Chapter 12 #2
I looked at them and didn't understand anything.
Since when did they have such trust if they supposedly didn't know each other?
"Hermes, good luck" he had said? What did that mean?
I looked back at Hermes and found him by my side.
He took both my hands and looked into my eyes, he looked at me as if I were the most beautiful and important thing in the world, in his world.
"Delfina, it was always you. My heart was always waiting for you to surrender to you, you opened it and took complete ownership of it.
Today I can assure you that I have only had, have, and will have one great love in my life, and that love is you.
I love you more than I can express with words because there are no words to describe everything I feel for you," he said, placing a hand on his chest, "you are my life.
I want you by my side, in my days and in my nights.
When you bumped into me spilling that drink on me and looked into my eyes, I knew with certainty that those eyes were the ones I had been waiting for all my life.
Those eyes broke through my barriers and melted with their warmth all the ice that wrapped my heart.
I know clearly that, out of fear and having a closed mind, I made many mistakes and made you suffer, but believe me when I tell you that I suffered more when you weren't with me. "
At that moment I interrupted him, because as much as everything he was saying was what my heart wanted to hear, there was a big issue to resolve.
"Hermes, what about that heavy backpack loaded with resentment and grudges that you carry on your back?
That burden is too heavy and has prevented you from moving forward and, if I'm with you, I'll also get stuck in your resentment.
I'm not saying this to make you feel bad, I'm saying it so you understand that you have the right and the obligation to move forward, to try to be happy, .
..and so do I. I don't want to get stuck, I don't want that because, even though I love you, I would live in a continuous struggle and we would end up being miserable," I stated, so he would understand that love couldn't overcome everything, love wasn't indestructible.
"I got rid of that heavy and useless burden because it had me exhausted and bitter.
I swear to you it's true. I realized I was giving up.
Resentment, as you rightly say, made me relive the past over and over again, and I transferred that damage received to everyone around me.
It was a vicious cycle that I couldn't escape from or, rather, I wasn't doing anything to escape.
Until you came along, the love of my life.
When I met you, I came out of the darkness I had been stuck in all these years and found refuge in your arms. For you, I got rid of that backpack and burned it so I would never carry it again, and that's a promise.
I'm going to correct all my mistakes, I want to be a person worthy of you.
I offer you everything that's mine, my heart, my soul, the rest of my life.
I love you, I love you madly and desperately, and I'm sure it will be that way until the last day of my existence.
You are the love of my life, it's impossible to love twice the way I love you.
I can't lose you, my life is by your side, I want to share it with you. "
Then, he slowly approached and, cautiously, stretched out his arms to embrace me. I let him do it and I also hugged him tightly. When our bodies met, the connection was palpable. We yearned for each other, our bodies needed each other and our souls longed for each other.
"My love, you can't imagine how much I need you. My soul has returned to my body."
"I love you, Hermes, and I believe in you," was all I could say.
He moved away a little to look into my eyes and, without hesitation, kissed me.
When our lips joined, we both sighed with pleasure and I felt my body recharging with an energy I hadn't had in those days, awakening with an unstoppable force to fight for the love I felt.
That kiss was like coming home. That kiss was the confirmation that we couldn't be apart, our hearts were united forever.
Hermes's warm and soft lips devoured me with delicacy and passion.
I felt when he began to slow the rhythm of the kiss until it became just a brush of lips.
He sought me with his gaze, gently wiped away some tears that were sliding down my face, and smiled.
Then he separated from me and did something I wasn't expecting, he knelt on one knee in the sand and looked at me with emotion.
"Delfina Darner, my love, would you do me the honor of marrying me?"
I felt my legs weaken and they wouldn't hold me up.
Hermes was proposing marriage to me. I believed in him, in everything he had told me, and I had faith that we would be happy.
I didn't doubt it. If we loved each other and wanted to be together sharing everything that life had in store for us, we were ready to take that step.
I let myself fall onto the sand next to him and took his face in my hands.
"Yes, my love. I wish with all my heart to join my life to yours and marry you," I responded emotionally.
Hermes smiled with eyes full of tears and kissed me, kissed me and kissed me, until loud applause made us separate and turn in that direction.
I was totally surprised when I saw that our enthusiastic spectators were three.
Not only was my brother there, whom we had completely forgotten about, but also Baco and Catalina, and all three were applauding effusively and with genuine emotion.
Hermes and I were still kneeling in the sand.
I looked at him surprised and he looked at me with a big smile.
"They missed you too and wanted to see you to apologize personally. They left everything to accompany me, I think that if you had said no, you would have had them chasing you all over Miami trying to convince you that you should marry me."
I looked at them again, smiling.
“Come on, son, give her the ring!” exclaimed Catalina, emotional.
Hermes stood up and helped me to my feet by taking my hand, then took out a velvet case from his pants pocket and from it a beautiful gold ring with three diamonds, one large and two small.
“I love you with all my heart and I feel like the luckiest man on earth to be able to share my life with you,” he said, sliding the ring onto my ring finger with utmost delicacy.
“I’m not dreaming, am I?” I asked, and heard the laughter of our family members.
“If we’re in a dream, I never want to wake up,” responded Hermes, smiling, and then he embraced me and kissed me passionately again, while a chorus of cheers and applause enveloped us along with the noise of fireworks celebrating the arrival of a new year.
For us, one that brought a new chapter and a life to share.