A Love Left Behind

Chapter 24 - Someday

The third time Damian came to the Philippines, I didn't wait for him beside the car.

I waited directly outside arrivals.

Eighteen months had passed since I'd last touched him.

Eighteen months of calls, messages, arguments, apologies and falling asleep with a phone beside my face.

Then the doors opened.

And there he was.

For one second, I forgot everyone around me.

Damian saw me.

His entire face changed.

I ran.

I didn't care that people were watching. I didn't care that Mum was somewhere behind me or that Kaelob would make fun of me for the rest of my life.

Damian dropped his bag just before I reached him.

Then his arms were around me.

“You came back.”

He laughed against my hair. “I said I would.”

“You say a lot of things.”

“Nice to see you too.”

I pulled back and looked at him.

He looked older.

Not completely different. Still Damian. Still blond hair that never stayed where it was supposed to. Still blue eyes.

But something had changed.

“You're staring.”

“So are you.”

“I haven't seen you in eighteen months.”

“You've seen me almost every day.”

“Not like this.”

He smiled.

Then he kissed me.

There was no awkwardness this time.

No question of whether we were allowed.

No wondering what we were.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back.

Somewhere behind us, Kaelob groaned.

“Please remember other people exist.”

I didn't turn around.

Damian lifted one hand in Kaelob's direction.

“Still here.”

“Unfortunately.”

Mum laughed.

When Damian finally let me go, I noticed who wasn't there.

“Where's Chloe?”

His expression changed slightly.

“She stayed in Germany.”

“Oh.”

“She said she had things to do.”

I knew enough about Chloe not to ask more.

“Is she okay?”

“Yeah.”

He answered quickly.

Too quickly.

Then he picked up his bag.

“Come on. I've been traveling forever.”

I let it go.

For the first few days, having Damian back felt strangely normal.

That surprised me.

I'd expected awkwardness after so long apart.

There wasn't any.

He knew where things were at Mum's house. Grandpa complained that Damian had gotten too tall. Grandma immediately fed him. Vincent's children climbed all over him as though he'd never left.

Even Kaelob seemed genuinely happy to see him.

“You're still annoying,” he told Damian.

“I missed you too.”

Leyla hugged him.

Victor asked about Germany.

Ellie told him he looked thin and put more food on his plate.

And Damian fitted into the chaos as if he'd always belonged there.

I loved watching it.

Maybe too much.

Because for the first time, I wasn't thinking about his visit ending.

I was thinking about what it would be like if he didn't have to visit at all.

One evening, we escaped after dinner and walked toward the water.

Damian took my hand.

“You're quiet.”

“So?”

“You're never quiet.”

“Very funny.”

“What are you thinking about?”

I looked at him.

“You.”

“That explains the serious expression.”

I pushed him.

He laughed and pulled me back against him.

I rested my head against his chest.

For a while, we simply stood there.

“I've been looking at universities,” I said.

“I know.”

“Not just here.”

He became still.

“Where?”

“Different places.”

“Rose.”

“What?”

“Germany?”

I smiled.

“Maybe.”

His arms tightened around me.

“Seriously?”

“I said maybe.”

“Which ones?”

“I haven't decided anything.”

“Which ones?”

I laughed. “You are exhausting.”

He kissed my forehead.

“You started this conversation.”

“I regret it already.”

But I didn't.

The truth was I'd started imagining Germany differently.

Not as the place that kept taking Damian away from me.

As somewhere I might choose to go.

Not only for him.

Grandma's words had stayed with me.

Build a life.

I wanted to study. Travel. See things beyond the world I'd grown up in.

And yes.

I wanted Damian somewhere inside that life.

“What would you do if I came?” I asked.

“To Germany?”

“Yes.”

“Probably annoy you every day.”

“You already do that.”

“Then nothing changes.”

I smiled.

He became serious.

“I'd like it."

“I know.”

“No. I mean really.”

I looked up at him.

“I'd like you there.”

For years, our relationship had been built around leaving.

Suddenly we were talking about staying.

Later that night, Damian's phone vibrated while we were sitting with everyone.

He looked at it.

Chloe.

When are you coming home?

I saw the message because I was sitting beside him.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah.”

He typed back.

Three weeks. Why?

The answer came a minute later.

Nothing. Just asking.

