Country Love

Caroline opened the door to her apartment, mail in hand, and closed the door shut with her foot as she walked further into her home. She haphazardly threw her keys onto the counter and, while still scanning her mail, walked towards her bathroom to take a bath.

She filled the large tub to the brim with bubbles, lit candles and set them all around, threw her robe over the doorknob, and eased herself into the water, trying to force herself to relax.

That wasn’t an easy task. Ever since her boyfriend, Jarrod, left her she had sunk into a slight depression. Adding onto that, her employers were cutting back employees to fit the budget, which meant her workload nearly doubled, putting stress on her.

Caroline closed her eyes and rested her head back on a towel, the thought of Jarrod seeping into her mind, and along with it, the memory of his leaving…

Caroline ran down the hallway after Jarrod, tears streaming down her face. What was happening? He was leaving her? But everything was going fine, where had this come from?

“J-Jarrod please,” she begged as she tried to grasp his arm, turn him around, make him look at her.

“No, Caroline. No.” He grunted in response over his shoulder.

“But why?! I don’t understand.” By this time they were at the door, Jarrod’s bags in his hands, and he had finally turned to look at her, his expression a complete stone.

“Because Caroline, this is all going way too fast. When we met I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I was never looking for a relationship.”

Caroline just shook her head, confused, the movement causing tears to go over the edge and fall down her cheeks.

“I’m not this guy, Caroline. I’m not the guy that falls in love, and moves in with girls, and commits. I’m not that guy. I never was.”

A hysterical laugh found its way out of Caroline’s throat.

“Really, Jarrod?” she said sadistically, “You are playing the commitment card right now?” Now she was angry and hurt, a deadly combination that caused even more tears to fall down her face.

“I guess I am, Caroline.” He said, shrugging his shoulders. “I just can’t do this anymore.” Then he turned toward the door and opened it. Before he walked out he paused, turning halfway back to Caroline and muttering a, “I’m sorry.”

And then the door shut. Jarrod was gone, out of her life. The heartache fled in, and Caroline’s knees buckled underneath her, causing her to fall to the ground.

Caroline took a shaky breath in and out, trying to chase the memory from her brain. Nearly six months later, and she still couldn’t fully handle that memory. With that, she finished her bath.

________________________________________________________________________

The next day, as per her usual routine, Caroline walked into her apartment, mail in hand, and shut the door behind her with her foot. Her eyes were glued on the mail as she walked by the living room into the kitchen, maybe that’s why she didn’t see him at first.

Just as Caroline stepped into the kitchen, her mind registered that someone was in her home. She took one careful step backwards, just enough to peer in and see who it was, but also ready to run into the kitchen for a knife if it was a robber.

When she saw Jarrod standing in the middle of her living room, his bags at his feet, she kind of hoped that it was a robber instead. At least in that case she could have stabbed him and it wouldn’t have been morally wrong.

Partially in shock, Caroline turned, setting her bag and mail on the counter, and then turned back to him, arms crossed in front of her.

“Caroline.” He said. Just the sound of him saying her name had her heart melting in an instant.

“How did you get in her?” Caroline said, her voice clipped.

Jarrod held up the key, “I had never given you my key to the place.” He said, shrugging.

“Why are you here, Jarrod?” Caroline said, her voice icy.

Jarrod took a deep breath and looked down, and when he looked back up again, eyes meeting hers, Caroline saw the man she fell in love with, not the one who left her.

“Suppose I called you up tonight, and told you that I loved you.” He said, his voice sounding sincere and broken. “And suppose I said I want to come back home.”

Caroline didn’t even know what to say, and anything she could say was currently lodged in her throat.

“And suppose I cried and said I think I’ve finally learned my lesson, and I’m tired of spending all my time alone.” Caroline just stood there and took his words in. “If I told you that I realized you’re all I ever wanted, and it’s killing me to be so far away, would you tell me that you love me too, and would we cry together, or would you simply laugh at me and say ‘I told you so, I told you someday you’d come crawling back and asking me to take you in. I told you so, but you had to go, now I’ve found somebody new and you will never break my heart in two, again.’”

Caroline stood there, frozen in the place, as he started to slowly walk over to her and getting down on both knees.

“If I got down on my knees and told you that I was yours forever, would you get down on yours too and take my hand? Would we get that old time feeling? Would we laugh and talk for hours, the way we did when our love first began?”

Caroline looked down at this man, laying his heart out for her to see, and her heart clenched when his voice choked with emotion, telling her that he truly had missed her.

“Would you tell me that you’ve missed me, too? And that you’ve been so lonely, and you’ve waited for the day that I returned? And we’d live and love forever, and that I’m your one and only, or would you say the tables were finally turned? Would you say I told you so?”

“Stop, just stop Jarrod.” She said, interrupting his speech. He looked up at her, his eyes sad and scared, fearing that she was going to tell him to leave and never come back. “You left me, Jarrod.” Jarrod put his head down in shame, closing his eyes and letting tears fall out of them. “You left me, for a shitty reason, and now you’re back here again, professing your love to me, but how am I supposed to know that you won’t do it again when you get bored? How do I know you won’t leave again?” she asked him, tears beginning to fall down her own face.

“I understand why you’d think that, why you would need reassurance, and I can give that to you.” He said, looking up at her. “Caroline, I will never, ever leave you again. And you know how I know that? Because I had to live without you for six months. I had to go everyday loving you, needing to see you, kiss you. I had to survive every moment of those months away from you knowing that I broke the heart of the only girl I had ever loved in my entire life. Caroline, I don’t ever want to feel that way again,” he said, and at that moment he pulled a small velvet box out of his pocket and unleashed the diamond ring within. “Caroline, I love you to much to leave you twice, and I don’t want to go a day without you. Coming from someone that had to live without the love of his life for that long, I can promise you, I will never hurt you again. I will never leave you again, as long as we both shall live. Caroline, will you marry me?”

Maybe it was the heat of the moment; maybe it was the easy way he talked about them being together forever. Maybe it was the twinkle in his eyes and the way he said that he loved her, or maybe it was because this was exactly what she had been waiting for, for him to come back to her, but whatever the reason, she got down on both her knees and took his hands in hers.

“I’ve missed you too, and I have been so lonely, and I’ve waited for the day that you’d return.” Jarrod smiled when he realized she was repeating back to him what he had wanted her to say, before. “Now we’ll live and love forever. You are my one and only.” And then, she said what he had hoped and prayed that she would say, “Yes.” With that, she kissed him, a kiss that was six months overdue and every bit as wonderful as she’d remembered his kisses to be.