Love is blind

Chapter 11

With the first rays of the sun, my eyes opened slowly and heavily. The ceiling saw me lying on my bed. At what point exactly had I fallen asleep? The last thing I remembered was stroking Anna's head as she snored lightly and confidently on my lap. That strange and great woman... I wondered what would become of my life with her, or if she would want a life with me. And then, feeling the empty bed around me, I wondered what my life would be like without her.

I woke up uneasy (Anna NEVER woke up before mid-morning), and found her dressed, neat, and eating a meager piece of stale bread with an apple.

"Anna? What's up?"

"Awake already, sleepyhead?"

"Are YOU seriously saying that to me?"

Anna laughed softly, turning her face right after into a gloomy and serene one that gave me goosebumps.

"I'm going home."

"What?!"

"I got it last night. You need your job, and I can't let Elsa have such a bad time. She has enough with her own matters. Besides, I can't hide forever. Sooner or later they would find me and... it would be more difficult to leave then."

That couldn't be happening.

"Are you serious?! And, what about you?!"

"I... I have already received more than I ever expected to find."

I walked over to her, slowly lifted her by the shoulders, and took her hands in mine.

"Anna... I'm not going to stop you; I have no right to do so. But, I beg you, don't sacrifice your life for the lives of others. I will find a way to get ahead; maybe in another kingdom. In one less... frozen."

I had to find the courage to face the truth. It was now or never.

"And, maybe, and only if you want it, with you by my side?"

Anna's jaw dropped and her face became extremely pink. Her eyes, despite being fixed on infinity, shone with their own light. Her lips, caught by her teeth, received a smooth and indulgent bite that denoted more desire than guilt or fear, and, her hands... her hands guided mine to her waist and then, slowly and in detail, climbed my body until they reached my face.

I've never been particularly good at reading people, but it was tremendously difficult not to interpret her touch as pure, unfiltered love.

I leaned my head towards hers, burning with desire, longing and, to be honest, quite nervous, and, a few millimeters my lips from hers, I whispered the only words that came to my mind.

"May we?"

Anna smirked and closed her eyes.

"We may."

Nothing would ever again stop me from giving her everything I had and was. Nothing would slow my steps, nothing would manage to detach her hand from mine. Nothing except, perhaps, a snowman.

The door swung open without warning just before our lips finally met, and a chatty ALIVE snowman came through leaving us totally puzzled.

"Ohh! What a cozy barn! I wonder what animals will live here."

"We are the animals living in here," I replied somewhat offended by the tendency that everyone seemed to have to think that I was a beast. "What...? I mean, who are you?"

Anna remained frozen in place. Undoubtedly afraid of being discovered and, logically, oblivious to the fact that that strange character who had broken into my house was in fact a snowman.

"Oh! Hi everyone. I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs."

"Olaf?" Anna asked as her expression changed from terror to amazement. "Did Elsa built you?"

"Really?!" Where did she get the information needed to ask that question?!

"Uh-huh. And you are..."

"Oh, I'm Anna," she answered with a smile that I couldn't understand and crouching in front of the snowman.

"Anna?! Oh! That's wonderful! Elsa is going crazy looking for you in the woods!"

"Elsa is in the forest?"

"Of course she is! She's not eating nor sleeping. She just cries and runs nonstop. Where did you think all this snow comes in midsummer?"

The snowman didn't wait for feedback.

"C'mon! Let's go to the castle! Surely, as soon as you come back, Elsa will relax and bring back summeeeer!!!"

The enthusiastic Olaf took Anna's hand with the scrawny stick that served as his arm and pulled her toward the door. Anna stopped short and turned to me. Goodbye to the future. I understood her expression; I understood her reasons. I couldn't say no.

I let all the air out of my lungs wondering if it would come back in again and, feeling my soul break into a thousand pieces, I approached them and took her free hand.

"I'll take you there."