Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Hayes
Weeks and weeks of emails, texts, and long phone calls had led up to this moment. I had Charlie convinced I wouldn't be able to make it to see her before I deployed next week. Somehow, by the mercy of God and the US Navy, I was approved for a four-day weekend to see my girl.
The second I was off work on Thursday, I was heading to the San Diego airport to catch my overnight flight to Atlanta. One more flight will have me in Columbia, where my mom and Odessa will pick me up. She happened to be in town, which is perfect for the second big surprise I have planned.
Everything so far has gone exactly as planned, and I'm in my old truck heading to Charlie's work to surprise her. She was able to visit for spring break, but that already feels like a lifetime ago. Leaving for a year is going to be harder than we both anticipated.
I stand outside her swanky office building and lean against her front bumper on the Ford Explorer we picked out together.
We spent hours searching online for the right fit, and I flew out here to help her test drive cars last year.
As I wait for her to finish work, memories flood through my mind.
Her trips to see me, my visits home, and the weekend in Vegas that changed everything.
Any free moment I've had, which aren’t many, I’ve spent with her.
Every good moment I've had somehow involves her.
She's become my everything. My soulmate. The one my heart beats for.
I run my finger over the smooth tin in my pocket.
The box normally only has mints in it, but right now it’s holding something considerably more cherished.
We’ve only been officially dating for a little over eight months, but I’ve never been as sure of anything as I am of Charlie.
I don’t want to leave without promising a future to her.
She deserves it all, the ring, a house, kids.
I want to be the one to make all of her dreams come true.
She walks out and waves goodbye to a shorter, blonde woman. The woman smiles back and turns to go in the opposite direction. Assumedly, her coworker Ava.
I bide my time, waiting for her to see me. The smirk on my face only grows wider as I watch her dig in her purse, completely oblivious to me waiting for her.
"Hey, Sunshine!" I hollered, getting her attention, when I finally couldn’t handle it anymore.
Her gaze snaps up, and she drops her purse at the sight of me.
Sprinting across the parking lot, she leaps into my open arms and encircles her legs around my waist.
No words. She only seals those perfect lips to my mouth while I hold her to me.
"What are you doing here?" She mumbles along my lips.
"Had to see you before I left. I’m sorry I’ve been so distracted the last few weeks, I wanted to get everything done and I was afraid I’d ruin the surprise if I said too much.”
She nods, kissing me again before I set her down and jogged over to pick up her forgotten purse.
Bringing it back, I hand it to her. "Should we drop your car off at home and grab some dinner?"
She kisses me once more and nods. "Let's go."
We head to our usual Thai place, just down the road.
Not only is it our favorite, but it’s also quick and still close to her apartment.
We sit next to each other in a booth by the window, and I pull her close to me.
There aren't enough hours left in the weekend for her to be anywhere but right next to me.
"Is it okay that I surprised you? I’m not interrupting anything, am I?" I ask, trying to gauge her reaction to me ruining whatever weekend plans she may have had. Normally, she isn’t a big fan of surprises, either. She’s all about the buildup of anticipation and the excitement that comes with it.
She grabs my thigh and flashes her pearly whites at me. "You're the best surprise. If all my surprises were you, I'd never want to know what's coming again.”
Smiling back, I say, “Good. I’m glad.”
“And to answer your other question, you’re not interrupting anything.
Finals are coming up, so I planned on shutting myself in and studying.
However, spending the weekend in bed with you will be much more fun.
" She raises her eyebrows suggestively, but I’m still hung up on finals.
In all the excitement, I'd forgotten she should be studying for her classes.
She's been working so hard to get over a 4.
0; I don't want to be the reason she doesn't get it.
I open my mouth to say something, but she cuts me off. "Don't you give me that worried look, Hayes. I've been studying for months. Anything now is just reaffirming what I already know. I have every day after you leave to look through my notes."
I nodded and swallowed the guilt I was feeling. Charlie has always been a no-bullshitter, even when it comes to me. If she needed to study, she would tell me.
"Good, because I plan on occupying your entire weekend. You have UberEats or Doordash? Because I’m hoping this is the last time we leave the apartment until Sunday evening."
Her chin tips slightly to the left. "Sunday evening?"
"I told mom that we'd come to dinner."
She swats my chest. "Hayes! You have to see her more than just that! I can't hog you the whole time."
"Nope, I saw her this morning and we had breakfast. Odessa is in town for a little while too, so they already had plans.” My mom, of all people, knows how important it is for us to have our own time. She was on the other side of my dad’s deployments and Navy career for years.
We ate our food in record time, both feeling the need to get out of here without saying it. I paid and hustled her back out to my old truck.
It's still light out when we get back to her apartment, giving us an ample amount of time left in our evening. I haven’t decided when to propose yet, but it’ll be soon. She insisted that she doesn’t want a big, flashy proposal, but I want it to at least be romantic.
I rush around the truck to open her door and hold her hand as we walk up the steps to her apartment.
It’s a decent place, a safe neighborhood, and it has a gate in the front that only residents have a code for.
It’s one less thing for me to worry about while gone.
I’d lose my damn mind if she was living anywhere unsafe.
Columbia doesn’t have a lot of crime, but that doesn’t mean it’s without risk.
She puts the key in the lock and then pauses to look at me. "I'm so happy you’re here."
I give her a quick kiss and smack her on the ass. "Let's go, Sunshine. I need you naked in the next five seconds.”
She giggles and opens the door, and as it swings open, the scent of roses drift out into the hall.
She looks at me with wide eyes and a small smile. "Hayes, what is all this?!”
Shrugging my shoulders, I say, "It wasn't me."
Her mouth drops, and as she steps inside, white roses cover the entire apartment. Every inch is completely covered in roses—petals, buds, and full-bloom bouquets.
I step in front of her and walk into the apartment, trying to figure out who did this. Odessa knew I was in town, but she didn’t mention anything about it. Neither did my mom.
The rustling noise of a bed frame moving sounds from the bedroom and then I hear it. A male voice shouts her name, beckoning to her. What the fuck?
My heart stops as my head slowly turns to her. Her face is drained of all of its color; long gone is the carefree smile from earlier.
Two large steps into her room have me face-to-face with a man that I've never seen before. He's wearing a cheap suit and holding a rose in his hand. His back leans against her headboard like he's been in here a million times.
His head jerks back, and his forehead creases when he sees me. He sits up and moves to the edge of the bed. Throwing his hand out at me like I'm the intruder. "Who the fuck are you?"
"Me? Who the fuck are you?" I don't give him a second to respond. I know who he is—the man fucking my girl.
I slam my fist into his nose and hear the deafening crunch of bone. It does nothing to relieve my temper, so I yank him up by the lapels of his jacket and throw him into the wall parallel to her bed. His head bobbles slightly as he slinks down it.
Blood gushes out of his nose, already landing on the stark white petals covering the floor.
Rage pulses through my veins as I stare at him slumped on the floor. I know that if I don't leave this room, I'll kill him. As much as I want nothing more than to let my wrath take over, I've been trained to know when to stop.
Turning on my heels to leave, I storm past Charlie.
She looks terrified of me, but I don't spare her more than a glance. She's the cause of all this. It's nothing new for military personnel to get cheated on—it happens all the time. They give us fucking briefings on how to handle it. I never expected Charlie to do that to me, though.
I take the stairs two at a time as I rush out of the building.
The adrenaline carrying me to my truck—I've been conditioned to thrive on this feeling. Working on instinct rather than emotion. I need to get as far away from the situation as possible.