by Tina Michele
Bree couldn’t help but giggle. She’d already laughed when she picked them out of the drawer for Carson, but seeing her in them was even better. “Pink is totally your color.”
Carson skipped over to the bed and scooted in. Bree barely waited for Carson to get settled before she pulled Carson’s arm around her neck and rested her head on her chest. “This is nice.”
“Yes, it is.”
“I’m sorry about earlier.”
Carson stroked Bree’s hair. “Don’t be sorry. It’s okay.”
“No. It’s not. I don’t want you to think I’m a tease or a prude or whatever.”
“Hey.” Carson kissed Bree on the top of the head. “I don’t think any of those things. I—”
“Wait, let me finish.” Bree had to get it off her chest. She wanted to be open and honest with Carson, and this was her chance to put it all on the table. “I came home because I couldn’t stay in Boston any longer. It was too hard to live the life I’d planned for two without the other person. I kept living in our house, driving our car, shopping at our stores. She was gone, and I was living like a ghost in a life that didn’t exist anymore. I kept waiting for her to come home, and I know that I’d still be waiting if I hadn’t come back here.”
“I understand.” Carson wrapped both arms around Bree.
“I was still waiting for her even after I got here. But then…then I met you and I started to forget what I was waiting for. In the beginning, I felt guilty, like I was betraying her. But now I feel angry. I’m angry that I still allow her to affect my life even though she’s no longer in it, and I’m angry that even in my happiest moments she appears in my mind.” Bree felt Carson loosen her hold.
“So…tonight. You…you were thinking about her?”
“No. Well, yes. But not like that.” Carson sat up. “Wait. I was thinking about how amazing it felt to be with you and how happy I was when I got scared. I can’t go through that again, Carson. I barely made it to the other side. It almost killed me.” Bree had begun to cry.
Carson pulled Bree into her chest. “Shh, I’m so sorry. It’s okay.” She held Bree until she fell asleep.
Chapter Eighteen
When Bree woke the next morning, Carson was gone. She sat up and felt a quick surge of sadness followed by the fear that she had scared Carson off with her antics the night before. She threw herself back down, buried her face in the pillow, and groaned. She opened her eyes without lifting her head up. Bree spotted a small yellow flower taped to a note that rested on top of a pair of crisp, folded duck print pajamas. She smiled and reached for the flower.
My dearest Bree,
You are so beautiful when you sleep it pains me to wake you. I ran home to get ready for work, but I’ll see you soon, sweetheart. I miss you already and can’t wait to see your face again.
Love,
C
Bree smiled. She had never been more anxious to get up and get to work than she was at that moment. She hopped up and sped across the room to the bathroom. When the doorbell rang, Bree’s heart leapt in her chest. She rinsed the toothpaste from her mouth and grabbed her hairbrush as she slipped into her robe. “She came back.” Bree was so glad that Carson decided to come back without her even asking. She trotted out of her closet and the bell chimed again. “I’m coming,” she hollered down the stairs. Before she opened the door, Bree checked her face and ran the brush through her hair on her way to the door. Just as she reached it, the bell rang again. “Hold on, babe. I’m right—” Bree froze as she flung open the front door.
Bree’s mouth dropped open and the brush she held fell to the floor. Her ears rang and her head swam. She put a death grip on the doorknob, but she wasn’t even certain she was still standing. Her entire body was numb. “Marion.”
Marion smiled. “Hey, baby.”
Bree’s heart pounded in her chest and her stomach somersaulted. “What…why…what are you doing…here?” Bree stammered as she forced herself to speak as tears began to fill her eyes.
“I wanted, no, I needed to see you. I’ve missed you, Breezy.” Marion stepped forward and Bree stumbled back. “Are you not happy to see me?”
“No. I mean yes.” Bree struggled to keep breathing as her vision blurred. This couldn’t be happening. It was a dream. Marion was standing on her front step. She came home. Bree’s head was spinning. “Yes.” Bree flung her arms open and wrapped them around Marion.
“I’ve missed you.”
