Indelible Love - Emily's Story (32 page)

He leaned in and placed his lips
gently on mine. I didn’t move away this time. I couldn’t move away.
I felt delirious to his touch. His lips tasted sweeter than I
remembered them. During the kiss that I never wanted to end, I
began sobbing quietly at the prospect of being with Jake
again.

He paused his embrace and looked into
my once dejected eyes. My body burned with sensations from
affliction, to hope, to elation.

“Emily?” he lovingly called my name.
“You still love me, don’t you?” his voice unsure, his eyes begging
one last time.

I wrapped my arms tightly around him
and prayed he would never let go of me again. “Jake, you know I
do!” my voice broke. “I never stopped loving you. I’m sorry too for
hurting you. This was my fault as well. I’ve missed you so
much!”

Several times the door to
our room opened and closed. The fourth
Takiawase
course of simmered meat or
fish and vegetables, either sat cold or became overcooked, from the
server’s many attempts to deliver our meal. My emotions bounced
this time from euphoria back to insecurity and then to
curiosity.

I broke out of our embrace.

“What’s the matter?” Jake asked. “Why
do you still look so sad? Don’t cry, Love,” he said while wiping
away my tears with his hands.

“You really still love me?” I had to
ask. I couldn’t trust reality sitting in front of me.

“Emily, I love you,” he reassured with
gentle kisses.

“I just can’t believe it.” The tears
wouldn’t stop.

“Believe it, Sweetheart.
I’m here to be with you, and we are
never
separating again!” he
adamantly stated, but it still felt like a dream—possibly a
nightmare if it were a dream.

I kissed him one more time. It tasted
even sweeter the second time around.

“You’re not leaving me anymore?” I
whispered meekly, just in case I might be in trouble for doubting
again.

“Never,” he quietly answered and held
me in his arms. Yes, this felt like home again. I was where I
belonged—in Jake’s arms.

I perked up from Jake’s body with a
question that nagged since he got here. “How did you find me in
Kyoto?”

An agitated grimace
colored his face. I knew that I would be in trouble soon. Before he
began, our kimono- clad servers found the chance to drop all nine
of our dishes that waited while we reconciled. We had everything
but the
mizumono
,
or dessert. This probably wasn’t the correct
kaiseki
protocol, but the servers
didn’t care. In their own genteel way, they displayed great
annoyance with us. Laughter frolicked in our eyes.

“Emily, I wasn’t kidding
when I said I looked high and low for you. My dad called me the
minute he saw you in our driveway. I begged him to keep you there,
but when I arrived, you were gone. Then I ran into Max and he told
me you would be at the wedding the next day, and when I went to
look for you, you had just left. I asked about you at the hotel,
but they said you had checked out already. I went to every possible
airline that had a flight leaving that night, but I couldn’t find
you. Ugh! I was
so
frustrated I had lost you again.”

His story became even more animated as
he flailed his arms up in the air while huffing and puffing. Before
any more wrath fell on me, I stole a moment and enveloped my arms
into the arch of his body hugging him longingly. Since parting, my
body had always felt cold. Finally, Jake filled my body with
warmth. He stopped grumbling and just held me.

Contentment.

No other word better described our
state of being.

Even with my body in tow, he continued
his soliloquy. “Max and Jane both came to me with your address, so
I flew here late Thursday, only to find that it was too late to
take the train into your village. I waited another day and trekked
all the way to your home and of course, you weren’t there. Do you
see a pattern to this story?” He pulled himself away to look at me
while asking that last question.

“I still don’t get how you found me
here.”

“Well, it wasn’t easy—like the last
five months of our relationship. Your students went back and forth
trying to explain who I was and why I was standing at their door
pleading for your whereabouts. Thanks for talking about me to your
Japanese family,” he retorted sarcastically. “Mr. Suzuki thought I
was some loony waiting for a chance to kidnap you.”

“So how did you get him to divulge my
location? Was it your charm or your good looks?” I attempted an
impish smile.

“It was Yuki who finally came to my
rescue. I’ve got to remember to buy her a nice gift while we’re
here. She told her dad that she saw you write me letters daily…then
throw them away. How could you send me only one letter when
everyone else got copious letters?”

“Jake. One reprimand at a time,
please. I can’t keep up with all my wrongdoings. Back to
Yuki.”

“I guess Yuki threw out your trash
daily and she told her dad that she saw you cry many times while
writing me a letter. She never asked you about it, but she knew I
was somebody in your life who made you sad.”

I began to tear again. This time more
out of relief that I could look back on those days and consider
them a sad memory. With his arms around my body, he kissed my
forehead apologetically, and empathized with my pain. In every way,
they were his pain too.

“At this point, Mrs. Suzuki stepped
in, put two and two together, and forced her husband to tell me
where you would be today. This is how I got to this
restaurant.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” I responded.
Are you done or am I still in trouble?”

“I think I’m done…no, I take that
back. I’m not done,” he continued.

You can really hold a
grudge, Dr. Reid
. Good thing I didn’t say
this as Jake’s face turned solemn.

“Emily, I need to apologize one more
time. I’ve said so many hurtful things to you. My actions were
inexcusable. Please forgive me.” With his arms still around my
body, I knew in my heart all had been forgiven already.

“Jake, I created this mess. You had no
choice but to feel insecure because I wavered. My actions were
hurtful as well. I forgive you knowing you’ve forgiven me as well.
Let’s not dwell on this anymore.”