Damian put his phone away.

“You sure?”

“It's Chloe.”

That apparently explained everything.

Maybe it did to him.

It didn't to me.

But before I could ask, Mum called me from the kitchen.

The moment disappeared.

A few days later, Damian and I were alone again.

We'd spent the afternoon with my grandparents and stayed behind after everyone else left.

Grandpa and Grandma had gone inside.

Damian was lying beside me, staring at the sky.

“Chloe asked me something before I came here.”

“What?”

He smiled.

“Nothing.”

I turned toward him.

“Absolutely not.”

“What?”

“You don't get to use that word.”

He laughed.

“What did she ask?”

Damian hesitated.

Then he looked at me.

“She asked if I wanted to marry you.”

I stared at him.

“What?”

His smile grew.

“Exactly my reaction.”

“Why would she ask you that?”

“I don't know.”

“What did you say?”

He looked back at the sky.

“I'm eighteen.”

“That isn't an answer.”

“It was my first answer.”

“And then?”

He was enjoying this far too much.

“Damian.”

“What?”

“What did you say?”

He turned his head toward me.

“Maybe.”

My heart did something unpleasantly dramatic.

“Maybe?”

“Don't look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like I've proposed.”

“You brought it up.”

“Chloe brought it up.”

“And you said maybe.”

“Yes.”

I sat up.

Damian laughed.

“You're panicking.”

“I'm not panicking.”

“You are.”

“I'm trying to understand why my boyfriend is casually discussing marrying me.”

He sat up too.

“Not now.”

“I know that.”

“Good. Because I don't have a ring.”

I hit his arm.

He caught my hand.

Then his expression changed.

The teasing disappeared.

“Someday.”

I stopped.

“What?”

“Maybe someday.”

There it was again.

Only this time he wasn't joking.

“We don't even know where we'll live next year,” I said.

“I know.”

“I don't know where I'm going to university.”

“I know.”

“You don't know what you're doing either.”

“I have some ideas.”

“That's terrifying.”

He smiled.

Then squeezed my hand.

“I'm not saying we should plan a wedding, Rose.”

“Good.”

“I'm saying when I think about my life in five years…”

He paused.

“You're there.”

I couldn't speak.

Damian looked almost uncomfortable now.

Good.

At least I wasn't suffering alone.

“You're terrible at romantic conversations,” I whispered.

“I know.”

I leaned toward him and kissed him.

When we separated, I rested my forehead against his.

“You're there too.”

He smiled.

His phone vibrated again.

Neither of us moved.

It vibrated a second time.

Damian sighed and reached for it.

Chloe.

Are you with Rose?

He frowned.

Yes.

Her answer came quickly.

Of course.

Damian stared at the screen.

“What?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

I gave him a look.

“Seriously. Chloe being Chloe.”

He put the phone down.

I looked at it.

“Maybe you should call her.”

“I talked to her yesterday.”

“She might need you.”

“She would tell me.”

I wasn't sure about that.

But Chloe was his sister.

He knew her better than I did.

So I didn't push.

Instead, Damian took my hand again.

And within minutes we were talking about universities

Germany.

Travel.

Someday.

Thousands of kilometers away, Chloe was thinking about the same future.

Only she didn't see what we saw.

I saw Damian and me finally finding a way to stop saying goodbye.

Damian saw a life where the girl he'd loved since he was a teenager might one day be beside him.

Chloe saw Rose Tan.

Alice's daughter.

And Alice would never allow Rea to be treated like someone who didn't belong.

Neither would I.

If Damian and I ever married, there would be no separate worlds anymore.

No family celebrations where Rea conveniently disappeared.

No pretending Leo's life with her existed somewhere outside the family.

There would be weddings.

Birthdays.

Christmases.

Maybe children one day.

Maxime.

Leo.

Rea.

All of us.

Together.

I didn't know Chloe had already followed that thought to its end.

Damian didn't either.

That night, his phone vibrated one last time.

He was asleep beside it.

I saw Chloe's name appear on the screen.

Then the message.

Forget it. Have fun.

I considered waking him.

I didn't.

By morning, Damian had answered with a photograph of the two of us and a heart.

Chloe never replied.

At the time, neither of us understood why.

We were too busy imagining someday.

Chloe was already terrified of what someday would mean.