Even crash me!”       “No, don’t need to crash yourself and do anything to you,” Raquelle shakes her head sharply with widely open eyes. “I won’t accept it if something happens to you.”       “But I am ready.” Terrence carefully wipes tears under Raquelle’s eyes. “Ready to swear that if I dare to raise a hand on you again, I will leave your life.”       Raquelle runs her fingers through Terrence’s soft hair with a slight smile and then grabs the man’s neck, which she caresses tenderly and shyly, not stopping to look into his eyes.       “I hope you won’t have to do it,” Raquelle expresses hope with a slight smile and moves off some of Terrence’s hair that gets into his eyes. “Or I will not really take it. Breaking up with you would be like the death of my close person… The same tragedy that it’s madly hard to recover from…”       “Just like it is for me…” Terrence pronounces shyly and puts his hand softly on Raquelle’s cheek. “I was made, so to say, to test the demo version of this test. And I didn’t like it at all.”       Raquelle says nothing and just smiles much wider. She and Terrence tenderly touch each other for a few seconds and do something to each other’s hair while looking into each other’s eyes and sometimes moving their eyes on the lips of their beloved person. After a short, little hesitant eye contact, the young people slowly but confidently enough get closer to each other, slightly touch each other’s noses with the tip of them, getting a little blush with the thought that the heart starts beating faster. But some time later, every one of them decides to give a damn about everything and do what they are dreaming about. Terrence confidently grabs Raquelle’s face, and she tenderly touches his cheeks with her palms, and they connect their lips without hesitance, getting each other involved in a kiss full of love that they have never given to their actions before.       The young people kiss each other breathlessly for a few seconds, as if they just met after a long separation and missed each other so badly. At some moment, Terrence and Raquelle lie on the sand and continue their kiss: while the girl has her arms around the man’s neck and runs her fingers through his hair, he raises himself above her and gets pleasure from giving her such a wanted kiss that makes them breathe heavily and understand they get hot, their hearts start beating faster, and they get goosebumps on their backs. Their kiss is quite passionate and greedy, but it’s also tender and exciting… The most important thing is that both of them want it.       At some moment, Terrence, caressing Raquelle’s thighs and knees quite confidently, covers her neck with kisses that make her smile widely, feel a nice shake over her whole body, make quite sighs and barely breathe with the thought that her heart misses a beat, and her body gets obsessed with a tormenting tension. All her thoughts are about feeling madly nice and very good. Even his bristle does not make her impression worse. She can give a damn about everything for these soft male lips, touching which makes her whole body shake, and these tender hands that caress the most sensitive areas of it so skillfully.       Every one of them was waiting for this magical moment! It seems like the separation was really good for Raquelle and Terrence because they get much more pleasure and rejoice from these minutes than before. They no longer ban themselves from doing what they want and do not try to subdue the feelings they have in their hearts. Probably, their brightest memory is not going to be their first kiss, which both of them remember very clearly, or their first sexual experience, which used to be the only moment when they truly loved and belonged to each other. Now it’s going to be the touching, long-awaited reconciliation that ended with a strong hug and a romantic but very passionate kiss. While they are lying on the sand in front of the ocean.       Now Raquelle feels truly happy. That’s what she missed all this time. She needed what could make her feel like a woman. A beloved, wanted woman. By this moment, Raquelle takes down all the bans for showing her feelings, gives herself to them, and is not afraid to show them herself, not going to protest in case her beloved man wants to kiss or hug her. Now she wants him to do this as much as possible. She wants to use any moment to press toward this person, who spreads warmth. Who she can feel safe with. Who makes her feel like a queen…       The girl understands she is in the trustful, strong arms next to this man and can have no worries about her safety. This is the one, who is always ready to hide her behind his back and protect her from anything bad. Moreover, she remembers her name is Raquelle Allison Cameron, the one, who has always taught people to stay strong, brave, and happy whatever happens. She remembers that she is always ready to help her friends and close people if they need some help. She makes sure the most important thing in life is her close people by her side, not a brilliant career. The people, who would love her, despite nothing.       