December 2, 2015
Karlie and her mother, Tracy, are currently sharing their last conversation together in a hospital room, on the third floor.
The lights are dimmed and there are candles on the sides of Tracy's bed, just like she requested. A bible is sitting on the bedside table, and Karlie is squeezing her mothers hand while silent tears escape her eyes. Small sniffles leave her nose and she moves her other hand to rest on her mothers bald head.
"I love you so much, Karlie. Please don't forget that," her mothers voice is so weak the blonde has to lean in to properly hear her mother. The sentence makes her heart shatter and another sob leave her.
"I love you, too. I'll always love you, mom. I wish we could have more time."
Tracy frowns, "Karlie, I've done enough in this life. I raised a beautiful young woman by myself, I had a strong career, and I was fortunate enough to travel around the world. It's your turn, honey. Meet someone, raise a family, just do something before it's too late. I believe in you."
With that final piece of advice, her mothers heart monitor speeds up and the hand Karlie is holding goes limp. Karlie's eyes widen and she cries harder than ever. "No! Mom, you can't do this, don't leave me!" Her voice raises with every word. "It's too soon, don't do this to me, come back. Please, I'm begging you. I love you, I love you, I love you!"
A nurse enters the room and rests a hand on Karlies back, rubbing it soothingly. "It's time to say goodbye, sweetie." Karlie lets out a final sob and rests her head on her mothers chest, for once, not hearing a beat. She shakes her head and places a final kiss on her mothers temple, and the nurse helps her stand up.
She turns to the woman and collapses into her arms. The nurse wraps her arms around Karlies fragile body and whispers soothing words into her ear.
Four months later-- April 5, 2016
Taylor walks into her office building holding a steaming hot cup of coffee in one hand, and her briefcase on the shoulder of her other. She takes the elevator to the fifth floor and walks straight to her office. She sighs and sets her things onto her desk and pulls her computer out of her bag to begin going over emails. Her assistant, Jourdan, walks in a moment later to greet her boss.
"Good morning, Taylor, you're looking well today." Jourdan is holding a sticky note in her hand and a cup of coffee in the other.
"Hello, Jourdan. I see you've got my coffee, well, you can drink it. I stopped by Starbucks earlier, but thank you." The blonde looks up from her computer to smile a the chocolate colored woman.
"Not a problem. I do have some messages for you. Schmidt, in printing, has the final drafts for you and can deliver them to your office this morning. Miranda has the budget reports ready to be reviewed, and Karen is back from maternity leave." Jourdan holds out the note containing more information.
"Thank you, Jourdan. Anything else?" Taylor takes the sticky note from her hand and places next to her computer.
"Yes, I was wondering if I could have a longer lunch break today? I have a friend visiting that is about to be leaving the country," the brunette nervously asks.
"Yes, but could you meet with her here? You can have one of the conference rooms, I just need you here in case something happens, you know, with fashion week coming up. She is welcome to stay as long as she wants, though."
"That's perfect, thank you, Taylor. "
"Not a problem, Jourdan." Taylor looks back at her computer screen, signaling the conversation is over.
...
The rest of her morning is spent going over emails. Around noon, she finally gets up to get the finished prints from Schmidt. On her way back to her office, she sees a blonde woman sitting with her assistant at Jourdans desk. She walks up to the two women.
"Hello, you must be Jourdans friend, I'm her boss, Taylor." She holds out her arm for the blonde to shake.
The woman gives her the brightest smile she's ever seen and shakes her hand. "Hi, I'm Karlie, nice to meet you, Taylor."
Karlie has piercing green eyes and straight blonde hair that cascades over her shoulders. Her white teeth are perfectly straight and her lips are covered in a light shade of lipstick. She wears light makeup, not needing to cover any imperfections. Her skin is smooth, and tinted a little pink in the cheeks.
She is wearing a black sweater with the name Cindy Crawford in white print. She has on baggy light jeans. You can see the smallest of her white shirt poking out from underneath the sweater.
Karlie is breathtakingly beautiful and Taylor can't keep her eyes off of her. "Nice to meet you, too." She slowly let's go of her hand and shakes her head, snapping herself back into reality. "Jourdan, you can actually have the rest of the day off."
Jourdans eyes widen and she asks, "are you sure, I don't mind staying?"
Taylor chuckles and shakes her head replying, "no it's absolutely fine, I'm about to leave, too. There is nothing for me to do here that I can't do at home, anyways."
"Okay, thank you, Taylor!"
Taylor smiles and turns around to walk back into her office before she is reminded of something. "Oh, one more thing before you leave. Call Jason from IT, our website is glitching, I think something is wrong with the code."
Karlies head pops up immediately and informs, "I can take a look at it if you want? I have a masters in computer science and I'm opening my own company."
Taylor is taken back by Karlies offer and immediately nods her head, "that would be lovely. You can come to my office and take a look at it, instead." She turns around once again and leads the two women through the glass door of the office.
An hour later, Karlie stands up from the computer and says, "okay, I'm all done. Everything is working fine now, you had a small error in the code. I was able to fix it, shut down the website and re start it again and it works fine."
A wave of relief washed over Taylors face. "Thank you so much," she pulls her wallet out of her purse and opens it, "how much do you charge?"
Karlie laughs, "it was nothing, Taylor. Put your wallet away." She moves around the desk and takes her purse from Jourdans hands, acknowledging the brunette she says, "I have to go finish packing now, I'll call you later."
"Jourdan mentioned you were leaving the country, where are you going?" Taylor curiously asks.
"I'm actually being deported back to Canada," a look of concern flashes on Taylors face, "don't worry I didn't commit a crime or anything. I'm originally from Montreal but I came here when my mom got sick and was in the hospital. She passed away, and since I don't have a reason to stay anymore, they are sending me back. I have to stay in Canada for a year before I can get a new green card and become a full citizen."
"I thought you said you were opening your own company?" Taylor asks.
"I was, until the government contacted me. It halted all my plans and like I said, I have to wait a year, possibly more." She looks down at her shoes, embarrassed to be telling all of this to a stranger.
"There must be something you can do, right? Like you said, it's not like you've committed a crime or done anything illegal during your time here," Taylor adds.
She hasn't known Karlie long, really only an hour, but she feels this strong need to protect her, or help her. No matter how big or small.
"The only thing that would let me stay is if I had more family here, or if I was getting married to a US citizen. But I don't have either of those so there is nothing I can do, but thanks for your concern."
"How long do you have before they kick you out?"
"I have four months."
...
When Taylor makes it back to her house, she drops her things onto the floor and lays down onto the couch. Her two cats, Meredith and Olivia, come out from wherever they were hiding and lay on the floor next to her.
The whole ride back from the office she has been thinking about Karlies situation. She can't imagine what she would do if that happened to her. She would lose everything she has worked for. She just released her third clothing line and has finally gotten attention and respect from the media. If she lost all of that she would have nothing.
She wants to help her, but how? Karlie only has two options.
A thought pops into her mind, which she knows is absurd and completely out of her mind, but she still picks up the phone and calls her assistant, anyways.
After only two rings, Jourdan picks up the phone and answers happily, "hello, Taylor! What can I do for you?"
She takes a deep breath before replying, "I have to marry Karlie."