I Will Always Love You (5 page)

“You are a wonderful kisser,” he said. “Your kisses are stormy.”

“What do you mean by ‘stormy’?”

“They are full of passion,” Stefan said before he kissed Melissa again.
Caressing her shoulder and moving his hands down her back, Stefan
deepened the kiss. She moaned and moved her body closer to the man she
loved so fully and so completely. Several minutes later, Stefan grabbed
Melissa by the shoulders and gently, but forcefully, moved her away from

him.

“You need to give me a few minutes.”

Breathlessly, Melissa asked, “What? Why?” She glanced down and saw
that Stefan was completely aroused. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She turned her head as
she tried to hide a smile.

“This is not funny, Melissa,” he groaned. “I want to make love to you so
much. But I will honor our agreement to wait. Besides, I do not want our first
time to be in the front seat of a car.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry. And thank you for respecting our decision to
wait,” Melissa said as she sat back in the passenger seat.

Stefan groaned again as he looked at Melissa. “Sometimes I am sorry we
made that agreement.”

She gave him a shy smile. “Me, too,” she sighed.

“I suppose that I should get you back to your aunt’s house.”

“Yes, it is getting late.”

They both put their seats upright as Stefan started the car. A short drive
later, Stefan pulled the car into the driveway of Karl’s home. He turned the
car off and turned to Melissa who had tears in her eyes.

“Please, do not cry, Melissa.”

“I can’t help it. I don’t want to leave. I will miss you too much.”

“I know. I will miss you, also. But we both have things that we need to do
so that two years from now we can be together forever.”

Melissa hung her head. “I know, but that doesn’t make it any easier for
me.”

“It is not easy for me either,” Stefan said as he took her in his arms. “I will
miss you so much.”

Melissa laid her head on Stefan’s shoulder and let go of her tears.

“Now, please do not cry. We will write to each other all the time and talk
on the phone, too. The time will swim by.”

Melissa lifted her head and with tears still in her eyes she asked, “Swim
by?”

“Is that not the correct American expression?”

Melissa could not help but laugh at the man she loved. “No, I think you
mean ‘the time will fly by’.”

“Yes, that is what I mean. It is a good thing that you are willing to come
back to Germany to live. I might embarrass you with my English.”

“You could never embarrass me,” Melissa said with a solemn expression.

“Well, at least I got you to stop crying.” Stefan kissed her on her forehead.
“You should go and get some sleep now.”

“I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

“I know. Neither will I. But you need to try to get some rest. You have a
long flight tomorrow.”

Tears welled up in her eyes once more.

“No more tears. Please, Melissa. I do not want us to part this way. I will
see you tomorrow at the airport.”

Melissa sat back up in her seat. “No,” she said emphatically as she shook
her head. “Saying goodbye to you at the airport would be even worse.”

“Okay, if you are sure.”

“Yes, I’m sure. Let’s say goodbye here.”

“Not goodbye, Melissa.
Tschuess
.”

“Yes,
Tschuess
,” she agreed.

Stefan leaned over, took Melissa’s face in his hands and gave her a long,
soft yet passionate kiss. “
Ich
liebe
dich
,” Stefan said.

“I love you, too. I’ll see you in twenty-eight months.”

“Yes, twenty-eight months.”

With her heart in her throat, Melissa got out of Stefan’s car. She walked
to the door of her aunt’s house and turned to wave good-bye to Stefan. She
watched as he drove away and felt as if she lost a special part of herself.

Chapter 7

The next day, Melissa and Brigitte sat in the airport in Frankfurt waiting
for her flight to be called.

“What are you looking for?” Brigitte asked as she watched Melissa look
around the airport.

“What? Oh nothing,” she said distractedly. She looked at her cousin and
gave her a weak smile.

“I thought you told Stefan not to see you off at the airport.”

“I did.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But I thought he might show up
anyway.”

Brigitte nodded. “Do you still plan to come back in two years?”

“Yes! I love Stefan so much. I can’t imagine living my life without him.
These next two years are going to be so hard,” she answered with a sigh.

“I know. But you can do it.” Brigitte squeezed her cousin’s hand. “That is
your flight they just called.”

“Okay.” Melissa stood up and grabbed her
carry-on
bag. She gave Brigitte
a long hug. “Thank you so much for everything, especially for introducing me
to Stefan.”

Smiling, Brigitte said, “
Bitteschon
.”

“I’ll see you in two years.” Melissa walked over to the gate. Turning back
to her cousin, she gave a quick look around the airport and spotted Stefan
walking toward her. Melissa dropped her
carry-on
bag and ran into his
waiting arms.

“I know that you said you did not want to say good bye in an airport, but
I needed to see you one more time,” he explained.

