The Storms That Fated Us
Page 24
Before I could say anything offensive back to Erin, my nurse showed up. She handed me the loose cords to place on my lap, then pushed me down the hallway with Erin following not too far behind us. We were almost past the nurse’s station when Denise stopped us and disclosed, “Carson woke up again and is asking to see you, Tia.”
“Over my dead body she is going anywhere near my husband!” Erin heatedly commented, walking past my wheelchair and straight into Carson’s room.
Denise followed Erin. In a final attempt to try to see Carson, I tilted my head up to look at my nurse and pled, “Can I please just see Carson for a minute? Then I’ll let you drag me back to my room where I promise to rest and not give you any problems.”
I was ready to crawl out of the wheelchair and get on my knees to beg, but it didn’t come to me going to such extremes. My nurse must have had a sympathetic heart. She pushed me towards Carson’s door. “You have two minutes, then I am taking you to your room,” she said.
I entered Carson’s room wearing a triumphant smile from getting my way with the nurse, but dismay of what I witnessed quickly melted it right off my face. I watched as Carson allowed Erin to hold his hand and kiss him on the lips without any objection. My chest began to ache in a familiar way. Seeing them together in that moment hurt just as much as it did five years ago. Afraid I was going to lose it, I signaled to my nurse to come and get me.
“I’m not feeling well and need to lay down,” I told her. She slowly backed up my wheelchair while I hung my head and fought back the tears threatening to plummet down my cheeks at any second.
We were almost out of the door when Carson yelled out, “Tia, please don’t go!”
Not wanting him to see me upset, I kept my head down, focusing on the ugly white hospital gown with green dimensional squares and remarked, “I really should go rest now.”
“Tia, I don’t want you leave,” he called.
I quickly lifted my head and saw him push Erin’s hand away from his. “Why are you even here?” he demanded
Erin placed her hand back into Carson’s, responding, “After seeing the news coverage about you trapped during the blizzard, I was worried sick thinking about losing you and I decided I want to fight for our marriage.”
I couldn’t stand it any longer. I wasn’t going to sit around and listen to them discuss the possibility of getting back together. It was so typical of her to dangle their marriage in front of Carson.
“Are you ready to—” my nurse started to ask me, but Carson interrupted.
“The only person I want to leave this room is Erin.”
“Babe, you’re just confused from the hypothermia. Once you recover, we can forget all about the divorce proceedings and rebuild a life together,” Erin insisted.
Shaking his head with certainty, Carson snapped, “I might be tired as hell, but I’m definitely not confused. Do you honestly think I would take you back after the way you've treated me over the years? Marrying you was a big mistake! I should have never married you when it was Tia I really loved. It took a few years of being miserable in our marriage to realize I should have married the only person who ever loved me the way I deserve to be loved. I was too fucking ignorant back then to see it, but I’m not now. You can expect the divorce proceedings to continue because I’m done with you.”
Denise cleared her throat before interjecting, “Do I need to have security sent to this room, or can everyone simmer down?”
Carson and I both mouthed out apologies while Erin immediately stormed out of the room. For a moment, I thought I was delusional. I never thought I would see the day when Carson would choose me over Erin.
I apologized once more to both the nurses. As my time with Carson was up and I was forced to go back to my room, I realized I couldn’t get out of my chair to kiss him goodbye and he couldn’t lean over to kiss me due to all of the cords on our bodies.
Instead, I blew Carson a kiss. The smile on his lips reflected in his eyes. Though his hand movement was slightly delayed at first, he raised his arm up to catch my kiss. Placing his fist over his heart he professed as loudly as he could, “I love you!”
“I love you, too,” I replied, smiling back at him. And the sincerity in the words we spoke to each other washed over me.
Though it took being stuck together for days and numerous close calls with death, Carson and I were finally able to forgive each other for our pasts. We were forced to look at the mistakes we’d made, which is the only way to learn not to make them again. And after all we went through, we were both able to fearlessly admit our deep and true love.
Timing is everything. The storm we had endured showed us how Fate has plans for us that we don’t know about and that we can’t control. Instead of hating what we went through, I was grateful for it. It brought Carson and I back together, how we were meant to be all along.
The meteorologist called the blizzard the storm of the century.
I call it the storm that fated us.
