You Never Forget Your First: And He Just Might Be the Death of Me

by Millie Perez

“What are you doing here?! I didn’t know you were in the city!” I shriek as I give him a quick hug. “I wasn’t. But you texted us to be here today, so here I am.” He smirks as he walks back to his seat.

I mean I didn’t know that was the fairytale you were banking on, but I guess I should say congrats instead of pointing out the painfully obvious?” Evan spits. “Which is what, Evan?” I yell. The whole pub can probably hear us, but I’m so livid that I can feel my pulse on the tips of my ears. He huffs out a breath and lowers his voice so only I can hear. “That you deserve better.”

The confession that kept me up most of the night. Amelia Nuñez has a crush on me. Had. First crush means she was just a kid, but what about now? To think that the woman who I’ve had embedded in my heart for the better part of a decade, at one time had feelings for me.

“Miami. When I came to visit you after you had broken up with your high school sweetheart. I wasn’t there because I was on a business trip. I flew down because I knew it was your birthday, and I wanted to celebrate with you. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was about to have the best night of my life with the girl who's always had my heart.”

“Amelia, we’ve already fought about this before. You deserve better than fine. You deserve the very best, and I’m going to give it to you. Just you wait and see.”

“If you think I’m going to let another opportunity to date you pass me by, you’ve clearly underestimated me. I’ve waited ten years, Amelia. Ten years. And that’s on me. I was too chicken shit to tell you about my feelings before, but now it’s out there. So, if we don’t end up together, it’ll be because that was the choice you made, and I’ll respect it. But don’t you think for a second that I’m going to be deterred because you need time to heal. You’ll have all the time you need, but in the meantime I'm making sure you know I’m here. And that I’ll always be here regardless.”

Evan kisses me like a man who has waited a decade to do so. Because he has.

“But when I’m ready, it’s you. If you’re willing to wait a while until I’m ready, you’re the person I want to be with, have dreamt of—”

“No. Everywhere Amelia. I love you, so that means that I am yours, and I belong to you. When we have sex, I will be making love to you. Understood?”

“But there was never a doubt that it would be me and you. We were always destined to belong together, Amelia. I may have been your first crush, but you were always my forever.”