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just a pair of jeans, his beautiful and perfect chest
still exposed.
    “ Come here,” I said with a
smile and ushered him toward me with a finger.
    A sly look crossed his face as he
walked slowly across the room to the bed. He lay next to me and
briefly pressed a kiss to my lips. He then took the picture from me
and studied it.
    “ You looked so amazing
that night,” he reminisced as he stared at it. “It’s too bad Cole
had to come and ruin it,” he joked.
    “ Yeah, too bad,” I only
half joked back. I studied Alex’s face as he continued to look at
the picture. “Cole told me you were going to ask me a question that
night,” I suddenly blurted. As I did, I felt Alex instantly
stiffen. “Was he telling the truth?” I knew Alex knew exactly what
I was talking about.
    Again Alex was quiet for a long
moment. I felt him relax a bit and he wrapped his arms around me,
giving me a light squeeze. “Yes, he was telling the
truth.”
    The tension I was feeling inside
threatened to cause me to spontaneously combust as Alex didn’t say
anything more after that. “And now…?” I barely managed to
whisper.
    “ Now…” his voice was very
quiet but he kept his embrace tight and secure around me.
“Everything has changed now.”
    I felt my heart sink as I heard his
words and I suddenly felt like I might vomit. I think I might have
even felt worse in that moment than I had when I had been sick and
dying just a few months before. “Oh,” was all I managed to get out
in a hoarse whisper.
    “ Oh, no, Jessica,” Alex’s
voice sounded panicked as he pulled me tighter into his chest. My
emotions whiplashed as I realized with relief that I had
misunderstood him. “That will never change. My feelings for you
will never change. They seem to grow more intense by the day. There are
days I worry they just might overcome me. I promise you that I will
love you for forever and even longer than that. Don’t ever, ever
question that.”
    “ But…” I said, feeling
slightly comforted but not understanding what the problem
was.
    “ But, as I said,
everything has changed. I’m dead, Jessica. I know you don’t like it
when I say that but it’s true. I’m not even human anymore. It’s
painfully obvious in pretty much every aspect of my life. I have no
idea what is going to happen in my future.”
    “ But the council, they
said you could stay with me,” I said, suddenly feeling panicky and
oddly uncertain. I had never questioned the council of angel’s
graciousness to let Alex return to me but my head was suddenly
filled with doubt. It had been a very gracious move. I knew what most
angels were like. They weren’t the kind and giving beings most
people believed them to be.
    “ I can’t be certain about
anything anymore,” Alex said in a whisper as he released me and lay
back on his back, staring blankly up at the ceiling.
    I didn’t like the fear, no, the
terror, that was suddenly ripping through my body. My hands started
shaking and my stomach was in knots. I propped myself up on an
elbow and took Alex’s jaw in my other hand, forcing him to look at
me.
    “ You’re not going
anywhere,” I said in a low but firm and steady voice. “I won’t let
them take you from me. If you have to go back, I’m going with
you.”
    Alex’s eyes hardened just slightly at
this as he looked back into my eyes. “Don’t say that. You’re going
to be walking this Earth for a long time. I made sure of
that.”
    “ This Earth isn’t worth
walking if you’re not on it anymore,” I said, feeling a loose tear
fall from my lashes onto my cheek.
    Alex pulled me into his chest again,
pressing his lips into my temple.
    “ Please,” I cried softly.
“I’ve thought about this every day since Cole told me. It tortures
me, feeling the anticipation and the anxiety that you never will
actually ask it. I don’t care about everything else, all the other
complications. You’re exactly what I want, exactly as you
are.”
    He absentmindedly