“Can I have my sandwiches now?” he asked, feeling hungry.
“Yes, okay, I’m coming now,” Demi said as he got up off the bed, feeling a weight lifted from her shoulders to finally be open about who Arthur was and what he meant to her life. She just hoped that he was finally willing to be the same way about her.
“I love peanut butter,” Logan twittered to himself as he carefully made his way down the stairs.
“I wonder if Dad does too,” he mused.
Behind him, Demi froze on the stairs, her heart almost bursting to hear her son refer to his father so easily and so warmly.
####
On the way to the mall that afternoon Demi had to fight the urge to stop the car and turn around. What was she doing? Arthur was only going to hurt her again. He was leaving for New York, that night, turning his back on her and Collinswood, maybe forever.
She should just stop the car and go home, yet still she kept driving.
She’d told her Dad she was going to meet with Hayley and had seen how sceptical he was;
“You’re meeting Hayley?” he asked.
“Yeah, just for a chat.”
“Where?”
“At the mall. Are you okay to watch Logan?”
“Yeah no problem,” her Dad said, then after a brief pause, his brow furrowed he asked; “what did Arthur want?”
“He was just coming by to say goodbye.”
“Goodbye?” her Dad sounded surprised, or at least tried to.
“Yeah, he’s leaving for New York tonight. I thought it was nice of him to drop by,” Demi decided it was best to assume that all Arthur had been doing was saying goodbye. Meeting at the café was merely a way of dragging it out, and why he felt the need to do that she had no idea.
“Alright, well have fun with Hayley.”
“Thanks, Dad, I will.”
“And Demi, just be careful. Remember that I love you very much,” her Dad added when she was half out the door which gave away the fact that he knew every well that she wasn’t meeting with Hayley.
“Thanks Dad,” she smiled. “I love you too.”
####
As she pulled in to the mall car park Demi felt her hands begin to shake upon the wheel. At least this time when Arthur left her she wouldn’t be stranded at the mall, she’d thought ahead enough to know to bring her own car. But then he hadn’t even offered to pick her up.
Since that fateful day Demi had been to Collinswood Mall a hundred times yet today it all seemed different. It was as if she’d never been there before.
Demi suddenly felt unsure of herself and more over of her decision to be there.
“So are you leaving tonight?” Conrad Cooper asked as Arthur frantically edged around the kitchen looking for his previously discarded car keys.
“Have you seen my keys?” he asked, clearly on edge.
“No. I said are you leaving tonight?” Conrad repeated the question.
“What…erm…I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? I thought you’d booked the flight?”
“What?” Arthur asked, not paying attention to his father’s line of questioning as he searched for the lost keys.
“Don’t you have a flight booked for tonight?”
“Urgh yeah but I might change it,” Arthur answered as he scanned all the kitchen surfaces with his eyes.
“Change it? Why?”
“It just depends,” Arthur explained ambiguously.
“On what?”
“On something.”
“What?”
“Ah, here they are!” Arthur breathed a sigh of relief as he found his car and dangled them victoriously before him.
“Where are you going now?” Conrad asked, bemused by his son’s behaviour and illusive responses.
“Just meeting some friends,” Arthur said vaguely, pulling on his jacket and preparing to leave.
“Which friends?”
“Just some old buddies from school.”
“You seem awfully nervous to be meeting just friends,” Conrad noted.
“Dad, I’m fine. I’ll see you later,” Arthur said as he hurried out the door leaving his father behind feeling mystified.
“I remember you were like that,” Beth Cooper sighed from the doorway where she had been quietly watching the interaction between her husband and son.
“What?”
“So nervous and flustered,” she continued wistfully.
“When have I ever been nervous and flustered?” Conrad demanded angrily.
“You were once,” Beth sighed. “When you were young and in love.”
“In love?” Conrad repeated the words flatly. “Arthur isn’t in-” he stopped before completing the sentence, suddenly realizing what was going on.
“After all these years, he’s going to do the right thing,” Beth smiled. It was the first time she’d smiled since losing Jared and while it felt strange for her muscles to perform the now foreign expression, it also felt right.
“You don’t mean…how could you know?”
“A mother just knows.”
“And you’re happy about it?” Conrad asked, unsure how he felt about it.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Beth smiled again. “Jared has finally rubbed off on Arthur. Aren’t you happy about it?”
Conrad thought for a moment, looking to the door where his son had previously been.
