Chapter Twenty -One– Chuck
”Okay, keep your eyes shut,” I warned her, as we made our way into the apartment. She laughed and tapped my arms.
”You’re covering my eyes, remember?” she reminded me, as I steered her over the threshold.
”Okay, yeah, well, I still want this to be a surprise,” I replied, as I pulled the door shut behind us. I grinned when I saw the box sitting on the bed – a pair of black ears sticking out the top of it. I knew she was going to freak when she saw the housewarming gift I had gotten her, but it was perfect. A perfect new member to our little household.
It was her official moving-in day, though she had been more or less living with me for the last few weeks as it was – we had cleared everything out of her old apartment and she had broken her lease, managing to cover up the scuffle with Franco as nothing more than the water heater breaking. I had been looking forward to this day all month, more than ready to welcome her into her new home.
And, now it was finally here, I had another member of this family to introduce to her too. I pulled my hands away from her eyes.
”Okay, you can look now.”
She opened her eyes – and, for a moment, it took her a second to register what she was seeing in front of her. She stepped forward, peered into the box, and her jaw dropped.
”Holy shit!” she exclaimed, reaching in to lift out the little black kitten inside. ”Who’s this?”
”I haven’t given him a name yet,” I replied, as the kitten mewled in her arms. She laughed and pressed a kiss right between his ears.
”He’s so precious,” she murmured. ”Where did you get him?”
”One of the guys found a mother cat who’d had a bunch of kittens when he was out on the road,” I explained. ”And I decided I should give at least one of them a home.”
”I love him,” she told me, cradling her new friend in her arms. ”What are we going to call him?”
”I thought I’d leave it up to you.”
”Hmm,” she remarked, pondering the question. ”I think...Clove would be a good name for him. Cinnamon and Clove. That works, right?”
”Anything you want,” I replied, laughing as she planted herself at the edge of the bed. Cinnamon came over to see what all the fuss was about, standing up and leaning on the edge of the bed to sniff Clove.
”This is your new baby brother, sweetheart,” she cooed to him, reaching out to pet his head. ”Isn’t he the sweetest thing?”
Cinnamon jumped up on to the bed and began cleaning Clove’s head industriously. She laughed.
”Oh, I think they’re going to be best friends,” she remarked, as she watched the two of them together. ”And there I was, thinking you weren’t a cat person!”
”You changed my mind about that,” I replied, planting myself on the bed next to her as she placed Clove down and let him wander across the covers. I planted a kiss on her temple, and she turned to me with a smile on her face.
”I can’t believe I’m really here,” she sighed. ”It feels so good, Chuck. And not just because of the kitten.”
I chuckled.
”I’m glad,” I replied. ”You want some help unloading those boxes?”
”Sure,” she replied, and she hesitated for a moment, as though there was something on her mind. I glanced at her.
”You okay?”
”I’m fine, I’m fine,” she replied. ”There was just...something I wanted to talk to you about, that’s all.”
”What’s that?” I asked her, a little concerned as I sat back down on the edge of the bed. Everything had been going so perfectly lately, I didn’t want a damn thing to get in the way of it.
”I’ve been...I’ve been figuring out what I’d like to do my next big article on,” she explained. ”And I think I’ve decided.”
”Oh, yeah?” I replied. I wasn’t exactly sure why she seemed so nervous about it – she knew I would have supported her no matter what she chose to do next. As long as she was happy, as long as she was doing what she loved, I would be there for her.
”And I want to do it on...Franco,” she began. I parted my lips, about to protest, but she lifted her hand to stop me in my tracks.
”And don’t worry, I’m not going to put anything out there that might actually identify that he’s the guy I’m talking about,” she assured me. ”I’m not going to let anyone know that it’s really him. Iris and I, we’re getting together to share our stories, you know, so other women can be more aware of what to look out for.”
I nodded.
”That sounds like a good idea,” I replied. I still wasn’t entirely sure why she was bringing this up with me, but I knew she would get there.
”Because there are so many women who go through so fucking much when it comes to these kinds of men,” she continued, her voice hitching slightly at the back of her throat as she spoke. ”Your...your sister being one of them.”
I tensed slightly at the mention of Anna, but forced myself to unwind. I was still getting used to having everything about Anna out there with someone else, but I could trust Abbey with this. It was why I had told her about my sister in the first place.
”You can say no,” she assured me. ”And I totally understand if you want to. But I was wondering...I was wondering if you would be willing to talk to me about everything that happened with Anna and her boyfriend. Everything that you saw, everything that you felt as someone who was looking in on it from the outside in. I think it would be really helpful, you know, getting that outside perspective – and showing people who are in those situations that the people close to them really care.”
She paused, holding her breath as she waited for me to respond. The thought of it spun around my head, everything she had just said to me – it was a lot to take in, no doubt about that.
But she was right. One of the things Anna had struggled with the most in the months leading up to her death was this belief she seemed to have that everyone was getting tired of her, that nobody wanted to deal with her anymore, even though I would have dealt with years of that shit if it meant having her with me. Yes, there were times when I had gotten frustrated, there was no doubt about that, but I had always loved her – even now, I loved her, I loved her so fiercely it felt as though it was burning a hole in my heart.
”I’ll do it,” I murmured, and she threw her arms around me and squeezed me tight.
”Thank you so much,” she replied, pressing a kiss against my cheek. ”I know it can’t be easy for you to even think about all of this, but I promise, it’s going to make such a difference.”
I wrapped an arm around her. The rush of emotion that rose whenever my sister was brought up still caught me off-guard, but maybe there was something I could do with all of that feeling – something I could do to make it useful, put it out into the world and help other people going through similar things make sense of it.
I turned to her, leaning my head against hers for a moment.
”You’re so damn brave, Abbey,” I murmured to her. She cocked her head at me, clearly a little confused.
”What do you mean?”
”Putting this out there,” I replied. ”Putting yourself out there like that. To help other people. There aren’t many people in the world who would be willing to even think about it. They would just want to move on with their lives, but you...you want to make a difference. That’s pretty fucking brave, if you ask me.”
She smiled at me, her eyes softening.
”Thank you,” she murmured. ”That means a lot to me. Coming from you, especially.”
I grinned at her, and squeezed her one last time before I got back to my feet.
”We have boxes to unpack,” I reminded her. Behind us, Cinnamon and Clove were playing together on the bed, Clove pouncing on Cinnamon’s tail while Cinnamon tried to fight him off. I was glad to see them getting on so well together, and I got the nagging feeling that these wouldn’t be the only cats we brought into this place.
Because this was our home now, and I wanted to fill it with as much love as I could. After Anna had passed, I hadn’t allowed myself to let another family fill that void – I”d had the Dogs, but that was it. The thought of building something else with someone close to me, allowing someone near enough to fill that hole in my heart again, it had been more than I could handle.
But here, now, I knew it was exactly how it was meant to be. I knew it was just what I had been waiting for. A whole new life, stretched out before me – a whole life with the woman I loved at my side. I could hardly wait.