Beautifully Unbroken

by D. M. Brittle

  “Jo,” he said with a lopsided smile, “even your sandals have heels, I’ve already bent your nose; I’m not risking you falling and breaking your neck to go with it.”

  The crowd that had gathered all began to cheer as we headed back to the car.

  “Do you think we will top eight million hits with this one?” Blake laughed, nodding towards a spectator holding up his phone, recording us.

  “Oh God,” I whined as I buried my head into Blake’s chest and closed my eyes tightly.

  Blake fussed over me for the rest of the day. He told me over and over again about how sorry he was that the first time he managed to hit the ball in thirty years, it had headed straight for me, leaving me with an almighty headache and two slightly blackened eyes.

  Marti, however, still found it hilarious, much to Julia and Blake’s annoyance.

  The garden party was in full swing when Blake and I headed outside to the garden. Blake introduced me to the guests who I didn’t know before I settled next to Jasmine as she sat on a lounger around the pool while she watched Fraser splashing around with Robert.

  “How’s the nose?” she asked as I sat next to her.

  I smiled. “A little tender, but better than I expected.”

  “Here you go, ladies.” Blake handed us each a cocktail before kissing me quickly and disappearing over to where Marti was starting up the barbecue.

  “I’ve never seen Blake so happy. You know, he really loves you.”

  “I really love him too,” I replied shyly.

  “I saw your face when he was holding Fraser.” I turned to see Jasmine smiling at me. “You want children?”

  I nodded. “Eventually, yes. Blake would make a brilliant dad.”

  “He would,” Jasmine agreed before squealing as Robert splashed her with water. “Blake is a lot more mature than Robert; that’s for sure.” We both laughed. “He was such a mess when you broke up, you know?” I could see she was eying me suspiciously.

  “We both were,” I admitted. “I was going through a lot at the time, and I had a really shitty past; everything just became too much. I shouldn’t have pushed him away; I regret that now.” My eyes roamed to Blake, who was laughing with Marti.

  “Don’t have regrets, Jo. Everything that happens moulds who we are today. I see a future for you both; do you?”

  “I didn’t. Not for a while. But this past week? I can really see it.” I smiled.

  I had taken numerous calls over the remainder of the weekend from my mum, Casey, and even Marcus; each one of them needed convincing that I was okay. Marcus was more concerned about me sporting panda eyes on set for the recording of Perfect Alibi that Friday than the fact that I was injured, but I couldn’t say that I didn’t share his concern.

  Casey was more concerned that I was going to look like a battered housewife while accompanying her around venues and told me that sunglasses would be a necessity to be seen out in public.

  My mum, being my mum, was solely concerned about me. She knew that Blake would look after me, but for the first time since I came to New York, she told me that she wished I were going back home for her to look after while Blake was away in Miami.

  We left the Hamptons mid-afternoon on Sunday to travel back to New York, where we would spend our last night together for two long, lonely weeks. I did not allow myself to appear sad in front of Blake as we spent the journey home discussing my busy schedule for the duration of Blake’s absence.

  I had planned so much in my mind that I hoped it would give me only a small window of opportunity to miss him. Even though I would spend my evenings at my own apartment, I planned to slowly move myself into Blake’s penthouse so we could start our new life together when he returned. There was a happy future awaiting us. That made the coming two weeks feel so much more bearable.

  We pulled into the underground parking at Blake’s building just before seven pm. I couldn’t help but notice Blake’s growing smile as we pulled up in his usual space.

  “Why are you so happy to be home?” I asked suspiciously.

  “I have something for you.” He turned off the ignition and started fiddling with the keys. “Don’t be mad, okay?” he said. “I have been asking you for weeks now to no avail, so I took it upon myself to do this for you. I would have felt guiltier for doing it without your permission had I not almost broken your nose and caused us to become yet another YouTube sensation. So this kind of softens the blow a little. A gift to show you how sorry I am for the bad things we have faced, but also to tell you how much I love you and for the good things we’re yet to face.”