Bree buried her face in Marion’s neck, “I never thought I’d see you again.” Her legs were weak and she felt light-headed. If Marion’s arm hadn’t gripped at her waist she might have slumped to the ground. “I’ve missed you so much, Carson.”
Marion pulled back and looked down at Bree. “Who?”
Bree looked up at Marion with confusion. “What?”
“You called me Carson. Who is that?”
Her stomach knotted at the realization. Carson. Bree stepped back from Marion and clutched her robe. “She…she’s my…a friend. Sorry, I don’t know why I called you that. Weird.” Bree chuckled, hoping to laugh off the slip.
“Oh. Okay. So, can I come in? I’m sure you’re cool in that robe. We can talk.” Marion reached out and touched Bree’s arm.
Bree’s skin tingled under Marion’s long-forgotten touch. The familiar hand felt foreign after so many years. Marion stepped forward, but Bree backed away. “Wait.”
“Bree, baby. It’s me.”
Bree had waited for this every moment since the day Marion left. Her body began to shake and anxiety boiled within her. She held up her finger to Marion. “I can’t. I need…I need to think. I can’t think.” Bree had wished and prayed every night for two years that this day would come, but now she found herself overwhelmed by it.
“Don’t think, my love.” Marion reached for Bree’s face.
Bree closed her eyes as Marion cupped her face and pressed her soft, warm lips to Bree’s. She never thought she’d feel those strong, familiar lips on hers again. Her heart raced as Marion drew her into a longing embrace. “Oh, Marion. You’re here.”
“I am, sweetheart. I promised.”
I promise. A wave of nausea washed over Bree, and she stepped away again. Bree reached for the door behind her and grabbed the knob. “I…I have to go. You should go.”
“What?”
“I need some time right now. To think. Jim is going to be up any minute, and I don’t want him to find you here. Like this.” The last thing she needed was for Jim to see Marion on her front stoop, period, let alone kissing her. Bree stepped backward into the house. And what if Carson came back? “You have to go, now. Please.”
“Will you meet me later? I want to talk to you about some things. About us.” Marion leaned down and gave Bree a sweet kiss. “I’ve missed you so much, beautiful.”
Bree’s stomach twisted. Us. Bree was reluctant, but agreed to meet Marion at a local café later that evening. Bree closed the door and rested her head against it as she listened to Marion’s car drive away. When she pushed away from the door and turned around, the room whirled around her. Bree grabbed the wall for support and let the tears fall. Bree’s mind was in overdrive and she couldn’t string any sensible thoughts together. Her wish had come true. Marion had come home.
*
After Marion left, Bree stumbled her way to her bedroom and sat in the dark on the edge of her bed. Bree was overwhelmed with a variety of emotions that ranged from anxiety and anger to sadness and remorse. She pulled the blanket around her shoulders and curled onto her side and slept.
Bree sat in the middle of the floor in the living room as she watched Marion leave. “I’ll be back, I promise.” The door closed with a thud, and she was gone. Bree heard a loud rumble, and the walls began to shake. The frames and shelves vibrated as the walls began to move. Bree looked around her as the four walls started to slide in toward her. The walls shook violently. She watched as frames and shelves came loose and fell to the floor. She watched as pictures an
d memories from her life crashed and shattered around her. She refused to move, even if she could have. Bree would wait. Marion would come home.
As the walls grew closer to Bree, panic and claustrophobia set in. “Hurry. Marion, please save me,” she begged as she held her arms out toward the approaching walls. She extended her legs out straight. She might not stop them, but she would slow them down. She had to give Marion more time. The windows shattered and sent shards of glass raining down over her. The room shrank more and the light from the outside began to dim. Bree held her arms out and pushed her palms to the walls with all her strength. She screamed for Marion, but she did not come.
Bree struggled to stop the walls from crushing her. She knew that no matter how hard she tried, her strength alone was not enough to stop them. “Marion, I tried.” She dropped her arms as the light that remained pinched into a slender beam. She closed her eyes and resigned herself to fate as the air in the room grew hot and thick. Bree closed her eyes and waited for her inevitable end from the crushing weight around her. If she couldn’t escape, she hoped that it would end quickly. She held her breath as she prepared herself.
