Everlasting Love (Now & Forever)

by Johns, Melissa

  As she waited for Alex to return, Emily realized that she didn’t trust herself to be alone with him in his house. When he came back to the room, he sat down next to her on the couch.

  “Are you ok?”

  Emily shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. I need to figure out what I’m going to do with Eric but I haven’t been able to concentrate on it. I love him, I always will but I don’t know if I can trust him anymore and here I sit in the house of someone that I’m insanely attracted to.” Emily stopped talking suddenly, realizing what she had just said and closed her eyes.

  Alex didn’t say anything as he stood up and reached for her hand. Reluctantly, Emily placed her hand in his and he pulled her up to stand in front of him. “Emily, look at me.”

  Her eyes shifted to look into his. “Please forget I said that, my emotions are all over the place right now and I’m so embarrassed to be acting this way.”

  Alex smirked at her. “Emily, I think we both understand that we have an attraction for each other. God, every time that we are in a close space or touch, we both feel the power of it.”

  Emily nodded as she continued to watch him. “Alex, I just don’t trust myself with you.”

  “You are not alone in that feeling, Emily. But, I was raised to be proper and I promise that I will not do anything to upset you or put you into an uncomfortable situation.”

  Emily nodded. “I think I should go then because being this close to you and not being able to find out what your lips taste like, is killing me.”

  Alex let out a soft moan and closed his eyes, then whispered, “Geez, Emily. I’m trying to be a gentleman here but you can’t say something like that to me and not expect me to react.”

  “Good night, Alex and thank you,” Emily said while his eyes were still closed and she found herself quickly heading down the hallway and out the front door. She slipped into her car seat and started down the driveway without looking back. She was too nervous to see if Alex was watching her leave and afraid that if he was, she would change her mind.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  It was approaching noon and Emily had been up all night trying to sort out her thoughts. She sat in her art room after returning home and discussing the evening with her mother and Paul. She spent hours staring at the painting of herself that she did weeks ago. She was determined to be happy and not become that disheartened woman staring back at her.

  She heard the front door bell and opened the door to find Eric on the porch. “Hey.”

  “Hi,” Eric said back as he entered her house.

  “Daddy!” Emma squealed as she ran across the living room to see him.

  “Hey Sweetness, how’s my little girl?” Eric said and bent down to pick her up.

  “Good. Mommy said you were coming over today. Do you want to play?” Emma said handing him her doll.

  Eric smiled at her and kissed her cheek. “Yes, of course I do. But can I talk with Mommy first?”

  Emma nodded. “Ok.”

  Eric placed her back on the floor and turned to Emily.

  “Can we talk?”

  Emily nodded and pointed towards the kitchen. “My parents went out shopping so we could be alone to talk. We can listen for Emma from in here.”

  Eric sat down next to her at the table and reached for her hand. “I’m sorry, Emily. I wasn’t myself, the pressures of the past year have been killing me and I didn’t handle it very well. I should have leaned on you for support instead of turning away from you.”

  Emily removed her hand from his. “You’ve hurt me so much, Eric. Finding out about her that way, you couldn’t even be straight with me? What were you thinking? Did you not think of your daughter or fiancée who were home trying to get by without you until you came back?”

  “I was lost, Emily. I wish I could explain it to you. I was so good the first two years but as soon as the whirlwind started, I didn’t know there would be so much pressure and so many temptations out there.”

  “So good the first two years? You say that like you should get a pat on the back for being faithful and devoted to your family. In that case, I deserve a lot more than that, don’t you think? So Eric, what did happen at that party anyway? It’s time to be honest,” Emily asked looking into his eyes.

  He took a deep breath and looked away from her. “We were just there to hang out. But, that’s really hard to do at a frat party. As the evening went on, everyone who was still there was very drunk and things started to disintegrate quickly. At some point, I remember running into her and we wound up leaving the main party area alone,” Eric paused as he watch Emily’s face change.

  “I want the truth, so please continue, Eric.”

  He continued, “Yes Emily, I slept with her. I wasn’t in my right mind that night and I know that doesn’t make it ok, but the whole thing was a blur.”

  Emily jumped in, “So, that gives you the right to be unfaithful to your family?”

  “I admit that I did something incredibly stupid, Emily. Haven’t you ever made a mistake? Why do I feel like you are always so perfect and innocent, sitting on your pedestal judging everything I do?”

  “Of course, I have made mistakes in my life, Eric. I’m far from perfect but I have never been unfaithful to you and no amount of alcohol would make it ok if I was. It’s not like there haven’t been some opportunities along the way while you were gone, but you know what, I always thought about you and Emma first because I didn’t want to be that person.”

  Eric looked at her. “What opportunities?”

  “Oh no, you are not turning this conversation around on me. This is about you, so you need to tell me more about what happened at that party!”

  Eric sighed and stood up to pace around the dining room. “When we came back into the main room, there were drugs everywhere. I just experimented a little bit but it was enough to get all of us on the team into major trouble if the higher powers found out about it.”