  “What did you do?” I asked cautiously.

  “Open your hand,” he said nervously.

  Reluctantly I opened my hand. Blake placed a key to the Range Rover in my palm.

  “You’re giving me a key to your car?” I asked, surprised. “Aren’t you scared I might scratch it or something? I mean, I’m sure your love for this car is on par with your love for me sometimes,” I joked.

  “You’re right; I am petrified that you will scratch my car,” he joked before his face turned serious. “Press the key.”

  I took the key out of my palm and pressed the button with confusion. Two loud beeps that echoed through the car park pulled my attention to the left.

  “Now keep your head there and press it again.”

  Again two loud beeps echoed, but this time I could see where it had come from. “Oh my God, please tell me that that white Range Rover is responding to this key.”

  “That white Range Rover over there” – he said, pointing to the shiny brand-new car to my left – “is responding to your key. It’s all yours, beautiful,” he said simply.

  “You brought me a car?!” I squealed before unbuckling my belt and climbing onto Blake’s lap, planting kisses all over his face excitedly before pulling back to focus on his face. “I can’t believe you did that,” I said, in awe of him.

  “If I had waited for you to do it, I would have waited forever; and besides, I love you and I want to spoil you. If that means buying you a new car so I don’t have to worry about you getting murdered on the streets of New York, then so be it.”

  I smiled. “You’re so over the top; but I can’t believe you did this,” I said, opening the car door and climbing out before running the short distance to my car and climbing in. Blake hopped into the passenger side.

  Gripping the wheel tightly, I took in everything around me. It was top-of-the-range, with every added extra that Blake’s car possessed.

  “It’s like a cockpit in here,” I squealed. “I love it; I really, really love it. But you shouldn’t have done this.” I turned to face him. “What could I ever give to you now that could even come close to this?”

  “You get the car and I get you,” he said simply. “I love you so much, Jo. And I know that we argue and we fight, but nothing – nothing – will ever spoil us. We’re over the worst possible hurdles we could have faced now, and we’re on the home run – excuse the pun.” We both laughed, but both of us were filled with emotion. “I love nothing more than seeing you smile. You haven’t been smiling enough lately, and that makes me sad. You have the most beautiful smile I have ever seen, and I want to see it every minute of every day for the rest of our lives.”

  “I’m gonna miss you so much, Blake,” I said as my eyes filled with tears. I climbed over and straddled his lap, taking his mouth in mine carefully. The pain in my nose was still very present, but I didn’t care.

  “I’m gonna miss you too, Jo. But when I get back, we begin our new chapter. And I know that it’s going to be the best one yet.”

  17

  I had made Blake promise me the night before that he wouldn’t wake me before he left this morning. Even though I knew how much I was going to miss Blake, the thought of saying goodbye to him face to face was too painful to bear. At four forty-five a.m., I had heard Blake climb out of bed, shower, and leave for the airport. I had held my eyes tightly closed together when he came into the room one
last time and left a lingering kiss to my cheek before telling me to be safe and dream of him every night until he came home. It had taken every ounce of my strength to keep my eyes shut and not pull him back to bed, never letting him leave until I knew he had missed his flight. I allowed myself to cry as he stepped out of the apartment.

  There was a note waiting for me on the coffee table when I entered the lounge telling me that he missed me already and would call me when he landed in Miami.

  The apartment felt big and lonely without him, but it was only fourteen sleeps until we would be back here and it would be my apartment too. With that in mind I planned on starting my big move at some point over the next few days between rehearsals and wedding planning. Keeping my mind busy was going to be the best way to see the next two weeks through with as few tears as possible.

  I told Casey that I would be driving to what she described as her “perfect venue” and to meet me in the building’s car park. Watching her standing at Blake’s black Range Rover waiting for me was amusing. If I hadn’t had work at noon, I’d have sat and watched her fiddle with her hair, then her phone, then her clothes for hours. But, not wanting to set a bad impression on my first day, we needed to get to the chosen venue, wait an hour or so for Casey to decide it wasn’t suitable, let her whine about it for another hour, and then go to work with a banging head.

