The Gruberstory
Chapter Three
Everlasting
As his senses drank her in, she began her tale:
"I knew... I knew it was a mistake leaving you. I was so young; I was always taught that I needed someone who could provide for me. That's the only reason I married him; because I knew I would never be hungry or lacking. If I had only had the sense to know that it was you who could provide me with all I really needed. He never loved me. I dealt with it for the first year; I thought I could live without it; but as time wore on...all I could think about were your arms around me. I always imagined you, what you were doing, up there on that stage. I heard you had finally made it on Broadway, and I kept thinking about when we were in college, and we would lay beneath the stars and dream about our lives after graduation, and how I always imagined it would include you. He...he pushed me. He didn't want me for me, he only wanted me because I'd look good on his arm at all those rich doctor parties. My family pushed me; they said to marry the lawyer's son, and that you could never give me 'the things I deserved'. You and me, on Broadway, living the dream...that was how I wanted it to be, not me living an ocean away in an unloving relationship. When I heard you made it, part of the dream came true for me, and I knew I could never rest until I found you. That was why I came to New York. I was at the show. I waited at the stage door but you didn't come out for so long, and when I finally saw you...I didn't have the courage to say anything. That was when he found me; he had followed me all the way to New York just to drag me back to Paris. When I heard you were here..."
Her voice trailed off. He laid his head atop hers, smelling the sweet familiar scent of her hair, and remembering why he had come here all those years ago. It wasn't just to get away from the theatre grind, and it wasn't just as an easy excursion from London. He had heard that she was dancing in a show. She had made it, albeit an ocean away, and he knew he had to see her. He was waiting outside the theatre for her, when she... the other... came into his life. She was so pretty, so well-heeled... In the moment, he lost himself, and forgot his real purpose for going to the theatre that night. All these years, his guilt repressed this painful memory, masking it beneath the image of the girl on the Riviera. Now, as he felt her golden hair brush against his cheek, he realized what a lie he had lived all these long years. Now, finally, he was home.
His hands stroked her soft cheek. She raised her head and looked into those eyes, the ones that had reflected the brilliance of all the stars in the sky on that last night they spent together, so long ago.
"I always regretted not telling you goodbye", she said. "I just... I couldn't face the prospect of being without you. I knew if I told you, that I would never be able to go. Now I know I should have stayed with you all along."
"Oh, my love," he whispered. He brushed her lips with the tips of his fingers, his other hand caressing her hair. He drew her face close to his.
"I promise you will never want for anything. I can't give you diamonds, but I can give you my heart and soul, and all the love within me. And we can live the dream together." His lips touched hers, and he felt the hole in him fill with warmth. Suddenly, he was complete.
A silence of understanding ensued. Each searched their memories for a reason for parting years before. Clearly, to both, it had been a mistake... a horrible, horrible mistake. Yet, it served to make their love only stronger and their undestanding greater. They had both grown up with their experiences in life, but their love remained as young and pure as it had ever been. Nothing could tear them apart.
His startling half-statement half-question broke both their meditations.
"They told me you were dead..."
A sole tear ran down her cheek, reminding him so much of the one she had shed in the lamplight on Broadway only days before.
"What? What is it?" he asked gently.
"I'm sorry..." she muttered as she broke into sobs, crying on his shoulder. He held her tighter, letting her cry. As he held her close he realized how much happier he could make this woman... This became his goal, and would, forever, remain so. He would mke her happy no matter what it took. Slowly her sobs quieted and she continued, her voice occasionally interrupted by a sob.
"I was right ehind that door when you came, but I was afraid... afraid o what they would do to me if I showed myself. when my mother-in-law told you I was dead I fainted knowing the pain..." she sobbed, "the pain that she had caused you. I'm so sorry she ever saw that photograph of you that I had, that's why she recognised you..." She paused, thinking, "When I awoke moments later, surprised she hadn't even bothered to pick me up off of the floor, I ran outside. But... you were gone. That moment i decided I would find you and leave them..."
"It's allright now.. don't cry. You're here with me." Exhausted, they fell asleep in each others arms.