NOT GIVING UP ON FOREVER

Chapter 79

From behind came a calling cry, "Anna!" and the couple turned.

What a shock it was to both of them to see Randall running toward them.

"I can't believe it!" Teo hissed. "What in the world?"

Randall kept shouting, "Anna, Anna!" making his way through the crowd of people.

It stunned Anna. She had expected everything from today but not this. She watched Randall coming toward her, waving his arms, afraid she wouldn't see him, and her blood ran cold. She couldn't even look at Teo. A private fear had wholly paralyzed her.

"Anna!" Randall finally ran up to her, ignoring Teo completely. "Anna, dear, forgive me, I beg you, I beg you, forgive me! I was blind. I was just blind. I love you! I've always loved you. I just didn't realize it before! Anna!"

"Randall, get out of here!" Teo snarled, tugging at his shoulder, but Randall pulled him back and dropped to his knees in front of Anna.

The crowd gasped, and Anna recoiled in horror.

"Anna, listen to me. I don't care anymore. I've been looking for you all day. I tortured the informants at the front desk to find your flight, I found you, and now I want you to look me in the eye and forgive me. I love you. Look at me!"

"Randall, for God's sake!" Anna gasped, at last, looking around anxiously. People whispered right and left and converged around them in a ring. "Randall, get up now, please! Everyone's looking at us!"

Teo spat in disgust. Anna blushed and tried to comprehend what to do.

"I'll go to smoke, and I'll give you a minute, Anna," Teo said. "When I come back, this circus will be over."

And he strode out of the corridor.

"Teo!" Anna shouted after him, but her eyes fell back on Randall.

She had never seen him like this. He was shaking. He didn't give a damn that people were crowding around and asking each other what the drama was about. His eyes were red with tears and glistened, dropping the new ones.

"Anna, look at me. I can't live if you don't forgive me and come back to me. I know you love me. Do you love me, Anna? Answer me!"

"I love you," as if against her will, bashfully looking around, muttered the girl.

"You can't be with him. I'm made for you, and you are made for me." He unfolded a crumpled piece of paper on which he had scrawled a poem in Italian and started reading it to Anna.

People cheered, some applauded. Anna did not understand the verse's words and did not get what she should say, how to react. When he finished, she pleaded:

"Randall, please stand up. Don't attract the audience."

"You forget about the audience! They'll forget we exist in a second!"

At the end of the corridor, two burly, mustachioed guards were approaching.

"Randall, the security is coming! Stand up, I'm asking you! What do you want from me?" Tears flowed from her eyes. "I don't know what you want!"

"Don't fly away, please! Be with me!"

"Randall," Anna finally managed to lift him. "It's not serious. I have a life, a job, and I need to get back home."

"It's all nonsense!" Randall shouted through the whistle of the surrounding men. "All this does not matter. You have nothing in Mining-Great! You can't fly away and leave me alone! I can't be without you. I just can't stand it!"

His shoulders began to shake with sobs, and he covered his face with his hands.

"Randall." Anna felt a physical pain to look at him, and she hugged him.

"I do love you, Anna." He gazed her in the eyes. "And I know it now. I was such a fool. I lost you, and only this Teo got me to understand that you are everything to me, and I will never give you to him! Please don't fly away. We'll be together."

The guards stopped to ask what the commotion was. Two ladies enthusiastically described the story unfolding before the eyes of the onlookers, eventually making the guards allies of the spectacle.

"Randall, please don't cry." Anna herself cried, wiping his tears, and he wiped hers.

"I understand all now. I understand everything," he muttered. "Please stay... You can't leave..."

Teo came back into the circle, and at the same moment, the speakers began to call for the passengers on Anna's flight to board.

"The concert is over, Randall!" Teo snapped. "Anna, you have a flight to catch."

Without answering, Randall grabbed Anna and begged again that she would not fly, assuring her of his love. Anna wept and stood like a statue in his arms.

She looked at Teo. There was so much shame and pain in his eyes, so much frustration and anger that no words were needed to understand what he felt at the moment.

She looked back at Randall. His tear-stained eyes expressed love and a kind of primal fear. She swallowed, glancing back at Teo.

"Randall, I have to go," she gasped, searching Teo's eyes for a reaction, but when she saw nothing, she looked back at Randall, whose eyes were filled with terror.

"You can't, you can't fly away!" he clutched his head.

"Randall, let me go, please," Anna repeated.

Randall looked her straight in the eye, trying to explain her decision to himself.

"Are you leaving me?"

"Randall..."

"Are you leaving me?"

"She's got a plane, Randall." Teo snatched the girl's hand from Randall's grasp. "Go home."

Randall froze, staring at Anna. He couldn't believe it. He was so sure that his confession would change everything. The pain shot through him.

Teo was dragging Anna away, making his way through the staring crowd and endless comments. Anna looked only at Randall but continued walking with Teo.

Randall stood crying. He watched her go. When he realized she would not break away from Teo and run to him, he turned and walked down the hall without looking back.

"Randall!" Anna cried.

He didn't hear her. But she didn't scream for him to hear, because she didn't try to run after him. She was holding Teo's hand...