Suddenly, the tiny space was silent. The rumble of the moving walls had ceased. She opened her eyes but saw the faint illuminated presence of legs braced against the walls. “Marion.” Bree knew she would come. She exhaled a sigh of relief as two strong arms reached down and drew her up from the small dark space. They cradled her against them before they jerked her free from the room. Bree watched as the walls lurched forward and slammed closed around what would have been her body. Bree felt a soft kiss on her forehead before she looked up at her hero.
Carson.
*
Two loud knocks startled Bree awake. She had not expected Jim to be standing a few feet away at her bedroom door holding two cups of coffee. She jolted upright and threw off the covers. “Holy shit! You scared the crap out of me.”
Jim’s expression was one of concern as he came forward and extended the cup out to her. He twisted his wrist and looked at the watch on his other hand. “Running a little late today?”
Bree took the cup and brought it up to her mouth. “I’m not late, and it’s only—” Bree stopped mid-sip when she noticed the time on the stove: 8:07 a.m. “Ooh, well, yeah. I guess so.”
“Is everything all right? I called Carson this morning when you two didn’t come to the house, and she said that you weren’t with her. I got worried and let myself in.”
“Okay.” Bree felt drained of energy and hadn’t really understood anything he’d just said.
“Bree.” He held out his hand and touched her forehead.
“I’m fine. Tired, I think.” Bree’s head was abuzz with a thousand thoughts and none of them made any sense. She set the coffee cup onto her nightstand and curled back up onto her side. “I’m just going to lie here for a while.”
Jim sat on the edge of the bed. “Did something…happen with you and Carson?”
“What? No. Nothing happened. We just talked.” Bree had never talked to Jim about her sex life before, and she didn’t intend to start then. “And this morning, she left. A note. What a wonderful note. She’s beautiful, and her handwriting is beautiful, and her words are beautiful.” Bree rambled and mumbled nonsensical sentences. “She likes me, I think. Likes, likes me. But she left me. Just like that. And now she’s back.”
“Bree, I think you’re still half asleep and have no idea what you’re saying. I know I don’t. You go back to sleep, and I’ll call Barbara and let her know you won’t be in today. Okay?”
“Okay.” Bree closed her eyes as Jim kissed her cheek. Her eyes flashed back open as he stood up. “Hey. Did you ask Barbara out on a date?”
Jim laughed. “Yes, sweetheart. We’re going to have dinner tonight. Now go back to sleep, and I’ll come by and check on you later.” He brushed a few stray strands of hair from her forehead.
“Good night,” she whispered as she dozed off to sleep.
*
Carson unlocked the door and headed upstairs to her apartment. Just as she made it up the steel staircase to the loft balcony above, she heard a whistle.
“Ooh, I can’t even remember the last time I saw your walk of shame. Looks good, baby.”
Carson looked down and saw Kelli. She stood in the middle of the warehouse and whipped a towel around in the air. “Seriously? I can’t even remember the last time I saw you awake before noon.”
“Ouch. The floozy has jokes,” Kelli shot back.
“Back at you. Now leave me alone. I have to go shower and get ready for work.” Kelli’s laughter continued even as Carson disappeared into her apartment.
*
Carson showered, dressed, and headed back downstairs. She hoped that Kelli was still around. “Yo. Where you at?” Carson hollered through the expansive room, which was, as always, landscaped with large sculptures in various phases of completion. “Helloooo? Anyone home?”
Kelli peeked out from behind an enormous obelisk. “Are you trying to wake the dead? I’m right here.” Kelli snickered and pointed to the stone. “It’s a grave marker. See what I did there? Grave, dead…Ugh.”
It was funny, but Carson refused to laugh at the joke. She enjoyed it more when Kelli struggled to explain how funny the joke was. “Right. I see. Good one,” Carson deadpanned.
