by C. S. Janey
Realizing she wasn’t going to get an answer to her question right now, she turned on her heel and walked into the dining room to sit down. They both followed, although Marcius said something low that made her mother laugh again but Charlotte couldn’t hear what was apparently so funny.
Passing the food around, everybody was pretty quiet for the moment. Douglas was in his own little world, humming a tune in his head as he shoved his potatoes and meatloaf into his mouth, appearing as if he were starving and she never fed him.
Charlotte noticed Marcius watching Douglas with an amused look on his face and when he caught her looking at him, he smiled at her too before turning back to talk to Anna.
“Well Anna, you should tell your daughter before she stabs me with a fork.”
Douglas’ head shot up while Charlotte giggled involuntarily. “Mommy wouldn’t do that! You’re nice! Why would she stab you with a fork?”
Anna laughed. “Calm down Douglas. He wasn’t serious. He just meant that your mom obviously doesn’t know what to make of us being friends, that’s all.”
“Okay.” He looked back down at his plate, then turned to Charlotte. “I’m done. Can I go play in my room?”
“You ate pretty fast! You still have some left. Are you sure you are done eating?” At his nod, she sighed. “Okay, you can go play then.”
When he ran out of the room, Charlotte sent her mother a questioning glance. “Now will you tell me what is going on? Although I think I have a pretty good idea at this point - I just want verification of my suspicion.”
Marcius joined in with Anna on a laugh. “Uh oh, I think we’re busted darling.”
Charlotte groaned at his use of an endearment.
Anna covered Charlotte’s hand with her own. “Yes, I think we are busted Marcius. And Charlotte, I wanted to tell you but I never found the right time.”
Gaping at her mother, she pulled her hand away gently. “How long has this been going on? Does Trevin know?”
Marcius chimed in. “No, he doesn’t know either and only a few weeks. I finally asked her out just a few days before you and Trevin began speaking again.” He sent her an apologetic smile.
“I see,” Charlotte said out loud, but she didn’t. She felt sick but she couldn’t tell her mother that because she just looked so happy and Charlotte didn’t want to ruin that for her. “I’m happy for you, Mom.”
“Thanks sweetie. That means a lot to me.”
Scooting her chair back, she nodded at them both. “I think I am going to go relax a bit before bed. Do you guys want me to tell Trevin about this?”
Marcius grimaced which Charlotte interpreted to mean he wasn’t looking forward to his son finding out. Anna just chuckled.
“Yes, you can tell him if you want but if not, its not a big deal. Marcius was planning to tell him anyway.”
“Okay. Goodnight mom. Goodnight Marcius.”
As she walked out, Charlotte considered how absolutely awkward that situation was and then laughed as she imagined Trevin’s face when she told him what was going on.
Chapter Eleven
Entering her room, Charlotte walked over to the closet and opened it. Looking around for a moment, her eyes lit up when she came upon a box on the top shelf.
This was the same room she grew up in and the box being in the same place she had left it confirmed that her mother hadn’t changed a thing and probably hadn’t even entered this room in all those years except to dust. The girlish furnishings were still all around - purple curtains, a white and purple comforter that hid the purple colored sheets on the double bed and a collection of assorted stuffed animals along the footboard.
When Charlotte had first opened the closet, there were still clothes and shoes she’d left behind. Taking down the box, Charlotte stood there for a moment while eyeing the items.
Musing out loud, she said “I will have to get rid of these clothes, I certainly don’t wear the same things I did then. Perhaps mom knows of a charity that will take them.” Tucking away a note to ask her mother about it later, she put it out of her mind.
Closing the closet door, she took the box over to the bed and sat down. It was an old shoe box, one she had first started putting “the forever things” as she called them, inside of. Leaning back against the headboard and extending her legs straight out, she placed the box on her lap and lifted the top off, placing it beside her on the bed.
Lying on top of all the rest of the contents was a picture of her and Trevin at her senior Prom.
In the picture, she was wearing the same dress Trevin had recalled just the previous night at the bar. That dress had been the nicest thing she had ever worn. The skirt had a pink silk petticoat under layers by the lacy silk tulle, which puffed out to make the skirt look similar to a ball gown while the upper part of the dress had been strapless and sported a sweetheart neckline. She recalled how Trevin couldn’t stop commenting how beautiful she looked and had kept her blushing all evening with how much he desired her and couldn’t wait to get her alone. Up until that point, they had only fooled around but hadn’t had sex because she wasn’t ready. She had been eighteen for several months but Trevin had never pressured her to go further than what she wanted. His respect for her boundaries had always been one of the best things about him, and even when he joked around, he made it clear that the final decision to have sex was up to her.
Shaking her head of the thoughts of that topic, she focused on Trevin in the photo. He had worn a tuxedo that evening along with renting a limo. He had been rather embarrassed, afraid she would find it cliche but she just told him how loved she felt that he would do that stuff just for her. They had spent the evening splitting between slow-dancing and chatting with friends, although by then he was in his second year of college so it was mostly her friends that had met him at some point. Her female friends had always commented on how lucky she was.
