26. Katrinia
26
Katrinia
I t’s been four easy weeks of waking up next to Cooper. The movers helped pack and move all the boxes from my apartment with Willow into Coopers just a few blocks down the road. A bit excessive but it was the least painful move to date so I will give him that.
Willow’s friend from work broke up with her boyfriend and ended up taking my room. I left all my furniture and a horrendous DIY lamp Willow and I made one night after eating some gummy bears she was given from a guy she was seeing at the time.
She came home that evening with a set of two thrifted lamps and a bag filled to the brim with the most random selection of left overs from the hobby store clearance section. I still live with a permanent reminder that edibles and hot glue guns don’t mix on the palm of my hand.
Since moving in, Cooper and I have fallen into a pretty easy routine. We wake up, eat breakfast together, talk about our day ahead as we walk to work, spend the open hours at the shop before coming home and making dinner together before settling in for a cozy night. I’ve enjoyed our simple little life thus far.
It’s been nice to feel settled and secure in our relationship now that the shock wave of re-entering each other’s lives again after so many years has worn off. These days I’m more consumed with hopes of our future than regrets of our past.
I still wake up sometimes and have to remind myself he is really here but it’s always been him, been us . Cooper did make an appointment with Dr. Bennett and we are scheduled to sit down with him after we get back from the tattoo convention in Las Vegas next week.
I think about all the things I want to talk about and ask in our session as I fold our clothes on the bed while Cooper showers. Setting aside the warm weather items I want to bring to Vegas, I stuff his sweatpants in the dresser drawer. It’s still freezing in Massachusetts so if packing five days early doesn’t shout, I’M EXCITED , I don’t know what does.
Cooper comes out with a towel slung low on his hips and his phone in his hand, “So my buddy Alex is going to be in Vegas the same time we are.” He says as he tosses the phone on the bed and runs a towel through his hair.
“How crazy. We should meet up with him. Go to dinner or get drinks or something.”
“Well funny story. I guess after having some complications conceiving they put a pause on wedding planning and jumped right into trying to have a baby.” He pulls on some briefs and starts helping me fold laundry on the other side of the bed.
“Like Theo and Luna?” I ask, thinking about all the young people struggling with infertility that I know right now. That has Cooper’s vasectomy rushing to the front of my thoughts.
“Yeah I guess so. Well hear this, they placed a bet on the gender of the baby. If it was a girl they could resume planning the big wedding but if it was a boy…” He laughs, shaking his head.
“Don’t tell me…” I look up in surprise.
“Yep, they are eloping with Elvis. That’s why they are going to be in town all of a sudden. He invited us to come meet up with them after. I haven’t seen him or Ella since my Army days but we’ve kept in touch over social media.” He says but I can tell he is hesitant about something.
“Ella, why does that name sound so familiar?” I run it over in my mind as I place a folded towel on top of the others. “Ella, the girl who was dating your roommate when you lived in that military apartment on base? The girl whose friend was…”
He runs a hand across the back of his neck. “That would be them.”
His roommate at the time, Alex, was dating a girl he met from a town just outside Fort Bragg. Her friend was the blonde that went out with them the night before I found her in Cooper’s bed the next morning.
“We don’t have to go. I don’t know if she will even be there but we don’t have to meet up with them if you don’t want to.” Cooper looks like he is kicking his own ass for even bringing it up.
“Ummm. Yeah no, don’t be silly. A friend invited you. We should go. It would be rude not to.” I ramble as I silently panic on the inside.
We just found our way back to each other. It’s been going so well but I guess every relationship has its tests.
This is just a test. I repeat over and over to myself.
Can I really move past our history or is it better to find out now that I’ll never be able to get over it? I guess we’ll find out when we get to the city of sin.