Second Chance For Love

Crystal Jones P.O.V December 31, 2022 - 11:30 p.m. Excitement is present in every part of my body and I cannot put into words how excited I am for this new year ahead. I have a feeling that this will be my year. And I know this sounds strange, since everyone has this perspective at the end of the year, putting all their expectations on the new year to come. But I can assure you that I have good reasons to believe that the year 2023 is going to be a magical year for me, and how could I see it any other way? My dream wedding will take place in February 2023, I will get to open my practice and have my own little corner, and my fiancé and I have already managed to put a down p*****t on our apartment, which means that our new year already has several changes planned. And don't even let me tell you about my honeymoon, which will take place in Hawaii. I have always wanted to visit this place, but never had the opportunity because of the price of such a trip. I can hardly believe that now this dream will come true, next to the great love of my life. - Crystal, are you ready? - I hear Luke shouting from somewhere in his small bachelor apartment, where he shares a space with one of his best friends from college. Luke moved into this apartment at the beginning of his accounting course and has lived here ever since, even though he finished college a while ago. He always said he would only leave here to go and live in our house, but every time I heard him say something like that, I thought we were too far away from this reality to even get excited about it, but now, there is very little left for our dreams to come true; all of them. I smile to myself and look into the room where I was - Luke's room - seeing that most of his things are gone. Just his bed and a few bags of his clothes. We had started to put down the down p*****t for our apartment in November and when the realtor gave us the key, Luke thought that it would be wiser to move at the beginning of the year, since it was already the middle of December and it would be extremely difficult to find someone to help us with the move so close to Christmas. I understood what he said and even agreed, to some extent, because thanks to my anxiety, I ended up taking some things there and making Luke do the same. - Yes, I'm ready now. - I run my hand through the fabric of my dress and smile to myself. The idea was to spend the whole early morning with our friends, but to be honest, I don't think I could stay up that long, even though they had put aside the idea of traveling, just to keep Luke and me company, because that's what we did every year, but our adult life was preventing us from that. Luke and I had a lot of debt now and we couldn't afford to spend it on a trip. I rub the gloss on my lips and leave the room in quick steps, before Luke lets out another impatient shout. He never had the patience to wait for me when it was time to leave, he was always aggravated by my delay in getting ready. And in a way, I understood him. - Finally! - he gets up from the sofa in one leap and runs his eyes all over my body, spending a long time admiring every part of it. At least of this I could not complain, since no matter how irritated he was with my delay, he always reacted very well to my appearance, always looked at me in an extremely passionate way, even after so many years. - I'm serious! I'm with the most beautiful woman in the world. - he compliments with a gentle smile on his lips and I feel my heart race against my chest as he approaches me in slow steps. Luke stops in front of me and holds my face with one hand, stroking my cheek with his thumb. His eyes are locked on mine and I see the sparkle in them, the same sparkle that I saw the moment he first saw me. The same glow as when he told me he loved me and asked me to marry him. Because no matter how much time has passed since we started, Luke's feeling for me has never changed. We have been together for almost six years and I feel that our relationship has only grown stronger with time. In that time I have heard many unhappy comments from people who think they understand how a relationship works. Comments that said that we wouldn't last, that Luke's passion for me would die down at some point, that the relationship would go bad. But today I understand that these were just lying comments, nothing more than that. Unfortunately not everyone has had the chance to experience a love like this, some people end up living in shallow relationships because they faithfully believe that this is the most they will ever have. Ah, if only they knew... - Thank you baby! - I leave a weak seal on her mouth and the smile on her face widens, making my heart flutter even more in my chest. - You look gorgeous! - I run my eyes over his body and feel one of his arms pass around my waist, pulling me to him. - Do you think we could be a little bit late? - he suggests and flashes me a mischievous smile, which makes me laugh. - I'd like to be late with you, but if we don't leave now, we won't be with our friends on New Year's Eve. Luke sighs and lets go of me. He knows that I am