The Prince and the Girl

“What are you doing here, Harry?” Gillian asked as rain poured down on the two of them.

“You never gave me a chance to explain.” Harry responded.

“You’ve had more than a year to explain, Harry. Nothing was stopping you.” Gillian said, descending her front steps to stand on her gravel driveway before him.

“Nothing besides the fact that you moved 3000 miles away and refused to talk to me.” He replied angrily.

“If you had really wanted to do something about it, Harry, you wouldn’t have let that stop you.” Gillian alleged.

“I didn’t try to find you because I thought you were happier that way. Because it was what you wanted.” Water splashed off Harry’s hand as he pointed it at Gillian.

“Do you have any idea how much it hurt, when you didn’t even try to call? You didn’t bother once to try to talk to me again?” Gillian shouted.

“You think I hurt you? You’re the one who walked away, telling me never to come back!” Harry cried, his voice blotted out by the rain as hit the stones beneath their feet.

“Yes, I said that, because I was angry, Harry! I was angry and impulsive, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you!”

There was a silence as Gillian realised what she had said; water beat down on the two of them, drenching them further.

“You still love me?” Harry said quietly as he slowly stepped towards Gillian.

“I’m engaged, Harry.” Gillian responded quietly.

Harry took Gillian’s left hand. “This is just a ring, Jill.”

Gillian did not try to pull her hand away. “Harry …”

“Tell me you love him and I’ll go. I’ll leave you alone.” Harry was close now, only inches away.

Gillian looked up into Harry’s blue gray eyes, mesmerised. Any will she had to say anything was gone. She felt Harry’s grip on her hand grow stronger as he closed the small remaining distance between them. He wrapped his arms around her and tucked her shoulder under his chin, stroking her hair gently.

“I never stopped loving you.”

A great bolt of lightning illuminated the sky above them as Harry gripped Gillian’s face in his hands, kissing her for the first time in more than a year.

•••

“Jill? Phone’s for you.” Iris said softly, perched on the edge of Gillian’s bed.

Gillian moaned. “Who’s calling so early?”

“It’s 10.30, Jill.” Iris laughed. “Come on.”

Gillian rolled over and threw her covers off. “Remind me again why I don’t have a phone in my room?”

She trudged down the stairs to the phone in the kitchen and picked it up off the counter where Iris had set it.

“Hello?” She pressed the handset against her ear.

“Hi, Gillian.”

At the sound of Harry’s voice Gillian slammed the handset into the cradle, her mind filling with the images of last night. They had kissed and Gillian had lost herself in the moment before realising what she was doing. Horrified, she had pushed Harry away before quickly retreating into her home without a word.

“Who was it?” Iris asked, coming into the kitchen.

“Harry.” Gillian answered.

Iris looked at her strangely. “Tell me you didn’t just hang up on a prince. Tell me.”

“We are not taking his calls.”

“Calls?” Iris raised one eyebrow in questioning. “Why is it that this man with whom you have been romantically involved will be calling you more than once?”

Gillian put a hand to her face, attempting to hide her shame.

“Gillian, what did you do?” Iris demanded.

“I may have kissed him a little bit.” Gillian buried her face in both of her hands now.

There was a silence where Gillian was expecting Iris to explode with anger. She looked up and Iris stood, shaking her head.

“If you still love him, then why did you leave?” She asked quietly.

“You know why.”

“Yes Gillian, I know why.” Iris looked scathingly at Gillian. “But now look at yourself. Are you any better than him?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gillian asked, hurt.

“It means that you need to tell Liam before he finds for himself and gets hurt the same way you did.” Iris replied in a surprisingly comforting tone. She crossed the kitchen to Gillian and put an arm around her.

“Sure, he may never want to see you again. But you can just come home to me.” She squeezed Gillian softly.

“What about Harry?” Gillian asked quietly.

“I think you need to consider forgiving him. Think about it, now that you know what it’s like to be in his situation.”

“This is different, though.” Gillian maintained. “I love him.”

Iris turned to face Gillian. “And maybe Chelsy did too. Maybe it wasn’t his fault.”

Gillian sighed, not wanting to budge on this after all this time. “I’ll think about it.”

•••

Days passed and Gillian tried to focus on her work, but all she could hear was the phone ringing off the hook. Harry called incessantly for two days; Iris had to take about six calls from him every day as Gillian refused to pick up the phone.

On the third day, however, the calls stopped and the house seemed oddly silent. The third day was dreadfully peaceful, which Gillian both appreciated and despised. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to talk to Harry; it was just that she didn’t know how. It killed her to know that he had stopped bothering to try. As the sun began to set without a single word from him, Gillian felt a familiar feeling of hurt rising in the pit of her stomach.

The hurt was dissolved when the sharp ring of the kitchen telephone shattered the glass-like silence of the house. In all of her surprise, Gillian jumped up and grabbed the receiver off the hook.

“Hello?”

“Gillian.” Harry’s voice was laced with surprise. “I know you don’t want to talk to me but I have one quick thing I want to say.”

There was a silence as Harry waited for Gillian’s response.

“Okay.” She said quietly.

“I want you to marry him. It’s what you want.”

Silence filled the air again as Harry took a deep breath.

“And also that I love you, and that I will for the rest of my living years. I know that that doesn’t change what I did. But it’s something.”

Gillian gripped the phone tightly. “I’m going back tomorrow, Harry. We’re going to live there.”

She heard as Harry inhaled tensely on the other end.

“Have a nice trip.”

“Thank you, Harry.”

•••

The air was filled with the clink of dishes and hanging lights shed dim bits of light on the tables. The restaurant had an air of sophisticated judgement.

Gillian sat across from an empty chair, her menu open before her. She had been trying to read it but gave up, figuring she wouldn’t be eating dinner tonight. Liam, returned from the washroom, filled the seat opposite her and opened his own menu. He had noticed the way Gillian was acting; he knew something was going on.

He reached across to touch Gillian’s hand endearingly, one of the things she loved most about him.

“Tell me what happened.”

Gillian over the table at him and grasped his hand softly. “I kissed Harry.”

Her willingness to share obviously took Liam by surprise as he withdrew his hand. He was struggling to keep his emotions in check; something Gillian had never seen him do.

“Why?” He asked, stuttering slightly before rising.

“Liam …” Gillian trailed off and he walked away, storming out of the restaurant in way Gillian had never seen before.

Gillian returned to her mother’s house, unable to gather the strength to return to her apartment where Liam would be. Her mother simply gathered her up in her arms and let her cry. Gillian went to sleep fitfully in her childhood room, crying herself to sleep once more.

•••

“Gillian.”

She felt foreign warmth on her brow and opened her eyes to see Liam’s face above her. She sat up promptly, startled by his unexpected appearance in her mother’s home.

“What are you doing here?” She asked.

“I was thinking about what you said.” He replied, his hand finding hers. “And I just wanted to say that it’s okay.”

Gillian furrowed her brow. “What?”

“It’s okay.” Liam repeated.

This confused Gillian. “Why are you suddenly okay with it?”

A pensive look crossed Liam’s face before he said, “You forgive someone because it allows them to remain a part of your life.”

Gillian was silent, enlightened by an unknowing Liam. She threw back her covers and grabbed her suitcase, still unpacked.

“Gillian, what are you doing?” Liam stood up, confused.

She paused and took his hands in hers. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

She pecked him lightly on the cheek and slid the ring he had given her off her finger. “I’m sorry Liam, but I can’t marry you.”