Damen, please... stay back. My heart and my body responded like they usually did.
He was familiar and the man I was in love with. Could I really find fault in my reaction to him?
"I never felt pressured. Not with you—never with you." My eyes glassed with moisture as I gave him a pleading look. "Damen... please."
"Iso, don't break me like this."
"It's only temporary. I promise." Fuck, I could feel my conscience kicking in, working its way into my heart, my once steel resolve becoming shaky.
Damn, he wouldn't heed anything. He simply pushed on, persisting to know answers that had boggled him ever since I had broken it off with him.
"Did you fall in love with some other guy? Is that why you wanted to take a break?" He looked broken before, but after asking me this, he seemed to be in a great amount of pain.
I shook my head, not willing to deny my feelings for him. I wasn't all that cruel, after all. "No! Of course not." This was something I could tell him, at least, and hopefully, it'd help ease his pain.
He took a moment and bit his bottom lip before looking down at the floor, looking lost in thought. After a good minute or so, when he did look up, I couldn't read his face. His eyes sought mine as he stepped closer, drowning me in the familiar depths that I'd stared at for years and years of us being together. The quick jab in my heart made me bleed when I saw how much this break-up had taken a toll on him. He still looked gorgeous, yet there was something
lacking in his eyes. The smile in his eyes was gone, replaced by something sad and gloomy.
"Do you still love me?"
Did he think that I didn't? I thought ch to myself as I stared into him, seeking what I had just asked myself. In that instant, I realized that he had considered everything, even this. That my love had simply ebbed away without looking back. This...
This broke my resolve.
"I do," I said as I shut down my brain and let my heart reign free. "I still love you."
He reached out to cup my cheek, bringing my face towards him. "Then what's the problem, Iso?" he asked, and before I had the chance to respond, he kissed my answer away, forgetting everything I had just told myself not to do, letting my emotions go haywire.
I was in Greece for an entire week with no sightings of my father, nor had we heard from him. I couldn't leave without having to beg my grandmother to lend one of her helpers to live with my mother until she was well and could function on her own again. My grandmother was, of course, reluctant at first, but my relentless pursuit of the subject left her exhausted. So in the very end, it was my grandfather who told me that it was okay to borrow one of the ladies to help nurse my mum.
The short visit caused a lot of resentment and anger, yet at the same time, I couldn't take back what had happened with Damen after we kissed. The man wouldn't let me go after that. Moreover, given my high emotional state, I didn't fight him off when he went further, taking his intentions to another level.