EPILOGUE
Six months after our ordeal, I found myself in charge of picking the music for our high school reunion while Mira, Audrey, and the other people from our graduating class volunteered to decorate the gym. After considering all of the places in town that could host our reunion, it was decided by the class to have it at the one place that held all of our memories of our times together—right at the school.
During the months leading up to this weekend, we were able to get into contact with everyone from our class; all of them said they’d be there. Only one person wasn’t going to be able to make it. I wasn’t surprised to see the email from Erin to Audrey saying it would be too awkward for her to be around her ex-husband and me.
Admittedly, I didn’t want to see her. No one was shocked to hear that she wouldn’t be making an appearance, especially after word spread around about how badly her personal life took a turn for the worst. She and her boss were fired after they'd been caught screwing in his office. The saddest part was the fact that his wife walked in on them. But she immediately called Human Resources to report the incident, making her a hero in my book.
During the divorce proceedings, the truth came out about Erin constant cheating on Carson with her boss. Though Carson had suspected that she was being unfaithful, he sat back and did nothing while his marriage crumbled around him. Carson truly believed that the way his life turned out was his punishment for everything he put me through during high school.
He admitted that every painful day with Erin was a reminder to him of how badly he messed up our friendship by never admitting his love for me. Just as I had, Carson spent the last five years beating himself up over everything that went wrong with us. We had then promised each other that we would no longer look at the past and instead focus on the future.
Carson and I officially became a couple after he left the ICU floor and joined me on mine. We actually shared my room for the week it took to recover from our severe hypothermia and the various other injuries to our bodies. It was then that the conversation of how were we going to make things work between us came about. Carson concluded that he would be wherever I was. I ultimately chose to pack up all of my things and head back to New Holston.
My mind was saying things were happening way too fast, but my heart thought things weren’t moving quickly enough.
After Carson and I left the hospital, I went to my boss and immediately quit my job. I told her that I would never again work for someone who makes people feel like such shit. Surviving the storm did more than bring me back together with Carson—it had helped me grow a spine when I realized that I could weather anything that was thrown at me.
It didn’t take long for us to find the perfect house. It was only a few miles outside of New Holston, near the community college where I decided to enroll. Carson was very encouraging about me going to school. I had no idea that he attended night classes after working his day shifts and received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.
Carson finally put his deg
ree to use when he partnered up with his brother-in-law, and together they worked a major contract with the city for a few projects. I got a part-time job working as the secretary for the firm where Julisa worked, because she took maternity leave and had her hands full with twin daughters.
I got so attached to the babies that I thought about what it would be like to have one with Carson. He sensed my baby fever and did the next best thing—registered us to coach soccer for a kid’s league during our spare time. It felt great to be back on the field again. I saw how happy it made Carson, too. You can’t put a price on seeing him run around acting more like a kid than the ones we coach.
“Earth to Tia!” Mira interrupted my train of thought as I finished writing down all of the songs for the DJ to play during the dance. “I just placed the last centerpiece on the table, so are you ready to see who wins our bet?”
Shaking my head, I laughed, “Hell, no! I know I’m going to end up losing because I haven’t tried on my dress in five years. Whose idea was it again to see if our prom dresses still fit us and then wager on it?”
“That would be me,” Audrey admitted as she walked up behind me with her dress in hand. “Come on, it’ll be fun. Everyone that’s participating already paid their $10. Just think, the winner gets $200!”
“I still think you’re crazy, but it would be nice to win. Hell, it would be nice if I can pull my dress past my hips. I’ve put on so much weight since Carson finally learned how to cook. Now he’s always cooking dinner for us and even does the dishes, too.”
“Wow, Tia! Sounds like you got yourself a good man,” Mira commented.
“Yeah. I really do,” I agreed.
We all ran out of the gym and filled the girls’ restroom to see who could get into their dresses. It was Mira’s idea to get the guys to be the judges. I wished Carson would get to see this sad display of women trying to play dress up, but he was extremely busy working on his latest development project.
While I fought with my dress in the bathroom stall, Audrey yelled at me to hurry because the judges were ready for us. It took several attempts to pull my dress past my hips, but once I got it that far, everything was a piece of cake. I reached around to get the zipper, careful to not get my long hair caught in it, and slipped my shoes on, checking my hair before rushing out to catch up with my friends.
