Pretend

by Charlene Antrobus

  "Can I talk to you for a second?" He asked before gently grabbing my hand and leading me to the garden.

  "Sure, see you in a bit guys," I said as I followed behind him.

  "So, what's up?" I asked as I looked into his eyes.

  "Nothing, it's just that it's nearly midnight and I wanted to spend the last moments of my birthday with someone very special," he replied.

  "Oh really?" I asked with a big smile on my face.

  "Yup," he said as he held my hand a little tighter.

  “Good because I have a present for you,” I said as I smiled at him.

  “I thought that you already gave me it?” He said with a smirk on his face.

  “I did but this one is a little bit more personal to us,” I said as I slipped my hand inside of my purse and pulled out a piece of paper.

  “Here,” I said before handing it to him.

  “Ok,” he said as he gently took it from my hands and began to read it. As I watched his eyes scanning the paper, I imagined the words that were written on it.

  No longer asking who

  When I’m alone I long for you

  Now I know that this is true

  Every time I look at you

  Don’t have to play pretend

  But we can still be friends

  I’ll love you till the end

  My forever best friend

  I’ll love you till the end...

  I’ll love you till the end...

  “You finished the song,” he said as he looked up at me with a smile on his face.

  “Yeah, I would have sang it to you but I wouldn’t want to cause any unnecessary pain to anyone,” I said as we both began to laugh.

  “Do you like it?” I asked, nervously.

  “It’s perfect,” he said as he pulled me towards him and kissed me, gently.

  “You’re perfect,” he said as he stared into my eyes.

  "I actually brought you out here because I wanted to tell you something,” he said in a more serious tone.

  “Ok,” I replied, nervously.

  “Now I'm not going to try and give a massive speech and announce my undying love for you because I think that Anthony beat me to it," he said as we both burst out laughing.

  "Yeah I think he did," I chuckled.

  "What I will say is that this has been the craziest few weeks of my life. So many things have gone wrong but if it meant that I would get you all to myself like this then I would do it all over again."

  "Me too,” I whispered.

  "I know that a lot of people say that young love is fake and that we can't possibly understand it but we have been through more in the past seven weeks then most people go through in their entire marriage," he said as we both burst out laughing.

  "The point is, I don't care what people say, I know that this is the real deal and I know that it's what I want, forever. I love you in a way that words can't even describe anymore and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want you to be there through all of the good stuff and the bad, the smiles and the tears, I want you to be the first and last woman that I marry, the only woman to have my kids and the woman that is still there when the kids have grown up and I'm wrinkly, not as hot and old," he said as I began to laugh again.

  "So, what do you say to promising to spend the rest of your life with me April?"

  "I say a big, fat yes to spending the rest of our wrinkly lives together," I chuckled as he pulled me into a kiss that sent tingles running through-out my whole body.

  "I love you April," he said as he gently pulled back to look into my eyes.

  "I love you too Mr Daniels."

  "Aww that was truly lovely," Anthony said from up in Aiden's room as he clapped his hands together and giggled with Jess.

  "It was so sweet guys," Jess said as she smiled away causing my cheeks to heat up.

  "Oh and I heard the bit about my speech dude, you're not funny!" Anthony said as he scowled at Aiden.

  "Whatever, now get out of my room dude," Aiden said as he looked up at Anthony.

  "Come and make me, you little girl!" He shouted as he and Jess began laughing.

  "Is that a challenge because you know that I always beat you?" Aiden said proudly.

  "Bring it on sweet cheeks," Anthony said before disappearing into the room.

  "Oh, it's already been broughted," he replied in a girly voice that made me and Jess giggle.

  "See you soon beautiful, I just got some butt to kick," he said.

  “Wait,” I said as I gently lifted my hand to his cheek and wiped away the lipstick mark from earlier.

  “Thanks,” he said as he stared into my eyes.

  “Love you,” I said before he kissed me on the lips, smiled and then started to run back into the house.

  As I stood there, staring up at the sky and listening to all of the noise coming from inside of the Daniels' house I couldn't imagine things turning out any better than this. So much had happened to me in the last seven weeks to make me into the person that I am today. I felt stronger and more mature. I didn’t feel like a child anymore but a woman who had experienced a chunk of life. I have laughed, cried, argued, fought, run away, forgiven, lied but of all of those things, the one that changed me the most was falling in love.

  I fell completely, head over heels in love with my best friend's brother and do you know what? It was the best thing that I have ever done.

  Extract from Pretend2 (Make Believe)

  “Come in,” I said as I heard the knock on my office door.

  “Hi, am I disturbing you?” Marie asked as she peered around the door.

  “No, come on in,” I replied in a happy tone.

  “Great, I just wanted to check if it was still ok for me to take off next week, for my sister’s wedding?”

  “Yeah, of course it is. I’ve already got it in the diary,” I said as I smiled at her.

  “Sorry, I just keep feeling like I’m going to forget to do something and so I have to keep checking. This maid of honour role is making me nervous,” she said as we both began to chuckle.

