Elegantly Bound

After the party died down, Aerie and John started cleaning up. Most of the guests had left, but there was still work to do, and Aerie was getting tired (although she would never admit it; her mother was always very disappointed in her when she complained).

John noticed, though. Being the observant and oh-so-loving fiancé he was, he quickly caught on to Aerie’s fastly approaching tiredness. He gently touched her shoulder and she turned around. John sent her a small smile. “If you’re too tired,” he suggested, “I could take you home.”

Aerie quickly shook her head no. “There’s a lot that needs to be done, and I don’t want to make my mom feel like she’s doing all the work.”

John wrapped his finger around a large bulk of Aerie’s honey blonde hair. “Your dad’s still here. There are other people here who can help. And if it would help, I could come back after I drop you off at your apartment and finish cleaning up.”

Aerie shook her head no again, but before she could protest more John said, “No. You’re tired. I see it.” He pointed to her eyes. “Right in there, I see it; I see extreme tiredness. I’m taking you home.”

Aerie knew she could no longer protest. It wouldn’t help a thing. When it came to John, she knew that when he had made up his mind, he wasn’t going to change it. Aerie had learned that a long time ago, right around their third date, when John refused to take her home after they went to the museum. Most girls would have dumped the guy right then and there, and Aerie was like most girls. But before she could protest, John turned into the most beautiful orchard she had ever seen.

It was Spring and the flowers were just starting to bloom. The smell of rain from the light storm that had occurred that morning was still fresh in the night air. And then John told her something she’d never forget: he told her he worked there before he went off to college, and that he knew the lady who owned it so well that to that day he still received free food from the orchard. Whenever he needed apples, or apple cider, or pumpkins for Halloween, be would just go there and Mrs. Conrad would give him plenty, enough to last him for at least two months.

Then John told her that, despite the time (it was nearing eleven PM), the orchard was the most magical at night.

That was when Aerie really felt something for John for the first time. In those two minutes she had gone from wanting to break up with this guy to starting to fall for him.

John, in all his awkward six-foot-tall glory, with his free apples and pumpkins, and his absurd use of the word ‘magical,’ had already stolen Aerie Johnson’s heart.

Aerie simply shook her head, finally giving in and letting John take her home. She walked over to her mother and told her that she was leaving.

Surprisingly, her mother agreed with her reason--for once, Aerie couldn’t help thinking. “You should go,” her mother told her, shocking both Aerie and John. “I can see how tired you are and to be honest I would be too if I were you. There were just so many people here tonight and with the shock of the engagement still setting in…just go, honey. We’ll be fine here.”

Aerie nodded, and John casually asked if Aerie’s mother would like him to come back and help. Her mother waved him off and wished them both a good night.

John led Aerie to his car, silently thanking the Lord that they had come together--there would have been no way he would have let Aerie drive herself home in the state she was in--and drove her back to her apartment. He smiled silently to himself when he noticed that she had fallen asleep within the five minutes they had been driving. He hadn’t talked to her because he knew she was tired (and besides, they would talk tomorrow), but he really didn’t expect her to fall asleep on the way there. He laughed, figuring he had miscalculated how tired Aerie really was.

When they arrived at her apartment, John very gently shook Aerie awake, not wanting to startle her. When she opened her eyes, he was the first thing she saw. “What?” she croaked.

John laughed lightly. Whispering, he answered, “We’re at your apartment. You fell asleep on the way here.”

Aerie slowly sat up in her seat and, when finally registering what John had said, laughed to herself. “Wow. I must have been really tired.”

“Yeah,” John replied. “Stay there,” he ordered. He got out of the car and went around to the passenger side, opening the door and unbuckling Aerie’s seatbelt. “Come on, hun,” he said, carefully pulling her near-limp body from the car. She could barely stand up, and to any passerby John assumed it might seem like she was drunk. He knew the punch they had had at the party contained alcohol, but he knew neither Aerie nor he had consumed more than two small cups of the liquid.

Once carefully in Aerie’s third-floor apartment, John kissed her goodnight and left, but not without making sure Aerie made it to her bedroom safely.

Aerie climbed into her bed and fell fast asleep, and soon enough, John did the same.

---

Aerie awoke with the sound of her cell phone going off. The annoying beep of her ring was shrill enough to wake her neighbors and she silently hoped it was past seven-thirty, when Mr. Kowalski, the Polish man living above her, left for work. Many times he had came to her apartment in the afternoon complaining about a noise that had woken him up that morning and blaming it on her. Usually it was her fault, and she certainly apologized for her friends, but there was really nothing she could do about it, was there?

