Chapter Two
“Jake!” Gillian whined. “How much longer do I have to wear this?!”
“Leave it on. I don’t want you to ruin the surprise,” he said.
“Come on! What is it!”
“Shhhh, Gillian. You’ll wake up the entire boarding house. Here,” Jake said
reaching around and removing the blindfold.
Gillian looked down on the end table in her bedroom and quickly picked up what
had caught her eye.
“What are these?” she asked, holding two pieces of paper in her hand.
“Tickets,” Jake said.
“To what?”
“Ha, to where,” Jake corrected her.
“ ‘To where’?” Gillian repeated, as it sunk in. “You want me to go away with
you?”
“Not far. It’s a vacation resort on Virginia Beach. And, just for
the weekend,” he hurried on, in an effort to convince her.
“Jake,” Gillian began hesitantly, “I, I don’t know.”
“Come on, Gillian. You know how much I care about you - how deeply I’ve
fallen in love with you. I want us to be together,” Jake continued,“like a
real couple. Don’t you want that, too?”
“Jake, I just....”
Gillian’s voice dropped off and her eyes glazed over as her mind filled with an
old memory. It was the day she signed the divorce papers.
“Say it. Tell me. Tell me that you still want to be married to me
and I’ll makeconfetti out of these stupid divorce papers.”
“I can’t.”
Then she could hear it all over again, as plain as day.
The sound of
her wedding ring hitting the hard cement. The sound that haunted her day and
night.
She ran herfingers through her hair, suddenly agitated.
“Gillian, are you all right?” Jake asked.
“Yeah, I, I’m fine,” she replied, returning to the present.
She looked down on her left hand where she used wear her ring. It was now
empty, like her heart.
“Okay,” she said, hardly believing it herself.
“What?” Jake asked, stunned.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Oh, Gillian! Gillian, that’s wonderful!” he exclaimed, pulling her
into his arms.
Gillian smiled feebly.
“You won’t regret it. I won’t let you regret it.”
He kissed her softly - and she let him. Jake broke the kiss and
looked into her eyes.
“Stay with me. Stay with me tonight,” he asked quietly.
Though she no longer wore her ring, Gillian could feel it branded on her skin.
And, again her mind betrayed her.
She could see it as vividly as if it were
happening all over again.
"Gillian, I love you and I want to be with you - that is, as long as
you'll still have me."
"Oh, I must be dreaming. And if I am, just don't wake me up."
“This no dream, my beautiful, sweet princess. And I am going to prove it to
you."
She tilted her head up towards his and they kissed passionately.
“I can’t, Jake. Not now,” she said, silently adding not here.
“Okay. We can wait, ‘till the weekend,” Jake said.
Thinking out loud, Gillian said flatly, “That’s tomorrow.”
“Until tomorrow,” Jake said happily, kissing Gillian goodnight, then
leaving theroom.
Hours later, unable to sleep, Gillian lay in her bed, their bed - no - her bed.
“Tomorrow,” she said.
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