“I can’t let go of the image of you
waiting for me at the Skywalk. You’ve always been so trusting of me
to take care of you. All the months we were apart, the thought of
you losing faith in me tormented me. It scares me you won’t ever
completely trust me again.”

“Frightened? Yes. But, I don’t think I
can stay separated from you anymore. Right now, and maybe even
forever, my love for you outweighs any fear of getting hurt. I want
to trust you again. Just please don’t break my heart.”

Our lips met once more eagerly.
Happiness overcame my many months of anguish and
sadness.

“I’ll make this up to you the rest of
our lives together. Please don’t doubt my love for you
anymore.”

I nodded my head in
agreement.

Sitting at a table filled with
beautifully decorated but uneaten food, we attempted feverishly to
catch up on our five-month absence. There were still too many
unanswered questions.

Jake began. “The more I think about
it, how could you believe I didn’t love you anymore? Didn’t I tell
you only every day how much I loved you? Do you think I go around
asking just any girl to marry me?”

I answered back, “How
could
you
go
weeks without talking to me, especially when my texts begged you
daily for an answer? Do you know how hard it is to send someone a
message and to sit around and wait for a response? Plus, do you
know how much you hurt me? I had to move to the other part of the
world to try to mend my heart. You were the one confused about my
feelings for you.”

“Could it be any harder than waiting
for letters that came to everyone but me? That was really cruel. I
pathetically had to read my siblings’ letters to find out how you
were doing. Don’t even get me started on having to ask my
girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend about what she had written
him.”

“I sent you a letter. I even sent you
a birthday card and a gift.” Jake showed me his sleeves. “Oh,
you’re wearing the cufflinks. They look nice.”

“Thank you for your gift. You don’t
know how much these meant to me.”

“Did you have a good birthday?” I’d
hoped he did despite our separation.

“How could I have had a good birthday
knowing you were alone on yours? Did you celebrate your birthday at
all?” he asked, but looked away, not wanting to know the
answer.

I shook my head no. “Sarah called me
and sent me a gift but that was it.”

“Oh, Sweetheart, I’m sorry. Of all the
days we were apart, those were the hardest days for me as well.
Come here,” he pulled me closer to him. “I have your birthday
present. I didn’t know when I’d be able to give this to you, but I
had it made regardless.”

Jake brought out of his pocket a
stunning piece of jewelry. On a simple white gold chain hung a
large, flat heart shaped pendant. What made this pendant so unusual
was the stone placed inside a frame of small diamonds.

“Jake, this is beautiful! What kind of
stone is this?”

“It’s a sapphire cut into a flat piece
and then shaped into a heart. My grandfather gave it to Gram on her
birthday the first year they were together. Gram sent it to me on
my birthday, obviously for me to give to you, and I added the
diamonds around the sapphire on your birthday.”

“How is Gram doing?” I asked
fondly.

“She’s healthy but sad to see me so
sad. She called weekly to check up on me and to ask about your
status. It broke her heart to know we had separated. She was very
fond of you as well, and had thought of you as family
already.”

“I missed her too. We’ll have to call
her.”

Jake put the present around my neck. I
admired not just the gift but the meaning behind it.

“Thank you. So am I done being in
trouble for not sending you more letters?”

“Not quite,” he answered as I laughed.
“You know what was almost as difficult as not receiving a letter
from you?” He was back to his mini tirade.

“What?” My voice empathetically rose
to justify his indignation.

“Whenever you told Jane you had just
written me a letter, but had torn it up. That was enormously
frustrating. And how deplorable do I look when a
seven-year-old-girl tells her dad that my name is synonymous with
the word sad?”

It never occurred to me that Yuki saw
me cry. I guess I couldn’t hide anything in such a small
house.

“Yeah, if I had sent you all the
letters I’d torn up, you would’ve gotten several per week. Sorry,”
I answered, shrugging my shoulders. “But you must have also read in
Jane’s letters that my feelings for you never changed. They only
got stronger while I was away from you.”

“That was my only comfort during those
long months. It was difficult not knowing when I would see or talk
to you again. Jane did her best to keep me patient. She believed
you would send her your contact information soon.”

“At least you had family and friends
to talk to during those days. Do you want to know what was the
hardest for me?” I paused wondering whether or not to share this
information with Jake. “I had no one to share my feelings with. I
hurt alone and that was unbearable. That’s probably why I wrote so
many letters.”

I stopped talking. I felt Jake’s heart
break.

“Thank you for finding me, Jake. My
four months here did nothing to weaken my feelings for you. I think
absence does make the heart grow fonder. I didn’t want to, but I
was going to stay here another year to try to forget
you.”

“Emily, let’s go home. I promised my
family I’d bring you back. Can you leave with me
tomorrow?”

As much as I wanted to be with Jake,
leaving immediately wasn’t a possibility. “I need to stay at least
till the end of the school year.”

His eyes expressed sadness again. He
pondered our new dilemma. “When is the school year
over?”

“In two weeks. It’s not much
longer.”

“OK. As much as I don’t want to leave
you, I’m going to allow it on one condition.”

“And what would that condition be?” I
asked.

“When school is done, pack a bag of
clothes, but Fed-Ex the rest of your belongings to Mom’s
house.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to meet me in
Paris. We’re going to take that romantic trip you promised me. If
you agree to meet me in Paris, then I’ll let you finish out the
school year.”

“And if I don’t agree to meet you in
Paris?”

“Then, I’ll have to lock you up in a
tower like Rapunzel and come visit you at night.”

I laughed at the thought. “You
wouldn’t dare.”