Opening her eyes, she saw that the sun was fully up in the sky and thanked God that she hadn’t waken up Mr. Kowalski for the third day in a row. Picking up her cell phone, she pressed the call button and held it up to her ear. “Hello?” she croaked, her voice still trying to adjust from not talking for many hours.

She heard a laugh on the other end and instantly knew it was John. “Hey, babe. Did I wake you?”

Aerie smiled. “Yeah, but it’s fine. I should be up by now anyway. It’s already,”--she quickly glanced at her alarm clock--“9:42.” She sighed. “Wow I slept late.”

John laughed again. “It’s fine, babe. Anyway, I was calling because I wanted to know if you wanted to go get breakfast. I was hoping you hadn’t eaten yet, which I now know you haven’t because you just got up, and now I’m rambling but…yes? No?”

Aerie laughed. “It’s cute, though,” she said.

“The rambling?” John asked.

“Yeah,” Aerie replied. “And sure. IHOP in twenty?”

“You’ve got it!” John hung up and Aerie plopped her phone down on her bedside table, quickly getting up to get ready. She knew it was supposed to be warm out today, so she pulled on a sundress and picked a pair of brown sandals from her closet before heading out the door.

The IHOP was only three blocks from her apartment, and she was there in under two minutes. She knew it would take John at least another ten or so minutes to get there, so she sat in the waiting area.

When John arrived, a large smile was on his face. “You look beautiful,” he told Aerie.

Aerie blushed. “I’m not even wearing any makeup, John.”

John was still smiling. “You still look beautiful.” The pair walked up to the desk and when a waitress came by she grabbed two menus and brought them to their table, a booth near the back. The sun was shining brightly through the shades, but it was the perfect amount and Aerie basked in it as she looked at her menu.

“The New York Style Cheesecake Pancakes look good,” John said. Aerie shook her head in agreement. “Do you want to get that?” John asked.

Aerie looked up. “Like, share it?”

John laughed. “Of course. No offense but there’s no way you could eat all of those by yourself. I probably couldn’t either.”

Aerie laughed. Just then, the waitress came by and took their order. When their food came, John politely let Aerie have the first bite. “How is it?” he asked.

Aerie made a face. “It’s delicious. Seriously. Try it!” John laughed and stuck his fork in the huge pile of pancakes before tearing off a piece and placing it in his mouth. He quickly made the same face that Aerie had made not a minute earlier and they both laughed.

“They should rename these the Awesome Pancakes,” John quipped, and Aerie laughed.

“How about the Most Amazing Thing You’ll Ever Taste Pancakes?” Aerie asked.

“Or the Taste Bud Explosion Pancakes,” John offered.

Both of them laughed even harder and when a passing waiter eyed them oddly the laughter only got worse. It took the couple over a minute to finally calm down.

After all of the pancakes were (miraculously) gone, Aerie rubbed her stomach and said, “I think that’s enough food for today.”

John laughed. “I totally second that.” After a moment of silence, John spoke. “Hey, so, tell me more about that Conner guy from last night.”

Aerie froze. She didn’t want to think about Conner. And she definitely didn’t want to talk to John about him. “Um…what do you want to know?”

John shrugged. “He’s your ex, right?” Aerie nodded, not able to find the ability to speak at the moment. She was extremely worried about where this conversation was headed. “Well, how long did you guys go out?”

Aerie paused, praying to find the will and ability to speak before too much time passed and John got curious about what she was hiding. “Four years. All four years of high school,” she managed to spit out.

“But you didn’t make it to college?”

Aerie shook her head. “No, we didn’t.”

“What happened?” John asked.

Aerie shrugged. “It just didn’t work out.”

John was weary of her answer, so he asked another question. “What do you mean it ‘just didn’t work out’?”

Aerie was starting to get angry, but she didn’t want to show John that, so she willed herself to keep a calm composure. “We just…didn’t make sense anymore. As a couple, I mean.”

John was silent for a moment. “Last night, you said that you ended on bad terms. How bad were they?”

Aerie was quick to answer this time. “It was on bad terms, yes, but it was also mutual.”

“How does that work?” John asked, confused.

“Basically it was a mutual decision to break up, but the reasons for both of us were very different but very bad. We agreed to break up, but the circumstances just weren’t good.”

John sighed. “Look, Aerie. I really don’t mean to pry, but you were acting really odd around him last night. And I don’t mean to say that I don’t believe you, but I have to know: you’re telling me the truth, right?”

“Yes,” Aerie replied.

But of course, she wasn’t.