  “Yeah, I can imagine but you don’t have to worry, I have it all sorted for you.”

  “Thank you so much April,” she said as she smiled at me.

  “No problem.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to be going now?” She asked as she looked down at my paper filled desk.

  “Yes, I just wanted to check that we had all of the new health forms in,” I replied.

  “Do we?”

  “Almost, I’m just waiting on Mrs Baker’s form for Charlie. I gave her a call, so she should bring it in when she comes to collect him today. Will you just make sure that you put it with all of the others please?”

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “Ok, well I’ll leave you to it. Oh, did you say that Kyle was picking you up today?”

  “Yes, I’m still waiting for that car of mine to be repaired,” I said as I thought about how many problems it had been giving me lately.

  “Ok, I’ll call you when he is here then,” she said before disappearing through the door.

  “Thanks Marie.”

  As I sat down at my desk, I felt a calm feeling come over me. Everything had changed so much in the eight years since the accident but they were good changes.

  Four years ago I decided to open up my own day care centre. I’ve always loved children and I guess that it just came naturally to me. One thing I learnt was that running your own business is far from easy. I really struggled in the first year and found it so hard to compete with the day care centres that were already established. It came as both a surprise and a relief when Crystal and Jess decided that they wanted to join the business two years ago. Since we began running it together we have opened up four different centres that all have an average of fifteen children that attend almost five days a week. We officially changed the name from ‘Reinharts’ to ‘JCA’s Angels’ a year ago. We all run a different centre and have hired a manager to run the fourth centre. We
stopped breaking even two years ago and now earn a nice profit every year, I really couldn’t ask for more.

  Life in general has been great, we’ve officially moved into our new house which is absolutely beautiful. We are hosting a house warming party today, which is why I need to get my head out of these papers and get a move on. I’m just-

  “Hey, Kyle’s here,” Marie said, interrupting my thoughts.

  “Oh, great, tell him that I’ll be out in five minutes.”

  “Ok.”

  I quickly gathered all of the papers on my table, packed them neatly away, picked up my purse and headed towards the door.

  “Hey,” I said as I gave Kyle a kiss on the cheek and smiled at him.

  “Hi,” he replied with a smile on his face.

  It didn’t matter how many times that I would see him walking it still put a huge smile on my face. The accident had changed so much for us all and I’m so glad that things have turned out the way that they have. I guess that everything really does happen for a reason.

  “Right, I’ve sorted everything out, are you sure that you are ok about locking up?” I asked Marie.

  “Honestly, its fine, you just get going to that house warming party of yours. Don’t worry about a thing, I have it all under control,” she said as a huge smile filled her face.

  “Ok great. Don’t forget to collect Charlie’s health form,” I said.

  “I won’t.”

  “Bye,” I said as I watched all of the children and my staff members in their own little world.

  “Bye,” they all sang in unison.

  “Ready?” Kyle asked as he held the front door of the day care centre open for me.

  “Yup,” I said before heading towards his car.

  As I stepped into his car I was instantly greeted by the fresh smell of pine, it never failed to put a smile on my face. He had gotten rid of his Audi about three years ago and replaced it with a Mercedes CLK, it was silver and very attractive. I did try to persuade him to let me drive it a few times but that never really happened.

  “I love the smell of this car,” I said as I smiled at him as he put the keys in the ignition.

  “I know, that’s why I always buy these fresheners, you’ve got me addicted to it,” he said as he pointed at the scented tree that hung from his rear view mirror.

  “So, tell me about your day?” He said as he kept his eyes on the road.

  “It’s been ok. I haven’t really been around the kids that much today as there was a lot of paper work to sort out. I’ve got all but one health form back though, so that’s put a smile on my face,” I said as I stared at him.

  “Let me guess, Mrs Baker’s?” He said as he chuckled to himself.

  “Of course, that woman never brings anything in on time,” I said as I began laughing with him.

  “Yeah, I gathered.”

  “So, how was your day?” I asked as I glanced out of the window at an old couple, holding hands as they crossed a side road.

  “It was good, I wanted to talk to you about it actually,” he said as he glanced at me very quickly. He seemed to have a slightly nervous expression on his face which caused my stomach to drop.

  “Why, what happened?” I asked as I kept my eyes fixated on him.

  “I got the promotion,” he beamed as a smile spread across his face.

  “Oh my gosh, that’s brilliant! I’m so proud of you,” I said as I smiled at him. He had been working so hard these past few months to get this promotion, he truly deserved it.

  “So, when do you start in the new position boss?” I joked as I winked at him.

  “They want me to start on Monday,” he said in what sounded like a sad tone.

  “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” I asked as I noticed that his facial expression had suddenly changed.

  “Yes.”

  “Ok, so why do I feel like there is some sort of bad news coming?” I asked, suspiciously.

  “Because there is.”

  “What?”

  “Getting the promotion means moving away,” he mumbled as he tried to keep his eyes on the road.

  “Moving, where?” I asked.

  “To London,” he said as he glanced at me.

