Wyn listened to Muriel, called Healthlink on her behalf, and then took her to the hospital. It was a concussion. A little before midnight, the doctor decided to keep Muriel at the hospital for observation and sent Wyn home.

When she came through the apartment door, she expected to find it black with Raif in bed. To her astonishment, a few lights were on in the living room. He had been watching TV. When he heard her he turned it off and rose to greet her.

“How’s Muriel?”

“Trevor really knocked the stuffing out of her.”

“He knows. He’s a mess and he couldn’t be more sorry. Do you think she’ll forgive him?” Raif asked gravely.

The corners of Wyn’s mouth pointed downwards. “Yes, but I think they’re finished living together. She wants me to move you out before she gets out of the hospital tomorrow.”

“I don’t want to go back to living with Trevor,” Raif said.

“Scared he’ll hit you?”

Raif scoffed. “No. It’s simple. I would rather live with you.”

She glanced at the table. The dishes were done.

“I’d like to live with you too,” she said. From the way she said it, Raif knew her meaning was as friendly as it could be.

It bothered him immensely that she only wanted to be friends. Maybe they weren’t meant to be together. He’d thought it himself enough times, but he was through thinking that way. Suddenly, he decided to put it all out there. 

“No,” he said, covering the distance between them. “You want to know why I got bored with dating? Because it was boring and pointless. I hated dating women I didn’t love.”

Wyn looked at him disbelievingly. “Are you saying you love me?”

“I’m saying I could love you, which is more than I can say for any of them. If I move back to Trevor’s like you want, will you date me?”

She looked at him. “Even with you moving to the far frozen north at the end of the school year?”

“Yes,” he replied sternly.

It was her turn to be a player and she answered in sugary tones, “What if I feel the same way all the other girls feel? Like dating a man who’s on his way to the North Pole is a mistake?”

Raif swallowed and the blood drained from his face, but Raif was the kind of man who would do or say anything to get what he wanted. He grabbed her hands. “This is a perfect opportunity to try us out. Why couldn’t we have a trial just like Trevor and Muriel? Let me keep living here. We could tell Trevor and Muriel that they started this mess and now they have to finish it, and we could go on here…”

“...until you have to go?” Wyn finished for him in quiet tones.

His shoulders drooped. He couldn’t ask anyone to go to Banks Island with him. “It’s a huge opportunity for me.”

“I know,” she said. The expression on her face and the tone of her voice saying she felt sorry but she was rejecting him the same way she’d sent her last boyfriend packing. Everything wasn’t perfect, so he had to go.

His head hung limp. “Anything I can say that will make you change your mind?”

“Come on, Raif, you don’t have to look like someone just took your arm off. I want us to be friends.”

For a second, his glare could have cut her in half. Then suddenly, he blinked, straightened, and put out his hand in an apparent offer to shake hers. 

He looked so dangerous at that moment that she kept her hand to herself.

“You don’t want to be friends with me,” he said crossly. “You don’t even want to shake hands with me!”

“No. I do,” she said, putting out her hand.

Raif frowned. “Why don’t you try telling me the truth? What’s your big objection to me?”

She gritted her teeth, then blurted, “I’m scared! If I fall in love with you, it will change everything. I’m not ready for everything to be different!” 

“Going on a couple of dates with me will probably not change everything.”

“I… I… am not…” she stuttered between awkward pauses.

At a glance, he saw something he’d never seen before. He was insightful that way. What he felt for her, what she felt back for him, it was just too much that was too right too suddenly. What they felt for each other was everything. She wasn’t wrong about them being friends. They were friends, and everything beyond, lovers and soul mates. And if he was right, even though it happened suddenly, it couldn’t be undone suddenly. 

 “Okay,” he relented. “Let’s stop there. I get it. Come here.”

His tone had softened so completely that she felt comfortable taking those few steps forward. He bent and selected a pen from beside the scrapbook. He took her hand in his and said, “Come find me when you’re ready,” exactly the same way he had said it all those years ago. Then he wrote his phone number on her palm and whispered in her ear, “I could have kissed you for the rest of my life.”

Author's Notes: Thanks for reading!  I'm back.  I'll release the next chapter tomorrow.  See you then.