by Amber Burns
“We will be having lunch at noon on Sunday. Then we like to go to the golf club. As long as you find yourself in fancier clothes, we would love for you to join us.”
“If Cindy wants me there, I will be.”
“Well, we will most likely see you then. She can’t keep her eyes off of you as it is,” her mother snickered and collected her things from the salesman. “I will see you Sunday Cade.”
“Have a wonderful day Mrs. Watkins.”
“That is a hard woman to please kid,” the salesman added once Mrs. Watkins had gone.
Cade looked up at the salesman.
“Yea, my girlfriend’s mom,” Cade explained.
“Sounds like she will be your mother-in-law soon.”
“Yea, hopefully.”
“Good luck kid.”
“Thank you.”
Leaving the jewelry store, Cade suddenly felt a panic. He didn’t think that Cindy and her mother were particularly close, but he hoped that her mother would not tell her he just spent the afternoon with her looking for a ring to propose with. Cade tried to push the worry from his mind and heading to the shop. Cadence greeted him with a serious face and a frown.
“We had a complaint today boss,” she informed.
“What?”
“That new kid botched a job.”
Cade sighed. “Oh no.”
“Yea, so it turns out he is color blind. I am not sure what he gave you in his portfolio, but we have a seriously angry customer who expected her tattoo to be red and it is blue.”
“Shit. Did we give her money back?”
“Of course.”
“Good. I mean, that sucks, but good.”
“Yea, except she wrote a formal complaint.”
“Shit.”
“Yea, it’s online in plain view.”
“Well, we could offer to bring her in and fix it, maybe?”
“Won’t change the negative affects her comment placed on us.”
“You’re right,” Cade conceded. “I guess we will just have to let the poor kid go and look at one of the other applicants.”
“Yup.”
“Ok, well thank you for keeping on top of it.”
“That’s what I do.”
“Really, thank you Cadence.”
“Um, you’re welcome?”
“I am going to propose to Cindy and I am scared shitless,” Cade blurted out, desperate to tell someone.
Cadence took a moment to process her boss’ sudden statement.
“Well, don’t be. The worst that can happen is she says no,” she finally managed.
“That is exactly what I am afraid of,” Cade said nervously as he ran his fingers through his hair.
“She will say yes.”
“And how do you know?”
“Because she couldn’t keep her eyes off of you and she talked about you while I pierced her navel. As a matter of fact, we talked about nothing else.”
Cadence pretended to stick her finger down her throat, as if it made her sick to talk about him and Cindy.
“Enough about me, how is that little sea monkey in there?”
“Sea monkey?”
“Yea, I heard…oh never mind,” Cade backpeddled.
Cadence cracked up at him.
“It is still early, but the doctor’s said that everything looks pretty good for now.”
“Good.”
“Yup.”
“Well, let’s see what we are going to need for the event,” Cade tried to steer the conversation back to business.
“I was thinking a table for starters.”
“Ha.”
With that, Cadence left and Cade got to work reading over the regulations for the event. That night he showed Cindy the plans for the event and nothing was mentioned about bumping into her mother at the store, or the purchase that he was waiting patiently for.
“Well, I think it sounds fun and if I wasn’t working I would totally get dressed up and go,” Cindy said, looking genuinely interested.
“When is your birthday?” Cade asked suddenly.
“Oh, ummm. June third, you?”
“October twentieth... I never celebrate my birthday though.”
“Well, we’ll have to change that. So what else did you do today?”
He felt his heart skip.
“Not a lot of anything exciting, you?”
“Oh, I enjoyed a pint of ice cream,” Cindy started and Cade was relieved. “Which I am sure Maggie will not let me hear the end of. Hey, I wanted to show you the move she taught me yesterday, but we were busy in the bed last night and I forgot.”
Memories of the night before tugged at his mind.
“Ok, let’s see it,” he agreed.
“Ok, we need to stand up. Um, let’s move to the rug.”
He followed her and she told him to pretend he was attacking her. She wrapped her leg around his own and quickly maneuvered him to the ground. She didn’t use a lot of force, and he knew he move so he allowed her to pull him into it.
“Very good,” he complimented.
She was holding him down, just slightly bending his arm back.
“It took me several tries, but I finally landed it. I was so excited.”
“I am glad.”
“Then she had me jog half a mile. I was so tired, but it felt so good at the same time.”
“I could start jogging with you, if you wanted.”
“That could be fun, but I am slow,” She confessed.
She tucked her hair behind her ear and he sighed. He needed a creative way to propose to her.