“Yes, actually, I am happy,” he said at length. “He’s finally becoming the man I should have always guided him to be.”
####
The glass doors to the shopping mall slid open silently and Demi entered the air conditioned hub of shops, restaurants and cafes.
Even though it was a Tuesday afternoon it was still a hive of activity. Mothers with their strollers pushed their way through crowds of teenagers hanging out after school. Each step Demi took towards the café bought her closer to the unbearable memory when Arthur left her.
She found it difficult to get there. Her feet felt sluggish and she didn’t want to move.
Then she saw him, sat at the back of the café looking nervous. He smiled as soon as he set eyes on her and beckoned her over.
With Arthur’s invitation, her feet walked as they should directly over to the table and she sat down opposite him.
After she’d ordered an iced tea she realized that her heart was thumping so fast in her chest that she feared it might break out of her.
“I’m glad you came,” Arthur said, wringing his hands together nervously.
“Well, I wanted to come and see you.” Demi said, feeling her own hands shaking beneath the table where they were perched on her lap.
“I wanted to come and say goodbye in person,” she said firmly.
Demi wanted to put the horror of what transpired at the café firmly behind her once and for all. She wanted to take control of the situation and not have Arthur blindside her again with devastating news.
“Goodbye?” Arthur asked, puzzled.
“Yes, goodbye. Doesn’t your flight to New York leave tonight?”
“Yes but-”
“Well then this is goodbye,” Demi said sharply, the shaking from her hands beginning to extend to her entire body.
“Demi wait,” Arthur went to grab her hand but she rose quickly to her feet and began to put on her coat.
“It’s been lovely seeing you, I’m sorry it wasn’t under better circumstances,” she began to recite the parting speech she’d been rehearsing since Arthur’s impromptu visit to her house that morning.
“Demi!”
“Maybe I’ll see you again sometime,” she continued, trying to hold back tears.
“Demi I’m not leaving Collinswood!” Arthur almost yelled to be heard over her speech.
“What?” she asked, her turn to be puzzled as she slowly lowered herself back in to her chair, her coat half on.
“I’m not leaving Collinswood,” Arthur said again.
“You’re not?”
“Well, actually, whe
ther I stay or not depends on you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The last time we were here, I blew things majorly,” Arthur said, reaching and taking hold of her hands.
“I’ve never stopped regretting what I said to you all those years ago when we sat here,” he continued, his own heart beginning to accelerate.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that when we sat here, and you told me you were having my baby, there was something I should have done, but I didn’t because I listened to bad advice and I was a coward.”
Demi waited for him to speak again, barely able to breathe.
“I ran away from you, from us, when it was the only thing in my life that ever made sense and I see that now.”
Arthur tried to focus in spite of his mounting nerves, trying to remember what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it.
“I want to stay in Collinswood with you, and Logan and I want us to be a family.”
“Are you…are you serious?” Demi could barely speak.
“Demi Mitchell,” Arthur released her hands and got down on one knee beside her. Around them in the café patrons at other tables began to get excited and look over.
“Will you do me the honour of making me the happiest man in the world and agreeing to marry me?” Arthur asked the ultimate question as he reached in to his pocket and pulled out a green Tiffany box which contained a white gold ring with three diamonds glistening out from the top.
Demi was in shock. She sat there for a moment wondering if this was all a dream, half expecting to wake up and find herself in her bed.
“You’re kind of leaving me hanging here,” Arthur said, his hands trembling beneath the ring box.
“Yes!” Demi exclaimed and around them people began to whoop and applaud.
“Yes Arthur Cooper, I’ll marry you!” Demi accepted once more and Arthur took the ring and slid it up on her ring finger before sealing the proposal with a kiss which enticed more jubilant cries from the excited crowd.
“I never thought you’d come back for me,” Demi said through tears.
“I was always going to come back,” Arthur told her, holding her head in his hands. “Demi you are the love of my life, I’d just been ignoring it.”
####
Four months later and Demi was standing in a lace white gown, checking her reflection. Beside her, her single Bridesmaid, Hayley dabbed at her eyes as fresh tears began to form.
“You look stunning,” Hayley cooed. “But I’m going to ruin my make up!”
“Then stop crying,” Demi joked.
“But I can’t it’s like a fairy tale!”
“Don’t cry,” Logan ordered stubbornly. He wore a little grey suit with a lilac waistcoat which matched the hue of Hayley’s dress.
