“Hey babe where did you put the box labeled ‘Jonathan do not touch?’”

Jonathan looked over towards Leah and started chuckling.

Leah pursed her lips, “You touched it didn’t you?”

Jonathan nodded his head and started chuckling again. He leaned over and reached behind the couch, looking at the picture frames once again.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were such a cute kid eh?”

Leah cursed under her breath. She knew writing ‘Jonathan do not touch’ on the box meant that Jon would obviously touch the box, but she had layered the box with throw pillows and shoes, thinking he would become uninterested. But what she didn’t know was that Jonathan could never become uninterested in Leah’s life, not even with throw pillows and shoes.

Leah looked at the picture in Jon’s hand. She was one of the ugliest kids ever, but she, of course, didn’t want her boyfriend to know that. Not when she just started unpacking her boxes to move in with him. She was dressed in a purple costume, to this day she had no idea why she had wanted to wear the outfit, with purple sunglasses, her bangs absolutely horrid. She laughed at the picture, and Jonathan showed her the others and they both fell into a fit of laughter.

Jonathan walked away with the pictures, toward the mantle in his living room, and set the pictures up near the ones of him with the Stanley Cup and his Draft Day and another unidentifiable one. Leah smiled and walked toward the mantle, seeing that Jonathan had framed a picture of them.

Leah had remembered the day very well.

July 28th, 2008

Leah and Jonathan were sitting in Jonathan’s parents living room, laughing over some memory of Jonathan. He, of course, had been playing hockey in the memory.

Jonathan excused himself, grabbing Leah’s attention to follow him. Leah looked towards Jonathan’s parents and his brother, apologizing for Jonathans quick exit. They all just smiled, they already loved Leah, and they knew that Jonathan loved her too.

Jonathan walked outside, and was leaning against the railing on the patio. Leah followed suit and walked next to him, resting her hand on his back. Jonathan took a deep breath in, “I’m sorry I just needed some air, and I didn’t want them to tell you stories of past girlfriends.”

Leah laughed, “I don’t care about your past girlfriends Jon, but now I am intrigued.”

Jonathan allowed himself to chuckle and shook his head, “There’s no juicy stories I promise. I- I just I’ve wanted to tell you how I’ve felt about you for the past couple of months but I can’t find the words and sitting there just watching you with my family, I started to get mad at myself. You deserve to know how I feel.”

Leah shook her head, “Jonathan..”

“I love you Leah, I fell in love with you when I saw you at that horrible concert,” Both Leah and Jonathan laughed, remembering the night at the bar, “I’m just scared that I’m going to lose you I guess, if I didn’t tell you that.”

“Jonathan you aren’t going to lose me, you telling me you love me, while greatly appreciated isn’t a come to Jesus for me. I love you too, but you’ll always have me, as long as you want me, I promise,” Leah grabbed Jonathans face between the palms of her hands.

Jonathan smiled, “Come to Jesus?”

Leah shook her head, “That’s all you got out of that?”

“No I heard that you loved me, I’ve just never heard someone say come to Jesus.”

Leah laughed, Jonathan wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her towards him, crash landing his lips onto hers. Leah could hear a flash come from next to them, Jonathan pulled away, hearing the same thing and looked towards his mom.

Andree smiled at her son, “I’m sorry it was just too cute of a moment, you’ll thank me later.”

Present day

Leah smiled at the memory. It had been a good day, a good week up in Winnipeg. Now Jonathan and Leah had been dating for a year and Jonathan hadn’t gotten annoyed with her yet.

Leah picked up the picture from the mantle. Jonathan’s mom had sent it to him the day they got back to Chicago. Jonathan came up from behind Leah and wrapped his arms around her, resting his head on her shoulder.

“That was the weekend my parents fell in love with you,” Jonathan said, smiling at the memory of that moment.

“Oh you’re parents huh?”

Jonathan laughed, “Yeah my parents! I told you that I fell in love with you the day I met you,” Jonathan leaned around and pecked Leah on the lips, “And I’m still so in love with you.”

