NOT GIVING UP ON FOREVER

Chapter 74

They came home together, exhausted. The guys decided to have a little beer and play computer games, and the girls just shut themselves in the room to gossip and have fun.

Leticia dressed up in one or the other of the dresses Teo had bought for Anna.

"I envy you so much!!" she exclaimed admiringly. "You don't even know what card you've drawn! Teo is amazing!"

"Well, well, I shall soon be jealous!" Anna joked. "Ricardo's a great guy, too, Leti."

"Yes, of course, but not so rich and famous. Look what happens when Teo goes out in public! He's harassed! I am sure that soon he will become a world-famous DJ! And you will bask in his success!"

Anna laughed, trying this way to change the subject, and showered Leticia with dresses. Her gaze fell on the phone on the nightstand.

No. Don't even think about it. Literally, all the internal organs seemed to scream to her.

Just for a second! was her inevitable answer.

"I'm going to the bathroom!" Anna blurted to Leticia, who hadn't even heard the remark.

Grabbing the phone from the table, Anna slipped into the bathroom and locked the door.

Teo never locked his device, so she logged in to her social network account and discovered four messages from Randall.

Opening chat, she saw a video and a long text from him. Without hesitation, she hit the "Play" button.

It was the video from a music competition, from which the mutual aversion of the guys rooted. Anna watched with a sinking heart as Randall played an unknown composition on the guitar and sang. He had a great voice and enjoyed the performance. Anna had never heard him play. She hadn't even known that he could, until the latest events, so it was a real shock to see him on stage with a guitar, in an expensive suit, with his hair lacquered.

After that, there were some other two performers, and lastly, Teo came on stage. He wore a simple T-shirt and jeans, his messy hair completing the style. As he commenced, the entire audience and jury froze. He performed a lyrical ballad of his own composition and played as Anna had never seen him play. He literally was the music. He was all the words of the song, all the chords, all the pauses. He merged with the Universe itself, and no one had any doubt that he was worthy of victory. He was excellent. When he finished the song, he just smiled and jumped off the stage to enthusiastic gasps.

The depth of Teo's talent shocked Anna. Although Randall also played beautifully, the difference would have been apparent even to a deaf person. And yet, it puzzled her why Randall had sent the video. The lengthy message was supposed to explain everything to her, so she began to read.

"Anna, here's a video from my performance that made Teo and me eternal enemies. I hope you see now that I was worthy of victory and not him."

Anna sighed sadly, shaking her head. Text followed:

"But that's not why I'm writing to you, though. I haven't been able to sleep since we parted on the platform. I keep replaying all the moments in my head. You are in my head all the time, and I see that I have missed something fundamental. I think about you every second, and the picture of Teo pushing you into the car doesn't go out of my head. I thought I was doing the right thing, that you'd be better off with him, that he was a good match for you. But I just can't accept it. Every second I think that not he should run hand in your hair and kiss you, but me. Not he should walk with you in Milan, but me. Not he is your fate, but I am. I think I know what I missed, Anna. I think I love you, Anna. Do you hear me? I love you, and I want you with me, not him."

Anna froze on the last two sentences and stared at them for several minutes. She read them repeatedly, thinking it was a system failure, some mistake, or maybe it wasn't Randall, or maybe she wasn't Anna, or maybe it wasn't planet Earth.

But no.

"I think I love you, Anna. Do you hear me? I love you, and I want you with me, not him."

Randall wrote it. And she was Anna. And it was planet Earth. And this message was for her.

And Randall was online.

Tears came into her eyes and, wiping them with genuine anger, she wrote:

"How dare you, Randall!"

He answered at once:

"But I love you, and I want us to be together."

"How do you even have the guts to tell me that!"

"It's true. And I'm glad I figured it out before it's too late. I love you!"

"Stop it!"

"I love you! I love you!"

Anna couldn't believe her eyes. Her heart was jubilant, her brain was so angry, her soul so disappointed, and her intuition so anxious. Unable to withstand such an influx of emotions, she logged out abruptly, turned off the phone, and rushed back to the bedroom, where Leticia did not lose her at all. Then she fell on the bed and cried aloud.