Terrence finally understands that he is still alive and can see everything not only in black and white colors. He literally woke up from a long, deep sleep and is now trying to realize if everything that is happening to him is real. The man literally came alive after he felt the pretense of his beloved girl and her tender touches and breathed in the sweet smell of the perfume she uses. He suddenly gains some strength. He gets a wish to do something. He gets hope that he will have support and care. The one that would support him in anything and help him reach some goals.       Now Terrence has a goal – to get fame along with his band, which was invited by “The Loser Syndrome” on their tour as the opening act. He is starting to truly rejoice about this offer. And he understands that he finally has a real chance to build a musical career. And it’s going to happen. Yes, the man is not going to quit his acting career, but he will put it in second place. Because now he has an amazing chance to become the one he really wants to be. The one he has wanted to be since childhood.       He no longer has to try to play the role of someone else and be the one he is not. Now he should work and make his skills at playing guitar and singing much better to surprise even those, who are treating him and his band skeptically. Peter and Daniel chose Terrence as their lead vocalist that is going to play a solo guitar because he is the one to be able to slay people with his strong voice. While Rose is going to show his skills in playing drums, and Perkins is going to show he was born to be a bassist.       It seems like this kiss full of passion that makes some unexplained but such nice warmth spread all over the body lasts forever. It does not last for five or ten seconds… This time, it’s much longer. It’s much more exciting because this moment is truly wanted. The backs of the lovers are covered with sand after rolling several times, even though nobody cares about it. Terrence is tightly hugging Raquelle lying over him, answering her hot kiss with great pleasure and smiling wider and wider every second because he sees the fire in her eyes that was slightly flaming at the beginning of their relationship, but now it got much brighter and stronger. However, she can also see how happy and alive this man has become after getting long-awaited forgiveness and a chance to get his beloved girl back, and she is madly happy she made the right choice that would not disappoint her.       At some moment, Raquelle and Terrence still lying on the sand in front of the ocean step away slowly from each other and let their foreheads touch one another for some time. After that, they look at each other a little hesitantly, turn to the side, and give each other a tender ogle with a slight smile. A little later, Terrence embraces Raquelle tightly and presses her closely to himself while she snuggles her face in his chest, which she holds her hand on, feeling his strong heartbeat. She does not stop smiling because she realizes that her beloved man is near her and spreads a truly amazing smell that drives her crazy, calms her down, and makes her trust him. The man cannot also believe the girl is now in his arms, pressing herself against him tightly and sometimes caressing his face. At some moment, she pronounces something with tenderness in her eyes:       “I love you, honey.”       “I love you, too, sunshine,” Terrence pronounces with a wide smile, being deeply touched because he heard these words said with all her heart probably for the first time in a while.       Terrence holds Raquelle with one arm for a long time and either strokes her soft hair or caresses the girl’s head, snuggling his nose in the top of her head. At some moment, he kisses her forehead tenderly, listening to her quiet, normal breath and breathing in the smell that drives him crazy and that any other girl does not have. While she keeps her eyes closed from pleasure, presses herself against the tough chest of the man with a feeling of protection and calm. But later, they move their eyes to each other and laugh shyly while having slight blushes on their faces and a true, wide smile, their hearts are beating together, and their breath is a little uneven and very heavy.       After sharing a few more happy smiles and giving the second half a tender hug and some cute kisses, lying in front of the sand, the young people decide to walk a little on the bead and enjoy the good weather. Terrence gets up on his feet first and helps Raquelle do the same, giving her a hand and holding her by the waist while she is standing up. Both of them quickly shake the sand off their hair and clothes and help each other shake it off the places they cannot see it. When the man and the girl tightly lock each other’s fingers of their hands and share a tender smile, they start slowly going somewhere, watching the sun that showed up some time ago, but now is hiding and getting down to the water. It’s possible to see that the sky looks especially beautiful thanks to the blue, yellow, orange, red, and even pink shades that this one is colored with.       