by Jade White
It was time for someone else to freak out and figure out what was going to happen and to let her get some relaxation and a break, which she was in desperate need of. She was already having trouble sleeping and she didn’t need to worry about this too. What she needed were some answers, and she was going to get them. As the door opened, she looked at him and could feel her heart pounding against her chest.
Her palms were sweaty and her eyes were burning as she looked at him, seeing that he was wearing his typical lounge wear, jeans and a t-shirt. He looked good in it. He had the build of a man who was ready to do something adventurous and exciting. As she looked at his handsome face, she remembered how it had turned into the face of a bear. It was terrifying to think about, but she knew she wasn’t going to back down from this. She wasn’t going to let that get to her. She could get over the whole mythological being thing if it meant she just needed time. She would come to trust him and understand him. She knew that she could.
“Hey,” he said.
His voice too excited and happy for her to handle right now. He needed to be distraught and bothered by her absence. He needed to be angry at her for avoiding him and not telling him when she was going to come back into his life. She wanted him to be furious about that. She wanted him to have some emotion in him that wasn’t so positive and so wonderful. She wanted validation that she was being a monster to him.
“I need you to hear me tell you something,” she said to him with a strong voice, holding up her hand so he wouldn’t interrupt her. She could feel her mind flying in a million different directions. She needed to just focus on one thing and understand what she was going to say. Right now, all she cared about was the confession.
“Okay,” he said, giving up the fight and letting her have the floor.
She looked at him suspiciously. She didn’t want him interrupting her or asking stupid questions. She made sure he understood that.
“You did a really crappy thing,” she said to him in a very serious voice, meaning every word that came out of her mouth. “I don’t know how I would have reacted if you had just come forward for me to hear what you had to say, but instead, you kept it from me and made me find out in the worst possible way.
“The worst thing you can ever do is hide something so that someone else can find it. It destroys any kind of trust there is and I lost every last ounce of trust I had for you. I never wanted to see you again and there was nothing I wanted more in my life than to be done with you.
“But, I know you don’t want this to be the end and I’ve seen how you’ve been willing to go to extreme lengths to make sure I know that. You’ve given me the time and space I needed and I know you have offered to do anything I asked for you. It wasn’t easy and I know I’ve put you through a lot, but I want you to know I’ve seen all the hard work that you’ve done for me and I’m not going to let you down.
“I want to have a relationship with you as long as you’re willing to have a relationship with me. I want you to know that as long as you’re willing to have this relationship and you want to have this child with me, I’m willing to keep fighting for this and I’m willing to keep doing whatever is necessary to help mend the damage that has been caused. I think I’m in love with you and it hurts when I’m not around you.
“I think about you all the time and I can’t help but feel angry toward you because you’ve ruined something that was so beautiful and so incredible. I think that is what love is, or at least, when it’s hurt. That’s how I know I’m in love with you, Gus. Are you in love with me?”
He looked at her and for a moment, she thought she had made a terrible decision. She thought she had come here and poured out her heart to someone who wasn’t interested and didn’t care anymore.
“I love you,” he said, nodding his head with a grin spreading across his lips. “I’ve loved you since the moment I knew you were pregnant and the right thing to do was to marry you. I know what you read about the curse made you think that I was only into you to avoid the curse, but I’m not.
“I think you’re the most incredible person I’ve ever met and I don’t want to spend another day of my life living without you next to me or on the phone with me. I want to talk to you for every second of my life. I want you to be the first person I see in the morning and last person I see at night. I want my life to be completely focused and centered around you. You’re my everything, Tiffany.”
She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, pulling him close to her chest and feeling the warmth of his body. He was the most amazing thing she had ever encountered and she knew her heart was going to mend after she figured out what she was going to do with the fact that the man she was in love with was a transforming, magical creature.
She could learn to live with this and she knew she was going to learn to enjoy it. It was going to seem like the most foolish thing in their lives after this point.
“How does it work?” she asked him as he walked her into the apartment and closed the door behind her.
She looked around the apartment and noticed that it was exactly the same way as she had left it, except that all the bear fur was gone and she was left alone in an enormous room with the man she loved. This was a drastic change from the time when she had stormed out, furious at him and vowing never to love another man for the rest of her life.
She was sick of being mad at him and she wanted to talk now. She wanted to use her words and find out what he had to say about everything. She wanted to know what it was like to be a man who could transform into an animal and back into a human again. How had he hidden this his entire life? Were there others like him? Could his parents transform? She had so many questions for him and she needed to know.
