Untitled Part 2

This is the second part of my story. Don't worry; it's shorter than Part 1.
Happy reading!

Elyssa was lying on her side facing the wall when Justin came in. She would recognize his footsteps anywhere. He had a light tread, much lighter than most humans, and a quick step.
Everything would be so much easier if he would just leave. She loved him, but at some point, he’d be gone and if she could get him to leave how, before she got more tangled up with him, it’d be so much easier. On both of them.
He sat down in the chair next to her bed but she didn’t move. She was pretending to be asleep and it fooled everyone else . . .
“Woman, I’m not stupid. I know you’re awake.” She smiled despite her irritation. She loved hearing him call her that. She loved everything about him That was why she had to do this. A clean break would be easiest on him, at least.
She sat up, composing her face into a cool mask. “I didn’t think you would come.” She didn’t look at him. She couldn’t watch his heart break.
“Don’t lie, woman. You knew I was coming.”
How could he see through her like that?
“You smiled at me. You knew I would come for you. What is this about, Elyssa?” He gripped her chin and turned her to face him. His eyes were fierce, angry. It was always a bad sign when he used her name. He was glaring at her and she nearly relented. But that would just delay the pain so she glared back at him.
“This will never work, Justin.” It would probably be better just to be honest. Then he would see the truth and it would be over. “I’ve seen it time after time. We’re too different.”
He was shocked. He was also frustrated. That wasn’t anything new. He was frustrated with her half the time anyway. Why would it be any different now?
“What do you mean, Elyssa? I love you and you love me. Why won’t it work?”
She hesitated and nearly gave up. But he had to understand. In her three hundred years of life, she’d seen a relationship between an Elf and human last maybe five times.
“Try to see it realistically, Justin. I’m nearly three hundred years old and I’ve looked like this since I was twenty. In twenty years, you’ll be going gray and wrinkled and I’ll look the same as I do right now. In almost every relationship I’ve seen, that leads to resentment, jealousy. It isn’t fair on your part to have to live with the knowledge that I’m young forever.”
He was shaking his head before she was finished. “I don’t care, Elyssa. I love you. I always will love you. Why should I be jealous of the gift the Creator has given you?” He paused, obviously thinking deeply. His eyes grew intense and he leaned forward. “I think that you’re the one the Creator made for me. I don’t care that you’ll never age.”
That shook her because he meant it. Maybe this relationship would have a chance if that were the only problem.
“Justin, our people are too different. Humans are so changeable, distractible. Among my people, marriage -- love is for life. It only ends when one partner dies. Humans have a completely different viewpoint. Relationships are changed as often as clothes.”
He grabbed her arms tightly. Too tightly. It hurt but she forgot that when she saw the look in his eyes. So intense, so fierce. So loving.
“I am not like that. I won’t change. Not on this. Not about you.”
To her horror, she could feel tears in her eyes. Elyssa never cried. She could kill goblins and men without batting an eye but Justin’s words had her reduced to a sobbing mess.
He really meant it. He really loved her and he didn’t care that she would be young and beautiful when he was old and devastated by time. He wasn’t going to run after the next new woman to walk onto base.
“Don’t cry, Elyssa.” He was distressed. He hated crying women; he’d told her that months ago. The bed shifted and creaked as he sat down next to her. “Why are you crying, woman?”
“I didn’t know.” she gasped softly and rubbed at her eyes. She would not cry. “I didn’t know you’d come. I was afraid you wouldn’t and that would have been worse. I love you so much, Justin. You don’t understand.”
Apparently he understood, for all that her words were mangled by sobs. He cradled her against his chest, tightly and possessively but gently.
“I’ll always come for you, woman. Don’t you see? I love you.”
He continued to hold her until she stopped crying, and even after she stopped. He rubbed her back and murmured nonsense words into her ear and she thought that this would work out after all.