At some moment, Terrence puts an arm around Raquelle’s neck on a walk and presses her closely to himself while she puts her head on his shoulder with a cute smile and wraps his waist with her arms, still walking down the large coast with him.       “The weather is rejoicing with us,” Raquelle notices with a slight smile. “You just look at how beautiful the sky is.”       “Can’t deny!” Terrence agrees. “Very beautiful… It’s a breathtaking picture…”       “Some time ago, it was gray, and the strong wind was blowing. But now we saw the sun, and the wind got weaker. But it’s still blowing my hair beautifully.”       Raquelle shakes her head once – that’s why her brown hair rises up beautifully while Terrence watches it with a tender smile. The girl notices it, smiles shyly, and cutely kisses the man on the cheek, making him smile much wider. Silence settles in the air for some time, but Terrence breaks it, definitely thinking of something not very good and getting a little gloomy.       “Hey, let’s agree about something not to come back to that again?” Terrence suggests thoughtfully.       “Agree?” Raquelle frowns slightly. “About what?”       “I don’t want us to start a talk about what happened between us and what Simon did to us,” Terrence says more seriously and confidently.       “Don’t you want?”       “No. And I wouldn’t like to talk about what has happened in the past two months. I know it’s gonna be hard, but it’d be much better if we tried not to think about it and forgot that nightmare as soon as possible.”       “Honestly, I wouldn’t like to talk about it, either,” Raquelle sighs tiredly. “What happened should stay in the past. Because Ringer got what he deserved for his bad tricks. And one of his punishments is being disabled for life.”       “Disabled? He became disabled?”       “Yup, after the falling from the roof, that man is confined to a wheelchair.”       “So, were the doctors right when talking about his possible disability?”       “They couldn’t be wrong, ‘cause it was clear.”       “Did he really become disabled?”       “Yes, yes, I was told that.”       “Told? Who?”       “One day, I was in the hospital, visiting Grandpa. And a little later, I talked to one of the nurses, who was watching him. So, she told me about Simon when I briefly mentioned him. She told me about all his traumas and serious enough brain damage.”       “Got it… So, it means he will not be able to hurt us anymore.”       “I was told a trial of that stinker would be open very soon. But thank God, none of us has to be there, ‘cause lawyers will be representing all the victims. They’re good people, smart… They’ll do their best for Ringer to go to jail for his tricks for a long time. And they will be regularly telling everybody everything. Including me.”       “That’s good we don’t have to be there,” Terrence says gloomily. “Or I would call the memories of everything he did, lose control and beat that scumbag right in the judgment court.”       “Now we shouldn’t care about what’s gonna happen to him. That man is under the control of the police, and the judge will return a verdict soon. And I think Ringer will get a great sentence. I can’t exclude that he might even get a life sentence.”       “I know… Anyway, let’s try not to talk about him and make our mood worse anymore. I don’t personally wanna sit and worry about that scumbag.”       “Me too,” Raquelle nods. “That’s why I promise I will never talk about him or what has happened for two months. Let Simon pay for his actions at a trial that will choose the punishment that he deserves.”       “Good,” Terrence smiles shyly. “I’m glad we understood each other.”       Raquelle says nothing and smiles shyly, while silence settles in the air for a few seconds. During which Terrence thinks he is going to meet Benjamin very soon at his home but does not know how much time he has to come back home and get ready for the talk.       “Listen, don’t you know what time it is?” Terrence frowns slightly.       “I don’t know, but I think about six o’clock,” Raquelle shrugs.       “It would be great…”       “Why? Any problems?”       “Nope, no problems…” Terrence scratches the back of his head. “I just recently received a message from Benjamin Parker. My childhood friend, who I hung out very often with. Especially, when I was single.”       “Yeah, I remember him,” Raquelle nods. “I remember Ben, Cody, and Joseph.”       “It happened that Ben and I fought much a couple of weeks ago and didn’t speak to each other. But some time before you and I met, he had sent me a message and asked me to meet him. He promised to go to my home by seven or eight o’clock.”       “That’s how!”       “We fought quite seriously… I told him many bad things in anger and am now regretting that. Because almost everything he said was the truth, which I refused to accept. And… Since he decided to visit me, I wanna apologize to him and ask him not to be mad at me.”       “I know about your fight.”       “You know? How?”       “One day, I met him and talked to him about you.”       “You met Ben?” Terrence rounds his eyes. “But when?”       “A couple of weeks ago. He looked a little sad and was worried that you fought. Parker said he was also regretting being rude to you.”       “And did he say nothing more?”       “Well… Ben said he was still worried about you, despite your fight, and would’ve been happy if you and I had made peace or just talked about our relationship. I advised him to talk to you, but… It seems like he delayed it ‘till the end if he decided to meet you two weeks later after meeting me.”       “And where did you meet him?”       “He came to one place where I was with Natalia and Anna.”       “Come on?” Terrence wonders truly. “Natalia and Anna?”       “Yeah. Ben saw us and came to our table. But when we invited him to sit down and talk with us, he refused and said he wanted to talk to me alone.”       “Wait, wait, but Natalia and you fought!”       “We’ve reconciled,” Raquelle says with a slight smile.       “Really? You did?”       “I sent her a message and asked her if we could meet and talk, and she agreed. We agreed to meet at her home. So, I went. And we… Talked about everything and asked each other for forgiveness. I admitted that I was an idiot that went crazy. And a little later I told Anna and her about the situation with Camilla. I told them how I harmed her by pushing her off the stairs. Of course, the girls were shocked, but they didn’t turn their backs on me. They believed that I didn’t want it. And I promised them to make a public statement soon.”       “Listen, that’s great!” Terrence smiles shyly. “I’m very glad you established your relationship.”       “It was a great relief to me… All the fights with my close people weighed on me. Especially, after Ringer got what he deserved. I came to myself more or less and started to realize I suffered from remorse. So, I couldn’t take it and… Decided to solve everything by myself. Moreover, I was the one to start it all.”       “You did a good thing by taking the first step. The poor girl was so devastated because you blamed her for what she didn’t do.”       “You’re right, I did a really disgusting thing to her,” Raquelle nods. “But I’m madly happy she understood me and forgave me. If I lost my best friend that I’ve known since childhood because of my stupidity, I wouldn’t have taken it.”       “Hey, have you often spoken with her for the past two weeks?”       “Yes, we’ve met almost every single day. So to say, we’ve been making up the lost time. We’ve had fun with Anna, who was terribly glad when she learned we apologized to each other. I didn’t go with them anywhere for ages ‘cause I was always busy. The last time we did it was before I agreed to live with you.”       “Did Natalia say anything interesting to you?”       “No, nothing special. But what should she have said?”       “Well, erm…” Terrence quickly moves strands of hair off his face that get into his eyes. “Maybe, Natalia told you or Anna something about the guys, whom she recently met?       “Yeah, she talked about one,” Raquelle replies confidently. “Very much. She met him when she and I were in a fight.”       “That guy is worried that Rochester has been ignoring him for two weeks. She doesn’t answer his calls and doesn’t send him messages.”       “Natalia thinks that guy needs her to meet someone with her help. She thinks that when their meeting happens, he will reject her.”       “I’m aware.”       “Wait, how do you know it?” Raquelle frowns slightly, moving her eyes to Terrence. “Did she tell you that?”       “Nope, that guy.”       “That guy? Come on? Do you know him?”       “Yup, I met him two weeks ago.”       “Wow…”       “And yeah, I was the one, whom he wanted to meet so badly.”       “You? He wanted to meet you?”       “Yeah, but don’t ask me why. I don’t also understand why the heck he has been aiming to do this for many years.”       “It’s weird…” Raquelle pronounces thoughtfully. “It’s kind of suspicious… That guy definitely needs something from you.”       “Yeah… His words about just wishing to befriend me don’t sound so truly.”       “That’s how…”       “No, maybe, he wants it. But he’s also has got come goals that nobody knows about yet.”       “Maybe, Natalia can say something?”       “Nope, she is also surprised by this stubbornness of that guy.”       “But what’s he actually like at first sight?”       “Harmless enough. Young, shy… He says he’s twenty-four, but he looks like he’s eighteen.”       “It doesn’t mean he is really so sweet and fluffy.”       “Who knows… Anyway, I decided not to decline his suggestion and agreed to talk to him.”       “Maybe, you shouldn't have?” Raquelle expresses anxiety. “Having much more problems would be too much for us.”       “Yeah, I know the risks, but… I felt so lonely that I didn’t think about t. I didn’t have anyone by my side because everybody decided to turn their backs on me. But that guy came into my life at the very good time. And… I must confess that he helped me feel a little better.”       “I don’t know, Terrence, I don’t like it at all. Natalia and you should keep yourself far from that guy. My gut tells me that he is planning something bad.”       “Maybe, I will get the answer to all these questions from his someday. Find out why that guy wanted to get closer to me so badly. He will not hide it forever. Early or late, he will have to reveal himself.”       “My gosh, where did Rochester meet him? She found a very good person to fall in love with!”       “She didn’t do it. He sat down with her at the table and started a talk with her. And then they went on dates literally every day.”       “Okay. I shall talk to Natalia later and find out more about that guy.”       “Didn’t she tell you that he wanted to meet me?”       “She did, but I didn’t know she meant you. That she should’ve introduced him to one of her friends.”       “So, you know everything now.”       “Wow, here’s the man, who she got a one-sided, as she thought, love for,” Raquelle guesses with a slight smile.       “As I understand, do you and Anna know about the love of the blondie for that guy?” Terrence concludes.       “Huh, Natalia dinged into our ears about that guy and could talk about him for hours. And she was madly afraid of the day he’d leave her and stop wishing to speak to her.”       “I know, but he says he isn’t gonna reject her,” Terrence says confidently. “My friend kind of really loves her. For the time that they were speaking, that guy realized he wasn’t indifferent to her.”       “Do you think his feelings are true? Or is he lying to the poor girl?”       “I prefer to believe that it’s the truth. He has come up with so many thoughts all the time! And he's worried that she’s ignoring him.”       “Anna and I tried to change her mind and let Rochester know that guy would behave differently, it would let her know he wasn’t interested in her. But we quickly guessed that he was definitely interested in Natalia.”       “Of course, it’s none of my business, but I would like to ask you to make her sure that he isn’t gonna lie to her.”       “I swear we’re trying, but no result.”       “I completely understand that Natalia has problems with men, who have deceived and betrayed her many times. But let’s believe that Edward doesn’t have anything against her. That he wishes her nothing bad.”       “Yeah, but that Edward is too suspicious. We can’t trust completely the one, who was literally chasing you like an obsessed fan.”       “At least, I never noticed that he was chasing me.”       “Please, sweetie, be careful with that guy. Don't let him get too close to you.”       “Although I keep communicating with him, he is still in my close view anyway. And I can’t find a reason to reflect. I can’t find a reason to reproach him for something. I can’t catch him on anything.”       “You will do it early or late, be sure. Always keep your eyes open and don’t let him fool you.”       “I think you’re too categorical. Even if you don’t know Edward yet.”       “I just wanna foresee all the events. Agree that all of it is too weird.”       “Yes, I agree with you, but if that guy wants to talk, why not. Edward is lonely to some extent and needs friends, too. So, two lonely guys got closer.”       “Anyway, I warned you. And I hope that Natalia will not listen to him openmouthed.”       “C’mon, Raquelle, don’t find a catch about it,” Terrence smiles shyly. “You better talk to your friend and make her sure to stop ignoring him. Natalia is doing a bad thing to him and should stop running from the one, who feels sympathy for her.”       “First, I need to check that Edward. And then I can decide if I can let him date the blonde.”       “Her parents will care about it. I mean, they kind of know him already and have nothing against their meetings.”       “I just don’t want her to meet another stinker, who only needs one thing from her.”       “Any person deserves a chance. If Edward doesn’t meet our expectations, we will deal with him. But since everything is okay, why don’t we accept a new fine?”       “Oh, Terrence…”       “Don’t worry, babe, it’s gonna be okay!” Terrence kisses Raquelle cutely on the cheek. “And someday, I will have dinner and invite Edward to introduce him to you.”       “Yes, do it…” Raquelle smiles slyly. “I really wanna look at that creature.”       “I shall think about it at the nearest time.”       “Okay, I will be waiting for the invitation.”       Terrence says nothing and just chuckles kindly. Silence settles in the air for a few seconds, which the man breaks, hugging Raquelle by the waist and looking at her with a mysterious smile while she thinks of something.       “Hey, I finally got a real chance to get greater success in music,” Terrence says confidently. “And this time, nobody’s gonna leave me.”       “Really?” Raquelle wonders with a slight smile. “What kind of chance is that?”       “Just amazing! While you and I were in a fight, I met two guys, who loved music. But later, they learned what I did, believed some false charges they blamed me for, and fought with me. But two weeks ago, we met by chance in one place, and they apologized to me and said they got me wrong. And I also introduced Edward to them, who quickly got on well with them and hangs out with us sometimes.”       “Are those guys musicians or people from the musical music?”       “No, no, they’re common guys. They played in an unknown band, but recently left it after fighting with their lead vocalist and their manager. The girl made them pay money for some things they destroyed, and the man broke down and told them tons of claims. So, the guys didn’t take it and got out of the band.”       “They said that?”       “Yup, they told me what happened and said they decided to start their own band. Just for fun. Hoping for nothing.”       “Okay…”       “And because I played with them for some time, and they were aware of my talents, the guys invited me to join them. So, I agreed. We started to play and record videos of us performing covers of some famous songs and published them on the Internet. We all sing, but I became the lead vocalist ‘cause I have the best and strongest voice of the three of us. One of the guys and I play guitars, and the third one became a drummer.”       “And what about your success?”       “Just wonderful!” Terrence smiles shyly. “People like our performances. And many of them even became our fans. We read lots of positive comments that motivate us to keep moving on.”       “I believe you got so successful thanks to your fame. Because you still have lots of fans.”       “Maybe.”       “Well, maybe, famous people from the music world would notice you someday.”       “They’ve already done.”       “Already?” Raquelle rounds her eyes.       “Some time later, we saw positive comments from the members of ‘The Loser Syndrome.’”       “Come on?” Raquelle opens her mouth wider. “My gosh, that’s one of the famous pop-rock bands! Men and girls adore them! Many friends of mine from the show business know them well.”       “We also listen to some of their songs often.”       “Wow… You’ve been noticed by such famous guys.”       “They said we were doing that well. And yesterday, the lead singer of the band, Liam Caulfield, contacted us personally. He said his band was delighted by our talent and advised us to keep doing what we were doing.”       “Cool!” Raquelle smiles shyly.       “And today in the morning, Liam contacted us again.”       “Again?”       “Yeah. And…” Terrence smiles mysteriously. “Zach, Bradley, and Nate invited us to go on the little tour in the cities of the United States and perform as the opening act.”       “What?” Raquelle opens her mouth wider. “Perform as ‘The Loser Syndrome’s opening act? One of the famous bands?”       “Another band was supposed to go on the road with them, but someone should get surgery, and they’re gonna have a long break. And then the guys thought of us and decided to invite us to go with them personally. They didn’t wait for their managers to find someone.”       “And I hope you didn’t dare to reject that chance to get famous?”       “Of course, we couldn’t reject that offer,” Terrence replies confidently. “After a little talk, the guys and I decided to agree and let ‘The Loser Syndrome’ know we agreed to do it.”       “I can’t believe it…”       “So, we’re rehearsing a lot, trying to improve our skills, and writing songs in our free time. We need many tracks that we would work on and perform with. We can’t sing only covers. We need at least five or six songs.”       “My God, Terrence, that’s wonderful!” Raquelle puts her arms around Terrence’s waist with a slight smile on the way, pressing tightly to him for a second. “Congratulations! I’m so happy you finally got such an amazing chance!”       “Yeah, after many unsuccessful attempts, I finally got what I wanted,” Terrence replies confidently. “I was noticed by the worldwide famous band, not managers or musical producers.”       “Did they really like your videos?”       “Very much! And they decided to invite us on the tour. That’s destiny! That band gave us a long-awaited chance to get famous.”       “It’s your chance, sweetie!” Raquelle kisses Terrence cutely on the cheek and smiles much wider. “If you really want, you can get anything. I do know how long you’ve wanted to get famous, and how long you’ve tried to get some reaction.”       “Honestly, I didn’t care about it before. I agreed not to make the lads upset. They were so thrilled when they learned about Liam Caulfield’s message, and I didn’t wanna deprive them of a chance to make their dream come true. But now I understand how cool it is. And now I’m gonna be happy literally much more than the guys.”       “Hey, don’t even dare to refuse to perform on the tour!” Raquelle threatens with a finger. “Performing on the same scene with ‘The Loser Syndrome’ is a great honor! You do know they have a huge fan base. You’re gonna be noticed by all of them, and someone’s gonna become a fan of your band. If you perform with those guys, you’ll get success. And later, you will probably get noticed by people in the music business and get an offer to record a song or even an album.”       “Without your support and love, I’d hardly get much,” Terrence says with a slight smile. “Because you’re the only one to be able to give me a wish to keep moving on and reach my goals. You’ve always been my source of inspiration.”       “Now I’ll always be with you, Terrence,” Raquelle says with a shy smile, hugs Terrence tightly, and puts her head on his shoulder. “I will no longer leave you and will support you and anything you do.”       Terrence says nothing and just smiles shyly. The man hugs Raquelle tighter and cutely kisses her on the forehead, while she smiles widely, keeping her hand on his chest. They silently walk straight across and hold each other for some time. But at some moment, the man quickens a step and then stops. The girl does the same and waits for the reaction of her boyfriend, who softly takes her hands and hesitates a little before looking into her eyes.       “Raquelle, come back to my house, please,” Terrence says with a little sadness. “Without you, it’s been very sad to live in that place. Since you left it, it’s been unbearable for me to be there. I feel lonely.”       “Come back to your house?” Raquelle specifies, putting her hands on the crooks of Terrence’s arms.       “Ah, sorry…”       Terrence moves his eyes down for a moment with a shy smile.       “Come back to our house,” Terrence pronounces softly, putting his hands on Raquelle’s waist. “Come back to the house that belongs to me and you. Has always belonged. Will always belong.”       “You say, you feel lonely and sad at that house?” Raquelle smiles slyly.       “Very lonely… Honestly, I haven’t gotten used to falling asleep and waking up all alone… Without seeing your face. Maybe, we didn’t almost talk before sleep and didn’t lie in bed for nothing in the mornings. But you were next to me. But now there is not you. And I feel emptiness.”       “What if I say I won’t be back? What if I fuck you off and tell you to live there alone?”       “Please, sweetie…” Terrence whines with pity in his eyes and tenderly caresses Raquelle’s face with both hands. “I don't want us to meet sometimes like lovers. I want us to live together. At our house. Like we did before. Or even better. I really want you to bring the light to that place and make me stop feeling lonely.”       Raquelle says nothing and keeps smiling slyly, forcing Terrence to persuade her to come back to his house. And the man looks at the girl with a begging look, hugs her by the waist with one arm, and runs the fingers of his free hand through her hair.       “Moreover, the servants miss you very much,” Terrence adds with sadness in his eyes. “They often talk about you. They say it was always light at the house when you lived there. I think if they were braver, they would come to me and beg me to bring you back.”       “I’m missing them, too…” Raquelle confesses with a quiet sigh. “Especially, Blair… I’ve always been sorry for that girl. She looks kind of sad all the time… I didn’t almost see her smiling. Yes, I know she’s got a hard life, but still…”       “It’s almost impossible to see her smile. She is much more upset because of your departure than everybody. Violetta and Christiana try to comfort her, but Blair can’t take it anyway.”       “Oh, my gosh…”       “The doors of the house are always open for you. There are always people, who dream of your return. But there is someone, who wants it more than the others. Who wouldn’t take living without his beloved girl.”       With these words, Terrence tightly hugs and presses Raquelle closely to himself and kisses different parts of her face multiple times, holding the back of her head and softly caressing her head.       “Please, Raquelle, come back to me,” Terrence says with sadness in his eyes. “Come back to the place that’s your home…”       “Well, I don’t even know…” Raquelle rolls her eyes, sticking her breasts up.       “Would you let me keep being sad all alone and leave me without the one I could share my happiness and sadness with?”       “And wouldn’t this wish be gone?” Raquelle asks with a sly smile, rolling her eyes.       “Only after you come back to our house.”       “M-m-m…”       Raquelle says nothing for a few seconds, then steps back from Terrence with a shy smile on her face and puts her hands on his shoulders, but later puts her arms around his neck.       “So…” Raquelle pronounces thoughtfully with a slight smile. “If you really want it, I agree to come back. Agree to live with you at your house and…”       “Sh-h-h…” Terrence puts two fingers on Raquelle’s lips. “Remember, honey, that’s our house, not mine. It’s always been yours. Even when I called it mine and let you know you didn’t have to do with it. That place will always belong to both of us.”       “Okay… Then I agree to move to our house.”       “That’s great!”       “But I need some time to take my stuff and move it there.”       “Would you make me wait?”       “I promise it won’t take a lot of time.”       Terrence hugs Raquelle by the waist with a cute smile with one arm and caresses her cheek tenderly with a free hand.       “Knowing we’d see each other every single day, I’m ready to wait as long as you need,” Terrence replies confidently with a slight smile.       “Thanks,” Raquelle nods.       “Come back when you’re ready. And it goes without saying, I’ll be happy to help you drive your stuff to our house. In my car.”       “I will take a note,” Raquelle pronounces softly with a wide smile, running her hands through Terrence’s silky black hair.       “Don’t get ready for too long. I don’t wanna wait too much.”       “Don’t worry, I’ll take all my stuff very quickly and come back to the place that I’m actually missing very much.”       Terrence says nothing and smiles much wider. And a little later, he sharply but softly presses Raquelle to himself, holding her by the waist with two arms and keeping her hands on her back while she gives him a tender ogle and softly caresses his face with her warm hands.       The lovers just look into each other’s eyes for a few seconds and smile shyly, enjoying each other’s pretense and thinking it’s really great to be next to the one that makes the heart beat faster and makes the breath becomes uneven. Next to whom they can feel calm… And then Terrence runs his fingers through Raquelle’s hair and gets them through these soft strands that smell madly nice, comes much closer to her, raises her head slightly by softly grabbing her by the chin, and gives her a short, slow, and very tender kiss on the lips, steps back and looks at her to see the reaction. After waiting for a while and seeing the brunette’s wider smile on his sweetheart’s face, the man gives her one more short kiss and a more continuous and passionate one, grabbing her tenderly by the neck and doing his best to make this moment unforgettable.       The wind is beautifully blowing through the hair of Raquelle, who, however, does not care about it and embraces Terrence tenderly, keeps her arms around his neck, plays with his hair on the top and back of his head, and caresses his face, enjoying what’s happening with all the heart. And Terrence does not also care that strands of his hair often fall on his face or get into his eyes. He is too busy with the passionate kiss full of love with his beloved girl, whom he is hugging tightly, and letting his hands confidently slide over her back, thighs, and buttocks.       They start to breathe very heavily because of a wave of excitement they get obsessed with. Their hugs get stronger and more confident, and their kiss becomes more passionate and dizzying. When they break their kiss for a while, Terrence gets pleasure from leaving short kisses on all the parts of Raquelle on the neck, areas behind her ears, and her earlobes, making the girl shake slightly, sigh quietly and roll her eyes from eternal enjoyment. And she gives him all the same back, but does it with a greater passion and love, easily driving the man crazy and making him as passionate and tender at the same time as he was not for a long time.       Now the most important thing for Raquelle is not where they are, what’s happening around them, or who could be watching them. They think only of being together. The fact that nobody and nothing will tear them apart anymore. After a long-awaited reconciliation, they finally got a wish to smile and reach their goals and a love for life that seems much more colorful now. Maybe, these people used to be united by their strong passion and psychical attraction. But now the lovers are sure everything is going to be different. The separation helped them realize they were actually much closer to each other. They understand that they will not meet a person, who could be the second version of one of them. There is only one person, who is able to give such incredible emotions and a feeling of protection, peace, and happiness. This is Terrence for Raquelle, and this is Raquelle for Terrence.