  “London? You never mentioned anything about moving away,” I said in an annoyed voice.

  “I know but I wasn’t even sure that I would get the position, I just wanted to see if I could before I told you anything,” he replied.

  “So, you didn’t think that that might have been a vital bit of information for me to know?” I asked, angrily.

  “April, I’m telling you now. Please don’t do this. I just wanted to discuss it with you before everyone came round tonight,” he said in a calm voice.

  “You should have discussed it with me before Kyle. The job starts on Monday and you expect me to just take all of this in now?” I said as the car slowed down.

  “I wanted to know how you felt about it,” he said in a sad tone.

  “No, if you wanted to know how I felt then you would have told me before,” I said as I stormed out of the car and walked up the path.

  “April, wait.”

  “Leave me alone,” I grunted before walking up the steps and knocking on the big, red door.

  “Oh, hi April,” Janet said as she opened up the door with a big smile on her face.

  “Hi Janet, are you ok?” I asked as I tried to force a smile onto my face.

  I still couldn’t believe that Kyle hadn’t told me that the promotion meant moving to a completely different country. Did he not think that that was something worth discussing? I was too angry to think about it right now and this also wasn’t the time or place.

  “I’m ok thank you, yourself?” She asked as she smiled at me.

  “Yeah, I’m great. How was she?” I asked.

  “Oh, yes she’s fine. I think that the sickness has completely gone,” she whispered behind her hand as we both chuckled.

  “Of course,” I said as I shook my head and laughed.

  “Tammy, it’s time to get your things now,” she said as we entered the living room.

  “Thanks again for this Janet,” I said as I smiled at her.

  “It’s no problem, I enjoy having her,” she said as she smiled at Tammy.

  “Ohhhh, I thought that Daddy was coming to get me?” Tammy moaned as she scrunched up her little face at me.

  “Hello to you too,” I said as I raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Hi, I thought that Daddy was coming to get me,” she said as Janet and I exchanged glances before smiling at each other.

  “He is, he’s outside waiting for you so hurry up and get your things on,” I said as I smiled down at her tiny frame.

  “Yayyy!” She beamed as she ran and picked up her small jacket off of the couch, slipped her shoes back onto her feet and ran towards me.

  “Ok, slow down. I thought that you were sick,” I said as I looked down at her.

  “Yeah, I’m feeling much better now,” she said as she stared at me with wide eyes.

  “Oh, is that so?” I said as I chuckled to myself.

  “Yep, I’m even well enough to eat ice cream,” she said as she slipped her tiny hand into mine.

  “Oh, I’m sure you are,” I said as I laughed at her.

  “Come on then, say goodbye and thank you to Janet.”

  “Thank you and bye,” she said as she gave her a toothy grin and then started to drag me towards the front door.

  “See, you soon,” I said as I threw her a smile.

  “So, did you have a nice day?” I asked as we began to walk down the path.

  “It was ok,” she said.

  “Just ok?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I missed my friends,” she said as she scrunched up her nose.

  “Well hopefully you won’t be sick on Monday and then you can come back to day care and see all of your friends,” I said as I slipped my phone out of my purse to check the time.

  “Did you miss me?” She said as she looked u
p at me.

  “Of course I did, it was very quiet without you around,” I said as I smiled at her.

  “Don’t worry I’ll be back soon,” she said before letting go of my hand and running towards the silver Mercedes.

  “Daddy!” She screamed as she ran into Kyle’s arms to allow him to lift her into the air.

  “Hey, princess,” he said as he glanced my way.

  I quickly tried to avoid looking at him and instead got inside of the car.

  “Are we going for ice cream?” Tammy asked as he strapped her into her car seat.

  “Not today princess.”

  “But you said that we could go for ice cream,” she said as she folded her arms across her chest.

  “We can but just not today,” he said in a gentle voice.

  “That’s not fair,” she said as she scrunched up her nose and began to sulk.

  “Life isn’t fair,” he said as he chuckled to himself, closed her car door and then slid into the driver’s seat.

  “I guess I’m just upsetting all of the women in my life today,” he said as he began to drive away. I ignored him of course.

  “Tammy, were you good today?” I asked as I turned around to face her. I could feel Kyle’s eyes on me but I wasn’t ready to talk to him just yet.

  “Yup, I did a painting. Do you want to see it?” She asked in an excited tone.

  “Yes, show it me when we get in,” I said as I smiled at her and then turned back around.

  “Ok,” she said as she began yawning.

  “So, are we going to talk about this?” Kyle asked after we had sat in silence for about ten minutes.

  I glanced back at Tammy who was now fast asleep and let out a long breath.

  “What is there to talk about? You made the decision without even thinking about me, so why bother talking about it now?” I asked in a sad voice.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered as I continued to stare out of the window.

  “I didn’t even think that I would get the job to be honest, if I had then I would have told you sooner-“

  “But you didn’t,” I said as I stepped out of the car and walked towards Tammy’s door.

  I gently unclipped her before lifting her out of the car and into my arms.