Smiling, she set the picture aside to look through the rest of the box. Pulling them out one by one, she found herself grinning and chuckling over the various items inside - a lucky rabbits foot Trevin had given her in middle school, birthday and Christmas cards from friends and family - and near the bottom, awards from her good grades in school. When she got to the bottom, her breath hitched as her eyes focused on the only item remaining in the box.
Her engagement ring from Trevin.
Picking it up, she brought it close to her face, examining every inch of it just like she had the first time as her memory went back to the night he proposed.
It was a week after graduation and Trevin was picking her up to spend the weekend in the city. He had said on the phone that it was her graduation present from him and that they would have a lot of fun. She had spent the week on edge, waiting for Friday to arrive so they could leave as Trevin had gotten the weekend off from his summer job. When the doorbell rang, she flew through the house with her bags for the trip in hand, the sound of her feet echoing against the floor as she went to the front door. Flinging the door open, she found Trevin standing on the porch, grinning at the sight of her.
“Sprite! Are you excited?”
Nodding enthusiastically, she looked back over her shoulder and yelled to her parents. “Mom! Dad! I’m leaving right now, I’ll be back on Sunday!”
Her mom replied with a bye and be safe and then they were off.
They arrived in the city an hour later after sitting in some traffic due to construction, where they checked into a hotel room Trevin had booked weeks before. Placing her stuff on the bed, she sat on the edge, bouncing as he walked around the room. Chuckling at her child-like behavior, he came over and sat on the bed next to her. As he tucked her hair behind an ear, she leaned into his hand as he spoke.
“Charlotte, I need to ask you something.”
His voice was low and serious, making her frown. “What? Is something wrong?”
He tilted his head slightly, raising his brow as he admitted, “Well, it could. It depends on how you look at it. Something could be wrong depen
ding on how you answer my question.”
She felt her stomach drop with sudden anxiety, making her look down at her hands in her lap as she wondered what he wanted to ask her. Seeing his other hand coming out of his pocket at that moment, her eyes flew to his face and found him smiling at her again.
Holding his hand up, a little black box was sitting in his palm. Before she could say anything, he got off the bed and knelt in front of her.
“Oh!” Her exclamation had him laughing but he put his finger up to his lips, indicating that she should let him speak. When he opened it to show her the ring, she couldn’t resist looking at it as he spoke. It was a sterling silver ring with an amethyst in the middle - her favorite stone - surrounded by two little diamonds on each side that winked up at her. At her gasp, he spoke.
“Charlotte. This may seem like the least likely place I would do this but I didn’t want to be cliche and do it in a restaurant,” he joked making them both laugh before he continued. “I know what counts is not where I do this at, but that you know how much you mean to me. And I know that you’ve just graduated and that we’re both young, but I want you to know that I love you. From the very first time we met, I have liked you and only you. You make me happy and make me laugh all the time. You are smart and kind and a lovely person inside and out. I don’t need to spend years finding someone who is perfect for me when I’ve already found her. We don’t have to get married until you’re ready, we don’t have to do anything physical together until you are ready but I want you to at least say you will be mine for now and for ever. Will you promise to me now to marry me one day?”
With tears sliding down her face, Charlotte felt so happy and surprised that all she could do was nod. And as Trevin slid the ring on her finger, he kissed her sweetly on the lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned back slowly, forcing him to follow her down to the bed in order to avoid breaking the meeting of their mouths.
When her phone rang suddenly, Charlotte jumped, jarring her back to the present. The memory slipped away as she answered the phone.
~*~
Trevin wasn’t sure if he should call Charlotte or not. He had seen her just that morning during the whole situation with Shelby and she hadn’t seemed too terribly upset by what had happened, but he couldn’t be sure everything was fine until she talked to him. Ringing her up was a gamble because he wasn’t sure what she was feeling; he just knew he couldn’t sleep until he at least heard her voice.
He couldn’t keep the happiness from his voice when she picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“Sprite. Did you miss me?” Did I really just say that? Play it cool! Mentally kicking himself, he cleared his throat before laughing. “I mean, hi Charlotte.”
Surprising him, she replied back with a smile evident in her voice. “Hi to you too, Trevin. Weirdly enough, I was just thinking about you.”
“Oh?” It was hard to keep the shock hidden - while he certainly hoped she would be thinking about him, he hadn’t expected her to admit it out loud.
“Yes. I was going through my box of things I kept through the years and first, I came across a picture of us from my Prom.”
“The one of us laughing at a joke I told you right before the picture was snapped?”
She paused before answering. “That would be the one. I was going to ask how you remembered that but you recalled the dress I wore quite clearly so I should not be surprised that you remember the picture.”
“I never forget anything, Sprite. You should know that by now.”
“Yes, well…” She coughed, he presumed to clear her throat before she continued. “At the bottom of the box, I found the engagement ring.”
Sucking in a breath, he quickly released it when she didn’t say anything else. “I didn’t know you had left it behind. I had kind of figured you threw it off a bridge or something equally horrendous in disgust before leaving town.”