Leah smiled, kissing Jonathan again, “Yeah Yeah I love you too.”

--------------

Leah woke up very disoriented. She hadn’t remembered much of last night, due to excessive fatigue. All she knew was that she had gotten into Chicago late at night realizing she didn’t have a key to Kylies apartment, and Patrick was…. Occupied.

So Leah got a ride.

From Jonathan.

She could feel his muscular arms wrapped around her body. Their bodies fitting together perfectly, they always had. His breathing was slowed, which meant he was still asleep.

Leah shifted around so that she was looking at him. His long lashes splayed across his face, his mouth lifted into a small smile. Leah leaned forward and gently planted a kiss on Jon’s lips. He stirred, but didn’t wake up. Leah smiled.

She removed Jon’s hands from around her body, and noticed she was still wearing her clothes from last night. Leah walked into Jonathan’s closet and looked for something to change into. She knew full well that her suitcase was just near the front door, but if Jonathan asked she would play innocent. Even though they both would know she just wanted to smell like him.

Leah looked around the closet, noticing that the clothes she had left there after the breakup were still hanging up on her side of the closet. Her stomach clenched. She walked over to the shoe rack and noticed some of her favorite shoes were still in a neat order, the exact way she had left them. Leah could start to feel herself tear up.

“I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out.”

Leah turned around and looked at Jonathan, tears spilling down her cheeks. Jonathan sauntered over towards where Leah was standing in the middle of the closet and wiped the tear off her face. Leah leaned into his palm.

“You left some perfume too, every couple of months, when they would stop smelling like you, I would lightly spray them.”

Leah looked down at her feet, unable to directly look Jon in the eyes. Jonathan placed his hand under her chin, forcing her to look him in the eyes. He leaned down, “I don’t know if you know this, but I never stopped loving you,” and then he gently placed his lips on hers. A sensation that both of them had missed. It was a routine for them, a good routine.

Leah pulled away; her eyes closed and looked up at Jonathan. Jonathan was expecting a smile or something but Leah looked unhappy.

“I wasn’t the one who pushed you away Jonathan, you pushed me away.”

Jonathan shot Leah a look of hurt, knowing full well that she was right. It had been his fault that she had left, and yet everybody blamed her.

“I couldn’t be second to hockey anymore Jonathan. And while you never cheated on me with another person, you were cheating on me. With hockey and with partying. You would be on road trips and then when you got home you would be back at the rink or at the bar. I couldn’t handle it anymore. I know that you loved me, but if you didn’t want to marry me you should’ve told me, not push me away to another state.”

Jonathan looked down at his feet, now it was him who couldn’t look Leah in the eyes, “I wanted to marry you Leah, I loved you, I- I just was scared.”

“Stop being scared and take what you want Jonathan!” Leah yelled.

“I want you Leah! I’ve always fucking wanted you and I always will! I fucked up and I lived years without you and I couldn’t live with myself anymore. I need you, whether or not I wanted to admit it to myself I depended too much on you and I wasn’t used to that. I was used to depending on hockey and that fucking scared me okay? I was scared of losing you because I loved you too much.”

“So you decided to stop loving me then?”

“I never stopped loving you.”

Leah pushed Jonathan back to make space in the closet, and headed towards the living room.

Jonathan followed behind her, “It’s just like you to leave again when things get tough.”

Leah walked towards the mantle of Jonathan’s living room, and grabbed the picture of them up at his parents place. She gave herself a second to smile over the memory for the second time in her life and then she threw it at Jonathan.

And with Jonathan’s superb hockey skills he caught the picture. Staring at it for a few moments he remembered the day, the day he hold Leah he loved her.

“Where’s that guy Jonathan? That was the guy I fell in love with. The guy who I left two years ago and the guy standing in front of me now, he’s not that guy.”

Jonathan was still staring at the picture when Leah walked towards the front door and grabbed her bag, “I’m not leaving Jonathan; I’m waiting. I’ve always been waiting.”

Notes