  Emily whispered, “What happened?”

  “Emily, you don’t need to know that part of it. It didn’t have anything to do with me or us. I admitted to you that I was a bastard, ok? Can we move on from it?”

  Emily shook her head. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that your decision to do drugs has plenty to do with me and us. I’m so mad at this whole situation. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. How can I move on from the fact that I was here raising our child, dealing with school and trying to start my career while you were making some really hurtful, careless choices?”

  Eric looked at her. “Are we going to survive this?”

  Emily stood up and looked around the corner at Emma, who was playing on the floor having a tea party. She turned back to Eric. “I think we need a break.”

  Eric looked stunned. “What?”

  “We both need time to figure out what we want. Eric, we have been together since high school. Obviously, I don’t make you happy because you cheated on me. We were very young when we had Emma, I will never want to change that because she is my world but maybe a break from us will help lead us in the right direction.”

  “Emily, no, I won’t accept that. We were made for each other,” Eric pleaded as he grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t you remember how painful it was when we were apart?”

  Emily nodded, crying as she looked at him. “I will always love you and I’m not saying that this is definitely over, Eric. But, we need to focus on what we want out of our separate lives and then let’s see where it leads us, ok? I don’t want to ever think we stayed together out of default because of Emma. We both need to choose this for it to work and how will we know if we don’t pursue what will make us most happy?”

  Eric bent down and found her lips. The kiss started gentle but quickly turned passionate. Emily broke away first. “No, you can’t kiss me like that and try to make everything ok. It won’t work, not this time.”

  Eric slowly backed away as he spoke. “Emily, I will respect you and what you want,” Eric paused, “for no
w. But, this isn’t over.”

  Emily nodded. “Do you want to stay here and play with Emma or take her somewhere else like your parent’s?”

  “No, I will play with her here for awhile.”

  Emily followed Eric as they joined their daughter in the living room. Eric sat down at her play table and had pretend tea with her. Emma’s giggles filled the room and Emily started to cry again. Eric glanced over and tried to smile at her.

  “What happens next with football?” Emily asked trying to keep the atmosphere light with Emma around.

  “My agent is working with Denver on my contract negotiations. Obviously, I won’t be the starting quarterback but I’m just excited to be heading to the major league, you know?”

  Emily nodded. “I’m so happy for you, Eric. It’s wonderful that your dream is coming true.”

  “What about you? How was the dinner meeting?”

  “It was unbelievable. I’m stopping by a local gallery tomorrow after class so we can talk about a display for my work. Henry, who is the owner, wants to show me his gallery and see if I would be a good fit.”

  Eric smiled at her. “That’s awesome. I’m so happy that you found this lead.”

  He continued to play with Emma as Emily talked. “I have to thank our art teacher, if she didn’t introduce me to Alex, I would have never had these opportunities.”

  “Tell me about this Alex,” Eric said with a grimace on his face.

  “He’s the curator at the art museum downtown. He’s ended up being a wonderful friend through all of this. I actually heard him talk for one of my art classes awhile back so it was great to finally meet him. He’s young but so intelligent and really accomplished. You should see his home, it’s breathtaking.”

  “That’s where dinner was last night?” Eric asked a little skeptically.

  Emily nodded. “He had caterers and everything. It was very formal, at least in my eyes. Of course, I’ve been buried in Emma’s toys for the past three years so just about anything seems fancy to me.”

  Eric smiled strangely like he figured out a puzzle. “It’s him, isn’t it?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your recent opportunities, as you put it earlier.”

  Emily stared at him uncomfortably. “I still don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “Don’t play dumb with me, as you spoke of him, your face lit up and you were gushing. You like him, Emily. You have the nerve to yell at me for not being honest with you and for keeping things from you, but it sounds like you have been holding out on me too. If we want to work on our relationship and try to make this work one day, I want the same thing from you.”

  Emily watched him and realized that she needed to be honest too. “Yes. I feel something for him but I don’t know what there is to it and I certainly haven’t acted on it because I put of our family first.”

  “Does he feel the same way about you?” Eric asked.

  “Eric, how would I know that? I can only tell you my side of the story.”

  “Thank you for being honest with me,” Eric said disheartened as he went back to paying attention to Emma.

  They played as a family for the next few hours; laughing, running around and playing house. When it was time for Eric to leave, Emma started to cry and begged him not to leave. Emily’s heart started to break for her.

  Eric bent down so he was face to face with her. “Emma, I’m always here for you. Daddy needs to leave just for a little bit this time but next month I will be home and we will play more, I promise you.”

  “I love you, Daddy.”

  “Oh Emma, I love you too.”

  Emily smiled at Emma and tried to keep a happy face as she ran away to watch television.

  “Are you heading back to school tonight?” Emily asked.

  “Yeah, I’m going to drive back in a few hours,” Eric said as he opened the door and stepped out on the front porch.

  Emily followed. “Good luck with finals, can you believe that we are graduating in a month?”

