More Than a Memory

by Amber Nation

  Blaine replaced his headphones in their proper position so he could talk on-air; normally we had a specifically timed script that we abided by, but that morning had been so out of whack that we’d long since ditched it. “That was ‘Let’s Get Married’ by Jagged Edge which was requested by a recently newfound loyal listener. Now, why don’t we open the phone lines for another call this morning…Hello, good morning, you’ve got Blaine and Eden on 98.9 Nashville’s Powerhouse.”

  “Uh yes, hello,” a small female voice spoke up. “I wanted to thank you for playing my requested song, it wasn’t really for me but for my dad. You see he has this longtime love, who he’s let slip through his fingers one too many times.” My ears had since perked up and I was hanging onto her every word. Her voice sounded extremely familiar to me, but sometimes on air they could appear a bit distorted. I was quite certain that this wasn’t the first time hearing her; I just couldn’t quite place where I had heard her before. She could very well have called into the station before for all I knew. But something about what she was saying compelled me to listen a bit closer. Letting a longtime love slip through your fingers one too many times was something that I could relate to on an extremely personal level. “And this time he finally learned his lesson and he wasn’t going to back down. Eden, hear him out, please. He’s in a fragile state and will soon be there on bended knee if he needs to be, pleading for you to choose him, and choose Oregon.” My heart rate began speeding up and my bottom lip trembled in response, “For you to choose us…”

  “Norah?” My voice finally broke, as well as the dam that was keeping my tears at bay, letting just a single solitary tear roll down my cheek. “Baylor…he’s here?”

  About that time a knock sounded on the door to the studio and Blaine stood up, waving the guest in. I sat completely still in my chair, with my hand closing in around the wrist that held my bracelet, just willing it to be him. I didn’t want to turn around until I was entirely certain, because if by some chance it wasn’t Baylor I didn’t know how I was going to keep my composure and finish out the rest of the morning set.

  I felt his presence even before his hand touched my shoulder. Swiveling my chair around to face him, I looked up into those pale green eyes that I’d dreamt of so much of the past few weeks and took in his disheveled state. He looked about as bad as I felt: a little more scruff was apparent on his chin and the square of his jaw, and those magical eyes of his looked as if they hadn’t slept a wink since I’d been gone.

  He crouched down so he was almost down on both knees, just so he could be on eye level to me, and brought both of his hands forward to cup my face, being cautious of my clunky headphones that were perched in place on my ears. I quickly moved to pull one of my earpieces off my ear so I could hear him clearly.

  It took him a minute before he began to talk because he was taking his time roving his eyes over my face, never once breaking contact. “Edie,” he broke the silence in a pained whisper and slid his hands from cupping my face, bringing them down to tightly grasp my hands. “I couldn’t let you slip through my fingers again. I wouldn’t allow my future to be left to chance again and let another fifteen years go by without seeing you, so with the help of Norah and Blaine, I took matters into my own hands, which I should’ve done the first time. You gave me no greater joy than getting just a glimpse of waking up next to you in the mornings. And when you took that away, when you left this last time without saying goodbye, I found myself dreading falling asleep because I knew you wouldn’t be beside me. I know we have had our problems with communication, but that stops here and now.” I pulled my bottom lip in between my teeth and saw the brief flash of desire shine in his eyes as he continued saying the most heartfelt words I had ever heard in my life. “You, Eden, are meant to be more than a memory and I want you as my reality for the rest of my life. I love you, Eden, and I’m here to bring you back to where you belong, back to Oregon with Norah and me. That is, if you’ll have us.”

