There I Go Again

Chapter 95

Bruno I miss you

I miss you more

Not possible

Yeah it is. It hurts.

Like in your arm?

No, like my heart.

It would have been better if you played along. I love you. You will be in my arms in 48 hours.

Kassie sat in front of the TV in sweatpants, a hoodie and slippers staring at the boxes she was trying to pack. "This is lame." she said out loud.

"What is?" Amy asked peering over a stack of boxes holding some of her clothes.

"Packing, moving...all this stuff. It's just happening so fast. So not the way I wanted it to." she told her roommate.

"Nothing ever happens according to plan. Josh and I are supposed to be married and have 2.5 kids and a dog by now." Amy told her speaking about her boyfriend.

"Yeah...but y'all were it in high school. I'm kind of wondering why y'all aren't like that yet." Kassie told her.

"And you and Bruno were together in high school too...why don't you have all that?" she asked.

"Because he's a musician." Kassie answered.

"And Josh is in law school. I rest my case." Amy said triumphantly knowing she had lsot the argument.

**

Two days later Kassie wrapped herself in a blanket on Bruno's couch watching her cat explore the house. She had gotten her sister's husband and a handful of friends to drag in all the necessary boxes leaving the rest for Bruno to get for her when he got back from Europe.

"I know it's weird, Lil." she told her cat who suddenly ended up jumping on top of her, "Very weird." Kassie continued to throw things toward the room she wanted them in finally falling on top of a pile of coats she wasn't planning on ever wearing again. "I'll just lay here for a bit..." she spoke to the cat. "Whatever. You don't care, Lillian."

"Oh...shit..." Bruno exclaimed tripping on CDs as he walked in the house. "Oh dear..." he said to himself seeing the outline of a huge mess his wife had made in his, no their, house. "Kass+?" he called out to her walking toward the master bedroom stumbling upon Kassie curled up in a ball in front of the room on top of the coats. He tried not laughing at her as he picked her up gently to take her into the bedroom.

"It was all a ploy..." she woke up telling him softly.

"To do what, babe?" he asked her.

"To get you to carry me across the threshold." she laughed.

"Oh. I see." he answered softly laying her on the bed covering her with a blanket that had made its way into the bedroom.

**

Bruno knocked on his mother in law's door lightly knowing that she was on her way to the door.

"Hi, Bruno." she responded opening the door to see him wearing a pair of black pants, a yellow shirt, the shared necklace the her daughter and he shared, and his brown fedora. "I see you still have the necklace." she responded in a short tone.

"Penny...I know this didn't happen the way it should have." he said following her steps toward the couch in the big living area.

"No, Peter...it didn't." she told him.

"But, Penny...but your daughter means everything to me. There are not enough words to express how much she means to me."

"Bruno...you need to stop believing in all of this. When are you going to realize that the two of you are living in a fantasy?"

"It's not a fantasy, Penny. It's so real. I break when I'm not with her. There's this part of me that she's taken away from me..and without her I'm incomplete." he said honestly. Penny looked at him waiting for him to continue with the explanation. "Las Vegas wasn't a mistake. I asked Tom if I could marry her in December."

"Mhmm..." Penny nodded her head.

"He said he wouldn't want her to marry anyone else. But, he knew that you wouldn't be happy with the decision. But, I wasn't ready for you to upset Kassandra the way you have. Before, Penny...it was just something she shrugged off as normal. But, Penny...she wants you to be part of our lives in a good way. She wants you to be at your reception when we go home. She wants to tell you about the things that annoy her. She wants you to see her in the white dress and to dance with her when we dance until the sun comes up. She wants you to be there when we have kids. And I know you want all of that too. You're like my second mother. You're critical of everything I do, and I take your opinion into consideration when I do things. I hope you know that." Bruno said. "And that's why it hurts both of us when you say you don't believe in our relationship."

"I understand that that feeling, Bruno. What you two, and Tom, are failing to see, is that you haven't gone through a rough patch this time around. You two always hurt each other. Everytime she tells me that she's dating you again I think 'There she goes again.'" Penny told him.

"Penny, she's stopped coming to you. She has stopped telling you about our ups and downs because she sees that you don't believe in her. I assure you we've gone through them."

"Bruno...I do believe in her. Believing in her is all I can do at this point. All I can do is believe that she is making the right decision."

"She has made the right decision." Bruno responded.

"I can see that in your sincerity, Bruno. It took a lot of guts to come over here. I appreciate that. "

"Thank you talking to me, Penny." Bruno said standing up from his seat walking out to the car. Mission accomplished. He thought to himself turning up the radio driving back to their home.