| |
As the car pulled up outside my home, I felt so sleepy that I was certain I could sleep forever more, but I also felt incredibly unsettled, like I’d never be comfortable with myself again. It was a strange feeling circling my heart, and I didn’t totally know where it stemmed from.
“What’s going on?” Aron asked as he halted the car and turned to face me with his concerned eyebrows knotted together. “You don’t seem like you’re going to be okay at all.”
“I don’t want to be alone.” I surprised myself as I admitted this. I didn’t realize quite how much it was the truth until I said it aloud. That was it, after all I’d been through I wasn’t sure if I could be trusted by myself, I didn’t know where my brain would take me.
“I can...stay with you, if you like?” His cheeks reddened as he said this which made my heart flutter over and over again. He actually felt unsure about this statement, as if I wouldn’t want him with me.
“You don’t have to do this. I know you aren’t one for relationships. Not that I’m suggesting that’s what this is.” I cringed as my mouth got the better of me, I didn’t mean to sound so desperate and needy. Even though he’d gone some way to dispelling my fears at the hospital, I was still overprotective of my heart. I didn’t want to allow myself to be vulnerable again just to get shattered. I did want him with me, but only as a comfort not for pity.
“Violet, I want to be with you,” he told me calmly. “Maybe this is a little too soon to be having this conversation, but I’ve liked you for a long time. You know as well as I do how rumors get spread around the hospital with absolutely no substance.” Well, that much was true. If there was one thing I’d learned recently, it was that. “I had a serious girlfriend a while back, then I had a fling with another doctor which ended badly. Maybe that’s where my bad reputation came from. To be honest, I don’t really care. People can think what they want about me, it really doesn’t matter. I know the truth. And the truth is, I want you. I have for a very long time.”
I sucked in a deep breath of air, my head spinning with the fact that somehow the worst day of my life was also becoming the one where everything came together. “I want you too.” It felt good to admit that so freely.
He kissed me then, gently and tenderly, holding my cheeks like I was the most precious thing in the world. As his lips moved against mine I felt a hot coil of love creeping through my body. In all the years that I’d spent admiring this man, now he was mine and it felt even better than I had hoped.
“Come on, let’s get you inside.”
Aron walked me up to my apartment, and he tenderly lay me on the bed. Then I watched as he made his way through my drawers until he found some pajamas.
“You’re not going to dress me, are you?” I asked, utterly horrified. I propped myself up onto my elbows as my entire body went cold. How embarrassing would that be?
Aron didn’t answer me, he just gave me another smile. Then he pulled on the bottom of my scrubs sliding them off me. As they went he continued to grin which somehow weirdly relaxed me. My muscles loosened as it became apparent that this wasn’t meant to embarrass me somehow, he was just taking care of me. It might’ve been in a way that I wasn’t used to, but that was okay. This focus was kinda nice.
Once my pajama bottoms were on, he slid my top up over my head and I lifted my arms to allow him to do so. His breath tickled my skin, but it wasn’t in a needy way, it just felt lovely. Sweet. All I wanted to do was wrap my arms tightly around him and to hold him next to me forever. As he slowly peeled the material of my clean top over my head, I had to really resist.
“Right, I’ll just get cleaned up, then I’ll be in with you.”
Aron left the room while I curled up under the bed sheets feeling happier than I thought I would. The day had been a real roller coaster; from the rumors, to the public argument with Nancy, from Edna passing away, to making things right with Aron... I didn’t know where my head was at!
The main thing I felt like I needed was to learn a lesson from my friend, and to live by the mantra that life was too short. I needed to let go of panic, of grudges, of fear. I needed to just live.
Aron came back into the room wearing only a tee shirt and some boxer shorts, looking far too gorgeous for words to even describe, and he climbed into bed next to me while wrapping his arms around me. I fell willingly into his embrace. Maybe starting things up with him would only make things worse and it’d set off the rumors all over again, but for now I didn’t feel like running. I felt like sticking things out to see what my future could hold.
Well, Edna, I think I’m doing what you were telling me to do, I thought with a massive smile on my face. I’m taking a chance on a terrifying love. I just hope I get the happy ever after that you did.
Aron held me closer, almost as if he could read my thoughts, and my fingers wrapped around his arms too. I clung to him like he was the only thing centering me to the planet, which was kind of how I felt.
Together we could do this.
I hoped.