  I had to force myself to take a breath before I could even give him an answer. It was still so surreal that he was kneeling there before me, pleading for me to come back with him. My heart already knew the answer and was shouting it faster than my brain could register what was going on. I slowly released another breath and nodded my head, “I love you too, Baylor. These past three weeks have been miserable and I’ve kicked myself on a daily basis for leaving you asleep in your bed like a coward. In my mind I knew that my heart wouldn’t be able to take it if you let me leave without asking me to stay behind with you, so I took out the option for the both of us.” Tears were beginning to gather in the creases of his eyes and he nodded his head, silently encouraging me to go on. Contracts be damned, but I was gone. Nashville wasn’t my home; I supposed it never really was, it was just a place I resided until someone deemed it was time to go back. That time had come; better late than never, I guess. “I will go back with you, Baylor; there isn’t a reason in my mind that would cause me to stay.” I flipped off the other side of my headphone, causing it to crash with a thud onto the floor, and launched myself into Baylor’s arms, sealing my mouth with his.

  “Well, you heard it here, folks, I think our beloved Eden has just quit and is now officially off the market,” Blaine explained amusedly into the microphone.

  I pulled away from Baylor after hearing Blaine speak and our eyes danced with merriment. “Was all that on the air?” He nodded. “Shit, so I basically just quit on the air?” He nodded again, while a little smirk appeared on his face. I rolled my eyes and guessed I would wait to take the wrath of my boss whenever he dished it out; I wasn’t going to actively seek him out. Knowing him he was probably right behind me with his hands folded in front of his chest with his icy cold glare intact as if Blaine or myself had said a curse word or something controversial on-air. I stood up, smoothing out my clothes, and helped Baylor get to his feet as well. Looking to Blaine, I gave him a small smile and shrugged one of my shoulders, silently apologizing for placing him in this predicament.

  He walked across the room in our direction, extending a hand out towards Baylor, “Take good care of our girl,” he smiled as the two of them shook hands and then he turned to me, opening his arms for a hug, and I didn’t hesitate entering his embrace. We had worked together for ten glorious years, he was like a brother to me and I would miss him dearly. He whispered into my ear while I was still in his clutch, “I would’ve taken you up on that marriage proposal if I had known he was going to be stealing you away. You’re an amazing woman, Eden, enjoy your bit of happiness.”

  He released me and I took two steps back, wiping a tear from my face. I couldn’t leave things sad and melancholy between us, so I retorted, “I really am sorry for quitting so suddenly like this, I hope they don’t stick you with Ryan as a cohost now.” That realization hadn’t dawned on him until then and his eyes widened and his nostrils flared; you could just tell that he was picturing the new version of the show without me.

  Raising his extended index finger in my direction, “You had better turn around and march out of here real fast before I bring you back and duct tape you to your chair so you can’t leave!”

  I knew he was joking of course, but I wasn’t about to take any chances, so I grabbed Baylor’s hand and we darted from the studio room and directly into my boss. Just as I had suspected, he was outside of the doors with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a deathly glare on his face. “Mr. Richmond,” I stammered, feeling Baylor’s stance stiffen behind me. “I suppose you heard what happened, huh?” I wasn’t one to go actively seeking confrontation, in fact, despite what happened at the reunion with Kristina, I actually loathed it. Especially when it was coming from my boss, whom I had known for several years but who still managed to scare the living shit out of me.

  “Eden, what kind of game do you think you’re playing? You are under a contract with the radio station for another two years. Don’t you think you should’ve thought about this instead of making a rash decision?” I could fee
l my anger and annoyance level rising by the minute and the moment I opened my mouth to speak, Baylor beat me to the chase.

  “Mr. Richmond, is it? After consulting with my attorney, even though you are a larger radio station within Nashville, you still don’t hold any legal rights over Eden. She didn’t quit to go to another rival station within the city, she quit to move entirely out of state. Now I apologize for this all happening quite abruptly, as that part is my fault, but should you choose to take this matter to court I think it’ll just be a waste of all of our time. Now if you have nothing further, we will go clean out Eden’s desk and be out of your hair in the matter of minutes.”

