by Alison Mello
I tell my mom that she needs to calm down so we can head back in.
“We can do it right here with Katie if you like. I’ll propose soon.”
I walk into the room with my mom as my dad is nodding at Chase, and I now pretend like I heard nothing.
“Hey, Daddy.” I walk up and give my dad a kiss on the cheek. “Are you okay?”
He clears his throat, looking a bit emotional. “Yeah, what did you bring?”
I smile at my dad and take out the thermos of soup I brought him. He opens it. “Soup!”
“I made it myself.” I smile, hoping he’ll at least try to eat a little.
“I’ll try a little,” he says as we dig into our sandwiches.
I also pull out the banana and tell him I’ll leave it for him to try later if he feels up to it. I realize at this point my sister has not been down at all, so I text Chase.
Please remind me to call my sister on the way home.
You got it!
I’m cleaning up our mess from lunch when the doctor comes in. “Good afternoon, Mr. Anderson. I heard you gave my staff a little scare earlier. How’re you feeling?”
“I gave myself a scare. It’s no fun not being able to breathe,” he says, trying to make light of the situation.
“I know. I see they gave you some medication in your IV and you’re feeling a bit better now?” Dr. Jones asks him, looking into the Thermos he has.
“Yeah, I feel a little better. I tried to eat some of this delicious soup my daughter brought me, but my throat is sore and I’m really tired,” he says to the doctor, hoping for an explanation.
“That’s the medication making you tired. Eat what you can so you can keep up your strength. We plan to draw some blood tomorrow. As long as your blood count is normal, we will do another round of chemo on Thursday and a CT scan early next week to see how things are progressing. How’s that sound?”
“Shitty,” my dad says in a grumpy tone.
The doctor laughs. “I know it does, but we need to do it, so hang in there.”
“Yeah, yeah,” my dad says.
The doctor pats my dad’s leg before he walks out of the room. I can see my dad’s eyes are getting heavy, so I tell him we’re going to head out and let him rest. I assure him that we’ll stop in and visit during the week before I give my dad a kiss on the cheek and I hug my mom. “If you need anything just call me.”
She nods and squeezes me tight.
The instant we are in the truck I grab my phone and call my sister.
“Hello!” she says like she doesn’t know it is me.
“Hey, Chelsea.”
She sighs. “Oh, hey, Theresa,” she says so flatly.
“Don’t you ‘oh hey’ me. I know you know Daddy is in the hospital. Why haven’t you gone to visit him?”
“Um, I have two kids to take care of. I can’t just drop everything and go running to the hospital because he has a cold.”
I take a deep breath to try to control my temper, but it isn’t working. “You selfish shit. He doesn’t have a cold. He has cancer and is struggling through chemo treatments,” I growl at her as Chase rubs my leg to try to calm me down. “How can you be so cruel? He’s your father.”
She sighs into the phone. “Listen, we both know you were always Daddy’s precious little angel and he loves and cares about you way more than me, so why don’t you kiss his ass the way you always do and let me live my life.”
“This isn’t about me. It’s about him seeing you before he dies, about seeing his grandchildren before he goes.”
“My children will not visit him in that hospital. I do not want that stuck in their heads, so—”
“Katie has been to the hospital twice to visit her grampy,” I tell her because she’s being ridiculous, “and she’s living a normal happy life. There’s nothing wrong with them visiting him.”
“Well, I’ll attempt to visit him this week, but the children will not go to the hospital. If he makes it home I’ll be sure they get to see him. Other than that he’ll have to be content seeing me.” She cuts off the call by hanging up on me.
“Grr.” I want to punch the dash of Chase’s truck. “That self-righteous good-for-nothing, snobby little brat!” I scream into Chase’s truck.
“Baby, I know you’re upset, but please calm down. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack, and that will not do your dad nor Katie any good.”
“I’m so mad right now!” I take some deep breaths because we are pulling onto my street, and I want to put on a happy face for my little girl. We have plans to take her to dinner tonight and spend some special time with her, and I don’t want to let my sister ruin it.
Chase parks the truck, and once I’m calm, I walk into the house. I put on the biggest smile I can manage as I call out, “Katie, Mommy and Chase are home!”
I hear little feet come running through the house. “Mommy, yay you’re home!”
I laugh at her joy. “We are and we’re going to go up the street to get dinner and ice cream. How’s that sound?”
She jumps up and down. “Yea!” She’s cheering with excitement.
Chase tells Katie, “Go get your shoes on.”
I talk to Sam. “Thank you for staying with her, Sam. How was she?”
“She was fine. Just so you know, she told me her grampy is sick and that Mommy has been really busy with him, so she misses you. I’m not sure how much she understands about Grampy being sick. She mentioned he’s very sick and coughs a lot. I tried to get her to talk to me about it without being pushy so I could give you a heads-up, but she didn’t give me much.”
“Thanks, Sam. I appreciate it.” I hand her some money for watching Katie, and she tries to refuse it, but I push it into her hand and tell her to take it. She thanks me, says good-bye to Katie and Chase, and heads out the door.