I walked into the gym, stunned at what I found there. Carson stood in the middle of the basketball court wearing a black tuxedo and one of the biggest smiles on his face. I couldn’t help but mirror his facial expression after seeing how sexy he looked in his tux. He could wear a burlap potato sack and still be the sexiest man alive.
Carson walked over to me, reaching out for my hand. “I need a moment to catch my breath because you just took it away.”
My cheeks flushed at his comment. He always makes me feel like I’m the only thing in this world and that I should be worshiped. I’m modest and think there’s nothing that spectacular about me. Carson strongly disagrees. Eventually, I’ll get used to his compliments and not blush every time.
After a minute, Carson revealed a corsage. “This is for my lovely date.” He slid the corsage onto my wrist. “I believe that I still owe you the last few hours from our senior prom.”
Carson reached out for my hand, then gently grabbed onto it and pulled me along with him into the dimly lit gym where the DJ had colored lights flashing around us. As the music began, I looked over at Carson, amazed that he had gone through the trouble to give me the date we never finished. I kept the tears from messing up my make-up while asking, “How did you even manage to pull all of this off?”
“I called for reinforcements. Audrey and Mira were more than happy to help me out as soon as I told them my plan. I asked if they could get some of our other classmates to show up, along with the decorations and the corsage you're wearing. The money they collected for your wager went to pay the DJ,” He said with a satisfied grin at pulling off my surprise.
Today’s events made me believe that Fate wasn’t as cruel as I had originally thought it to be. It’s funny how things turned out for me and Carson. I honestly never thought he would ever come back into my life. And now that he is here, I don’t plan on letting him go ever again.
The music continued playing as we danced to our song. Carson never ceases to amaze me. I can’t even put into words how lucky I am to have him as a best friend. I have someone to confide my hopes and dreams to, and then I get to have that same person tell me I’m his everything.
As I nestled my nose into the crook of Carson’s neck, he whispered in my ear, “How are you enjoying our prom so far?”
I kissed his neck. “It’s everything I imagined it would be.”
I lifted my head to see our classmates enjoying our little walk down memory lane. Mira and Cruz looked so happy together. I was looking forward to being a bridesmaid in their fall wedding.
Of course, this prom was even better than the real thing. This time I would get to leave here with the guy who was “voted” prom King by all our friends. Of course, I was voted Queen and was awarded a pretty tiara and sash to wear.
“Thank you for—” I started to say, but Carson moved away from me before I could finish.
In front of our friends, Carson knelt down on one knee and held out a ring saying, “I can’t imagine a more perfect time or place to ask if you will spend the rest of your life being my best friend and wife?”
I didn’t waste another second. “YES! YES! I’ll marry you!” I enthusiastically yelled out!
Carson jumped up from the floor to place the ring on my finger, then pulled me into a warm embrace. Tears of pure elation fled my eyes as I lovingly kissed my best friend on his lips. We went back to dancing as everyone cleared the gym, leaving me to share in a private moment with my fiancé.
I gently placed my forehead against Carson’s as he wrapped his arms around me, bringing us closer together, vowing, “This is only the beginning, Tia. You’ll have a whole lifetime of me doing more things like this to make you as happy as you have made me.”
The last song played leaving me a little sad that our perfect date was coming to an end. Carson took notice then whispered into my ear all the naughty stuff he planned on us doing as soon as we got home. That thought alone made me want to run out of here just to do the first thing he mentioned.
Carson put his arm around me, leading out of the gym while already discussing wedding venues. As we stepped outside, dark clouds hovered over us. Tiny raindrops delicately kissed my face as I looked up at the intimidating weather. A bolt of lightning electrified the dim sky, causing Carson to wrap his strong, muscular arms more tightly around me. Harsh winds and a crashing symphony of acoustic effects took its anger out on the atmosphere while I gazed intently into the eyes of the person who I’ve shared my past and soon to be future with.
I knew there were always going to be storms on the horizon, but none were strong enough to destroy what we worked so hard to rebuild.
With a huge smile curled upon my lips, I stood on my toes to kiss Carson. “Are you ready?”
His eyes beamed. “I’ve never been more ready.”
In my happily-ever-after, there wasn’t a sunset to walk off into, but it sure felt like we were going toward one.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Epilogue