“I don’t know,” he said, chuckling at her sudden change of heart. “I think it’s triggered by adrenaline and blood pressure. If I can keep those two in check, then I just have to worry about the moon cycle.”
“But why a bear?” she asked him, sitting down on the sofa next to him and looking at him, staring him deep into his eyes. “Aren’t you supposed to turn into a wolf?”
That seemed to rub him the wrong way and she found that hilarious. What was the point of turning into a bear? What was the point of turning into a wolf? She supposed both were valid questions. Either way, turning into an animal seemed like such a strange and bizarre gift to have. She knew she had touched a nerve and decided to move on.
“What about the curse? Talk to me about that,” she said with all sincerity.
This was what she wanted to know about the most. She wanted to understand what the curse was. It was what had driven him to the point where he was going to propose to her before she was comfortable and he knew it was vital to his own survival. She had read his journal. She knew how desperately he had searched for information on the curse and he was getting dead ends in a lot of other journals he had read. She was curious to see what he had found.
“I want you to know, up front, that I didn’t want to marry you because of the curse,” he said with his voice filled with a kind of desperation for her not to take it the wrong way. “I’m very sorry this was what it felt like to you when you first found out about me and everything else.”
“I understand,” she said, not sure she entirely bought it, but she liked to think his motives were entirely chivalrous and noble. She knew that deep down inside of her, she was always going to believe that fear played a significant role in him proposing to her, but she wasn’t entirely beaten up by that. She could handle the fact that he was scared of getting cursed as a motivation for asking her to marry him.
“The curse says that if I get a woman pregnant without being married to her,” he said with a deep and troubled voice, “I have until she gives birth to convince her to marry me and do the right thing by her or I will be turned into a bear and will be stuck that way for the rest of my life. There is no mention of it ever having worked or not worked, but I would assume that those who had the curse happen to them were never seen or h
eard from again. In New York City, it’s going to be hard for me to turn into a bear and run out into hiding.”
She supposed so. That was kind of a scary curse to have. Most likely, the police were going to show up and shoot him to death. The cops here were notoriously over-zealous with their bullets, too, so he would probably go down in a hail of gunfire. She shuddered at the thought of him dying on the street without anyone there to be with him. That would be a miserable way to go. He would know he had done wrong by his child and mistress before his end came. She shuddered at the thought.
“Is there any way to stop it for certain?” she asked him. “Like, have those who have gotten married truly stopped it or is there a record of some of them turning into bears as well?”
“There’s not a whole lot of record on this sort of thing,” he said with a frustrated calm.
It was bubbling with the troubles of what he had discovered and she knew it was eating at him. If this didn’t work, then there was a chance that he was going to become a bear and no one was looking forward to that. No one wanted to turn into a bear forever. Even if you could turn into an animal on command, that skill would get old very quickly and she knew people would never take kindly to the fact that there was a man bear around.
“So, what do you need to do?”
“I need to do right by you and my child,” he said with a willingness in his voice that she noticed and greatly appreciated. “I need to marry the woman I’m in love with. I think that sounds like a really great thing to do right now and I’m not scared to do it at all. If the curse is broken, then I’ll be happy. If it’s not, then I will be a bear for the rest of my life, knowing that I tried my hardest.”
“So you still want to do this?” She was worried she had ruined whatever shot or chance she had been given at having a life with him. A lesser man would have kicked her to the curb ages ago, but as she watched that handsome smile spreading across his lips, she knew he was going to be more than happy to spend the rest of his days with her. She was more than willing to spend the rest of her days with him as well. It was going to work out nicely for both of them.
“I really want to do this,” he said to her. “I want you to be my wife, Tiffany. I don’t care what I have to do to prove it to you, but I will. I will make you the happiest woman on the planet, so long as you give me the opportunity to prove it to you. But I want you to believe me when I say that I have no secrets to tell. I have only you in my life and that is all I want or need. Do you want this? Are you willing to give me another shot?”
“I am,” she said and smiled at him. She felt her heart swell with the emotion and the life she had been missing for ages, it felt like. She’d felt hollow and dead since the night she had been betrayed and hurt by him and now it was gone. She felt it wither and blow away in the wind.
They kissed passionately, throwing abandon to the wind and she gave him everything she had. Her fingertips brushed his cheeks as she cupped his face and held him close to her, kissing him with her soft lips that longed for his. They passionately enjoyed each other, filling up on the lust and the hunger inside of them. She pulled away and looked into his face, knowing this was the face she was meant for. This was the face she was destined to be with for the rest of her life. This face was all hers.