14
Cade’s mind was busy with ways to propose to the woman of his dreams as he sat at the table handing out fliers and waiting for the time they could begin tattooing. Several people came in wearing recognizable superhero costumes, and others were not so recognizable. Either way, it was a huge outpouring of support from the community and many avid readers and lovers of comic books flooded through the doors of the event.
“What is this?” A young man poked at the wheel behind Cade, bringing him out of his stupor.
“You can spin it if you want,” Cade explained. “You will either win a tattoo, piercing, or a tattoo design of my choice. Would you like to give it a go?”
The young man nodded and spun the wheel. It landed on the space that allowed Cade to design the tattoo.
“Ok,” Cade started. “For this you need to pick three words that best describe you.”
He saw the young man think about it for a second.
“Spontaneous, geek, and outer space.”
Cade’s mind surged with ideas, and he began on the drawing before he would tattoo. He may have made this a fun little game, but he was also going to give the kid the best. When he was done, he showed his sketch to the young man and he nodded.
“I would love that as a tattoo!” The young man exclaimed. “Preferably on my forearm.”
Cade nodded and got to work.
Through the day they ended up with only three that landed on that space and Cade enjoyed all three, but the first one was the most memorable. As the day wound down Cade and Cadence finished up with the customers. Cadence collected their things and took her time visiting the other booths before closing. Cade simply sat and passively watched the dwindling crowd, his mind focused on figuring out how to propose.
***
Cade and Cindy spent most of their free time in each other’s company as the days turned into weeks and before she realized, it had been more than a month since she last slept in her bed a full night without Cade. Her cast had been removed and all that was left was a soreness as her bones readjusted to life outside the cast. Tommy and Heather had gotten back from their adventure honeymoon, and insisted on catching up with Cade and Cindy.
“So what’s new man?” Tommy asked once he and Cade were finally together again.
“Well, Cadence is expecting a baby and engaged to Alex. I final found the location I want to move my business to, and I am planning to
propose to Cindy as soon as I can figure out the perfect way to do it.”
“Whoa. I missed a lot while out adventuring,” Tommy chuckled. “Cadence and Alex? Really?”
Cade laughed and took a sip of his beer.
“Yea, they have been together for a while I am sure, but they recently stopped hiding it from me.”
“Well good for them. Hey, that is great about you and Cindy. I am shocked because you two seem very different, but together you look really happy.”
“She is something.”
“So, Heather and I have some news of our own,” Tommy said with a sly grin. “Looks like Cadence and Alex won’t be the only new parents.”
Cade sat back and stared at his best friend.
“Look at you Tommy. You are a big news anchorman, married to the love of your life, and you are going to be a dad. That’s awesome. I am buying tonight, don’t you dare try.”
Cade looked over to where Heather and Cindy stood by the pool table. They were setting the table up for a game and he imagined Cindy’s round belly full of child, his child. The thoughts gave him goose bumps.
“You could do one of those theater announcements,” Tommy suggested. “Take her to a movie and at the end of the credits have the screen pop up with ‘will you marry me’.”
“I don’t know. I want it to be special, personal.”
Tommy shook his head. “Well, when the time comes you will know. Trust me. Just like you knew she was the one, you will know when you should ask.”
“I hope so.”
“Let’s go join the girls,” Tommy motioned with his head. “Looks like Heather finally told Cindy.”
When Cade glanced back at the girls, Cindy was hugging Heather and placing her hand on her tummy.
A pang of jealousy landed in Cindy’s own belly as she touched her best friends. She wondered about the life that was growing deep in there. Would it be a boy or a girl? Her own empty womb ached to have a baby. She had never worried about her “internal clock”, but now that most of her friends were married with their own families, it seemed like she was a ticking time bomb. Cade and Tommy joined them at the pool table, and Tommy whispered something in Heather’s ear, causing her to blush and smile. They were radiating with joy.
Cade wrapped his arms around Cindy and she felt safe; jealousy evaporating with his touch.
“I can’t believe they are going to have a baby,” Cindy cooed to Cade.
“I know,” he whispered back.
She felt his lips brush across her neck and she caught her breath. Excitement pulsed below as he held his hands around her waist. Warmth radiating from those hands and she longed to carry his child.
When they were done playing a few rounds of pool, she convinced him to take her back to her condo. Cade had been acting funny that week and Cindy wondered what was going on with him.
“You’ve been quiet,” she prodded.
Cade was sitting at her table working on a drawing for his scheduled custom tattoos. His art was beautiful. She looked at his work and admired it as she had that first blissful night at his apartment.
