Expelled

by Claire Adams

  “There’s a girl. She asked me to come to Aspen to a big party at her parents’ resort, and I said no because I was coming here. I think she thought I just didn’t want to come.”

  “Then call her and tell her you want to come,” Heath said without hesitating.

  He said it like there was no other option. In his mind, the whole thing seemed so simple, but in my mind, I had made it as complex as it could possibly be. I was terrified of rejection. I couldn’t stand the thought of showing Cassidy how I felt and having her turn me down. I really didn’t know how I would deal with something like that.

  “But I told you and Dad I’d be here.”

  Heath just started to laugh. I loved his laugh; it seemed like it had been years since he had been happy. He had met the woman of his dreams – a big part of why he was so damn happy lately – and now he was encouraging me to go after the woman of my dreams.

  “Come meet my woman, have some lunch, give Dad a hug, and then take your fancy jet to Aspen and see this girl. You should know better than anyone that life is too short to miss opportunities to show people you care.”

  “Damn, when did you get to be so smart?” I laughed.

  “Man, I’ll tell you what, love has changed me. I can’t imagine living without this girl. I’m going to marry her. I already know it. I would be a stupid fool to let her go.”

  “Good for you, man!” I said as we climbed out of his car and walked into the house.

  I could tell they were meant to be together the second I saw Heath standing next to his girlfriend, Kelly. She loved him. There was no doubt in my mind, and he obviously loved her. It was a perfect moment, and I was grateful to have him back in my life.

  “Dad, Erik’s just going to visit for a minute. There’s a girl in Aspen he needs to go see.”

  “A girl,” my father said. “I like the sounds of this. Both my boys are going to finally settle down and be happy. You know, your mother always wanted to be a grandmother. I’ll have to be a kickass grandpa to make up for her being gone.”

  We all laughed, and I stayed and visited for a little bit before heading to Aspen. I didn’t know what I was going to say or what I was going to do when I got there. All I knew was that I had feelings for Cassidy and she needed to hear it from me.

  If she denied me, at least I would know that I put everything I had into it. I had messed up with her and I knew it. But I hoped that she was the kind of girl who could forget about my shortcomings and still accept me when I came to her.

  I didn’t need her to commit to a happily-ever-after ending – all I needed was Cassidy to give me a chance. I needed her to give us a chance and see if what we had while I was at Paradise Peak would translate into the real world. It was entirely possible it wouldn’t be the same between us, but I really thought it would. Maybe things would even be better than either of us could have imagined.

  “Mr. Conrad, please,” I said as I dialed the main number to the resort.

  “Who may I ask is calling?” the young man asked.

  “Mr. Levy.”

  The young man took forever to get Bob onto the phone, and when he finally did, I went over my tentative plan for surprising Cassidy. Quite honestly, I wasn’t sure he was going to like the idea, but I hoped he would at least allow me to give it a go.

  My nerves were getting the best of me. I even considered forgetting about it all. But one thing I had learned in my treatment was that I had to finish. I would never get the results I wanted in my life if I didn’t follow through. So, this was me, following through.

  “Erik?” Bob said as he came on the phone.

  “Yes, sir. I’m glad I got a hold of you. I’ve had a change of plans and I’m flying your way right now. Do you think you’ll have room for me at your party?”

  “Damn straight, we will have room. I’ll tell Cassidy you’re coming; she’ll be so excited.”

  I loved how excited her father was to help me. It eased my nerves a little bit, and I was able to focus better on what I needed to do. But I didn’t want him to tell Cassidy anything. I wanted to surprise her and that meant that Bob couldn’t go talking about my plans with her. He had to stay quiet, and I wasn’t sure he could do that.

  “Actually, I was thinking of surprising her. Do you think you could help me with that?”

  “She’s not a big fan of surprises, but I think since it’s you she’ll be all right. What do you need me to do?”

  I went over the details of my plan. He even threw in some of his own ideas to make sure I had the perfect opportunity to surprise Cassidy. I really liked Cassidy’s dad; he was a nice man who genuinely seemed to care about his daughter and her happiness.

  When I arrived in Aspen, I had a car waiting for me and I drove to Bob and Katherine’s resort. Bob had given me directions on how to get to the where the fireworks were going to be shot up, but in order to get there without being seen, I had to hike up the mountain.

  It seemed pretty fitting that in order to surprise Cassidy I had to hike up the same mountain she and I had before. As I started my trek, it was much easier than I remembered it being. Maybe all my working out had paid off, or maybe it was because the weather was nice and there wasn’t any snow on the ground. But for whatever reason, I crushed it up the mountain and was waiting in the lodge a good twenty minutes before everyone else was set to arrive.

  Bob was going to send Cassidy up on one of the chair lifts and tell her she needed to make sure everything was ready for the big night of events. So, I just waited. The anticipation was difficult for me, and I even started to have a panic attack as I thought about what might happen if Cassidy said no to me.

  She might not want to see me, at all. There was a real possibility that Cassidy had moved on from what we had together and wouldn’t be interested in seeing me and really wouldn’t be interested in coming out to Los Angeles with me. But I used my coping skills and pushed my anxiety away as I tried to regain my composure for when Cassidy arrived.

