A loud angry grunt came out of Erica as she accidentally stepped on a toy of Jacky's on the carpet of her bedroom floor, causing her to stumble and smack her knee into her small nightstand. She cursed from the pain while reaching out to grab the wobbling piece of furniture it caused the open drawer to fall out onto the floor and spill the contents everywhere. She was already in a bad mood today and every little thing only made it worse.
She dropped to her knees and grumbled while she grabbed the random items that had fallen out and threw them back in the drawer. Erica tucked her hair behind her ears while she kept quickly picking everything up but as soon as her eyes saw something that had fallen out, she grew still.
Erica picked up the sequin black minnie mouse ear headband that Chris had gotten her for Christmas to help add to the surprise of him proposing and taking her to Disney. Her fingers ran over the sequins, tears forming in her eyes when she thought back to finding these in the box along with the Disney ticket. The words that he said when he had put the ring on her finger replayed over and over again in her head, "I love you Erica, forever."
That sure did turn out to be the shortest forever she ever knew of.
She wanted to be angry at him. She really did. Erica wanted to be able to hate him, forget him and move on. But she couldn't. All she felt was sadness and a whole lot of it. Erica sat on her floor, crying as she thought about the first time he told her that he loved her, trying to yell it over the music at the Foo Fighters. She remembered the time that wrote her the most heartfelt note she had ever received and tied it to Dodgers collar before sending him over. Her heart ached as she thought about their Disney trip and all the fun they had or being in California and taking walks along the beach.
Erica longed for them to stay up all night just talking like they used to. She wanted to wake up in the morning with him laying next to her snoring. She wanted to hear his loud laughter while he slapped his chest. Erica just wanted him but it was over and she had to try to figure out how to move on.
Jacky lifted his head from where he was lounging on the floor and watched his master grab a cardboard box and go on a mission. Erica looked around her room and found everything of Chris' that she could and dumped it in the box. She threw in the sweatshirts and tee shirts that had made it into her closet and the Guns and Roses hat he left on her coffee table. Next the book he had been reading, some of Dodger's toys, and the expensive necklace he had given her went in the box. She rounded up a few more random things of his that had made its home at her house and ended up filling the entire box.
She just couldn't handle looking at all of it anymore. Seeing all these tiny reminders of him was like torture and she wasn't going to put herself through it any longer. Chris was hardly ever home anymore, not even normally spending the night at his house, so she knew that the coast was clear and she put a lid on the box before walking the short distance from her driveway to his with Jacky right behind her to leave the box, along with their past, on his doorstep.
While Erica was having her mini crisis at her house that morning, Chris was having his own at his mother's house. It had been a few days since Dave had come over to talk to him and as much as he tried to push the words out of his mind, they just kept haunting him. He tried to keep himself busy so that his anxiety wouldn't torture him as much although that didn't seem to work well.
"I think I'm going to have to move," Chris told his mother and sisters over breakfast after the kids had been dropped off at school.
"Do you think running away from your problems is going to solve everything?" Shanna was still angry at her brother.
Lisa, whom had sadly accepted the fact that Chris and Erica's relationship was over, told her son, "I think at some point you are going to have to talk to Erica but I do think it would be best if you moved. There's no way you can ever feel comfortable there and I think it would be better for you to move, you have the money for it."
"Erica worked so hard to buy that house," He muttered, pushing the eggs around on his plate.
The women all shared a look before Carly told him, "Whatever you're going to do though Chris, if you're going to keep staying here, you at least have to go home and pack a bag of your stuff because I'm not going to keep going over there to get you clothes."
A soft sigh fell from his lips while he responded, "Yeah, yeah, I know. I should go over there and get some of Dodger's stuff too. Actually, Erica usually goes over to Dave's house on Friday mornings so I should go now before she gets back."
Now it was Lisa's turn to sigh, knowing that her son was making a mistake but it didn't appear that he was going to change his mind. She just decided to keep her mouth shut while Chris finished his breakfast and drove over to his house. Right as he turned the corner to pull in his driveway he muttered under his breath, "Shit."
He saw a willowy woman on his front steps, a pair of tight ripped jeans on her long legs and a Beastie Boys shirt on her, making her recognizable even from a mile away. Her warm curls were wrangled up in a messy bun and her bangs hung straight across her forehead, only drawing more attention to her beautiful face. Chris sat in his car, just watching her bend down to put some box by his front door and when she turned around, her eyes landed on his car and immediately all the color drained from her face. The sight was enough to make his heart break all over again.
It was obvious she wasn't happy to see him and to be honest, he wasn't very happy to see her. It had been almost three weeks since either of them had seen one another and although they didn't know it about the other, each of them desperately regretted every second of what had happened. Seeing Erica only brought back the ache in Chris' heart that yearned for her even though she was now out of his grasp and there wasn't anything he could do. Chris didn't even know what to do, he thought about getting out of his car, running over and kissing her deeply but he found himself just sitting in his car.