  Not only was my mouth hanging agape, so was Mr. Richmond’s. During my entire time working there, I had never seen someone actually go up against the ape and the fact that it was my Baylor made him even sexier in my eyes. I quickly closed my mouth and looked up to Mr. Richmond to see him lower his hands down to his side and nod in my direction, “Eden, it’s been a pleasure to have you working with us here at 98.9 but as of now, you’ve fulfilled your duties here. Please empty out your desk and proceed with leaving the building in a timely fashion so I don’t have to call Security on you for loitering.” He tried to come across as macho, like normal, but for some reason unbeknownst to me he seemed to be lacking some of his luster.

  Chapter 17

  Baylor

  I placed my hand on the small of Eden’s back as we sidestepped past Mr. All Talk. He didn’t seem too big and bad once I put him in his place. Eden looked up towards me and a bright smile lit up her face. “What?” I asked, knowing exactly what she was going to say.

  “I thought Dean made it perfectly clear that he was strictly a Divorce Lawyer, so how did he find out about contractual agreements in the workplace?” Her eyes twinkled up at me, reassuring me that what I had done was more than all right with her.

  Shrugging my shoulders, closing the door behind us and shoving my hands into my pockets after we entered Eden’s small, dimly-lit office, I replied, “He is, but he’s Dean, nothing that a little coercion can’t fix. He knows people and I just sort of took advantage of that.” She was facing away from me, shuffling some papers on her desk and then throwing them in the trash. I took the opportunity to walk up behind her until I was flush with her backside. She was wearing her hair up in a ponytail, so I just moved it off to the side to let it flow across her shoulder and placed a single open-mouthed kiss in the middle of her slender neck. I continued on by trailing my nose up the length of her neck until I reached just below her ear where I placed another brief, feather-light kiss. “God, I’ve missed you, baby. Now that I’ve gotten a taste of you and have been spoiled by your touch, I don’t want to ever go without it again.” Dragging my fingertips ever so lightly down the exposed flesh of her arm, I felt her skin stiffen and goose bumps break out on the places my touch just encountered.

  It didn’t matter that we were in her office, at a job where she was no longer employed; I wasn’t shying away from what we both wanted and craved at that very moment. I took her by her shoulders and spun her around to face me, her eyes were slightly parted and desire was shining back at me. I moved my hands to cup her face, but we were interrupted by the phone on her desk ringing with an incoming call.

  Eden blindly reached behind her and began fumbling with a few of the buttons in what I thought was an attempt to shut it off, but instead she pressed the speaker button.

  “You bitch!” A squeaky voice roared on the other end of the line, causing Eden’s entire stance to freeze and turn rigid. “I just heard the entire show and your breakup with Nashville.” Without even taking a breath, the enraged female voice continued, “You couldn’t think of a reason to stay? Well, I can think of two words right off of the top of my head and they are the most important: Julia Caldwell.”

  “Oh shit!” Eden gasped, bringing both of her hands to cover her mouth for a brief second before she haphazardly attempted to reach for her chair and finally sat down, scooting closer towards the phone. “Jules, you know I didn’t mean it that way. I was completely in the moment; I mean tell me you wouldn’t be?” Eden’s backpedaling stung a bit but I knew that she was just trying to calm her friend off of the ledge of her tirade.

  “Oh, I know, but you know that one of my favorite pastimes involves holding grudges. And well, so is Mrs. Schaefer’s.” Her voice lost its candor, resulting in a bit of trepidation.

  “Who the hell is Mrs. Schaefer?” Eden demanded. I was certainly glad that I wasn’t the only one lost by the turning of the conversation.

  “Well, you see she was the client in my chair at the time of your little broadcast. She wanted a seven a.m. appointment to get a quick cut before work and got a little more of a snip than what she bargained for. While she loves her now-shortened layers, it wasn’t initially the vision she saw in her head.”

  “Oh I see, and your little mishap with your scissors is naturally all my fault.” I could tell that the two of them together would result in an absolute riot, with Eden being the more mellow and down-to-earth woman while Julia was the high-strung and high-maintenance diva.

