Chapter 5
KAITLYN
The evening had passed in a whirl, and not just because of the champagne.
Kaitlyn’s head was spinning. She was feeling all sorts of emotions, caught up in memories of the past and the possibility of what might’ve been.
Seeing Alex again had brought to the fore all those things she’d thought were lost. It was the strangest of feelings to be on such familiar terms with a man who was really now a stranger.
They’d once been best friends, but circumstances had pulled them in different directions.
It wasn’t that either of them had forgotten the other, but that the journey through life had proved very different for each of them.
Meeting again, crossing paths, brought with it a sense of possibility.
Kaitlyn had a lot of questions, but more so, she had a lot of feelings, too.
It must be the champagne talking.
But it was more than that. This wasn’t just about an old flame rekindled. It meant something, certainly to Kaitlyn. She’d thought Alex had forgotten her, but it seemed the opposite was true. He’d thought about her, just as she’d thought about him. It was a strange feeling.
“Have you had enough?” Kaitlyn asked, for they’d danced every dance since the first.
He nodded, taking her hand as they stepped out of the throng.
The tables had been cleared, and the staff were setting up a buffet on a long table at the side of the room.
The wine was still flowing freely, and Alex took a bottle from an ice bucket, asking one of the waiters for two clean glasses.
The sun was beginning to set, and some of the guests had stepped outside onto the wooden terrace, looking out over the garden.
The room where the wedding breakfast and dancing had taken place was getting stuffy, and Kaitlyn was glad of Alex’s suggestion that they step outside for a moment to get a breath of air.
“That’s better,” he said.
It was pleasantly cool outside, with the scent of summer flowers perfuming the air.
The clubhouse was set in magnificent grounds, with a small boating pond surrounded by weeping willow trees as its centerpiece.
Swans were swimming elegantly across the shimmering surface of the water, and Alex led Kaitlyn down from the terrace and along a small jetty to where a boat was tethered.
“No,” she said as he looked at her with a smile.
“All right… Perhaps we’d better not.”
“I wouldn’t trust myself not to fall in after all that champagne,” Kaitlyn said.
“We’d be remembered for all the wrong reasons,” Alex replied.
Instead, they sat down on the jetty, swinging their legs over the water, their reflections shimmering in the light of the setting sun.
As Kaitlyn looked down at the water, it was as though nothing had changed.
The reflection was of two people who, even after all these years, could pick up from precisely where they’d left off.
Kaitlyn had spent so long worrying about meeting him again, and yet, all those worries had melted away.
It was just the two of them. Nothing else seemed to matter, and the troubles of the past year now gained a different perspective.
Kaitlyn knew her mom wouldn’t have wanted her to mope around and be miserable, and she certainly wouldn’t have wanted her to push aside her art and creativity for a continuing sorrow.
“You’ve got to live your life, Kaitlyn.” That’s what she’d have said. And meeting Alex again was a reminder of that continuing life.
“It’s lovely out here, isn’t it? I could sit here all night,” Kaitlyn said.
“You wouldn’t get bored of me?” Alex asked.
Kaitlyn shook her head and smiled.
“I don’t think so. I never did before, did I? Or are you boring now? We’ve got a lot to catch up on. There’s so much I don’t know about you. And so much you don’t know about me.”
“What do you want to know?” he asked.
Kaitlyn thought for a moment. Would it be impertinent to ask about his business? His relationships? His life in New York? She was curious. He was a familiar stranger. Meeting again after all this time brought with it both memories and the possibility of something new.
“Well… what’s life like for you now? What do you do all day?”
Kaitlyn knew he was a billionaire, several times over. But as for what a man who controlled a global business empire actually did with his time, she was oblivious.
Alex looked sheepish. “I suppose… I go to a lot of meetings, and I make decisions about investments and how the company is run. I go to the gym in the mornings, and I usually have client dinners in the evening, or something that keeps me out until late. I don’t usually have much time for anything else. ”
“Then is it strange to have free time now?” Kaitlyn asked.
“Actually, I’m starting to enjoy it. I didn’t think I would at first. When I came back the other day, it felt claustrophobic. The small town that never changes. But people change, don’t they? We’re not the same as we were.”