  It didn’t matter if she said yes or no. I was there to show her how I felt and tell her in person. She deserved that much, at the very least. Sure, it was entirely possible I was going to get my heart trampled on, but I just had to be all right with that.

  Nothing big ever came to a person who wasn’t willing to risk something. I was risking it all as I waited there for her. It was either going to be a yes and Cassidy and I could start our relationship out in Los Angeles, or it was going to be a no and I would go home alone and have to figure out a way to move forward.

  I stood looking out over the mountain like I had done months before on that first day I had arrived at Paradise Peak. It was even prettier there in the summertime. My nerves were going wild as I heard footsteps by the front of the building and it took everything in my power not to turn around yet.

  I had come so far in the last year of my life. Nothing had turned out at all like I had planned, yet my life was better than I could have imagined.

  In that moment as I waited for Cassidy, what I was sure of was that I wasn’t going to just quit. I had climbed the mountain and I was going to climb the last few proverbial feet so I could see the view of the rest of my life ahead of me.

  Cassidy had to be there. I took a couple deep breaths as I waited for her to walk through the rest of the building and find me there, waiting for her. I didn’t know if this surprise was going to go over well or not, but I hoped she would like what I had to say.

  “Erik?” her voice questioned from the other side of the room.

  Slowly, I turned around at looked at her. She was insanely beautiful in her red summer dress with her hair pulled up in a ponytail. To be honest, I hadn’t remembered her being this beautiful. She seemed to be even more radiant than the memories I had of her.

  “Sometimes on the phone, I’m not as good at saying things as I am in person,” I said as I walked toward her from across the room.

  “What did you want to say to me?” she asked with a smile.

  “First of all, you�
��re the most beautiful woman I know,” I said as I reached for her hand and held onto it. “Secondly, I should have called you.”

  She smiled and her face looked relieved to hear what I had to say to her. I was excited, so excited that I felt myself sweating through the t-shirt I had under my button up shirt.

  “Why didn’t you call?”

  “Because I’m a man and we do stupid shit.” I laughed. “I wanted to have my life together and whisk you out to Los Angeles to visit me. I didn’t want to get wrapped up in what we had going until I felt like I really had something I could offer you.”

  “And now you do?”

  Her question was a fair one. I didn’t really have anything to offer her. I had moved to Los Angeles with Spencer and didn’t even own my own house at the time. Most of my money was tied up in the new movie studio that was also tying up most of my time.

  But I was done waiting. She needed to know that I didn’t expect her to wait forever and I wanted to take her on a damn date.

  “I’m not perfect. I’ll be honest with you there. I work way too hard. I have no experience at being a good boyfriend. But I’d like you to come out to Los Angeles with me. If you can?”

  “What would I do there?”

  “Whatever you want to do. I’m not saying that you need to tie yourself to me or anything like that. You can live with me or I’ll pay for an apartment if you don’t want to. I’m actually staying with Spencer right now. But after our phone call, it felt like you didn’t know how I felt about you and I couldn’t stand the thought of that. I cherished out time together and I’d really like to take you on that date I promised you.”

  “Are you going to your meetings?” she asked.

  “Yep, three times a week at six o’clock.”

  “Are you sober?”

  “One hundred percent.”

  “How did you know I’d be up here?” She started to get suspicious of the insider information I had to have received to know she was there.

  “Your dad told me,” I smiled.

  She moved closer to me and didn’t let go of my hand. A smile flashed across her face as she looked out over the mountain and didn’t talk for a little bit. I waited. I was in no hurry. I had all the time in the world for Cassidy.

  “Well, if my dad already likes you…” she started to say.

  I swept her into my arms and kissed her all in one, swift motion. She felt so good in my arms, like I had been missing a piece of me for months. We didn’t know what the future was going to bring for us, but we didn’t care. In that moment, all that mattered was that we were together and we were going to make plans together.

  “Are you saying yes, you’ll come to Los Angeles with me?” I asked as I pulled apart from here briefly.

  “Are you still a vegan?” She laughed.

  “Nope, I like my meat now. Do you still have your tongue pierced?”

  She stuck her tongue out at me and let me see the new, heart-shaped rod she had going through the middle of it. It was no longer a boring, silver color, and instead a brilliant red that matched her hair.

  “Yep, I do, and yes, I’ll go with you.”

  I pulled her even closer as our lips pressed together and she thrust her tongue with mine. We were going to have one hell of a time together. It didn’t matter what else happened in my life, I felt like if I had Cassidy by my side, everything was going to turn out just the way it was supposed to.

  Epilogue

  “Are you even putting clothes on at all in there?” I yelled from the hallway as I waited for Cassidy to come out.

  “It’s a movie premiere, Erik. It takes longer to get dressed for this kind of thing. Stop worrying; we still have an hour before it starts.”

  “I kind of need to be there on time, you know. I’m sure you look fabulous. Can we please just get going?” I begged her.

  We had been waiting in the living room for over an hour for Cassidy to get ready. My father and brother didn’t seem to mind, but I was going crazy with anxiety that we were going to be late.