“Today my Mommy and Daddy are getting married,” he told her proudly. “Today is a happy day.”
“Yes, today is such a happy day,” Hayley gushed. “I’m so proud.” She pulled Demi in for an embrace and the girls held one another, remember all the times they’d hugged throughout their lives, and how none of them had ever meant quite as much as this.
“Are you nervous?” Hayley asked.
“A little.” Demi admitted.
“The car is here,” Demi’s Dad informed the girls as he came in to his daughter’s bedroom and felt his breath catch in his throat.
“Demi,” he felt lost for words, staring at the little girl who had somehow before his very eyes become a beautiful young woman.
“Demi you look so beautiful.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“No, you really do.”
“Do I look hanswom?” Logan asked, struggling to pronounce the word.
“Oh yes, you look very handsome,” Demi’s Dad smiled. He was wearing the same suit as Logan; a light grey covering a lilac waistcoat only he also wore a cravat.
“Are you ready?” he asked Demi. Downstairs the limo was waiting to take them to the church and make her a married woman.
“Almost,” Demi said.
Though he dress limited her movements, Demi deftly made her way across her bedroom and picked up the framed picture of her mother which had always resided by her bed.
“She’d have been so proud to see you today,” her father said.
“I know,” Demi replied, smiling fondly at the picture in her hands.
“She loved you so much,” Demi’s Dad came and placed a caring hand upon her shoulder as she continued to focus on the picture.
“And I loved her. I miss her every day.”
“We all do.”
Demi lifted the picture and planted a kiss upon the glass of the frame before returning it to its position. However the picture was no longer alone beside her bed. There were two new ones.
One was of Jared, smiling as he proudly showed off a spaceship model he’d recently completed.
The second was of Demi, Arthur and Logan, huddled together and beaming in to the camera looking every inch the perfect family.
“We’ve got to go now,” Demi’s Dad said gently.
“Yes, Demi,” Hayley chimed in. “It’s time to go get married.”
####
Approaching the aisle, the wedding march rang out and Demi clutched on to her Dad’s arm, knowing with each step she took, she left behind her old life and grew closer to embarking on a new one.
Spotting Arthur, standing at the end of the aisle, looking devastatingly handsome in his suit she felt her heart almost stop. She remembered when he’d sauntered in to the library all those years ago.
He’d thought that all they’d do was study and so much happened since that initial union. Demi wondered what her teenage self would make of the sight of her about to marry the quarterback of the football team. It really was a dream come true.
“You’ll never stop being my baby girl,” her Dad whispered to her as they made their way up the aisle.
Around them cameras flashed wildly and people oohed and ahhed at her dress.
“And you’ll never stop being my Dad,” Demi whispered back.
Arthur turned and watched her approaching with tears in his eyes.
In the congregation various people were already crying before the vows had even begun. Beth Cooper wept tears of joy onto her husband’s designer suit while at the top of the church Hayley wailed, comforted by Logan who kindly offered her a handkerchief.
####
The day ran perfectly without a hitch. Demi and Arthur professed their love to one another and made the promise to be as one until death did part them.
Photographs were taken; a cake was cut and a bouquet thrown. People gushed and commented on what a perfect day it was.
“Are you glad you chose to stay in Collinswood?” Demi asked as she and her new husband posed for yet more pictures.
“What do you think?” Arthur smiled.
“I think I wish we’d done this all those years ago and not missed out on time together.”
“Agreed,” Arthur said, wrapping an arm around his new wife. “But I’m here now, that’s what matters.
Arthur doubted he’d ever felt so happy in all his life. He finally felt like he was being the person he wanted to be rather than running from it.
All that was missing was Jared. He should have been there sharing in their joy. He would have loved every minute of it.
“Wherever he is, I’m sure he’s watching us today,” Demi said, squeezing Arthur’s hand.
“Yeah, I hope so.” Arthur said sadly.
“He’s with my Mom,” Demi smiled though her eyes were tainted with sadness.
“You’ll always have me, you know that right?” Arthur asked.
“Yes, I know, because I’m never letting you go again!” Demi teased.
####
Demi’s Dad watched the pictures being taken with Logan wriggling upon his knee. He was sat next to Conrad Cooper. A man who he never thought he’d be able to be civil with.
“This must be a proud
day for you,” Conrad said in an attempt to make small talk.
Just Like Heaven Page 16