“We’re still single,” Kaitlyn said, shrugging her shoulders as she finished the last of her champagne.
He smiled and shook his head. “Did we ever really break up?” he asked.
“Did we ever really get going?” Kaitlyn retorted.
He looked embarrassed, almost regretful. “We sort of did. I mean… It’s the closest I’ve ever been to something more. Maybe it just wasn’t the right time.”
Kaitlyn shrugged. It could’ve been the right time. She’d tried, but it hadn’t worked. She hadn’t been bitter about it. It was just how it was. “But there wasn’t ever anyone else?” she asked.
Alex shook his head. “No one that mattered. And now I’m thirty, and you’re thirty, and that promise still stands.”
Kaitlyn wasn’t quite sure what he was saying.
Did he mean the promise they’d made to get married?
She smiled and shook her head. It was crazy.
They couldn’t just get married on a whim, and yet it wasn’t a whim.
It meant something. It had always meant something.
Her heart skipped a beat as he smiled at her, reaching out to take her hand in his. This was surely the champagne talking.
“Oh, but… it was just… I don’t know. What we said at the time. We were clinging to a possibility. It was a false hope,” she said, though she was rapidly running out of reasons to refuse him.
“But here we are. Why don’t we just do it? What do we have to lose?” he asked.
Kaitlyn stared at him in disbelief. His question was a pertinent one. She couldn’t think of a reason why they shouldn’t marry, and yet, it seemed utterly mad. Rachel would say she was crazy. But Rachel’s opinion didn’t matter. No one’s opinion mattered. Alex was right. What did they have to lose?
“You mean… get married? Just like that,” she said, and Alex nodded.
“It’s surely the longest proposal in history. How many years has it been?”
“Twelve. We were eighteen. I know we promised, but… do you really think it could work?” Kaitlyn asked.
Despite the champagne, practicality was holding her back.
There were so many unanswered questions, and such a great possibility of failure.
And yet, Kaitlyn knew her life was at a crossroads.
Her mom’s death had brought with it the question of what happened next.
Where should she go? Who should she be? Kaitlyn had never really found her place in San Francisco.
She had friends there, acquaintances, and there was the studio. But as for being wedded to a place…
“Why not? Isn’t tonight proof that it could?
I thought it was going to be difficult. I didn’t know if we’d get on with one another or find anything in common.
But I feel so at ease with you. I know we were young and foolish on prom night.
But I meant what I said, even if I’ve forgotten it since. Can’t you give me a second chance?”
Kaitlyn wasn’t usually so immediate in her decisions.
Usually, she liked to wait and take time to think.
To weigh things out and come to a decision based on knowing all the facts.
This was different. Alex wanted an answer now, and though her heart and mind weren’t yet as one, Kaitlyn knew she wanted to say yes.
It was a strange feeling — the feeling of risk, of leaping into the unknown.
Except Alex wasn’t the unknown. In some ways, he was the only thing she had ever known.
“I can,” she whispered, hardly daring to believe what she was saying.
Caution was thrown to the wind. She’d said yes to the proposal he’d made all those years ago.
It had taken only one night together to make her realize she’d never truly let him go.
He’d occupied a place in her heart for all these years.
Pushed down and hidden out of sight, but there nonetheless.
It seemed extraordinary, but Kaitlyn knew she couldn’t refuse.
There’d never be another chance. Perhaps she might’ve suggested they take things slowly, a day at a time.
They could get to know one another again and figure out just how all this was meant to work.
But if Kaitlyn had learned anything in the past few months, it was that life was fleetingly short.
She thought of her mom, and of all the things she’d wanted to do with her life but had been denied.
Now was the moment to seize, not an imagined moment in the future.
“Then that’s a yes? You’ll marry me?” he asked, staring at her as though in disbelief.
Kaitlyn nodded. “I will,” she replied.
For a moment, they sat in silence, both, it seemed, coming to terms with the remarkable decision they’d made.
It felt surreal. It was surreal. But in saying yes, Kaitlyn at last felt she was taking control of her life.
She’d made a decision to change. It was something new, and yet something that should always have been.