“I want you to move in with me,” he said to her adamantly. “I want you to come with me right now to your apartment and get whatever you need to stay here for the next few days until we can go over and pack up everything you own and bring it here.”
She laughed and nodded to him. She didn’t care that this was the most amazing apartment in the world or that it felt like a second home to her already. All she cared about was that this was where he was and she wanted to be with him every step of the way in life. She wanted to have him with her all along the way.
Chapter Seven:
Caitlin had done it again and there was a sort of flare and beauty to this place that was different from the Rose Room. White Hall was the kind of magnificent and classy place you would expect to exist in a 1940s movie or something along those lines. The big band played in the corner as friends and family all took to the dance floor and made the magic happen with each other.
Caitlin was there every step of the way and Tiffany was glad she wasn’t left alone making all of the arrangements and the planning. She needed someone there to be her anchor and her support. She needed a reminder that there was sanity in the world through all of this. She needed to know there was a light at the end of the tunnel.
White Hall was the kind of place that was built around the band and the dance floor. It was surrounded by a railing with tables and seating filling in the gap between the dance floor and the walls. The bar and the kitchen were open for the public and there was catering, making everything available to those who were gathered at the exciting and momentous occasion. It was the largest party White Hall had seen in years.
The guests were coming in, dressed to the nines and showing off all they had to offer. It was the kind of event that would make everyone feel like they were a part of high society, whether they truly were or not. It didn’t matter who you were or where you came from, this was the night you brushed arms with celebrities from all walks of life and the common folk in celebration of the beautiful couple that was getting married.
People were mingling, chatting, and dancing on the dance floor as they felt the night begin to pick up and take off. It was the event of the year. It was something she truly enjoyed watching. It wasn’t painful like it had been last time and this time, she didn’t waste an opportunity to meet anyone.
She wasn’t hiding behind her friends and family and she wasn’t going to avoid the man she was in love with, either. In fact, she looked around, staring among the guests and wondering where he had run off to. She greeted everyone who came to the party and hunted her out like heat seeking missiles, joking and talking with them about the engagement. She found that a lot of her family and friends were back, eager to rub shoulders with people they had never had the chance to meet before this engagement. She was glad they were having fun.
“It’s just gorgeous, darling,” her mother declared with an overly dramatic cry as she entered White Hall and looked at all the decorations and all of the festivities already underway.
She looked around, dazzled and delighted by all of it. She knew there was plenty going on and they were eager to get to know and talk to other people that were here to enjoy the celebration as well. She didn’t want to keep them held up or to linger with them too long.
“It’s simply marvelous. You really found one that’s worth keeping.”
“I hope you’re keeping all of this in check with the old budget,” her father grumbled, looking around at all of it and no doubt worried about the financial drawbacks of such an enormous party.
She smiled and shook her head at them. Nothing ever changed for them. They were the kind of people who were as predictable as a broken clock.
“Have fun,” she told them with a smile and a laugh. “Thanks for coming,” she said to them as they immediately took her word of advice and headed into the group, mingling with those who were more than eager to talk with them. She loved her parents, but she was already hitting her quota of parent time for the year and it was beginning to grate on her. She wasn’t going to be able to take much more of it. It was digging at her already taxed sanity.
When they were gone, taking her cousins, brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles with them, she hugged her grandparents and thanked them for being there before they headed for the open bar and catering table. She smiled and watched them go, turning when she heard a declaration that sounded extremely familiar.
“Isn’t it the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen?” Caitlin asked.
Mark nodded and Tiffany was more than happy to see that behind Mark, Caitlin was talking to someone that she was overly excited to see. She didn’t think that she would ever be excited to see one of Caitlin’s boyfriends in her entire life. She thought
of most of them as pond scum, but there was something special about Joey. Seeing him there, standing with Caitlin, was like seeing the triumphant arrival of a long lost friend.
“Hey guys,” she said to them with a grin spread across her lips, running over and hugging Mark.
She was never going to be able to tell him how important he was to her, to getting her to do what was right. He was the one that snapped her out of her own head and back into reality and he had done it without ever knowing. She would tell Gus to be extra nice to him one day and give him the kind of attention he was always craving.
“You look beautiful,” he said to her, softening up after their moment of having coffee together and getting real with one another.
They should spend more time not getting drunk together so that they could have those little intimate moments where they really changed each other’s lives.
She hoped he would find someone who was going to be as amazing and incredible to him as Gus was to her. He deserved to have a happily ever after one day and she truly hoped he would get it. She wanted him to be as happy as everyone else in the world. She wanted him to have a good marriage.