  Giving in to the temptation of teasing her, I rolled down the window and called her over. She scurried over, wide-eyed, and climbed into my shiny new car. “Please tell me you didn’t hot-wire this on my behalf,” she teased.

  “Please tell me that you haven’t plastered your legs in fake tan this morning; this oxford leather cost more than a new suite for our apartment,” I joked as I put the car into reverse and made my way to the exit.

  “Nice cover-up with the make-up by the way; you can barely see your two black eyes,” Casey teased. “Did Blake buy you a car because he almost broke your nose?” she said, laughing.

  “Yep,” I said simply. “He had it waiting for me last night when we got back from his parents’. I had no idea until we parked up and he gave me the key.”

  Casey let out a low whistle between her teeth. “He’s got it bad,” she sang.

  I nodded. “Good, because so have I. Now tell me where we’re going so I can tell this bad boy to get us there ASAP.”

  Casey spent the whole journey trying to convince us both that this place was the one. I spent the journey asking her where we would be visiting the following day after she decided that this place was either too big, too small, too old, too new, or just not right.

  We pulled up at the lake house forty-five minutes later. It was a lot like some of the venues that we had already visited, but straight away it seemed a lot more intimate and definitely more Casey.

  With my mind wandering to whether Blake had landed yet, I followed Casey as she was guided around every corner of the building, not noticing whether or not she appeared interested or whether it was the same old story again. The guide eventually showed us to a room where Casey could look over the packages in private without feeling any pressure from staff.

  “I love it!” she yelled as the door closed behind us.

  “Really?” I asked, unable to hide my complete shock.

  “This is it, Jo; this is the place that I will become MRS Alex Taylor,” she said dreamily.

  “I think I’m going to pass out,” I said sarcastically. “You’re sure? It’s not too old or too new or there isn’t one step less to climb for the bridal suite than you had anticipated?”

  An amused smile tugged at Casey’s lips. “Everything about it is just perfect. I’m gonna go and get Kelly, tell her to get us booked in.” Casey did a little victory dance before leaving the room on the hunt for our guide, Kelly.

  My phone began to ring, and relief flooded me when I noticed it was Blake.

  “Hi,” I said happily.

  “Hello, beautiful.” I could sense his smile.

  “You’re there, then?” I asked.

  “Yep, just unpacking and getting straight to work. I miss you already,” he said sadly.

  “I miss you too. It’s so good to hear your voice,” I said quietly.

  “Are you at work yet?” he asked.

  “No, but you will love this. Casey has only gone and found the perfect venue.”

  “No way.”

  “I know. We’re here now booking it.”

  “That’s great news,” he said.

  “Yes, it is. Will you call me again later, as soon as you can?”

  “Just try stopping me,” he said. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  Casey re-entered with Kelly, who was carrying a large diary and smiling widely at something Casey had just told her. Sitting down on the plush leather seats, Kelly opened the folder and asked Casey what dates she had in mind. “I’m sorry,” she said sympathetically. “The boathouse gets booked up very well in advance. If you insist on a winter wedding, we could fit you in Christmas two thousand sixteen,” she said, looking from her diary to Casey.

  “That’s over two years away,” Casey moaned.

  “How about if you forgot Christmas and did it spring or summer?” I suggested. “That’s only a couple of months’ difference.” I looked to Kelly, whose face had become even more sympathetic. “When I say we get booked up very well in advance, I mean exactly that. We are completely booked here for the next two years.”

  Casey slumped back into her seat. “This is the only place I have seen that even feels right.” Sitting forward, she focused on Kelly. “You have absolutely nothing for the next two years?” Her disappointment was obvious; I felt sad for her.

  Kelly smiled slightly as she flicked through her diary. “We have had one cancellation just this morning actually. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, they soon get snapped up.”