He didn’t know what was so funny but the next thing he heard was her laughing.
“I would never do such a thing, even if I probably had considered it,” she admitted, her voice laced with amusement. “Honestly, I had forgotten I put it in this box though. I don’t recall putting it here and thought I had taken it with me when I left. I was so upset though that apparently, I placed in a box with everything else that reminded me of you.”
“Charlotte…”
“No, let me say what I need to say.”
Hearing the need for her to be heard in the statement, Trevin didn’t even say anything back. He just waited for her to start talking again, knowing that the conversation was about to take a very serious turn.
“I didn’t want to believe you wouldn’t cheat on me. I know that now. Even after six years together, I wasn’t sure you really wanted to get married to me. I know that you weren’t pushing me or anything and at the time, it was probably the smart thing to do. You told me that we could get ready when I felt ready and I felt ready about a year after you proposed except that I didn’t know how to tell you. We both had so much going on and I felt insecure with you off at college. Seeing Shelby’s arms wrapped around your neck with her lips on yours just confirmed my insecurities about our relationship.”
“What insecurities sweetheart? I had no idea you were unhappy…”
Sighing, she cut him off. “I didn’t know I was unhappy. I had decided that after you graduated in the upcoming Spring, that I would tell you I was ready to get married. I told myself that I had to live with that because I didn’t want to cause you stress in the middle of the school year by telling you I wanted to get married sooner rather than later. I know that it was stupid now, I can see that. You were waiting for me to say the word, not the other way around.”
“Charlotte, we could have gotten married as soon as you had wanted if you had just let me know that’s what you wanted. I’m confused though. Did I do something to make you think I really didn’t want to get married?”
He knew he sounded incredulous. Thinking back on those years, he couldn’t see where he may have given her the impression that he didn’t want to her to actually tell him when she wanted to get married.
He heard her sniffling as she replied. “It wasn’t that. You didn’t do anything wrong; it was all me. By then, we had been together since I was thirteen years old and you were fifteen. You proposed to me after I graduated and we were each others one and only. You always let me lead in our relationship and even though I knew - knew - at the time that you were just being a gentleman, I can see now that I felt like it just didn’t matter enough to you for you to push the issue. You proposed to me but you were off at college with all these pretty girls and I was left behind.”
Trevin was speechless. She kept talking when he didn’t say anything.
“I know I chose to stay behind. I should have started college the year I graduated but wanted to take a year off first. I don’t know why I blamed you for leaving me behind when I chose it but…” he heard her voice trail off, the tears she was surely crying evident in the low and raw sound of her voice.
“Sweetie…don’t cry. I hate when you cry, especially when I’m not near enough to do something about it. It’s all in the past and I’m not mad at you for not telling me how you felt. We can work it out, okay?”
When she just continued to sniffle, he changed the topic, hoping to make her smile if not laugh.
“You wanna know something funny?”
There was a pause before she whispered, “Sure.”
“After all these years, I think my father is finally dating somebody.”
At that, Charlotte cracked up with laughter.
~*~
“I only meant for you to smile and say how awesome it was that my father had most likely found someone to date after all these years. I didn’t expect you to bust up laughing about it. What is so funny?”
Hearing the confusion in his voice only made Charlotte laugh harder.
“Charlotte, take a breath and calm down long enough to tell me why you are l
aughing so hard, please! I’m very confused!”
Taking a deep breath to try and tamp down the residual giggles that wanted to escape, Charlotte spoke when she got her amusement under control.
“I knew. I mean, I found out earlier this evening that he was dating someone new.”
“Oh…okay. But how did you know and why did you laugh like that? Is there something I don’t know that I should be made aware of?”
“Uh,” She coughed for a moment to clear her throat, then chuckled. “I guess you could say that you should probably be made of the situation, yes.”
“Well, I’m waiting!”
“He was over here at my house earlier this evening. He joined me, Douglas and my mother for dinner.”
When there was nothing but silence on the other end of the line, she couldn’t hide the humor in her voice as she said his name. “Trevin?”
“Are you saying —?”
“Yes. I’m saying that your father was over here for dinner…and that he is dating my mother.”
“WHAT? Are you shitting me?”
“Nope. I caught them getting all canoodly in the kitchen and laughing like two teenagers. It was kind of cute…”
“Ugh! Don’t tell me that! Now I need to wash my ears!”
She laughed at his reaction to finding out this information. “You would think you were a teenager with this reaction and not a grown man of thirty-one. I think it’s sweet.”
“It is awkward! I mean, your mother and my father would make us step-siblings!”
“I am quite aware of that although that’s only true if they get married,” she acknowledged, unable to help laughing still. “But it is not really all that unusual and we are old enough where it’s not weird, at least in my opinion.”
“I guess you could be right. Just find it weird that after all these years of him being single - pretty much since I was nine years old - that the one person he happens to be dating is the mother of the woman I love.”
Charlotte felt like her heart jumped into her throat as her pulse sped up. She wasn’t sure what to say.