  This was the first film that our movie studio had made all by ourselves. We had contributed to several films over the first year of our business, but this one was all us. So, if it did well, then we were going to be getting a ton of new jobs, but if it did horribly, we might lose all the money we had put into it.

  “You really need to learn to relax,” my father said as he sat casually on the couch. “Women work faster if they aren’t under so much stress from you yelling at them.”

  My dad was dressed in a black tuxedo that matched both my brother’s and my outfits. The three of us looked pretty darn sharp, if I did say so myself. Heath and I had already decided we were going to find a hot movie star and fix her up with our father. He deserved to have some fun in his old age, we joked.

  “Heath, can you talk to Kelly and see if she can hurry Cassidy up?”

  “Oh, hell no. Don’t bring my wife into this. I’m not getting on her bad side,” he joked as we all laughed.

  Heath and Kelly had gotten married only a few short months after they started to date, and Kelly had just given birth to their son. It was amazing how fast life moved when all the stars aligned and you found the right one.

  Kelly and Heath were perfect for each other: There was no denying it. And their son looked just like me. I made sure to tell them that all the time, and I was going to do everything possible to ensure I was the best damn uncle that ever lived. Although I was scared to death at the prospect of ever having my own child, having a nephew who I could send home at the end of the day seemed like a great idea.

  Another fifteen minutes went by before Kelly and the baby emerged from the room. Finally, I thought that Cassidy would be on her way out. With Los Angeles traffic, we were going to be lucky if we made it there on time.

  “Is she coming?” I asked as I tried not to sound frantic.

  “I’m all ready,” Cassidy said as she strolled out of our bedroom and walked down the hallway.

  I am sure that my mouth literally dropped open as I watched my beautiful girlfriend walk elegantly toward me. She had on a floor-length black gown that hugged all her curves perfectly. Her hair was styled in amazing waves that were reminiscent of the 1940s, which was exactly the time period our new film took place in.

  “Wow,” my dad said as he stood up and came over to stand next to me. “I’m pretty sure she’s going to steal all your thunder tonight,” he joked.

  “Seriously, Cassidy, you look amazing,” Heath added.

  I wanted to talk. There were so many compliments in my head and I wanted to share every single one of them with her, but all I could do was stand there and stare. This was my woman. This amazingly beautiful creature had decided to follow me out to Los Angeles and stay with me, encouraging me along my journey to become a film producer and studio owner.

  I couldn’t get the words to come out of me I was so floored by how beautiful she looked.

  “Do I look all right?” she teased as she did a 360-degree turn in front of me and showed off the ultra-low back of the dress.

  “Damn, yes, baby, you look like perfection,” I finally managed to say.

  “Well, stop standing there. We better get going. You don’t want to be late for your own movie premier,” she said as she grabbed her purse and hustled to the door.

  Heath kissed Kelly and his son as we all rushed behind Cassidy and out to the limo that was waiting. We had thirty minutes to get three miles, which under normal circumstances seemed like it would be easy, but you never knew if the traffic would go your way or not in Los Angeles.

  “You know, Cassidy looks like a movie star,” my dad said as we drove toward the big event.

  “I do not. Come on now; you’re just trying to make me blush.”

  “I think he’s right. Maybe you should give the actress thing a try. I happen to know a movie producer,” I joked.

  “Well, since I dropped out of nursing school, I might just take you up on that offer. I just don’t know w
hat I was meant to do.”

  “I’m going to check around. After tonight, you and that dress? Man, I bet directors are going to be begging to work with you.”

  Cassidy just laughed at me, but I was being serious. She had a special look to her. Unusual, yet down to earth at the same time. Not to mention that she was a sweetheart to be around. I suspected she might have just fallen right into what she was meant to do with herself.

  When we pulled up to the red carpet, it was pretty quiet. Most everyone had already gone inside and the photographers looked like they were packing things up. But at least we were there and we could run in and grab a seat to watch the show.

  It didn’t matter all that much if we were late. It was our studio, so we could see the movie whenever we wanted and the main thing I was interested in was how the film was going to be reviewed, which wouldn’t happen until after the release.

  Our door opened and I got out first and helped Cassidy as we started our way down the red carpet. As a movie studio head, many photographers didn’t really know who I was, so I wasn’t expecting too many to be interested in taking our photos. We would just sneak by and get our butts into the theater.

  “Erik, who’s that with you?” one of the camera men yelled out.

  “My girlfriend, Cassidy Conrad,” I said as I wrapped my arm around her and we posed for his photograph.

  “Wait right there,” another man said as he pulled his equipment back out of his bag.

  “Yeah, don’t move,” a third said.

  Before we knew it, all of the photographers and entertainment news stations had their cameras out and were snapping away. They barked orders for us to turn one way and then the next. They even asked for pictures of Cassidy alone, which she refused to do.

  Entertainment News on NBC pulled us aside and wanted to do a live interview, which I really hadn’t expected at all.

  “Mr. Levy, tell us about your career change from technology to film,” the young reporter asked.

  “The two fields aren’t that different. I’m using my technology background to help develop an expressive alternative to film batteries so our shoots can last longer without costing more money.”