MASON AND SAGE

Chapter 7 ~ Sage

Mason knocked on my door bright and early the next morning.

"So we can spend as much time together as possible,"  he'd said. He'd always been a morning person thanks to his military life, but the beaming smile on his face as I opened my door was especially bright, his eyes happy and eager.

And it possibly melted my heart just a teeny, tiny bit. We'd gone out for breakfast that day, then spent time at the beach, ending with a romantic dinner on a pier, watching the sunset.

That set the tone for the ten days he was visiting. On the days I had work, he insisted on driving me to work and picking me up. He met me for lunch in the hospital cafeteria on work days and he was able to meet some of the friends I'd made, and who never failed to mouth he's so hot! or some variation of that behind his back as they pretended to fan their faces.

And, I had to admit, my Marine was hot.

Well, OK, not my Marine. We weren't back together or anything. Not at all. I was still having trust issues, obviously, and he knew it. So Mason was taking it slow with me, not pushing me for anything physical, even though he would have had me completely naked in point four seconds if I'd given him the green light. Not gonna lie: it was really tempting to fall back into bed with him. We'd done some hot and heavy kissing, but he always stopped it with a kiss to my forehead when it felt like we were about to burst into flames and spontaneously combust.

"Not until you trust me and believe with your whole heart that I love you and only you," he'd murmured in my ear, right before he'd give my neck a little nip.

I'd even teared up when I watched him drive away in his rental car to go to the airport. The ten days had gone by quickly -- much too quickly -- and our time together only reinforced how much I missed him in my life. 

So the remaining three and a half months of my contract sped by. Mason called me every night, and we texted multiple times throughout the day as our schedules allowed. There were still the every-other-day offerings of flowers and chocolates or some other treats. Carl and company still delivered dinner every single night without fail. 

He'd also flown out to see me on weekends four more times, the last one to help me drive home. True story: Mason insisted on doing all of the driving on the way back home and part of me wondered if it wasn't to prevent me from turning the car around and heading back to California permanently, if I'd been so inclined.

Honestly, although California had been beautiful and I'd made some good friends there, I'd missed home. And, to be completely truthful, I'd especially missed Mason. That was both a simple and a complicated truth. His calls and short visits had helped ease the loneliness that haunted me, but I wanted to be around him full time, to see if we could ever get back to what we'd been before he blew it up with his idiocy, or maybe, more realistically, find a new us. 

Mason had also helped me find a small, one-bedroom apartment to live in back home, even though I knew he wanted me to move back in with him. When he'd tried to argue the point, I'd told him I just wasn't ready to live with him again because...trust and he'd nodded grimly, understanding my point of view but not happy because he'd done this to us. 

Once he gave in to the notion that we wouldn't be picking up where we'd left off, he approved of a nice apartment complex on a quiet, upscale street not far from his home. I'd ordered a bed and couch, but not much else, figuring I could furnish it once I returned. Mason let the delivery men inside to deliver those big-ticket items, so I had a place to sit and sleep, at least, when I returned. I refused to let Mason buy me anything, telling him if he did, I'd donate it to a thrift store. 

He was frustrated, I knew that, but I also knew I wasn't going to be rushed. This man I had been weeks away from marrying had kissed his ex. No matter how much he wished he could take it back, it was a fact of our lives now. That still burned to the point that some days I wondered if I could ever get past it completely. Try as I might, I couldn't unsee the two of them in the alley. Although it wasn't in front of me all the time any longer, that vision did pop up occasionally -- enough to make me slow things down a bit. I'm sure Mason felt that we were one step forward, two steps back at times, but the man was unfailingly patient with me and my mood swings.