Part 11
Liz smiled and slipped her hand into her pocket to grip the already worn piece of paper hidden there…the note that Max had passed her after class 5 hours earlier. She must have read it at least a hundred times over the course of the day.
It made Liz feel silly, like she was back in high school again, treasuring such a simple love note from Max so much, but she just couldn’t help it. Having him around again was like a constant flashback to high school…she felt like she was sixteen again. Liz was half expecting to find herself in antennae, waiting tables in the Crashdown again after school.
But she wasn’t in high school anymore…she hadn’t even set foot in the Crashdown in over ten years. Her antennae were in a box in her closet… Nothing was the same as it had been when she was sixteen.
Except for her and Max. Their love hadn’t faded in the slightest…if anything, it had grown more powerful than ever.
Pulling the note out of her pocket, Liz read it again with a dreamy smile plastered on her face.
Liz,
Watching you in class today reminded me once again of all the things I love about you. The way your eyes shine with excitement as you concentrate on the lab, the way a few loose strands of hair fall out of your braided hair…the way you care so much about all of your students. Your passion for this subject just makes you all the more beautiful.
I feel so lucky, Liz…lucky to have you, lucky to be allowed to love you, lucky to be loved by you. I don’t know what I did to deserve you…but I know that I will never be able to thank you enough for loving me, and waiting for me. You’re my everything, Liz Parker. You’re all I’ll ever want…all I’ll ever need.
Tonight will be on me, my love. We’ll take a break from all the site seeing and just take pleasure in each other’s company. Meet me across from the station after classes end this evening, and I’ll take you home for a nice, relaxing evening…just the two of us.
Yours forever and always,
Max
They saw each other at the same moment, as Liz approached Max on the wide path that led from the heart of the campus out to the main road and the Muni tracks. Liz smiled shyly at Max, wondering what he was planning for that evening, while Max eyes were locked on the beautiful sight of the love of his life walking slowly towards him.
"Hi." Liz greeted him softly, as she stopped before him.
"Hi." He replied, smiling down at her with that little half-smile that she had always found so adorable.
Unable to resist touching her, after spending the entire day apart from one another, Max reached down and cupped her face in one hand, gently stroking her cheek with his thumb in a feather light caress.
Liz closed her eyes and reveled in the simple feeling of Max’s rough, callused hand against her own soft cheek. The difference in texture reminded Liz just how much they had been through, how much he had suffered, and how it all led up to this one moment of just the two of them together…free, happy, and in love.
Tears filled Liz’s eyes as Max lightly brought his lips to hers, connecting their minds at the same time so that Liz could feel exactly what he was feeling at that moment. The kiss was soft, gentle…filled with very little hunger, but at the same time loaded down with the heavy weight of all Max’s love for Liz.
Most of the kisses they had shared since Max’s return has been filled with passion, hunger. They had been apart for so long that they both needed to feel each other, to remind themselves that this wasn’t a dream.
Now though, reality had sunk in, and their desperate need had faded. Max and Liz had the rest of their lives to be together, and there was no need to rush. They had all the time in the world…and Max fully intended to spend it showing Liz just how much he treasured her love.
Unable to contain them anymore, a single tear escaped from Liz’s eye, slipping down over the contours of her face, until it’s path was halted where Max’s lips were pressed up against Liz’s own.
Max tasted the saltiness of the tear, and opened his eyes to see the tears filling Liz’s. Immediately he brushed his lips away from hers, and traced them up the tear’s path to her eye, kissing the tears away from where they pooled beneath her soft, dark lashes.
"I love you." She whispered, as he traced his lips to her other eye, kissing away the tears remaining there.
Gently, Max fisted his hand in her hair, lightly stroking the strands, still held back in a tight braid, as he brought his forehead down, pressing it against hers, as he stared down into her eyes.
"I love you too." He whispered, as he breathed in the sweet scent of her hair. "More than you will ever know…but I intend to spend the rest of my life trying to show you."
Taking her hand, Max led her away from school, across the street to the Muni Station, to go back to the apartment.
Neither of them noticed the mousy, plain girl in Max’s lab group, watching them in shock from a few feet away, where she had witnessed the entire exchange between the couple.