We follow behind her a few minutes later so we can get to the restaurant before it gets too busy. We arrive and it looks like it’s just starting to pick up so hopefully we won’t have to wait too long.
We head in and are seated right away. I already know what Katie wants so Chase and I just have to choose. When the waitress makes her way over to us, we are ready with our drink and food order so we give her everything at once.
We are sitting in the restaurant waiting for our food. Katie is coloring, and Chase and I are just observing her. I feel like she has something she wants to say but isn’t sure if she should. “What are you thinking about, Katie?”
“Grampy,” she says plainly.
“What about Grampy?”
She puts down her crayon and turns to look at me. “Daddy says he’s going to die and go to heaven soon.”
I give my daughter a sympathetic look. “He did, did he?”
She nods. “Is Grampy going to die?”
“You know, Katie, I just don’t know. He may die, but the medicine the doctors are giving him may help, too. He could live for another five years. At this point we have to just wait and see.”
“I don’t want Grampy to die.”
I’m fighting to hold back my tears at this point. “I know, sweetie. Me neither.”
I look at Chase. “Keep an eye on her for a minute?”
He nods, and I run off to the ladies’ room so I can compose myself. How can my seven-year-old daughter get it and my sister not? I take a deep breath, pat my eyes dry, and head back out to the table. Our food arrived while I was gone, and Chase and Katie are talking and laughing. I smile and think about how lucky I’m to have these two incredible people in my life.
“What’re you two so happy about?” Katie is giggling when she looks at Chase and he nods at her.
“I told Chase he could marry you?”
I burst out laughing. “Oh really, you think I should marry Chase, do you?”
She nods with a big excited smile on her face.
“Does that mean we can move to Chase’s house, because you would have to go to a new school?”
She giggles. “That’s fine
because, Chase said he has a bedroom that could be mine, and he will paint it whatever color I want.” Katie continues eating.
“What color would you paint it?”
“Pink, Mommy,” she says without thought. “I want to be a ballerina, and they wear pink.”
We start eating, and I look up to see Chase trying to hide the biggest grin on his face. I can’t believe he talked to my daughter about marrying me, although I shouldn’t be surprised. He did talk to my dad about it, and God knows how much time I have left with my dad. This is crazy marrying him. I’ve known him for all of two or three months. I know I love him and I know he’ll take care of me, but marriage? This quick is a bit crazy, isn’t it? What the hell do I care what people think of me? It’s my life and it’s time I start living it for me and my daughter. He’s so good with her, and I know he loves her as much as he loves me.
I have so much running through my head as I try and eat my dinner. I’m not even paying attention to the fact that Katie crawled under the table to sit next to Chase.
“Mommy, are you going to marry Chase?”
I look up at her and start to say, “I don’t know sweetie, Chase…” I freeze because he has pulled out a small box, and she’s smiling as he opens it.
“I know this isn’t the most romantic proposal, but I figured what a better way to ask than with your daughter. Theresa, I love you and Katie and want to show your dad you’re well taken care of. Will you marry me?”
I nod as tears run down my face. “Yeah, Chase and Mommy are getting married.”
I laugh at my daughter’s outburst in the middle of the restaurant, and of course, there is a round of applause going around us.
“I will as long as we can wait until my dad’s next CT scan is done. I want to see if there is improvement before we rush to get married. I would rather him be able to walk me down the aisle if at all possible.”
“Baby, I’ll give you whatever your heart desires. Can I make a request?”
I nod. “Can we move you to my house? Sam lives up the street and will be able to help us with Katie until she gets after-school care.”
I smile and look at Katie. “What do you think, Katie? Should we move in with Chase?”
She starts jumping up and down again. “Yes, Mommy!” She’s laughing with excitement.
I hug Chase and think I’m so lucky, but how did this all happen so quickly.
Chapter 13
I can’t believe it’s Monday morning already. We had such a nice weekend despite my dad being in the hospital. I have so much to do today, and I promised to have lunch with Abbey because we haven’t gotten to talk much lately, with me constantly running out of the office. Plus, we’re going to chat about how her meeting with the AP and AR team went today. The first order of business is to e-mail my landlord and let her know I’m moving in with Chase and that I’m giving her thirty days’ notice. We’re planning to move a bunch of stuff this weekend and Chase is hoping to surprise Katie with her room fully painted by Sunday. He talked to Sean about getting him a crew he can trust in his house without him home.
Next, I need to e-mail the school, inform them of our new address, and find out which school Katie will be transferred to. I’m sure I’m going to have to go to the new school to fill out paperwork and do an orientation with Katie, but I guess I’ll find that out soon enough.
I sent Jack an e-mail asking him to stop in once he gets here so I can update him and see if I can take Friday off to run stuff to the Salvation Army. I will not need my pans or any of my kitchen dishes. I’m also going to try to arrange for some of my furniture to be picked up because I won’t need much of that either. Actually, I really only need to move our clothes and shower stuff to his house because it’s already fully furnished.
Jack knocks on my door as I’m looking up the number to the Salvation Army. I ask him if he has a minute to come in and shut the door. He shuts my door.
“What’s up? You look like you’re bursting with excitement.”
