Devotion

A woman falls in love with a co-worker who doesn't return the feelings at all. In order to get him to explain, she invites him over for dinner and learns the truth about the man she loves. You might see some similarities to Snape's backstory with Lily Evans here which is where I got inspired for the character's reason of not being able to fall in love. Enjoy!!!

Linda had fallen in love with a man named Kyle. She met him at work one day and quickly became enamored with him because of his charm, good looks and dedication to his work. But anytime that she hinted at a date, Kyle became this cold person; exactly the opposite of who Linda had fallen in love with. After many failed attempts, Linda managed to convince him to have dinner with her at her house so they could talk. As they sat down eating, Linda questioned him.

"So Kyle," she said. "Can you tell me why you suddenly become this cold-hearted person anytime I ask you out on a date?"

Kyle sighed, putting down his fork and facing her. "This is a very difficult thing for me to talk about, but I think you of all people deserve to know the truth about me and love."

"The truth?" Linda asked.

"Yes, the truth, a beautiful and dangerous thing at the same time. It is something that we must tread lightly on," Kyle explained. "Okay, here it is. Twenty-five years ago, when I was just ten years old, I met a girl who lived near me whose name was Sarah. She and I became fast friends, but at the same time, I found myself falling in love with her. I was embarrassed about those feelings, so I kept them to myself. We went to school together in our teens and our friendship thrived. However, we slowly began to drift apart."

"Why?" asked Linda.

"We had different ideals about certain things. We just couldn't agree on anything anymore. It was when I was fifteen that she decided to break off our friendship. I was devastated by it but I agreed; I wanted to keep the one I was in love with happy. I continued feeling unrequited love for her and did everything in my power to make sure that she stayed safe. It wasn't until six years later that I met the biggest tragedy of my life."

"She didn't -"

"Yes, she did," Kyle replied. "She had married a man named John, someone who I wasn't a big fan of, three years previously. And then, six years after she had stopped being my friend, the unthinkable happened. Somebody, I have know idea who, killed Sarah and John. I got wind of the attack on a police scanner so I hurried to their house, just down the street from my own at the time. The police had just arrived on the scene, but I requested, as a former friend of one of the victims, to be let inside so I could see for myself what had happened. They gave me permission and I entered the house. I proceeded over to the stairs and found John's dead body halfway along the stairs leading up to the second floor. Even though I didn't like him much, I still felt bad that he had died. I continued up the stairs and made my way to the back bedroom where I saw the door propped open. I slowly walked to the room, trying to convince myself that she was okay. I pushed the door out of my way and entered the room. On the ground sat Sarah's body, she was dead. I collapsed to the ground at the sight of her body and completely broke down." At this, tears began streaming down Kyle's cheeks as he kept speaking. "I then crawled over to her and held her body in my arms, wanting to give her all of my love that I had for her. I held Sarah in my arms for about ten minutes, before the police came in and asked me to leave. Ever since then, I haven't been able to fall in love with anyone else because my heart still belongs to Sarah even though she is gone. I still have the capability to love people like family, but not in the way you want me to, Linda. I'm sorry that we can't be together, but I promise you this, I will always love you like a sister and I will always be your friend."

Linda, wiping her eyes, replied in a trembling voice, "I understand, Kyle. I respect and admire your devotion to someone years after they have gone from you. So after all this time, you still love Sarah?"

"Always."