Make It Back to Me

All her life, Evelyn had let her fears control her actions. That was, until she met Ben Eager. He had taken a young, shy girl and turned her into a mature, outspoken, and free thinking woman. He had also made her happier than she had ever been in her life, and if that wasn’t enough, he had now given her the greatest gift a woman could ever hope for. She placed her hands on her growing belly and stared down at herself for a long while. In five months she was going to be a mother to a hopefully happy and healthy son or daughter, and Ben was going to be a father. She was scared, and even though she had laughed in the face of her fears for the past year and eight months with the help of her boyfriend and now husband, she couldn’t this time. She was on her own, and she honestly didn’t know what to do.

She had spent the entire day doing chores and cleaning around the apartment while Michael was at work. She wanted to keep her mind off of everything until she could devote one hundred percent of her mind to the huge decision that sat in front of her. She had only exhausted herself by doing laundry, vacuuming, doing dishes, and paying bills, but at least her mind was on the tasks at hand rather than the beautiful, baby blue eyed hockey player she had left behind. She was about so scrub the kitchen floors when Adam put a stop to furious cleaning. He had practically forced her to lie down, to not over exert herself, and surprisingly, Evelyn was grateful for the interruption in cleaning.

The sleep had done her the most good. She had passed out as soon as her head hit the feather pillow beneath her, sending her into a deep, dreamless, and thoughtless sleep. It was something she hadn’t had any of since she had moved to New York, and she wanted to savor it as long as she could.

It was evening when Michael had woken her up, telling her that he and Adam had dinner on the table. She raised her eyebrows in surprise, almost wanting to laugh at the thought of the two men trying to find their way around the kitchen. Adam had always left the cooking up to someone else, unless the meal required a grill. Before he had started dating Kita, Evelyn was more often than not cooking for him as well as Ben. And Michael, well, Evelyn cooked for him almost every day, too since she had moved in with him. After dinner, she had been sent to the couch to relax some more, and that was where Evelyn currently was, trying to figure out what she was going to do.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, keeping her hands on her stomach, rubbing small, soft circles against her skin, hoping for some sort of revelation, but it never came. She felt the couch shift next to her and a large hand start rubbing at her back. Smiling lightly, she opened her eyes and looked into the shining blue orbs of Adam Burish. They were a blue so different from Ben’s, which was probably a good thing for her mental health, but they offered just as much comfort because they were loving and friendly, which was exactly what Evelyn needed. Adam pressed a kiss to the side of her head before he shifted over and wrapped his arms around Evelyn’s petite body.

He hadn’t left her side for the three days he had been in New York, except for when she was physically in class taking her finals for the summer semester. Even then, he was only in the coffee shop next door to her school, waiting for her to walk through the doors so he could greet her with a warm smile. He was just what Evelyn needed; a link to her not so distant past life in Chicago. And seeing Adam again made her realize how much she missed the ‘Second City’. She was also surprised at how patient he was being with her. Instead of constantly telling her to ‘come home,’ he silently listened to every confusing and not planned out thought that came out of her mouth, offering words of understanding when he felt they were needed.

But now she needed advice, and she wasn’t sure Adam was the one to give it to her. He was biased, of course. Ben was more than just a teammate; he was one of Adam’s best friends. She decided to try her luck, though, and she lifted her head off of his chest and stared directly into his eyes.

“What do I do, Adam?” He sighed, and shook his head, giving her a look that told Evelyn exactly what he was thinking, but she couldn’t accept that. “Give me something. I need you to, please.”

“You’re being stupid.”

Nodding, Evelyn pulled herself away from Adam, glad he had finally said what was on his mind. She figured Adam thought she was mad at him because he wrapped his arms around her again and told her he was sorry, but Evelyn wasn’t mad at all. In fact, she was thankful. Letting a small laugh escape passed her lips, she pushed Adam away.

She leaned forward, picking up a piece of paper from the coffee table before leaning back onto Adam. The piece of paper felt like a thousand pounds in her hands as she stared down at, realizing that it decided her fate. All she had to do was sign her name to the bottom of the page next to the large, black ‘x’ and send back to her school, and she’d be enrolled in a second semester at CUNY. Adam tensed next to her as she put the paper back onto the coffee table and grabbed the pen that rested next to it.

“Evelyn…”

But that was all she could write, her first name. Signing that paper meant signing herself over to New York for nearly four more months, the fall semester lasting longer than the summer one she had just completed. She could not bring herself to write her last name, Eager. She had been so selfish all along to think that her move to New York was for her and was about her only. Throwing the pen onto the coffee table, she slumped back into the couch, her heart hurting worse than she had ever felt it hurt before.

“I’m scared,” She whispered, turning serious. “What if Ben isn’t happy to see me back? What if he’s over us? What if he gave up on me?” Adam silenced her with a laugh, staring at her with wide eyes that silently asked if she was serious. Even though she knew she was being made fun of for her doubts, she couldn’t be bothered to care when a wave of relief washed over her.

Ben wouldn’t give up on her, just like she wouldn’t ever give up on him.

Feeling rejuvenated, she realized she couldn’t let her fears get in the way this time. She had too much on the line. New York had been an experiment that had lasted all of two and a half months. She put her hands on her stomach again and whispered a small ‘I love you’ down to her child before hopping off the couch. She had to make a decision, not only for herself, but for the life inside of her. Whatever she decided not only affected her and Ben, but it affected the tiny, unborn child they had made together.

She didn’t care if she was only twenty two years old or that before she had found out she was pregnant, having children had seemed so far off in the future. She was already in love with the little person inside of her, and everything she did had to be about the little boy or little girl that she would be a mother to.

She wasn’t ready to give up what she and Ben had started a year and eight months before when they had met on his first day in the city and as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. Ben had told Evelyn so many times that it had to have been fate for them to meet the way they did; there was no other way to describe it. He also said he hadn’t been much of a believer in the thing called ‘fate’ before he met her, but almost everything he had known before had changed when he met Evelyn. And she felt the same with her whole heart. She and Ben were meant to be together.

New York wasn’t for Evelyn, and it wasn’t for her unborn child. Home was wherever Ben Eager was, and for the first time in her life, without the help of anyone else, Evelyn decided she wasn’t going to let her fears stand in the way of what she wanted. She was going back to her husband, she was going to apologize for her stupidity, they were going to work things out, and they were going to welcome a child into the world together.