Till Forever

by Elena Matthews

  “You know, I don’t even know your name,” I spoke as I rolled the glove up until I was met with the same resistance.

  “It’s Tyler.”

  I glanced at him and smiled.

  Tyler.

  “It suits you.”

  “Well, my mama gave it to me when I was born, so I’ve had plenty of time to grow into it.”

  I laughed for what seemed like the thousandth time during the space of ten minutes. This guy was making my shitty night turn into a pretty memorable one, and I didn’t miss the way my heart skipped a beat at the very thought. It had been a long time since anyone made me laugh, let alone put a smile on my face.

  “Well, Tyler—or The Flash”—I winked—“it’s nice to meet you. I’m—”

  “Mia. I know,” Tyler cut me off.

  I reared my head back in confusion. “How do you know who I am?”

  “I know a lot about you,” he confessed.

  WTF?

  My stomach dropped.

  Great. I have a stalker.

  My distressed look of alarm must have been obvious on my face because he chuckled under his breath.

  “Relax. I’m not some stalker who’s come to have his wicked way with you. I’m best friends with Matt.”

  I immediately loosened up.

  “Matt as in Alex’s fiancé?” I asked even though I only knew one Matt, and it was the guy who was throwing this party with my best friend.

  “The very one,” he confirmed.

  “I didn’t realize he had friends,” I said on a whim, smiling at my own joke.

  “That’s because I’m his only friend,” he joked.

  I reached behind my head, unfastened the Velcro of my mask, and peeled it off. “So, how is it that you know me, but I don’t know you?” I leaned into him, placed the eye mask on him, and fastened it in place.

  “Well, Alex has been telling me for a while about her awesome friend—aka you—who moved to Louisiana with her boyfriend, but if she weren’t with him, she’d be perfect for me…if I weren’t—and I quote her here—‘such a male-whore,’ that is.”

  He smirked, and I gently laughed.

  “Then, when I arrived tonight, she told me you’d recently moved back to town, and you were trying to get over a broken heart. She thought you were in the living room, moping over him, but I now know that you weren’t. It was because of this outfit.”

  He pointed down to himself, and I couldn’t help but shake my head with amusement at how ridiculous he looked.

  “I don’t understand why Alex has never mentioned you.”

  “She was hardly going to tell you about some guy who was perfect for you when you were with another dude.”

  “Perfect for me?” I mused, unable to keep the smile off my face.

  “Yes. I’m perfect in every way. And I’m not just talking about the upstairs department.”

  He wagged his eyebrows, and I giggled some more.

  “Well,” I began, my hilarity fading, “I’m not with him anymore. I wish she’d told me about you though, as it would have been nice to know I had better options waiting for me at home.” Then, I might not have wasted two years of my life with a conniving liar.

  “If you don’t mind me asking, why did you break up?”

  “Do you want the truth?”

  “Always.”

  “He was an ass, one who didn’t deserve me.”

  Tyler gave me a genuine smile. “An ass who is stupid enough to let a beautiful woman like you go definitely doesn’t deserve you.”

  Those words seemed strange, coming from a guy like him, a guy who probably had more notches on his bedpost than I’d had menstrual cramps, but I believed every word he’d said.

  I didn’t have a response for that, so instead, I stepped back and gave him a twirl. “How do I look?”

  “Do you want the truth?”

  “Always,” I repeated his word with a bright smile.

  “You look like a wet dream.”

  His deep laughter roared around the bathroom when I smacked him in the chest.

  “I don’t want to look like a wet dream. I’m aiming more for nightmare here!”

  “Okay, okay…you look awful, terrifying. Ugly. Happy?”

  “Yes, if I believed you.” I rolled my eyes.

  “What can I say? You’re dressed in my T-shirt. Guys’ T-shirts are usually only worn by chicks the morning after a night of hot sex.”

  I hitched an eyebrow with surprise.

  “You can’t blame me. It’s a universal dude code. Nine times out of ten, we’ve got our head in the gutter with some kind of dirty thought.”

