Chapter 51 - And the Hearts Flew Once Iris was settled in her crib, I went off in search of Mum. Unsurprisingly, I found her and Dad in the kitchen.
I managed to tug Mum away and commenced an extremely abbreviated explanation of exactly what happened in university, the events surrounding my relationship with Miles--and, for the first time, I told her about Bianca. And how I loved her.
Without scolding me or rolling her eyes once, Mum gave me a quick hug and pulled out her phone. "
Call your friend, Karebear. I'll take care of this."
My mum is beautiful, crazy, and determined. This is where we all see the family resemblance. Using her extreme social networking skills, she hacked into the national database, deleted the marriage record of myself and Miles, and replaced it with a record of best friendship. Next, she broke into Miles's phone and somehow convinced him that we had never been married or dated at all!
Kara Elysi and Miles Forthright met at University, and quickly became friends. Upon learning that Kara wanted to have a baby with her also female partner, Miles offered to donate the "other half" required to make the child, and moved in with Kara's family to help raise the baby. I don't know how Mum made all of this happen, but I guess that's why she's the parent, and I'm still a kid.
Miles easily accepts all of this. Our behavior towards each other has changed little--we were never very affectionate--except for the fact that he now sleeps in the guest bedroom. Even that isn't a huge change, since we had completely different sleeping cycles.
I'm encouraging him to move on--meeting new people and all. And I'm happy that he's happy with his new girlfriend, Bebe Hart.
Now that I'm not constantly envious, I can appreciate the relationship between my parents. I'm so happy that they're always happy together, and I hope Dad will live for a long time, even if it means Bianca can't live with me.
I can even watch Grandpa go off to his kids' house and look forward to Iris's birthday, and birthdays to come. Motherhood seems like an adventure, not an added burden. I want to teach Iris to walk, and tuck her in at night, and send her off to Prom . . . it's all just waiting to happen.
And then, one day, she was just
here. It was incredibly surreal to see her in this most familiar of places, but also felt incredibly right.
Bianca came up into the house and looked at me, arms crossed. She obviously hadn't forgiven me for everything that had happened with Miles, and the wedding, and the baby.
"
Look, I know you probably don't want to see me right now--"
For a moment, I was transported back to that evening by the lake, the best night of my life. And once again, I knew what was the right thing to do.
After the long, perfect kiss, I finally released her and stepped back, feeling ridiculously happy. I gazed at her with a hopeful little smile, and she stared back at me, speechless. My hope began to sink at her stunned expression.
Moments of silence passed, and I began to murmur an apology. Bianca grabbed my hands and pulled me forward into another kiss, a real kiss. And, once again, the world was a prism of rainbow light--I have got to stop being so
rainbow, it is completely usurping my edginess! No--stoppit--teehee. Rainbow!
"
But . . . what about your girlfriend?"
"
I broke up with her before I came. What about your husband?"
"
It's a long story. We're just friends." Now I was speechless, with my heart so filled with joy I was afraid I would explode. "
Then, would you like to be my--"
She stopped me with a quick kiss, one hand closed around mine.
A kiss that turned into more kisses, and made me a little grateful that there was no one else at home to interrupt us.
Finally, with our arms still around each other, we separated and just looked at each other.
"
I love you."
"
Love you too, Kara."
And the hearts flew.
"
We should do this sort of thing more often." I teased, then hesitated, not wanting to know the answer to the next question. "
How long are you here?"
"
A few weeks. But I can come back, whenever you want me to. And we'll always be together, for the rest of our lives and forever after that."
Hours had passed when we finally got out of bed and, laughing, held hands. Every time I see her, it feels like I fall more and more in love with her. And she feels the same way, which makes me love her even more.
Once again, I remembered the star-studded night after graduation, and dropped into a mock bow. "
A dance, my lady?"
She giggled, caught my hand, and spun me around in answer. And I knew that I could no longer live without her, even if I couldn't live with her.
Love. It is everywhere, and in everything.
Love makes life a lot harder for some people--for everyone, really. But without it, life would not be worth living.
For many, there is only one true person who they can love with all their heart and soul. But anyone and everyone can love many people at once in a thousand different ways, and do so without being ripped apart in a thousand different directions. This is why everyone is constantly confused, despite themselves, but it's a nice kind of confusion. And it certainly makes life more interesting.
Watcher's Note: Well, that got sappy pretty fast, didn't it? There's always the one chapter . . . anyway, I would like to thank you for 10,000 (I think) views! Thanks to everyone who reads and comments, and reads and does not comment.
Nicholas Children update:
Bradley has aged up into one cute little boy. I would think he had Nicky's hair, except there are no highlights, so . . . yeah. Don't know where that came from. In case you don't remember, he's Nick's third triplet with Sandi French. The family tree is kind of weird right now, with Kara not realizing she's related to Rosa, so fingers crossed that Iris doesn't recognize her relation to Nick's kids!
Tamsen Clemons had another set of twins, Corrie and Roscoe. What is with townie names? Anyway, they age up cute!