Erica just walked quickly down his front steps and began to go through the grass to go around his car. Jacky began barking when he saw saw the familiar man in the car and ran over, putting his paws up on the door and barking happily. Chris didn't want to get out but he never could resist a dog so he took a deep breath before he pushed the door open and got out, bending his long legs down and rubbing the dog.
"Hi buddy, I've missed you. Dodger has too, he's pretty lonely now," Chris softly said to the dog who was overjoyed to see Chris.
"Jacky, c'mon," Erica called from her spot in the yard, unable to watch the cute sight anymore since she found herself wishing that she was the dog who was getting loved on by Chris.
The dog was torn as to what to do but eventually obeyed his master and slowly walked over to be at Erica's side while the pair walked back toward her house. Chris watched every step she took and Erica could feel his piercing blue eyes on her. She felt tears tingling at her eyes and was happy when she finally had at least made it past where Chris stood next to his car in the driveway.
"Erica," She heard his low voice call out to her.
Hearing him say her name made her freeze. A lump grew in her throat while she quickly blinked back her tears. She turned around and crossed her arms over her chest while he walked around his car so that he could stand in front of her, but made sure to leave some distance between them.
"Now you want to talk to me?" She said as the hurt of him turning her away came bubbling to the surface.
"Look Erica," He sighed, running a hand through his soft brown hair, his heart breaking from seeing the tears in her eyes. "I know that none of this makes a difference now and it's not going to change your mind, but I just want you to know that you were right. I should have talked to you about everything but I was afraid you wouldn't want to be with me because of what comes along with me. I think because of that, I didn't really want to ask you how you truly were handling it all because I was afraid you'd tell me you were done and couldn't handle it but I guess that ended up happening anyway except I drove you away so that didn't do me much good."
"Is there a point to this other than it just making me feel shittier than I already do?" Erica bit at her bottom lip while her throat burned and tears stung her eyes.
He stuttered a few times, making motions with his hands before eventually bringing them to his sides while telling her, "The truth is, I adore you Erica and all of the acting and everything isn't what's really important to me... you're what's important to me and if it's too much for you I want you to know that I'll give it all up in a heartbeat if it means I get to be with you."
Chris swore that he hadn't even blinked by the time Erica had thrown her arms around his neck tightly and was crying into his chest. He just stood there, completely dumbfounded for a moment, thinking that this somehow wasn't real, but when he realized that his precious Erica really was hugging onto him, he quickly wrapped his thick arms around her waist and buried his bearded face into the crook of her neck. He held her so tight against his firm chest that Erica could barely breathe but she didn't care.
"I thought you didn't want me anymore," She cried into his tee shirt.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," He mumbled into her neck. "I want you more than anything. I thought you couldn't handle being with me anymore."
"I'm so sorry Chris, I should have never gotten mad. I was just so overwhelmed and I should have talked to you about it and not taken it out on you," Erica clung to him.
"I'm sorry too, I should have never said what I did. I didn't mean a word of it," Chris was honest.
Erica lifted her face so that she could look up into his weepy blue eyes while she sniffled and rubbed her hands on his soft beard, "I know you didn't mean it. I love you Chris, I love you."
"I love you too Erica. I never stopped loving you, I'm so sorry," He said through his tears. "You know that you're the only girl for me and that will never change."
She crashed their lips together, their salty tears mixing with the passionate kisses the two had been missing for the past weeks apart. They desperately kissed and grabbed at one another, mumbling how much they loved one another until they were so breathless and weepy that they had to pull apart.
Chris quickly scooped Erica up in his arms, carrying her to his front door and she pushed it open for him before he carried her inside while Jacky happily trailed behind. He kicked the door closed with his foot and then carried her to the couch where he laid her down and wiped her tears away before wiping at his own. Erica tried to resume their passionate kisses but he stopped her before their lips came together.
"Wait a minute," Chris stood up. "You need something first."
She watched him push his hand in his pocket, digging around before pulling out her engagement ring and holding it up to show her. Instantly there were tears in her eyes again as he told her, "Every day I put this in my pocket... I don't even really know why. I think it was a way of keeping you close to me but I'm glad I can finally put this back where it belongs."
Erica held out her left hand and Chris gently slipped the ring on before brining her hand up to his mouth to kiss it. He then moved his hunky body to hover over her while her hands came to rub at his shoulders and then wrap around his neck while the two swapped kisses.
"I love you Erica and I'm not ever going to let you walk out that door again," He told her seriously.
Erica smiled up into his blue eyes, "Good, because I love you and I don't want you to ever let me."