  “So, it’s true when they say men think about sex every thirty seconds?” It’d always been a question that intrigued me.

  “Pretty much, yeah. Although your thoughts get less pervy, the older you get. Or, at least, that’s what I tell myself whenever I’m tempted to jerk myself off in my office at work.”

  With humor in my voice, I said, “Please tell me you haven’t.”

  “Of course not. I’m not an animal,” he said, as if this were the most unethical thing a person could do. The mischievous glint in his eyes told me otherwise, especially when he added, “I just go to the bathroom instead.”

  “Tyler!” I shrieked through my laughter.

  Seriously, who is this guy, and where the hell has he been all my life?

  “What? My colleagues just think I ate a bad burrito or something.”

  I shoved him in the direction of the bathroom door, biting my lip to stop from giggling more. “I honestly don’t know if meeting you was a good or bad thing.”

  He turned to me, his smirk never faltering from his face. “How can you even question that? I’m dressed as a motherfucking drag queen just so I can impress you.”

  “You’re trying to impress me?” I questioned, a little shell-shocked.

  His face grew serious, and I just knew he was about to put it all on the line for me.

  “Yes, from the minute I laid eyes on you earlier tonight. But what you don’t know is that it took me two beers and a shot of whiskey just to get the courage to approach you. And, FYI, you’re the first woman I’ve ever been nervous to approach.”

  I was officially speechless.

  It took me a short while of staring into the incredible green hue of his eyes before I was able to find my tongue. Then, it took me a few more seconds to form words. “Well, it’s one thing, changing into the outfit, but it’s another to be seen in public with it on. If you really want to impress me, you need to get your butt downstairs and let the ass-groping begin.” I winked before sidestepping him to open the door.

  Before I could exit, he grasped hold of my hand, and I turned to look at him. He had an impish smile on his face.

  “Just for future reference, if you don’t want me to see your tatas”—he glanced down to my chest for a brief second—“you shouldn’t strip off where I have view of a mirror.”

  My eyes widened at his admission, and I quickly spun around, trying to hide the blush creeping along my cheeks and chest. I exited the bathroom with Tyler following behind.

  “Hey, you don’t have to be embarrassed. They are nice tatas.”

  “Just nice?” I questioned, spinning back around to him.

  The grin he wore on his face never faltered. He drew in closer until his face was only a couple of inches from me, making this moment and our positioning an intimate one.

  “I was trying to be polite, but, no, they aren’t just nice; they’re fucking phenomenal.”

  My breath got caught on an inhale, and my entire body spread with unbearable heat. I had to refrain from squeezing my legs together to ease the pressure I felt zoning down below.

  “You’re right,” I began, trying not to give away how uneven my voice sounded as the lust consumed me. I feigned confidence. “They are fucking phenomenal.”

  I pivoted on my feet and faced forward, heading toward the stairs, with Tyler following behind me.

 
The laughter soon followed as we made our way downstairs and headed in the direction of the kitchen as everyone took in Tyler. I spotted Alex in her Wonder Woman outfit and Matt in a Spider-Man costume at the breakfast bar with a couple of other guys both dressed as Indiana Jones, doing tequila shots.

  I approached, and Alex immediately eyed me, her brows drawing inward and her forehead wrinkling with confusion when she noticed I was no longer in The Flash costume. “Hey, how come you’re wearing…” she began. I knew the minute she locked her gaze on Tyler as she whispered, “Oh my God,” and proceeded to start laughing. Snorting and everything.

  I smirked as I grabbed a beer from the fridge and twisted the cap open. I wasn’t touching any more of that pink shit.

  Matt stopped mid sentence to Indiana Jones 1 and asked Alex, “What’s so funny?”

  Alex had tears running down her face, gripping hold of the countertop as cackles erupted from her chest. “Tyler,” she managed to breathe in between her hysterics.

  Matt glanced at Tyler, who had now approached them, and he cracked up. “Dude, what the fuck are you wearing?”