  “I’ll take it,” Casey said instantly.

  “You don’t even know when it is yet,” I said, shocked.

  “I don’t care. I want to get married here, so I will take what I can get,” she said before turning back to Kelly. “When is the cancellation for?”

  “It is September twenty-seventh,” she said, concentrating on her diary.

  “Well, that’s good; that gives us just over twelve months to get everything organized,” I said, but Casey still seemed defeated.

  “Sorry,” Kelly replied, “I think you misunderstood what I said. When I say September twenty-seventh, I don’t mean next year. I mean this September twenty-seventh. In less than four weeks.”

  I burst out laughing. “Well, that’s ridiculous; who can organize a wedding from scratch in just four weeks.”

  “We can,” Casey said straight away, stemming my laughter.

  “Are you kidding me?” I asked.

  “It’s like it was meant to be, Jo!” she said excitedly.

  “We will never be done in time,” I said, “and you really should speak to Alex before making such a big decision.”

  “We will be ready, and Alex will be just as excited as I am,” she said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Book me in please, Kelly. In four weeks’ time, I want to be walking down that aisle.”

  I found Marcus in the canteen, laughing amongst a small group of cast members. Immediately I was called over and made to feel like one of the team. They all introduced themselves to me once more; it had been a while since we had been to Sugar Lounge, and I’m pretty sure everyone was aware that I was out of it last time. As embarrassing as that was, given that only Blake knew about me being drugged, I pushed it to the back of my mind and pulled out the chair next to Marcus.

  “A nice cup of tea for the lady,” I looked over my shoulder to see Cooper standing there smiling at me. My expression must have been somewhat obvious when my mouth fell open and I was unable to string two words together.

  “Hi,” he said simply as he pulled out the chair next to me and sat down slowly after placing my cup in front of me; h
e was in obvious pain.

  “Cooper,” I managed to say, “what are you doing here?”

  He smiled. “Hello to you too. I had a meeting this morning so thought I’d drop by and see you guys; it’s been a while since I caught up with Marcus, so …” He shrugged as he sat back and placed his arm carefully over the back of his seat. “There’s no need to look so worried, Jo; I’m not here to cause anything. It’s not like I’m in a position to cause trouble, is it,” he said quietly.

  “It’s just … you look awful, Cooper,” I said as I took in the sights of his many cuts and bruises. “Casey said you were lucky to be alive.”

  He smiled. “That’s a bit of an over exaggeration.”

  “Do you know who did this to you?”

  “I got on the wrong side of someone. They taught me a lesson.”

  “Some lesson.”

  He smiled. “Yeah, well, you live and learn, I suppose.”

  “Look, I shouldn’t really be talking to you.”

  “You’re worried what Blake may say,” he stated. “I’m here to see Marcus, Jo, not you.”

  I smiled. “Okay.” I could live with that; there was nothing going on that could worry Blake. I couldn’t stop Cooper from seeing Marcus, and I couldn’t avoid Cooper completely anyway, so I would just keep my head down and get on with work.

  Marcus showed me to my dressing room, which was huge and very homely. There were cards placed on the dresser along with a huge bouquet of flowers from Blake. I opened the card immediately.

  ‘I wish so much I could be there to support you this next two weeks, but I know how amazing you are already. I miss you and I love you and I can’t wait to see you again. I would tell you to break a leg, but knowing you, that’s already a possibility. So instead, shine like the star that I know you are … Blake xxxx’

  I smiled through the happy tears that had fallen, before taking my phone from my bag to call him. I knew he would be filming, so I left him a voicemail.

  “Hello, you,” I said, trying hard not to show any emotion through my voice. “I just wanted to say thank you for the flowers; they are beautiful. And I will try not to break a leg” – I chuckled – “especially as you’re not here to fix it for me.” I swallowed past the huge lump in my throat. “I love you so much, Blake; I can’t wait until you’re home, back to our home. Call me later. I love you.”