right. - Why do you always have to be right? - he lets out a snort and I laugh quietly. Luke leans his face toward me and places a quick kiss on my lips. - I don't know. He takes his wallet and keys and puts them in his pocket, holding out his hand to me. We leave the apartment hand in hand and he manages to lock the door without having to let go of my hand. I was extremely excited for the night ahead. I have a feeling that many good things will come along with this coming year. I can't explain what I'm feeling right now, but it's an extremely good feeling, mixed with a slightly strange chill in my stomach, almost like a warning that things won't be quite as I'm expecting. I know, it's confusing. I have been feeling this feeling since the moment I woke up this morning and along with it, a lot of negative thoughts about my New Year's Eve. But I am trying my best to throw all of that away and just focus on the good feelings and positive thoughts. As if the bad part doesn't even exist. My mother always told me that happiness is scary and that because of this we sometimes try to run away from it. The first time I heard her say this I was about fifteen years old, and obviously I didn't understand the weight of her words. After all, what is the point of you fearing happiness? But I think today I can understand what she meant. I'm about to have the happiest time of my life, and it seems too scary, because whenever my life seems too good, I get the feeling that something really bad is coming, and that I'm about to be tripped up. Almost as if life is giving me something good so that I can endure the bad thing that is about to happen. I shake my head from side to side and let out a sigh, wanting to ignore all of this. I just need to focus on the night I am about to have and ignore my brain. Maybe this is just self sabotage. Luke pulls me out of the elevator and only then do I manage to come back to the present moment. We leave the building and I see the car's headlights flashing, indicating that it has been unlocked. Luke makes a point of letting go of my hand and opening the passenger door so that I can get in, as he has always done, since he bought his first car. I smile in thanks and settle into the passenger seat, already pulling on my seat belt as he closes my door and turns the car around to sit in the driver's seat. - I just hope that the place our friends have chosen is less than twenty minutes away. - he comments, closing the car door. I stare at him right away. - Wait, I thought you knew where it is. Luke begins to type the address into the car's GPS and I keep my eyes fixed on him, watching his features intently. Luke was extremely expressive, to do anything, and I loved to watch the features he made when he was distracted by something. I love him with everything in me. - It seems that they found a more interesting place last minute, it is further away from the city. The GPS starts to set a route and according to it, it would take us fifteen minutes to get there, which was great! Luke pulls his belt on the spot, starting the vehicle. The streets were relatively busy, busier than I imagined they would be. - Crys, send a message to the staff and let them know that we are coming. I just nod, grabbing the cell phone from my small bag and unlocking it, opening a conversation with one of our friends and starting to type a message. - Oh, s**t! - Luke grumbles and I raise my head to face him, seeing that his eyes were locked on the GPS. - What is it? - The damn thing crashed and lost the whole route. - he grumbles and I stare at the small display, seeing that the GPS had lost the address he had typed in and was sending us in the opposite direction. - I told you to buy another GPS. - I am serious. It had been months since this device had been malfunctioning, and I kept telling Luke that it was better to buy another one at once, but he always said he would buy it later, but as we are seeing now, the later never came. - This is no time for sermons. - he speaks slightly impatiently. One of Luke's greatest faults is that he could not handle criticism or the idea of being contradicted in any way, and he hardly ever assumed his own mistakes. Over the years he had evolved a lot in this respect, but this side of him still appeared from time to time to give us a "hello!" - Luke, look back at the street, let me type in the address. - I give a weak slap on his fingers that were close to the small screen, hearing him snort. He grabs the cell phone that was on his lap and hands it to me, with the address already open. I hold the phone in my left hand and was ready to start typing with my right, but a flash from the front window caught my attention and I raised my eyes. I hear a loud horn, the light getting brighter and see the moment when Luke sees what I see and tries to turn the wheel to avoid what was coming towards us, but it was too late. - Luke! - is the last thing I say, before I feel the impact against our car. Everything seems to spin around me, as I close my eyes tightly and feel everything swaying, before I feel another strong impact against my whole body and simply black out.