A Beautiful New Life (24 page)

They woke the next morning and got dressed for work. Normally on a nice
day,
Louise wou
ld walk the quarter of a mile
to work
, but
Jordan insisted on taking her and then he would pick her up at the end of the day.

“No I’ll be fine to walk. Look I made pepper spray to carry with me.” She held up a small spray bottle with a reddish liquid in it.

“What is that?”

“Water and cayenne pepper.”

“Well I still think I should take you into work. I don’t want that bastard close enough for you to use that.” They were standing at the bar drinking their coffee.

“I’ll be fine Jordan.
Besides,
we need to act
like
nothing is wrong. If he said something to anyone they might get suspicious if we change our habits.”

“Good point.” He put his coffee cup
down, came around the bar,
and pulled her in his arms. “I…I just don’t want anything to happen to you. I love you so much.”

She reached up and took his face in her hands. “I love you too.
I’ll
be fine. I promise.” She kissed him on the lips.

“Don’t make promises you don’t know you can keep.”

“I keep all my promises.” She kissed him again and pulled away. “I have to get going or I’ll be late. I love
you.”She
walked to the door, turned and blew him a kiss as she headed out.

She arrived at work without incident. She sat at her desk and pondered over what Mark actually had seen and more
importantly,
what he thought he knew. Even if he only suspected them of planning to escape
,
if he said anything
,
it would not be good for them. They not only had to finish their plans
,
but
now had to plan a counterattack if Mark opened his mouth.

“Good morning Megan. Did you have a good weekend?” It was Edith strolling in at exactly 8:13 as she has every morning since Louise started working there.

“It was nice
,
r
eal nice. I actually got some yard work done.
How about you Edith?
How was your weekend?” She turned in her seat to look at her.

“Not bad
,
Joe and I went camping out in the west woods. We got snowed on.” She shivered from the memory of the cold.

“
The weather did turn rather quickly this weekend
.
”
She turned back to her computer.
“
That must have been the place for everyone this weekend.”

“Why do you say that?” Edith walked over and was now leaning on her desk.

“What?”

“
Why did you say t
hat must have been the place for everyone this weekend
?
”

Louise just sat there. She thought she had said it to herself. “Oh well I went up there too. I
didn’t
camp though. I just wanted to check it out. I wish I knew you had been there I would have stopped by
your campsite
.”

“You were there by yourself?”

“
Ya
, I heard about it the other day and I got this feeling over me that, that maybe it was something I’d enjoyed doing. So I went up there to check it out.”

Edith now pulled her chair over and sat down next to Louise. “Are you getting your memory back?”

Louise turned to her co
mputer and sat there. She did not
think about that being the wrong thing to say. She was trying to avoi
d confirming Mark’s suspicions.

She turned back around and faced Edith
,
t
ears flowing from her eyes. Edith pulled closer to her and rubbed her back. “Talk to me, what is wrong?”

“Okay you know how I wanted to get my memory back.
But then
I…I. Oh I don’t know what to do. I think
I’m
in love. No I know I am.”

“Well that is a good thing.
Right?”
Edith continued to sit there
with
hand on her back.

“But…but what if I’m already married.” She sobbed harder. The sobs were real. She thought of how Arlin had betrayed her. She had given her whole life to him. She had not got over that betrayal yet and
she knew she would
not until she
got a chance to confront
him.

“Well it’s not like you’re getting married. Right
…
so…well…you
don’t
remember. You can’t be blamed for that.”

She forced a smile through the tears. “I think
Michael
’s going to ask me to marry him.”
She had to work hard to get the right name out. She did not talk about him much to other people and always feared if she did
,
she would slip and call him by the wrong name.

“Really
?!
”

“I think so
.” She was laughing now, the tears dissolving. “I’m…I just…
aahhhh
. I
don’t
want to get my memory back now. There I said it.
E
very time I g
et that feeling of, you know
de
ja
vu
,
I think I’m getting my memory back and my heart aches.
I can honestly say
I’ve
never felt this way about anyone. I get a warm feeling right here.” She points to her chest. “Whenever I see him, think about him, touch him. That’s love isn’t it?”

“Oh my, yes young one, that’s love.” She stood
up, pulled Louise out of her chair,
and gave her a big squeeze. Giggling as she pushed her chair back to her desk
,
Louise could hear her say, “We have a wedding to plan.”

Try
to
top that one Mark.
Louise
thought as she
went about her day and was
too
glad to see it end. She got up from her desk and turned to leave when she saw Mark talking with one of the custodians. She quickly looked away hoping he had not noticed her but from the corner of her eye she could see him heading over in her direction.

“Hey Megan.”
He shouted from across the room. “Can I have a word with you?”