  “Naturally. I’m glad you see it my way,” Julia said, causing Eden to huff and throw her hands in the air. “Listen, I just wanted to give you a bit of shit before I actually congratulated you on your happy ever after. They don’t come along too often in a lifetime, believe me I would know. You better call and fill me in on all the juicy details.” Her voice became small and had an air of sadness about it, “And you know, don’t leave town without coming to say goodbye to me and all.”

  “Jules…” Eden conceded.

  “Bye, babe.”

  Eden slowly pressed the speaker button on the phone and left her head hanging low; I knew she was feeling a mixture of a lot of different emotions, from happiness and pure elation, to having your friend guilt you into wanting to stay. I moved closer to her slouched form and just placed my palm in the middle of her back, “Edie, I understand if this is moving a bit too fast, but I missed out on fifteen years with you and I really didn’t want to waste another minute.”

  She raised her head and swiveled her chair to face me before yanking me down to my knees so I was eye level with her. “Baylor, don’t mistake my sadness towards my friend for being regret at what is happening here.” She looked down at her hands in her lap as they fiddled with the bracelet that I had given her just a few weeks prior then returned her gaze to mine. “I love you, Baylor Jenkins, I always have. You were my first and only true love and I wouldn’t want any of this to take place any differently than it is now. If you hadn’t come to get me, I was going to end up coming to my senses and going after you myself. We were meant to be, I can’t fathom to think otherwise.”

  I continued to toy with the small square box within my pocket and even with my heart racing with nerves and my palms breaking out in a sweat, I knew that if I didn’t go for it I would regret the missed chance. I cleared my throat, wishing I had a bottle of water to furiously gulp down before proceeding, “I wanted to give you something that made everything a bit more permanent. I consulted with the only other woman I trust besides you and my mother. Norah agreed that it was a good idea. But if you want to wait a bit, I completely understand.”

  I knew I wasn’t making a lick of sense, but true to Eden and her sweet, caring self she placed a hand on my forearm which immediately made all of my nerves dissipate. “Baylor, you’ll never know what I think unless you let me know what it is.” The side of her mouth raised in a small smile right before she pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth. I was suddenly certain that I was doing the right thing.

  She was right, I needed to just get my point across the best that I could and see what she had to say about the entire thing. It was a scary moment for me, but being with Eden made it more bearable.

  I looked her deep in her chocolate-brown eyes and just let my heart do the talking. “Edie, when I first saw you in the airport after all of that lost time the only word to descr
ibe what I was feeling was stunned. I had instilled it in my brain that you weren’t ever going to return to Cottage Grove. I wanted to believe in my heart that someday you would but it just wasn’t logical thinking. Then I found out what had happened between us so long ago and that it was nothing that we each intentionally did. You have the best heart and are the absolute easiest person to fall in love with. I know we each need to work on our communication, because it’s been twice we’ve missed out on open opportunities but I’m not letting it slip by once more. Eden Nicole Richardt, would you do me the extraordinary honor of becoming my wife?” I pulled out the black velvet box, cracking it open to reveal the diamond solitaire engagement ring. Her eyes glistened with tears and I had one more thing to say before she revealed her answer. “I know that it was Norah who wrote the letter that was the deciding factor of your return home, she’s much smarter than me. But if I had known that was all it took I would’ve done it years ago. Norah is so much more than my amazing daughter now; in my eyes she was my saving grace. She wanted her dad to be reunited with his first and true love and she set out to make that happen. She definitely had more guts than me.”

  The tears began rolling down her cheeks, so I took my hand that was entwined together with hers and swiped it across her skin trying to clean off the salty droplets, still awaiting her answer.

  “Baylor, there is no question in my mind. I would absolutely love to marry you,” I was ready to celebrate and lift her high up in the air but she continued on with a bit of hesitation, “as long as you’re all right with me not having a job for a while. I have some money saved up but I’ll need to sell my condo. The last thing that I want to become for you is a burden.”