“You’re such a dick. What do you want?” Kelli grunted and disappeared back behind the monument, peeking back long enough to say, “Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“Busting my balls does not count as busy.”
“As your best friend, that’s my full-time job.” Kelli stepped out from behind the block and spread her arms to motion around the room. “All this is what I do to occupy my time before I catch you sneaking back in from wherever you’ve been all night.”
“Oh. Now it makes sense.”
“So?” Kelli put her hands on her hips.
“So…what?” Carson stalled her response in order to drive Kelli to the edge.
“Don’t give me that shit, you harlot. Where were you last night?” Kelli tapped her foot.
Carson laughed. “You’re so easy. You know that?”
“Really? You are going to hand me the ammo now?”
Carson stepped back and hoisted herself up onto a drafting table. “I was with Bree. I stayed at her place last night.” Carson reminisced about how perfect it felt to wake up with Bree snuggled against her side as she slept peacefully on her chest.
“Aw, man. I was going to give you crap about that, until you went and made that face.” Kelli pointed her finger at Carson and swirled it around.
“What face? I didn’t make a face.” Carson scoffed.
“That schmoopy, puppy dog, ‘I had the most amazing night of my life’ face.”
“Shut up.”
Kelli laughed, and Carson felt her face turn red. She had made the face, but she refused to give Kelli the win. “Whatever. Hey, can I ask you something?”
Kelli’s face lost all hints of humor. “Of course.” She leaned against the table that Carson sat on.
“Am I doing this right?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. I don’t really know what I’m doing. I wake up in the morning, and I can’t wait to see her. I go to sleep at night, and I wish that I was with her. I’m not sure whether I’m coming or going, and I can’t decide if it’s a feeling I love or hate.”
“I think for the first time, you are doing it perfectly right. Because you aren’t using this”—Kelli tapped her finger to Carson’s temple and then to her chest—“you’re using this.”
Carson contemplated Kelli’s words about the use of her heart when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She hopped off the table and dug it out of her jeans hoping it was Bree. When she read the message her stomach filled with butterflies. “Huh. That’s weird.”
“What is?”
“It’s Jim. He asked if Bree was with me because she didn’t come up to the house this morning fo
r coffee.”
“Maybe you wore her out, and she overslept.” Kelli winked and poked an elbow in her direction.
“Kelli. We didn’t even do anything. But maybe she did oversleep. I’ll just send her a quick text.” Carson typed Bree a quick and sweet Good Morning, beautiful. xoxo. “Hey, I’m gonna head out and see if I can catch her before she starts her first tour.”
“You really like her, don’t you?” Kelli flashed Carson a sweet smile.
“I think I do. And now I have to go to work because I need to kiss her right now, and I can’t do that if I’m sitting around here with you.” Carson hugged Kelli and sprinted out the door as Kelli called after her.
“Kiss her for me, too.”
*
Bree had avoided texts and calls all day from everyone except Jim. She gave him the excuse that she was battling a stomach bug in order to keep him and Carson at bay. Bree sat by the front window and watched as her uncle pulled out of the driveway. Once he disappeared down the road, she waited a few more minutes to make sure he didn’t come back. When she felt the all clear, Bree grabbed her keys from the hook and got into her car. She was running late, as she had no choice but to wait for Jim to leave for his date before she could. She felt like a sneaky teenager creeping out of the house after her parents had fallen asleep. It might have been unnecessary, but she didn’t want to have to explain herself.
Bree arrived at the restaurant and found Marion seated alone in a secluded corner. Marion smiled at Bree as she approached, and Bree smiled back. It had been so long, and yet she was still the same as Bree remembered. Marion was tall and slender. She was dressed in a fitted black polo and a pair of loose jeans that hung perfectly from her hips. Bree admired her confident physique as she stood and pulled out the chair for her.
Marion sat across from her and smiled again. “You look so great. How have you been?”
Bree blushed. It always made her feel so good when Marion complimented her. “You do, too. I’ve been good. I’m working at the Biltmore and—”