“Love,” she echoed, looking away. She’d been loved. she had loved. Why did this feel so much different? When she gained the courage to look at him again, he seemed resigned to bad news. She reached out to his hands and took them in her own. “I-“ she waited a heartbeat too long before continuing.
“They told me it was hopeless – that you couldn’t feel the same way I did but I had to try, and I couldn’t leave you like that,” he interrupted, and she let him air his insecurities.