Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Aaron
I waited patiently for Valerie to come back down after the incident in the bathroom.
I was half thinking she was going to hide in her bedroom after the way I acted, but I couldn't help but stare.
Valerie was no longer the young girl I used to know.
She was a grown-ass woman with curves in all the right places.
For being fifty-two years old, she had a great body that I wished more than anything I could touch.
Instead I was being forced to keep my hands to myself until I got some answers.
Five minutes later, Valerie eventually came back down in her signature pajama bottoms and hoodie. I could tell she was nervous. "Would you like a glass of wine with your popcorn?"
She sighed in what sounded like relief. "Yes, please."
"Red or white?"
"Red is perfect."
I went over to the cabinet and pulled a bottle of red wine out of the wine rack and a glass. Uncorking the bottle, I poured heavily into a wineglass and handed it to Valerie before pouring myself one.
I wasn't normally a wine drinker but tonight I was willing to have some. I was going to need something to get me through the night after seeing Valerie naked, and based on how relieved she sounded when I didn't say anything, she was worried about how this night was going to go as well.
"What kind of movie did you choose?" Valerie settled into the one side of the couch while I sat on the other side with the bowl of popcorn in the middle of us.
"I figured it was an action movie kind of night."
Originally I had picked out a romantic comedy because I knew they were her favorite, but after what happened, I decided anything to do with sex was probably a bad idea. It was already on the brain and I didn't need the sexual tension to be ramped up any more than it already was.
"Good idea." Valerie took a big sip and focused on the screen in front of her.
I inwardly sighed. Earlier tonight it had been looking like I was making progress, but now I seemed to be three steps behind. My best bet was probably just to break the ice and see what was going on between us.
I waited until we were about fifteen minutes into the movie before I worked up the courage to broach the subject. But before I could open my mouth, Valerie was talking.
"I'm going to grab some more wine. Would you like some?"
I looked down at my still half-full glass and shook my head. "No, thanks, but let me get it." I was up and off the couch before she could move. Grabbing her glass, I took it into the kitchen with me.
I topped off Valerie's wineglass and brought it back to where she was curled up in the corner of the couch.
"Thank you."
"My pleasure." I settled down next to her and turned so that I was facing her. "I have a question for you." No time like the present to just jump right into things.
I waited until she took a large sip of her wine and licked a tiny droplet off her lip. I wanted to be the one who had the honor of licking that away, but we weren't there yet and would maybe never be if I didn't get her to talk to me.
"Ask away."
"Why did you stop writing me?" There, it was out there. After thirty years I was finally going to get the answer as to why everything suddenly changed.
Valerie looked to be seriously thinking about her answer, and for the briefest of seconds, I wondered if maybe I didn't want to know the answer.
"I waited four years for you. Only for you to tell me you were re-enlisting. It was then that I decided I didn't want to wait anymore."
That didn't make any sense. "I only decided to re-enlist because you stopped answering my letters."
"What are you talking about? I wrote you that I wanted you to come back. That I was ready to start a life with you."
I looked at Valerie like she lost her mind. "I never received any sort of letter like that from you."
"What do you mean? It's the last letter I sent to you. I poured my heart out in that letter. I begged you to come back to me, that I loved you and you responded that you were re-enlisting."
I moved even closer to her on the couch until our legs were touching.
Grabbing the wineglass from her hands, I set it on the table so I could take her hands in mine.
"I swear to you, I never received that letter.
Otherwise I would've been home immediately.
I wanted nothing more than to have a life with you. "
"You didn't get my letter?"
I shook my head.
"So we wasted all these years because of miscommunication?
" The sadness that was in her eyes slowly disappeared and was quickly replaced with anger.
Before I could fully comprehend what was happening, Valerie ripped her hands out of mine and jumped up from the couch.
"Stupid miscommunication! Years lost and for what?
" She threw her arms up in the air. "No marriage!
No babies! Just a business that only half fulfills me because I'm too sad about the rest! "
One word stuck in my head and played on repeat until I could finally croak it out.
"Babies?"
"Yes, babies, Aaron. You know, children. I wanted to have them with you and I lost out on that because the post office lost my letter confessing my undying love and then the letter I got back from you broke my heart so much that I spent the next three decades being mad at you!"
So many things now made sense. The lack of letters after I stayed in. The cold shoulder any time I came home to visit. This whole time I thought she got sick of waiting and just didn't know how to tell me.
"How come you never said you wanted children?"
I was stuck on that one detail because in all the letters we shared, the topic of children never came up.
Valerie flopped back onto the couch and dropped her head against the couch cushion, gazing up at the ceiling, she said, "Because we were young, Aaron. You were in the Marines and I was deciding what I wanted to do with my future. I loved fashion but there weren’t the same opportunities back then that there are today.
I was afraid if I told you everything I wanted in life, you would get scared off. "
I gathered her hands in mine once again. "There wasn't anything you could've said to me back then that would've scared me off. I was in love with you."
She looked back at me and tried to hide the tears in her eyes by blinking them away but I could easily see the pools trying to break free. "Was?"
"I still am. I always have been. So much so that I've kept this in my pocket every day of my life just waiting for the right time."
I dug in my pocket and pulled out the ring that I bought Valerie the last time I was home, before she stopped talking to me. Getting down on one knee, I asked the most important question of my life.
"Will you marry me?"