  Eric laughed softly. “Emily, do you realize that we broke up right before high school graduation? What the hell is our problem with graduations?”

  Emily cracked a real smile. “That’s so true, what is that about?”

  Eric reached out for her and hugged her tight, whispering softly, “I love you, Emily. That will never change. I will give you all the time you need but believe that I’m not leaving for Denver without you.”

  Emily pulled away from him. “Eric, please don’t make this harder than it is. Just let me know when graduation is. I want to bring Emma out for it, ok? She should see her Daddy graduate.”

  Eric nodded. “Of course and I would like to attend yours as well. I’m so proud of you, Emily. You finished college in four years while raising our daughter who is, by the way, the perfect little girl.”

  Emily smiled. “Thank you. She is pretty wonderful, isn’t she?”

  Eric leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Talk soon, ok?”

  Emily headed back inside and curled up on the couch with her sketch pad and watched Emma play as she drew a picture of her daughter having a tea party. Her mind was finally at ease. She finally told Eric how she was feeling and was proud of herself for standing her ground and insisting that they take a break from the all of the craziness. She felt good about herself as continue to draw with a smile of contentment on her face.

  She heard her mom come through the side door as Emma went running across to greet her.

  “Hey guys, what’s going on?” She asked.

  Emily smiled at her as she entered the living room. “I’m just drawing and Emma has been having a tea party all day long, I’m sure she will invite you.”

  Her mom laughed. “How did the talk go, Honey?”

  Emily smiled. “It went well, I think. I spoke my mind and he spoke his. I finally heard about the party, at least the parts that I needed to know about and the end result was that we are taking a break for awhile. Just to clear our heads and figure out where we are going in life.”

  “Are you ok with that?” Her mom asked concerned.

  “Yes, it was my idea. I don’t want to resent him later on in life because we stayed with each other and never worked on our own lives. It’s important that we figure out our own paths and then maybe down the road, they will weave back together again.”

  Her mother sat down next to her. “Sometimes I forget just how much you have grown up, Emily. You make me so proud to be your mother.”

  Emily smiled at her. “Thanks. I’m very content right now and after we had our talk, we were able to play as a family and not have all that stress out there. It felt different, so maybe this was meant to be.”

  “Have you thought about the fact that you may not get back together again?” She asked Emily.

  Emily nodded. “We will always share Emma. He will always be in my life but if we can’t put the pieces back together, then it wasn’t meant to be,” Emily said looking down at her hand. “I guess I didn’t think about the ring though. Should I give it back to him?”

  Her mother quickly shook her head. “No, put it in your jewelry box for now. I still have faith that you guys will work through this.”

  Emily nodded as she got off the couch and headed upstairs. As she entered the bedroom, she looked around and saw a lot of Eric’s stuff lying around. She started to fold up his clothes and put them in her closet. She grabbed a few other items and put them with his clothes. As she passed by her nightstand, she picked up their senior prom picture. She sat down on the bed and tried to gather herself. She placed the picture inside her drawer as she felt her cell phone vibrate.

  She looked down at her new text message. Just wanted to say hi and wish you luck tomorrow. – Alex.

  She quickly typed back. Thank you, do you want me to call you when it’s over? – Emily.

  Emily walked to her closet and picked out a simple outfit for tomorrow. She found a straight black skirt and a light blue top. She placed
them at the foot of the bed so she would be ready for the morning.

  Alex responded. Yes, I would love to hear about it. – Alex.

  ***********************

  The following afternoon, Emily headed towards the lake to meet with Henry after her last class. His gallery was located right on Lake Erie and presented a beautiful backdrop for his small shop.

  As she arrived, she fixed her skirt and double checked her hair. She was starting to feel like an adult. She walked up the front sidewalk and entered his shop.

  “Emily, how wonderful it is to see you,” Henry said walking over to shake her hand.

  “Good Afternoon, Henry. Your shop is so charming.”

  “Thank you, my wife and I have owned it for almost twenty-five years now. We take great pride in what we display here.”

  “I didn’t know you were married, how wonderful. Will I get to meet her?”

  “Of course, we will make our way back to the office where she is, but first let me give you a tour.”

  Emily smiled as she listened to Henry talk about the works that he displayed. His main gallery room had paintings throughout the room on easels and also hanging on the walls. His back wall was all windows overlooking Lake Erie, bringing in tons of natural light. Not only did he have paintings and drawings, he displayed sculptures and all types of media.

  They finished up the tour downstairs and moved back towards the front of the store before continuing upstairs, when the front door opened. Emily smiled as she saw Alex walk in.

  “Welcome Alex!” Henry said shaking his hand.

  Alex smiled at him. “I was in the neighborhood and wondered if you had my print ready for me to pick up and I was hoping to see how everything was going here.”

  Emily smirked at him, knowing he came to see her. “Hello, Alex. I would say that it’s going wonderfully. We were just about to head upstairs. Would you like to join us?”