Broken Vows

Chapter 13

Erin didn’t have to wait long to find out just what Tyler had up his sleeve when he said he planned to win her back.  She arrived at work on Tuesday morning to find a vase of white roses sitting at the nurses’ station, a card with her name on it nestled among them.

“Where did these come from?” she asked one of the night nurses who was going off shift.

“They were delivered after you left yesterday.  We figured they’d keep until you got here this morning.”  The woman gave Erin a big smile.  “Who’s the lucky man?”

Erin gave the woman an embarrassed smile, assuming they were from Brody.  “Oh, just this guy I met who turned out to be pretty awesome.”

“Good for you, girl.”

Erin gave a small laugh and moved on, asking her to go over the change of shift information for the babies.  She didn’t have a chance to open the card until after she and the other nurses had made their rounds that morning.

Kelly was chomping at the bit for Erin to open the card, wanting to know what Brody had to say.

“Alright, already!  Geesh, you’d think they were for you.” Erin cried, after Kelly had bugged her about it for what seemed like the millionth time.

“I’m just so glad to see you two together, that’s all.  And seeing as how Tobey never sends me flowers, I need to live vicariously through you.”

Erin rolled her eyes, knowing that Tobey got Kelly plenty of flowers; even in they weren’t delivered to the hospital.  She reached for the card, pulling it out of the envelope, anxious to see what Brody had to say as well.  When she read the message and saw the signature, she froze.  Her stomach tightened and she thought for a moment she might vomit.

“Erin, what’s wrong?” Kelly asked, seeing the mortified expression on her face.

Erin shoved the card at Kelly, who read it quietly to herself.  “I’ve sent one flower for every year we were married, to help you remember.  And then I added one more to represent the future, one I hope we can rebuild together.”  She looked up at Erin then, her nose wrinkling as she spat the last words.  “Love Tyler?!”

Erin closed her eyes, shaking her head, wishing she had never opened the card and wanting to throw the roses in the trash.

“I guess he really isn’t taking no for an answer.” Kelly commented, tucking the card back into the envelope.  “What do you want me to do with this?”

“Throw it away.” Erin whispered.

She couldn’t believe his first move had been to send flowers to her place of work!  Nothing like jumping in with both feet.  He was publicly declaring his intentions.  Now it wasn’t just Erin who knew that he wanted her back, it was the rest of the world too.

She stared disgustedly at the flowers, saying, “I can’t believe he did this!  I don’t want these flowers.  And I’m certainly not going to leave them here so every nurse who comes on shift can ask about them.  What am I supposed to do with them?”

Kelly wrinkled her nose and stared at the flowers, thinking.  “Why don’t you just take them down to the volunteers and tell them to give them to a patient when they make the other deliveries?”

Erin sighed.  “Good idea.  Might as well let someone enjoy them, as long as it’s not me!”

She called down to the volunteer office and they agreed to send someone up to get them. Erin sighed in relief.  The roses were gorgeous and smelled wonderful, but there was no way she wanted to look at them any longer than necessary.  She hoped they came for them quickly.