I smile. “That’s because I am. I overheard a conversation between my dad and Chase this weekend, and I didn’t think it would happen so quickly, but it is.”
Jack looks at me confused. “What wouldn’t happen so quickly?”
My grin grows and I stick out my left hand. “Chase and Katie proposed this weekend.”
“Theresa, that is great! You must be so thrilled. He seems like a great guy from the little you have told me about him.” He’s grinning ear to ear.
“He’s a great guy. He told me after he proposed that he asked my dad if he could marry me and my dad made him promise he would do it soon and that he would take care of me and Katie long after he was gone.” I frown. “I think he knows his time is coming. Anyway, we are moving to Chase’s house this weekend, so I was wondering if I can take Friday off. I’m arranging to have some stuff we don’t need picked up, and then we’ll move our clothes to his house while Katie is in school.”
“Of course, you can have Friday off. It’s a quiet week, and things will be picking up the first week of the month when we have to do quarter end stuff so now’s the time.”
“Great I need to arrange to see Katie’s new school as well. We find out tomorrow if Dad is having another round of chemo on Thursday. We’ll make a decision on the wedding after we know what’s happening. I would like for him to walk me down the aisle if possible.”
My phone pings and I instantly jump for it.
Sorry I made you jump because I know you heard the ping from this and panicked, but I wanted to tell you I love you. I’m excited for the weekend!
It is only Monday.
Don’t remind me.
I laugh and tell Jack it was Chase. “Anyway, Abbey and I are going for lunch to discuss how the AP and AR meeting went this morning and I’ll fill her in on my engagement then. That is why I asked you to shut the door.”
“Great! Let me know if there are any problems with the new teams.”
“Will do. I’m sure we will talk before the end of the day.”
* * * *
“Hey it is lunchtime, are you still able to go out?” Abbey peeks her head in my door.
“Holy crap, it is noon already? Yeah I’ll be out in a second.” I can’t believe my entire morning is gone. At least it has been productive.
My phone pings.
How’s your day, my love?
Good heading to lunch with Abbey. How’s yours?
Lonely. I miss you!
Miss you, too. Got to go…want to see if we can bring Katie to the hospital tonight?
Sure!
Great thanks! Talk to you later.
I walk out of my office with my purse on my shoulder and my left hand in my pocket. Abbey offers to drive so we get into her BMW and head up the street to the small restaurant that Abbey likes. She knows the hostess, so there is a table waiting for us. We order diet sodas and let the waitress know we do not have a lot of time and that we’ll be ready to order when she gets back.
“So how was the rest of your weekend?” Abbey says as she looks over the menu.
I grin ear to ear, lean on my left hand so that my ring is practically in her face, and say in a dreamy voice, “Absolutely amazing!”
She looks up at me with a questioning look. “What are you up to?” Then she screams, “Oh my God! You got engaged.”
“Shhh, Abbey, don’t make a scene.”
She bursts into laughter.
“He was so cute. I got emotional over Katie asking about her grandfather, so I excused myself to the ladies room. Well, when I came back they were laughing and joking. Katie told me Chase asked her if he could marry me and she said yes. I was kind of freaking out inside, and then Katie says, ‘Mommy, are you going to marry Chase?’ and as I was telling her I didn’t know, that Chase has to ask Mommy, I look up and there’s a box on the table with the diamond in it.”
“Awww, that is so sweet,” Abbey gushes.
“He said something like, ‘I know it isn’t romantic, but I th
ought what a better way to ask than with your daughter.’ He told me he loved us both and wanted to take care of us, so I said yes. You’re only the second person to know.”
“Did you tell your mom first?”
I laugh. “Actually no. I’ll tell them both tonight when we go to the hospital. I told Jack this morning because I wanted to tell you at lunch, and I was going to combust if I didn’t tell someone.”
Abbey giggles as our waitress walks over with our drinks. We both place our orders, and she tells us she’ll get them to us as quick as possible before she walks away.
“So how did the meeting go this morning?” I ask her.
“It went well. Sandra is very excited to be in her new position, and the other girls took it well since they hadn’t applied for it anyway. They liked the idea of working with teams, and Julie is paired with Rebecca, who was thrilled to be showing her the ropes. After the meeting I went over a lot of the AP stuff with Julie. I showed her how to look up the invoice and see whose it is. Then we went over how to enter them and what to write on them and all of that. The AP girls are going to just share the mail every day and go through and figure out whose are whose.” Abbey is glowing with pride as she tells me how it went.
“That is great. Sounds like you had a productive morning. Have you heard from Jack on interviews for the new AR person? We need someone pretty quickly.”
“I know he has gotten some resumes in, but like when we hired Julie there are a lot of them. He and Sandra are going through them to try to narrow it down, and then we’ll be doing first round interviews. I think he’s shooting for early next week. He mentioned trying to do first rounds on Monday and second rounds on Friday.” Abbey says.
“That’s perfect. I don’t need exact I’m just curious what his thoughts were,” I say as the waitress arrives with our food.
We both dig in realizing our lunch is almost up, and although Jack knows it was a working lunch I don’t want to take advantage since I’m taking Friday off.
