He Sent You

FOURTEEN

Aiden

"Christopher Hansley" She says looking far away, her eyes glazing over.

"You don't have to talk about it." I say knowing that this will be a very personal story of hers to share with me.

"It's ok, he deserves to be talked about, I need to talk about him." She says looking at me, her eyes so tired and full of sadness.

She starts by clearing her throat and looking at the picture of Christopher. "Chris was my husband of six years, we met in high school - of course he was already in college and I finishing my last year but we knew each other, we always got along, Chris was the type of pick on me as a way of flirting it was charming." She smiles looking into the distance, I stay silent. "We got together for pizza, pizza was his favorite, he was always into junk food, how he remained his size is a mystery. He was always liked, by teachers, friends, coworkers, my family. He proposed and we got married, in a cute little farm, it was a glorious marriage, little to no fighting, date nights and long talks about the future which always made me excited and gave me something to live for." She says stopping and shutting off her computer.

"What happened to Chris?" I say.

"Walk me home?" She asks, her big eyes pleading. Finally, this beautiful girl wants me.

"Of course."

We walk in comfortable silence to the lift and we take it down in silence. I pass Rick on the way, waiting for me with Marshall, they both look at us. Slowly a smile forms on both faces.

"Rick, I'm just going to walk Ms. Juniper home, would you mind taking Marshall home? Hillary will be there for him." I say.

"Of course, sir. Do you want me to meet you back here to drive you back?" He asks, looking at Juniper's face.

"Sure, thank you." I nod. "Marshall, be good for Rick and Hillary, I'll see you at home and if you're good I'll bring you double fudge sundae from Ruby's." I wink at him.

"Ok! Deal, dad!" He shouts and runs to the bac garage doors.

"Ready?" I say to Juniper who looks guilty, biting her lip, her big eyes huge. When she looks like this, all innocent it makes it really damn hard not to kiss her.

"You don't have to, I forgot you-" She starts, but I cut her off.

"They already knew I was going to walk you home, don't worry about it." I lie, they didn't know, I told them I'd be down in ten hoping to be shut down again, but by surprise I wasn't. "Just let me quickly text my nanny." I say pulling out my phone to shoot Hillary and warning text.

We make it outside, the sun almost set for the day. "So?" I urge her to continue.

"We got into an accident, we don't know a lot of details about the driver or what happened, there's still an investigation going on as we speak, but with the look of things and them running off it was a drunk or impaired driver. Chris died on impact and I was unconscious for five days, Chris was still breathing, barely, they hooked him up to life support - long enough for me to say good-bye. I was heart broken, I wouldn't leave, I yelled and swore and Kendra and Mike. Eventually they left me to be alone where I could calm down, and think about everything. Chris wasn't there anymore it was a machine breathing for him. I had to let him go." She takes a breath and swipes the fallen tears away.

I suddenly without thinking brush the fallen stray of hair out her eyes and tuck it behind her ear. She leans into my hand suddenly. "Do you walk all your ladies home?" She whispers moving away from my hand as wiping a last tear.

"No." I say, looking at my hand and then tucking it into my pocket. "Only you."

She continues walking, more in a hurry now. "I keep forgetting about your son at home." She says all flustered. I grab her hand to stop her from walking.

"He's with Hillary, Hillary has been our nanny for ten years - since Marshall was born but since he goes to school now she's more housekeeping, but she'll be thrilled to watch Marshall, so don't worry about it." I say letting go of her soft, warm hand and returning my hand to my pocket.

She nods, and spins, and continues walking except a bit more relaxed now. "So, now you see why I'm afraid of cars, traffic and everything of the sort." It now all comes together, the refusal to catch a ride, her walking to work. "I've been very traumatized, I even had to move away from the state Chris and I made a life in, I couldn't be reminded, everyday was getting harder and harder, I was on the brink of doing something I might've regretted when my dad suggested moving to Portland, getting a house of my own, getting a busy job to clear my mind and maybe meet somebody. Meeting somebody was fucking stupid, until..."

She pauses mid sentence. "Until?" I urge.

"Until I had a dream, unlike my other dreams where they're all blank but full of feelings of pain, despair, loneliness, I had a dream where Chris and me were lying in our field of sunflowers, in golden hour, and him telling me to move on, to fall in love and to be happy." She says, finally and then puffing out a breath like she's let everything go.

"And Chris was telling you to move on?" I ask.

She shrugs, "Sounds crazy, I know. But in the midst of everything going on he appears in a good dream, and so far, sleeping has been... peaceful, maybe he's actually trying..." She doesn't finish, she just looks up ahead, the sky a purple hue after the setting sun. "Are you going to be ok to walk back in the dark?" She asks totally off topic.

"I'll probably have Rick pick me up on your street, if that's ok?" I ask, making sure she's ok with somebody else knowing her street.

"Sure, would you like to come inside until he's there?" She offers as we turn onto her small, dead end street.

"If you don't mind." I smile.

"It's ok." She says moving her backpack to the front of her and fishes in the bag until she finds the keys.