  The kitchen began to fill with roars of laughs, all at the expense of the six-foot muscular guy dressed in a women’s red The Flash costume, posing the only way a superhero did—with his fists on his hips and his head held high. I leaned against the refrigerator, hiding my amusement behind my bottle of beer between taking small sips.

  “What? Why’s everyone laughing? I thought this was a costume party?” he asked with mock seriousness. “Well, I’m wearing a costume,” he pointed out, a grin appearing on his face before it turned into a shit-eating smile. “But be warned, if anyone gropes my ass, I’m gonna kick all your asses!”

  Matt shook his head before clapping his best friend on the shoulder. “The things you do just to get a chick out of her clothes, man.”

  “Don’t you mean, out of her clothes and into mine?” he said suggestively, nodding his head in my direction.

  I pursed my lips with humor, remembering what Tyler had said earlier about the whole T-shirt rule.

  Matt sniggered.

  A guy dressed as a Power Ranger bit against his knuckles with an exaggerated groan. “When I grow up, I want to be just like you.”

  More laughter erupted, and as the guys all joked around, Alex stood in front of me. “I see you’ve met Tyler, and I also see the glowing smile you’re wearing. It’s like you’ve had a personality transplant in the span of fifteen minutes.”

  She was right about that. Fifteen minutes ago, I’d wanted to slaughter every guy I came into contact with, but now, I was struggling to remember why.

  My smile only grew wider. I sidestepped from the refrigerator to let someone else open it.

  “What can I say? He’s pretty charming.” I grinned around my beer bottle and then took another sip.

  “Charming’s one way of describing him.”

  “And what other ways would you describe me?” Tyler came up from behind Alex, suspicion in his voice.

  Alex looked up at him, flashing him an innocent grin. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” she replied with a wink.

  She walked away, leaving Tyler and me alone. My heart raced as he took the bottle from my hand, brought it to his lips, and threw it back.

  “Was that impressive enough for you?” he asked once he pulled the bottle away from his mouth.

  “It was more than impressive.” I took in his attire and felt the tilt of my smile at how hideous he looked.

  “Impressive enough to go on a date with me?”

  I retrieved my bottle from his grasp and left him hanging by taking several gulps of my beer. I pointed to The Flash costume with the bottle. “Will you wear that?”

  “I’ll wear whatever you want me to wear.”

  And, if tonight was any proof, there was no denying he would wear whatever I wanted. This guy was no chicken.

  “Well, since you look like an experiment gone wrong”—I giggled—“I won’t make you wear that on our date. Jeans and a T-shirt will be more than acceptable.”

  His eyes lit up with hope, like that of a five-year-old boy on Christmas morning. “Does that mean you’ll go on a date with me?”

  “Yes.”

  As I blink back to the present, I realize my eyes are burning, and tears are streaming down my face. A sob whimpers from me, and I shift to my side and bury my face into a pillow, letting the sadness of the memory annihilate me.

  It was only four years ago when he suddenly appeared in my life with his humor, shit-eating smile, and the ability to consume me. It’s hard to contemplate the possibility of ending a relationship with the boy who changed it all for me.

  Within those first fifteen minutes of meeting him, I knew that he was the one.

  It sounds ridiculous, even in my own head. Insta-love always seemed far-fetched until Cupid hit me with the arrow.

  From that moment on, it was a whirlwind love.

  One of a kind.

  On our third date, he told me he loved me.

  On our fourth date, I told him I loved him.

  On our two-year anniversary, he asked me to marry him.

  On our three-year anniversary, I married the love of my life.

  On our fourth…

  Well, nothing.

  I spent it trying to forget I’d ever married him with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s and a marathon of Grey’s Anatomy, which included a snotfest during—spoiler alert—the season they decided to kill off McDreamy.

  This time last year, I was happily married.

  Now, not so much.

  Fuck.

  How, in the space of a year, did our lives turn to shit?

  I should be with my husband right now, preparing to give birth to our daughter.

