Loving Henry

April 5th, Tuesday

The next week went by in the same fashion as the previous weeks. Some nights we went on dates to the movies or a restaurant and other nights we stayed in either his suite or mine, curled up on the couch.

All my remaining assignments were due the fallowing Tuesday and so I worked hard to finish on time. On the morning of the fifth, I e-mailed my last essay and closed the lid on the laptop with a flourish.

“Finally done?” Henry asked with a yawn from the couch. He’d fallen asleep last night, while I was furiously working on my essay and I’d decided to just leave him there. He’d looked extremely cute and comfortable curled up on the sofa and I didn’t have the heart to wake him.

“Yes, my darling. Good morning.” I walked over to the couch to kiss him, but he pushed me away.

“Morning breath,” he mumbled and I smiled before leaning down and capturing his lips. I bet my breath smelled just as bad and I wasn’t a person easily disgusted by bodily functions.

In any case, I’d recently discovered that I had fallen very deeply in love with Henry and would very happily spend the rest of my life with him, morning breath or not.

I sometimes still doubted that I was good enough for him, but as if sensing my thoughts, he’d pull me into a hug or smile that devilishly handsome smile and my worries would float away as if they never were.

~**~

It felt as if I’d just gotten Henry back and now he was leaving again for England, tomorrow. His three weeks were up and I was a bit broken hearted. I mean, where do we go from here? Do we part ways as friends and very likely never see each other ever again? Or do we try to make the long distance thing work? I wouldn’t be returning to England for another three weeks and the thought of not seeing him every day was making me snappish.

Was it even worth it to try and make it work? What if the moment he got back to his real life, he decides that he’s better off and we end up separating anyway… This was really confusing.

He was leaving in less that twenty-four hours and neither of us had brought it up. I think he was just as confused and unsure as I was.

The thing is, that even when I return to London and the whole long distance thing is taken out of it, our lives are so completely different that I really don’t know if we’ll be able to make it as a couple. Henry’s the only man I’ve ever loved; I don’t think I can stand losing him.

“What are you thinking about so seriously, love?” Henry asked me later that day when we were having lunch. “You’ve hardly said a word all day.”

“I really don’t want you to leave tomorrow,” I said softly.

He sighed and then pulled me into his arms. We were sitting on the sofa in his suite, eating in front of the television.

“Li,” he said and then sighed again, “I don’t want to leave you. I’ve been thinking up every excuse in the book to stay, but I have to go back. I’ve got to help with the wedding and I’ve got my Air Corps stuff to deal with. When I met you in that bloody lift three weeks ago, I knew that I’d just met someone very special, but Hell, Li, I couldn’t have predicted the way I’d feel about you after so little time had passed. You mean a lot to me and I wish I could stay with you, but I have to go. It’s going to be very hard saying goodbye to you tomorrow, but I know that I’ll see you in three weeks and then we can be together again. In the meantime we can call each other and text and even Skype every night.”

There were tears in my eyes and I was trying my best to not let them fall, but if he kept on saying such beautiful things to me…

I looked up to look into his eyes and I saw the sincerity of his words. Then I closed my own eyes and leaned in to kiss him. Our lips met and it was a slow, sweet and torturous kiss. In it we said all the things we were feeling, but knew that it was still too soon to voice it out loud.

How could one person make me feel so special? How could he be so perfect? How would I possibly survive without him?

I didn’t realise that I’d voiced the questions until he answered me.

“Li, I wish I could be perfect for you. You deserve the absolute best and if I’m quite honest; I’m not sure how to live without you either. It’s just three weeks and I know we can make it through this.”

I felt the tears running down my face and leaned closer to kiss him again.

“I’d wait for you forever, Henry,” I told him in return and his face broke out into a beautiful smile.

~**~

We spent the night together, just lying in his bed, cuddling. Sometimes we’d kiss, but mostly we just spent the time staring into each other’s eyes, mapping out the other’s face; committing it to memory. Praying that morning wouldn’t come. Eventually we fell asleep and awoke the next morning, spooning. It was an incredible feeling; waking up with someone like that. I could very easily wake up like that every day for the rest of my life.

Henry got ready and packed the last of his things and then we had breakfast. We were silent throughout all of it, since all the important things had already been said.

I drove with him in the car towards the airport, but didn’t get out, since we didn’t want reporters seeing us. Nobody knew about our relationship and we wanted to keep it that way.

We clung to each other and I was softly crying. Henry was kissing every inch of my face and I only cried harder when I saw the expression on his face. It was time for him to go and he me kissed me once more on the mouth and then pressed his lips against my forehead.

“Goodbye, my Lady,” he said softly and my whispered response brought a small, but very sad smile to his lips. He got out of the car and cast one last look at me before shutting the door softly.

“Goodbye, my Prince,” I whispered again and then I broke down crying.

I didn’t see the driver look at me in the rear-view mirror with pity in his eyes, as we pulled away from the curb and began the journey back to the empty hotel. The hotel where I’d found true love for the first time since my mother had died all those many years ago.