“I can’t believe you said yes,” Alex said, still holding Kaitlyn’s hand in his.
“We made a promise, didn’t we? I didn’t forget it. I thought you had, though.”
Alex shook his head. “I never forgot it, either. I just… well, I wish it had happened sooner. It’s strange… seeing you again, being together like this. It’s like we’re right back there in high school, picking up where we left off.”
Kaitlyn smiled. “A little older and wiser, perhaps?” she ventured, for enough water had passed under the bridge to make her remain cautious as to how this would actually work.
She hoped Alex’s words wouldn’t prove to be a false promise. That he wouldn’t return to New York and promptly forget about her. He’d made promises before. But, to her relief, he nodded.
“I’d like to think so. For both of us,” he replied.
With her hand still clasped in his, he leaned forward.
Kaitlyn’s heart skipped a beat as their lips met in a kiss.
She’d waited so long for this. A deep longing for this man made her stomach flutter and time stop.
It felt natural. There was nothing forced or false.
There was no sense of show, for there was no one else to see.
As their lips parted, she smiled at him as he brushed a strand of hair back from her cheek.
“Will it work?” she asked, holding her breath as she waited for his answer.
“If we make it work,” he replied.
Fireworks now rose into the darkening sky above them — the finale of the wedding — and looking around, Kaitlyn could see the other guests crowded onto the terrace, exclaiming with delight at the sight of the bright colors bursting above.
They were a celebration of love, of Rachel’s and Sean’s marriage.
And yet it felt to Kaitlyn as though, somehow, they were meant for her and Alex, too.
The colors reflected in the shimmering waters of the boating pool, and Alex slipped his arm around her as Kaitlyn rested her head on his shoulder.
It was a perfect moment, the sort that occurs only rarely, when it seems as though every point in the universe is perfectly aligned.
Kaitlyn knew Rachel would see her. Even now, she was probably whispering to Sean and pointing with curiosity as the fireworks continued to burst above.
But explanations could wait for the morning.
Right now, Kaitlyn felt entirely content, knowing she’d made a decision that was for her and her alone.
“Shall we slip away? They won’t notice us. We could walk back. It’s a nice night,” Kaitlyn said after the fireworks had come to an end.
She wasn’t exactly sure what she was saying, whether it was an invitation or simply a suggestion of practicality. They couldn’t very well go back to Alex’s mom’s house. There’d be questions, awkwardness, and the embarrassment of the morning.
“For a nightcap?” he asked, his eyes more intense and his voice husky.
Kaitlyn blushed. But why not? There was no reason not to. They were getting married. It still seemed strange to think it. It was strange, but wonderfully so.
“Come on. They’ll be saying goodbye to the others. I’ll message Rachel in the morning,” she said, taking him by the hand.
Together, they slipped around the side of the clubhouse, emerging onto the drive through the trees.
The other guests were beginning to leave.
Cars were pulling up, and goodbyes were being exchanged.
Kaitlyn and Alex walked hand in hand. It felt like being a teenager again, doing as they pleased and not caring what anyone else might think.
Kaitlyn felt happy. It was an unusual feeling, one she hadn’t known for a long time.
But Alex’s proposal had jolted her back to life.
She realized she’d been on pause, waiting for something that wasn’t going to happen unless she made it happen.
It was so very unlike her, and yet it felt so very right, too.
“I’m so happy we met again. I’m so happy you remembered the promise,” Alex said as Kaitlyn unlocked the door of her mom’s house — her house — and led him inside.
“I’ll make us some coffee,” she said, smiling as she ushered him onto the couch.
It was a far cry from a billionaire’s apartment, or so she imagined, at least, but it was home, and she was glad to have him there. Glad to have someone to break the silence.
“Why don’t you come and sit down?” he said, smiling at her. “We can leave the coffee for now.”
Kaitlyn did so, slipping her arm around him as he kissed her.
The warmth of his kisses reached all the way to her toes.
It was the most wonderful feeling, one she never thought she’d know.
Meeting Alex again had changed everything.
It had given her happiness back, and now, in his company, with his arms around her, just like it was meant to be, Kaitlyn at last felt hopeful for the future.