"Are you going to go to mass with me this week?"
"Really, you want me to go again?"
"Of course I do."
"Aracelli, you do realize that I'm not Christian, right? I don't believe in a god, and I never will. Nothing you do can change that."
"I don't want to change you, just expose you to other opinions and views."
"You'd be surprised at how much I know about Catholicism."
"You mean you knew the answers to the questions you asked that night we met?"
"No," he admitted. "I just wanted to talk to a pretty girl."
"But," I rebutted.I took a moment to collect my thoughts. "How?"
"My parents were Catholic. I left the faith when I left the house, due to what you would call my lack of faith and discrepancies I discovered."
I took a moment to absorb this information.
"Maybe that's why you're so cold all the time: you refuse love--warmth."
"I didn't refuse you."
"Nobody refuses me."
"That's probably true."
"The thing about people, Liam, is that on some level, they all crave love. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. So when you show genuine interest in someone, they will do almost anything for you."
He smiled, before pressing a kiss to my forehead.
"I'll go to confession, but I'm not sitting through an hour of mass."
"Okay, that's good enough for me."
I snuggled tighter into his warmth and his free hand stroked my back.
"Do you think God will forgive me, Aracelli?"
"I thought you didn't believe in God."
"I don't," he acknowledged. "But do you think, if he exists, that he would forgive me?"
"We cannot even fathom God's capacity for forgiveness. So I think that yes, he will forgive you."
"Even for not believing in him?"
"Yes, even for that."
"Are you sure?"
"As sure as I can be."