“I’m just a fool,” he said. “I didn’t understand that I had everything I wanted. I just had to stop being so afraid. Had to let go of things that kept me safe. It’s why I was different with you. Vulnerable with you. You made me feel that way all the time, and it made me angry. But of course it didn’t occur to me that it was just falling in love. I’m not going to be perfect at it. Nobody is. But we can try. We can try, and I think that’s the important thing.” People from the streets kept going into the cathedral, moving around them. “Nobody that goes into those doors is perfect. It’s all people trying. And I think part of me always wanted that. For my trying to be enough. And I was afraid that it wasn’t.”
“Your trying is beautiful. And it is more than enough for me.”
“What about your freedom.”
“Being with you can still be freedom. It only ever felt like a prison when I imagined myself still existing in that loneliness. I called Mariana last night. And I told her I was so upset with myself because I had gone and fallen in love with my first lover. And that wasn’t responsible. It wasn’t the right thing to do. She said what’s the point of limitless freedom if everything you want out there means less than the thing you already have? I have the freedom to choose, Apollo. And I’m choosing you. I’m choosing this. Our love. No matter if we aren’t perfect at it.”
“Thank you.” As declarations went, it wasn’t a great one. It was just nothing more than the truth. From the bottom of his heart. Because he knew all about loneliness. They both did. And what neither of them had ever known before was this. And he was just so grateful.
He took her into his arms and kissed her.
He was going to love her. Forever. There was no doubt in him about that.