She wasn't speaking and that was a bit worrying. Richard looked at her, taking in her features. Her blue eyes, her hair that looked auburn in some lighting but brown in the next. That scar that went down her jawline. Richard wasn't really sure what to say to her to start them off so for the moment, he simply took her in. Wanting to remember very clearly.
Just in case.
Whiskey? He shook his head at the offer, agreeing with her words that came next. "No whiskey for me for now, after we've talked maybe." Because maybe then he would need it. His mind couldn't really get past the fact that he was alone with her in a room. He was almost subconsciously making sure she had as much space as she needed to not look like a deer about to take flight.
"So, the main thing at hand," he started, figuring that he might as well get right to it. "I have a deep and devoted affection for you that I believe started when we met and only grew the more I got to know you. That continued to grow as I fell witness to everything life was throwing at you." She was one of the strongest women that he knew with a perseverance he had witnessed in no other.
He had been pacing as much as one could pace in such an enclosed space as he spoke before stopping so that he could look at her. "That is to say, I'm in love with you. Quite thoroughly. Rather took me by surprise, really, to discover it," he said, unable to help a small chuckle. It was amazing how things just happened in matters of the heart without you giving it the express permission to do so.
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