These Four Words

The shrill ringing of my phone snapped me out of my deep thoughts. I glanced around my large office making sure I hadn’t zoned out on a client. I grabbed my phone off my desk and noticed that it was my brother calling me. I furrowed my brows in confusion, what did he want?

“Hello,” I murmured answering the call.

“Erin,” He breathed out sounding relieved. “How fast can you get to Florida?”

“What’s wrong?” I asked quickly standing up and packing up my work things. Panic began to bubble in my chest.

“She’s going into labor,” My brother sounded so excited. “We want you to be here, for us.” My heart soared with happiness. Even though I thought he was too young to be having kids, I was so happy for him and June. As much as I wanted to be there I doubt Anna would let me have off during New York’s Spring Fashion Week. I wanted so badly to be there. I had already missed his wedding.

“—Erin? Are you still there?”

“Yeah,” I cleared my throat peeking out the door to my office. Things looked dead. Maybe I could leave for a day or two and be back before anyone noticed.

“Can you get off work?”

I closed my eyes trying to come up with the best solution. Oh fuck it. “Yeah I’ll catch the first flight out.” I could almost see the huge smile on his face as he thanked me profusely telling me the hospital that they would be at. I knew that June’s labor would either last a few hours or the next day, so my time was limited. I grabbed my bag and dialed Annabelle’s number.

“Yes Ms. Taylor?” She answered on the first ring sounding breathless.

“I need you to clear my schedule for the next two days.” I told her sternly as I rode the elevator down to the ground floor.

“Uh, seriously?” She asked sounding confused. The doors dinged and I made my way out. I was praying that lunch rush would be dying down and a taxi would be easy to hail.

“Yes,” I chuckled more towards myself. Traffic looked pretty miserable so I decided that I would just have to speed walk two miles in my heels.

“O-oh okay.” She stuttered. “Is there anything else you need me to do?”

“Yes, I need you to get the jet company on the phone. I need a plane to Orlando in an hour.”

“That is going to be tough this ti—“

“I don’t need excuses Annabelle, I need you to make this happen.” I was being a little tough on her but in all honestly she could pull this off. Annabelle was bright and she was going to make it very far in this world, once she grew a backbone.

“Of course.” She sounded a little frightened.

“This stays between us, understand?”

“Yes,” She squeaked.

“Thank you, Annabelle.” I hung up and made a mental note to send her a new pair of shoes or something for her if she pulled this off without a hitch. My walk ended up only taking twenty-five minutes. I dashed up the stairs and quickly called an uber so that they would be here by the time I finished packing. I found my favorite leather duffle bag and quickly shoved necessities in there. My phone beeped twice letting me know that my uber driver was here and I picked up my bag and headed out the door. I only prayed that I wouldn’t get fired over this.



“I am here for a June Taylor.” I told the nurse at the front desk. She looked me up and down threw her reading glasses before sighing a tipping away at the computer.

“She went into labor seven hours ago, aren’t you a little late?” She huffed and I held back an eye roll.

“I came from New York.” I told her not really in the mood for her sass. She looked a bit taken aback, which caused me to smile.

“Room 302.”

“Thanks.” I readjusted my bag over my shoulder before I took off in that direction. I found the room easily because there were about ten people all outside of it looking excited and tired.

“Erin, is that you?” My mom looked up from her book perplexed that I was here in the flesh. She stood up quickly and embraced me. “Steven told us you were coming, but we didn’t believe him.”

My dad smiled and hugged me as well. “How did you get off work?”

“Uh well I didn’t.” I admitted sheepishly. “I kind of just made it happen.” Before my dad could lecture me about being irresponsible, my brother stepped out of the room with a large smile.

“Erin,” He breathed out. “It’s almost time. We want you to be in here when your godson is born. I felt my heart quicken with his words. Godson? Me?

“Seriously?” I managed to say. “Me?”

“Yeah,” Some blonde muttered beside me. I was assuming it was one of June’s sisters since they looked almost identical. “She is hardly here.”

I felt the sting of her words but she was right. I was hardly involved. “Yes we have decided on Erin to be the Godmother.” I only managed to nod my head and follow Steven into the room. I was handed a pair of blue scrubs and quickly changed into them before the nurse had another fit and took my place on the other side of June, offering my hand. She barely glanced up and me as she shot me a smile. Even while giving birth she looked so pretty.

“Okay the baby is almost here. June on the count of three I am going to need you to give us a big push, okay?” The doctor encouraged her. June looked slightly annoyed but nodded her head nonetheless. I offered June my right hand it she grasped on to it tightly. “Okay, one.” She started to scream. “Two. Three push as hard as you can.” She yelled extremely loud and then the room was completely silent. The soft cry of a newborn could broke threw and gasp of reliefs could be heard from all around us. My brother’s green face turned back to its normal shade and his eyes glowed. The nurse quickly took the baby and wrapped it in a tiny blue blanket.

“Let me see.” June murmured. The look of pure exhaustion was on her face. The cord was cut and the tiny buddle was handed to June. My brother leaned in closer as they both observed their creation.

“He has your big nose,” June joked looking up to Steven with adoration.

“Oh shush it, at least he didn’t get your tiny ears.” My brother mused pinching on to June’s ear with a chuckle. “I can’t believe we created this.”

“Me neither,” June whispered focusing her attention back on the newborn.

“Time of birth was March 3rd 2015 at 9:09 pm,” The nurse read off to the new parents and to the doctor.

“Do you know what you want to name him?”

“Gregory Leonardo Taylor.” June answered the nurse without hesitation. I smiled knowing that she gave her son the name of her late father, but I was confused to where the middle name came from. Steven looked at June with a knowing grin before looking back up at me.

“Well since you are little Greg’s godmother, we figured that you would play a very important roll in his life. We wanted a part of you to be a part of him. So since you are a Leo, we figured we could use Leonardo as his middle name.” I placed my hand over my mouth in shock as the tears began to form in my eyes. I was so touched. I was hardly ever around and they wanted to name their baby after me? It was exactly what I needed.

“Is that alright?” June looked at me worriedly.

I moved closer to them before I sunk on my knees and got a good view of my godson. “It’s more than alright, thank you.” I looked up at them and smiled. “Thank you so much, I-I don’t know what to say.” My brother took one of my hands and gave me a light squeeze.

“Say that you’ll stick around and be apart of his life.” I don’t know if he was referring to my attempted suicide years ago or the fact that I lived hundreds of miles away. It didn’t make a difference to me, though. I was going to do what ever it takes to be apart of this little buddle of joys life. I managed to squeak out a yes before I started to cry. I watched through my blurred vision as my mother and father, as well as June’s mom, make their way into the room. They all looked so excited. My mother and June’s mom began to bicker about who was going to hold him first, while my dad moved over to me and placed his hands on my back rubbing soothing circles.

As I looked around I realized that there was no other place that I would rather be. Not Paris, or Milan, or even London. I felt the love in this room pour into my body. I sat there on the floor and thanked God for giving me a second chance to experience this. If my attempt had worked all those years ago, I would have missed out on the best thing that has ever happened to me: finding love within my family. Its not like I ever felt hated or a misfit at home, it’s just that everyone was always so busy doing his or her own thing. No one noticed when I began getting involved in the wrong crowd or when I would sneak out and not come back for days at a time. I have learned my lesson though; everything worth having is worth waiting for.

I didn’t want to travel forever and never settle down, which was my dream in college. I wanted a family. I wanted that damn white picket fence and an SUV. I wanted a loving husband and extended family. I wanted it all.

And I knew who I wanted it with.