“Not really Mark, I’m just leaving. It’ll have to wait until tomorrow.” Ever since she got the job and moved out of the dorm
,
he would show up from time to time
,
wanting her to check on some residents. Edith had told him
over and over
that it was not her job but he still insisted.
That was his excuse to continue to see her but
Louise knew though that was not the case this time.

He grabbed her arm. “I don’t think it can wait at all.” He whispered,
putting
his face too close to hers.

“Are you leaving Megan?” Edith yelled out over the cubicle wall.

Mark let go of her arm. “Yes ma’am do you want to walk out together?”

She came over to Louise’s side and saw Mark.

“What the hell happened to your face?” Edith gave him a ‘what brawl d
id you get into this time’ look, but
before he could answer
,
Edith was jumping in her spot.

“Di
d you hear the good news? Michael
and Megan are getting married.” She was giggling and had a hard time containing her excitement for the young couple.

Mark just stood there, jaw to the floor. He turned and scowled at Louise and dashed off. She only hoped that this bit of news did not push him over the edge and he blabbed to someone about seeing her in the woods.

“Well I guess he didn’t take that news very well.” Edith took Louise’s arm and they walked together. “You know he always had a crush on you.”

“
Ya
I know.” Her stomach was churning afraid of what she might find at home when or if she arrived there.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“What are you doing? He came up behind
her, put his arms around her,
and nibbled on her neck.

“I am making your favorite dinner.”

“You are. And why would you be doing that?”

“Because you asked me to marry you.”

“Oh I did, did I?” He turned her around
to face him
. “So did I give you a ring?”

“Not yet, i
t’s a long story.
I’ll tell you during dinner.” She tried to turn back around to finish tossing the salad but he pulled her closer to him. He slid his hand in his pocket and pulled it back out.

“Well if I was to get you a ring, would it look like this?” He held up a solitaire diamond ring.

Louise did not know what to say. She had never expected that to happen she
was after all already married
. She just stood there looking up at him, tears starting to glisten in her eyes.

“It’s not real. I hope…maybe this was a bad idea…but you said…”

“It’s okay. I really didn’t expect it.” She stood there the salad now forgotten.

“I know that’s what was so perfect about this. If you had your memory
back,
there was no way you would accept my proposal. I was trying to counter Mark’s story.”

“Wow we were on the same wave length today.
That’s
what I meant when I said you ask me to marry you. Well actually my story was I thought you were going to ask me.”

“You know if it was a different time…” He pulled her to him now his arms round her waist.

She pulled him closer and kissed him, quieting his attempt to explain. No explanation was necessary she knew how he felt
,
because
she felt the
same way. Dinner
was now forgotten
,
as he swept her up and carried her to the bedroom.

The next morning came too soon. They both woke hungry and went to the kitchen to see if any of the forgotten dinner was salvageable. It was not so they got dressed for work and went to Patsy’s for breakfast.

Patsy greeted them at the door and even though there were empty tables
,
she made them wait a moment before seating them. When
Patsy
finally led
them
to their table
,
they saw the reason for the wait. Patsy had put one of her nice dinner tablecloths down with candles and flowers in the middle of the table. Word surely traveled fast after Louise’s talk with Edith yesterday.

“Congratulations Megan. Sorry but
Michael
told me yesterday the news that he was going to ask you.” She hugged Louise close. Louise felt bad for being so deceitful to such a nice
lady
but she knew for her protection she had too.

“Thank you. I must say I had my suspicions.”
She glowed as any new bride to be would
glow
.
She was playing her part well. They sat and enjoyed the special treatment from Patsy
, but b
reakfast went too fast and they both
got up and headed
to work.

At
work,
the celebration continued with Louise’s desk decorated in wedding graffiti and Edith singing ‘here
comes
the bride’ every time she passed her desk. It was fun and made the
workday
go by fast. The mood everyone was setting regarding the false nuptials made Louise want to get home to Jordan. Why could she not have met him years ago? Would her life be different today
if she had
,
or as Jordan likes to say it
,
was
it
fate that brought them together now
that if they had even crossed paths before they would not have even noticed each other. She walked home enjoying the warm weather and hoped to finish making Jordan his dinner tonight.

“Help!
Hel…”

“Stop squirming you bitch. I warned you.” Louise relaxed long enough for him to loosen his grip on her and she grabbed her spray out of her pocket and sprayed him in the face.

“
Aaaahhh
, you
fuckin
’ bitch.” He squeezed his eyes tight and she pried his hands off her wrist and ran like hell. She did
n
o
t stop running until she got home. She ran in
the house,
locked the door
,
and sat in front of it with her spray waiting for him to follow. The door handled turned and
a
s he came in
,
she sprang to her feet and sprayed. She missed and he grabbed her.