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"More strings...yes, that's it. A little more guitar..." Howie's in the recording studio in Orlando, working on his first solo venture. It had been 3 years since Mariana walked out of his life, and nearly left him a broken man. Though he has felt like his life had no meaning whatsoever for that long a time, to feel whole again, he had bounced back to his first love: music. He had recorded a song entitled, "Welcome To My Heart". When he read the lyrics, the thoughts of his past love flooded back into his mind. All these years, he tried so hard to forget Mariana, but everything came back at once, thanks to a lyric sent to him.

"Darkness falls, I thought I heard you call...
Or was it just a dream?
I'm a little scared, knowing you're out there
So far away from me...
It's been so long since you've been gone
Everyday I miss you more.
Now, I want to know, why did you have to go?
What were you looking for...?"

The lyrics itself tore him in half. It was clearly something that he just couldn't take anymore. "Excuse me..." "But, Howie," began Karen, his producer. "You have to finish the album by next Friday, and we can’t push back the due date any longer!" "I just need to be alone, alright?!" Karen, and the rest of the crew looked at him in awe, a saddened awe. "Go on, Dorough," she said, sitting back down, watching him leave the studio.

Silence overcame Howard’s condo. He hated that silence. He wanted it to go away, and to never come back. He missed the noise. He missed Mariana’s laughter. Howie wanted to hear it again, but he knew that he wouldn’t. Mariana was gone, and for three years, he never stopped thinking about her. He wanted to know where she was, what she was doing, and worst of all, who was she with? “I hope that the person she’s with right now would treat her right…” he thought, sitting down on the couch, looking down at the floor.

The doorbell rings, and he really didn’t want to get up. “Please, just leave me alone…” he said to himself, walking towards the door. Upon opening it, he received the surprise of his life.

“Long time, no see, don’t you agree?”

It was Mariana, the love of his life who had left him long ago, only to come back. Howie still stood there, shocked. She giggled a little, and said, “I came back, because I wanted to get something out of my chest. Walk with me?”

Howie and Mariana walked hand in hand in a nearby park, baptized with the warm, summer breeze. She turns to him, and said, “I missed you, Howard…you have to understand why I had to leave…” “I missed you too, Mari…I just wish you didn’t have to go…it’s been too long. Three years too long.” “I know…”

He steps in front of her, and holds both of her hands. “I don’t want to lose you again, Mariana…” he steps back, and looks her over. For a 21 year old woman, she still looked the same as she did years ago.

Her hair was still long, and her skin was still the same color. Nope, nothing changed on her at all. She was still the same beautiful woman he fell in love with. Howie goes into his pocket, and takes out a narrow gold chain with a diamond and ruby studded ring around it. Mariana looked at it in amazement. “Is that the…?” “Yes, it is…well, was…” "What do you mean, 'was'?" "Mariana, you broke my heart. That's just that. I haven't heard from you in 3 years...three long years, and you show up all of a sudden?"

"I expect you to be mad at me, Howard...and I'm sorry for what I did. My family was more important than you and I at that point." "How could you say that?" "Well, what else was I going to say? I had to leave." I became frightfully angry towards her. Not to the point of doing harm, but just really upset. I mean, she was gone for three years without a phone call, a letter, nothing. She just disappeared. Without a trace. "No, you didn't. You were forced to leave America for your bullshit family, an--" "How DARE you call mi abuela bullshit?!" I stood my ground looking at her.

Didn't she say that her father and stepmother took her away because of me? "The reason why I left was because of my grandmother. I started to become homesick, and when I received a letter from mi prima that she was on her death bed, I had to go. I didn't have time to sit and talk to you about it. That's why I left."

"But you did not call me..." "I had my hands full with my grandmother...I knew you wouldn't get it..." "Mariana, I do...you loved your abuela, porque fue como tu madre...." "Si...she was like my mother..." I held her hands, and intertwined them with mine own. "I am so sorry for saying your family suckered you into leaving me..."

"My grandmother loved you. I would talk to her non-stop about you. She really cared for you, even though you never saw her...or will never get to see you..." "Oh, she sees me, Mariana...she's with your mother, looking down upon you and me."

Mariana gripped my hands lightly, looking into deep into my eyes. "I never stopped loving you, Howard...and even though you’re still pissed off at me, then I don’t deserve you.” As she was about to turn around, I quickly grabbed her arm, which made turn back to me. “I am no longer mad at you. How can I stay mad at someone who has changed my life for the better?”

I touch her face, and smile. She placed her hand upon mine, and smiles back at me. “And I care for you, so much…” She grabs my other hand, and took the necklace, twirling it around her finger. “So, what of this little trinket?” She speaks of the diamond ring attached around the little strip of gold around her little finger. “Well, I don’t know…” I unwind it, and free the ring from the precious loop. “Maybe I should do this first…” I put the necklace in my pocket, and bend down on one knee. In an instant, tears streamed down her pure face, as she steps back a little.

“Mariana, I never want to lose you again. You are everything to me, and when you’re away, I’m nothing. You, along with God, are the one that keeps me going, what keeps me alive. I need you with me for always…”

I take her hand upon mine, and kiss it softly. She is still left speechless. “Mariana Rodriguez, will you marry me?” She bends down to me, and kisses my lips lightly. “Yes…I will marry you…a thousand times, yes!” As we both stand up, we are together, as if one, in a tight embrace along with shedding tears. As I put the ring on her finger, I feel her hands shaking. “Never you worry, my dear,” I say, “I’m the one that will never harm you. Never.”