  Instead, I’m in the guest room of a house I no longer live in, sobbing into the pillow of a bedding set we were given as a wedding gift and wearing a T-shirt that signifies the beginning while trying to figure out what the hell my future holds.

  I wish I could rewind time and go back to our lives when we were happily married, planning a family, planning a future. I wish we could live in the very world Tyler had described earlier. A life filled with children. A life filled with happiness.

  There is nothing I want more.

  I want to be wrapped up in humor, love, and the passion that makes up every inch of Tyler.

  I want to be happy again.

  I just don’t know what happiness involves anymore.

  Or if Tyler even belongs in my life.

  I just don’t know anything anymore…

  Except for one thing.

  That I’ll love Tyler until my last dying breath. And then some.

  Mia

  I don’t register where I’m going. I simply follow the direction my feet take me in. That’s when I find myself standing outside Tyler’s bedroom—or I should say, our bedroom. I find the door is wide open, and I stand at the threshold, watching Tyler’s sleeping silhouette through the moonlit room. My tears resurface again as I take in the rise and fall of his chest. There isn’t a fiber of my being that doesn’t love him.

  He’s my everything.

  That’s what makes it all that more difficult. Loving him makes all of this so much more unbearable.

  If I didn’t love him, walking away wouldn’t be so hard. It wouldn’t crush my heart, imagining a moment where he was no longer a part of my life.

  I want to make everything right, but I’m not quite sure how we’re supposed to do that. I want to stop being angry with him. I just don’t know how. The hostility is all I’ve known since I lost the baby but more so when Tyler left. Resentful. Bitter. Devastated. That along with the pain, and it’s hard to know which way is up. Or down. Or in any direction for that matter.

  I’m just so lost.

  I don’t know how long I stay fixed at his door, simply watching him sleep, but after a while, he begins to stir before sitting up. He immediately sees me at the door, but it’s hard to see what his expression ho
lds through the darkness.

  “Mia, are you okay?” he questions on a sleepy croak.

  I let his words linger, not sure how I can ever answer a question like that. I try to contain the emotion I feel burning inside me, but the tears fall anyway, and despite knowing I shouldn’t, I rush to him. No matter how upset and mad I am with him, right now, I just want the comfort of his arms. The comfort of him. I crawl onto his lap and straddle his thighs, burying my face into the crook of his warm neck, as I let my cries take over, sobs racking uncontrollably from my chest. He doesn’t hesitate and immediately wraps his arms around me, caressing the palms of his hands along my spine.

  “Baby, what’s wrong?” he whispers in a hushed tone, his lips pressing gently against my earlobe.

  “Everything,” I whimper through my cries.

  He lies back down, taking me with him. His fingers drift to my hair, caressing through the strands. I sink deeper into him as pleasant chills erupt against every inch of skin, his touch soothing me.

  “Shh, I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you,” he speaks in my ear as the tears continue to fall.

  But it’s different than earlier. We’re not clutching on to each other for dear life as we break into a million pieces together, our sadness becoming one, but rather, he’s comforting me, anchoring me to him as I expel every ounce of heartache in the form of my salty tears.

  He never once eases his hold on me, his hushed words never silencing, his lips never drifting too far from my skin. Eventually, my sobs ease to controlled breaths with the occasional hiccup contracting from my lungs.

  Calm slowly eases over me as his fingers, which have now trailed under my T-shirt, trace my back with slow and easy movements, my body shivering with delight. I’ve always loved when he tickles my back. He knows my weakness.

  “I’ve missed this,” I half-moan, half-grumble against his chest, the thump of his heartbeat sounding in my ear. The best sound in the world.

  “Me, too, baby. This bed’s been way too lonely without you.”

  As much as it shouldn’t, it makes me smile.

  “I don’t know why. You always hog the bed,” I joke.

  His chest vibrates against my head as he lets out a chuckle. “That’s why we’re perfect together. You don’t take that much room. You’re like a little Polly Pocket—small enough to fit in my pocket.”