“I have had a lot on my mind lately,” he tried to deflect.
“Anything you want to talk about?”
He set his pen down and stared at her. The intensity of those green eyes on her, made her uneasy. Slowly, he got up from his spot and walked towards her. Stopping in front of her, he took her chin in his hand and pointed it up at him. He placed his mouth on hers and kissed her sweetly; then rested his forehead on hers as he held her, rocking side to side.
“Cade?”
“I wanted to make this perfect,” he admitted. “But I think we are already as perfect as we can get. I know that it isn’t always going to be easy. I know that you won’t always like me. You won’t always be happy with the things that I want to do. Our opinions are different, because we are different, but I am so madly in love with you just the same.”
He took out the ring that had been resting in his pocket for days.
“Cindy, I could get down on one knee and ask you to marry me. I could shout it from the rooftops, or even hire a choreographed group to start singing and dancing. The truth is, I just want to hold you and keep you safe. I want to be the one that you share your long day at the hospital with and I want to wake up beside you every morning for the rest of my life. This ring reminded me of those beautiful crystal blue eyes that cared for me when I had been stabbed in an alley and left to die. I love you and will always love you, if you will let me.”
He held the ring out to her and Cindy just stared at it. His hand held the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. She reached out to lightly touch it and saw that his hands were trembling.
“Yes. Of course,” she whispered, barely able to speak.
She took his face in her hands and placed a kiss on his lips; tears filling her eyes from his sweet proposal. He carried her to the couch and made love to her.
15
Cindy sat at her nurse’s station the next day, unable to keep her eyes off the ring adorning her finger. Her mind was awash in the possibilities the future weeks were to bring.
“What is that beautiful little treasure on your finger?” Annie looked over her gold rimmed glasses.
“Cade proposed.”
She was so full of joy and excitement, it was spilling from her.
“Well, congratulations Cindy. That is wonderful news! Too bad Dr. Twat isn’t here anymore. This would send him off the deep end.”
Todd had successfully opened up his practice. Cindy’s mother always keeping tabs on the young doctor, had informed her he was seeing one of his nurses there. She felt both sorry for the girl he was stringing along and happy that she wouldn’t be on his radar anymore.
“Yea, I am glad I do not have to deal with that drama,” Cindy chuckled.
“Time to start plannin’ that weddin’,” Annie declared. Cindy looked at her incredulously. “What?” Annie defended herself. “It’s never too early to weddin’ plan!”
Cindy could already see the wheels turning and knew that if she didn’t escape now, Annie would have her trying on wedding dresses down the street while they were supposed to be working. Luckily a call light warned her that she was needed and she used it to get away.
A blur of people rushed through the emergency room doors as the EMT’s handed their patient off to the hospital staff. Cindy rushed to join them and an alarm went off in her chest when a familiar mop of red was wheeled in on a gurney.
“We pulled a middle-aged Jane Doe from a wreck. We think she is pregnant, her pulse is thread,” the EMT called out as everyone rushed down the hall.
They were busy working on her as Cindy grew closer and was able to get a better look. Her heart sank when Cindy saw her best friend was stretched out on the gurney. Her face was bruised and broken.
“The red-head, was she the driver?” Cindy inquired of the EMT following closely behind.
“Uh, no,” he responded. “No she wasn’t the driver, but the driver was DOA so we moved to rescue her. Their car was flipped on top of itself and crushed. She will be lucky if she survives.”
Cindy turned away from the kid, he had no idea that throwing out that simple abbreviation had just shattered her world. DOA. Dead on arrival. Sensitivity is taught to the medical professionals, but he most likely had no idea he just delivered earth shattering news to basically family in a nonchalant way. Cindy excused herself for a moment and ducked into a nearby bathroom. She held her stomach and heaved; nausea and terror ripping her insides as she just hoped that somehow it wasn’t Tommy driving. She knew it was though. Of course it was Tommy driving.
They brought his lifeless body in a bag after they had delivered those that needed medical immediate medical care. Cindy was not allowed to work on Heather. She had walked into the room, blurry eyed and flushed. As soon as they knew it was her best friend, they made her take a seat in the lobby.
“Call their next of kin Cindy. Call someone for you. We will keep you pos
ted on her status as we know more.” They said the same things that Cindy said to her patients, every single day.
Numbness set in and she wanted to call Cade, but was terrified of sharing such crushing news with him. Opening up their last text message, she thought she could at least handle that over talking.