“I’m so glad you did.” Stefan leaned down and gave Melissa a long
smoldering kiss.

“I hate to interrupt, but that was the last call for your flight, Melissa,”
Brigitte said.

Pulling away from Stefan, Melissa breathlessly said, “Okay, I’m leaving.”
She gave her cousin a quick hug.

Stefan walked with Melissa as close to the gate as he was allowed.
Holding her hand, he said, “I will be here in twenty-eight months to pick you
up when you return to Germany for good.”

That statement made Melissa smile. “You better be!” she said with mock
anger.

Stefan gave her one last kiss and a hug. He watched as she crossed through
the metal detector onto the other side of the gate. Melissa turned and waved
good-bye to Stefan and Brigitte before she turned and walked onto the plane.

When the plane took off a few minutes later, Melissa had tears in her eyes
and could not help but feel that the next twenty-eight months were going to
be the longest time of her life.

Chapter 8

Chicago, May 1991

“And that’s how I met Stefan, and how he came to mean so much to me.”
She gave Dr. Foster a despondent look.

“What happened when you returned to your home and told your family
about Stefan and the plans you made to return to Germany for good?”

Melissa shook her head and looked away. “It was terrible,” she said with
a tremble in her voice. “My father wanted to know about Stefan and his
family. I remember him saying that it sounded like Stefan came from a good
family. My father was more concerned if Stefan would be able to provide for
me than how we felt about each other.”

Dr. Foster nodded as she made a note in Melissa’s file. “That doesn’t
sound too bad. What about your mother and sister?”

Melissa frowned and looked back at her psychiatrist. “They were another
story. My mother was adamant about me being too young to understand what
love is. When I reminded her that she was only seventeen when she met and
fell in love with my father, she told me that was a different time and that she
came from a small town to a big city. She went on to say that it would be
terribly hard for me to go from a big city to a small town.”

“Do you agree with that statement?”

“Maybe,” she answered with a shrug of her shoulders. “But I think that I
would have worked through whatever problems that may have come up. I
mean, I wasn’t going to move to an alien town not knowing anyone. My aunt,
uncle, cousin, and Stefan and his parents live there. And I made other friends,
too.”

“Okay. So what happened next?” Dr. Foster asked.

“My mother reminded me of all the things I would miss if I moved to
Germany. She told me that she missed out on the last years of her parents’
lives before they died. My mother became very upset and, as usual, my father
took her side. He actually tried to pass off my relationship with Stefan as a
‘summer fling’.”

“Is it possible that it was just a summer fling?” Dr. Foster looked intently
at Melissa waiting for her reaction to that question.

“Absolutely not!” she shouted. “Stefan and I were in love. We wanted to
spend the rest of our lives together.”

“Okay,” Dr. Foster said as she wrote something down on her pad. “So then
what happened?”

“Well, after the conversation about Stefan, my father was curt with me
and I knew that he was very unhappy with me. My mother cried a lot and when
she looked at me she cried even more. My sister gave me accusatory looks and
told me that I was breaking our parents’ hearts. And in the meantime, I was
getting wonderful letters from Stefan telling me how much he missed me and
loved me and that he couldn’t wait until I came back to Germany.”

“How did that make you feel?”

“I felt torn. I mean, I love my parents and my sister.” Tears sprang to
Melissa’s eyes. She took a tissue from her purse and dabbed at her eyes. “But
I love Stefan like I’ve never loved anyone else. I didn’t want to live without
him, but my family didn’t care about that.”

Dr. Foster made another note on her pad with that particular statement.
“So what did you end up doing?”

“I wrote a letter to Stefan and told him that I was not coming back to
Germany. I wrote that he needs to forget about me and move on. It broke my
heart to send him that letter,” she answered tearfully.

“Why did you send it?”

“I sent it because I didn’t want to hurt or disappoint my parents. All I’ve
ever wanted was to make them proud that I was their daughter.”

“So you pushed your own needs and desires aside for the desires and
needs of your parents?”

“Yes,” she whispered. She looked down at her hands lying in her lap and
began twisting the tissue around her fingers.

“And how does that make you feel, Melissa?”

Melissa crossed and uncrossed her legs as she tried to put all of her
emotions into words. “I feel angry and hurt and as if I am all alone.”

“And those are the feelings that we need to work through,” Dr. Foster
stated as she looked at the clock on her desk. “I see that our time is just about
up for today. I think that we
s
hould schedule appointments for twice a week
to start out with.”

Melissa nodded her head. “Okay, Dr. Foster.” She put the tissue back into
her purse and turned her attention back to the doctor.

“I want to give you an assignment to do before our next appointment. Did
you happen to keep a journal while you were in Germany?”