The Talented (22 page)

To that I replied, “Who knows? They could contact me at any time, but I haven’t heard from them yet. I can’t see the future at all lately, but that doesn’t matter.”

“Why is that?” she asked.

I answered, “Because I have you, and nothing else matters.”

“But do I have you?” She replied fiercely, tears brimming. “Are you here to stay? That matters. That matters to me.”

With tears stinging my eyes I replied, “It matters.  We have each other now. We have each other. I’m not going to let anything happen to that.”

We held hands and just stared deep into each other’s eyes, past the pain, past the fear and the loneliness. We bared our true selves without any more words or promises.

A gust of wind swept down from the north, sending the first few fallen leaves of the season skittering past. A shift in the clouds allowed the sun to shine through briefly. Then the air grew still, gracing us with a fleeting yet blessed moment of warmth.