The Purple Heart (8 page)

“
Not in so many
words.”

“
So you’re assuming he
feels the same way? What if this is all one-sided?”

“
Don’t be silly. He’s let
me know he’s as interested in me, just as much as I am in him,” I
said convincingly.

“
When are you going to
realize that it could all just be a novelty, Sydney? If it is, it’s
going to wear off. You just can bet on it. Wait until he gets
settled back into his real life. You might not be needed
anymore.”

“
I don’t understand what
you’re saying. What do you mean a novelty?” I could feel my blood
pressure starting to rise.

“
You don’t
want
to
understand, Syd. You’re just not thinking over the logistics of
this whole thing. He had a life before the military, and it’s going
to rear its ugly head somewhere down the line and probably when you
least expect it. You’ll be tossed to the side with nothing but
heartache. Do you really think he’s going to choose you over the
life he had before? Are you prepared for that? The whole idea of
what’s happening between you, it’s like meeting a cute guy on
spring break. You have a great time together, you promise to keep
in touch, but when you get home it’s all forgotten. Be ready in
case this isn’t going to last.”

And that was about all I could take.
“You’re … you’re wrong! How do you know that? Maybe I’m the one
he’s meant to be with. Maybe he’ll choose me. I swear to God,
you’ll see, Cheryl. Can’t you just believe in me for once? Why
can’t I be the girl with the fairytale ending? Is that so hard for
you to accept? I have to go,” I snapped at her and hung
up.

How could she think that? Did she
honestly think I was worth so little to someone?
It was not
only an insult to Aiden’s morals, but to my self worth. Right now,
all I wanted to do was rush to Aiden’s side. Feeling him next to me
would make everything better. Her words echoed in my head as I
slowly climbed the stairs to get to Aiden.

I stood on the other side of his door,
debating on whether or not I should enter. A strange thought
crossed my mind, that he wasn’t going to be there when I opened it.
That this had all been some strange dream, and he never really
existed. A lump formed in my throat as I finally secured the guts
to open the door. He was wrapped in the covers with his back to me.
If I snuck in quietly, he probably wouldn’t even know I had
left.

I tiptoed to
my side
of the bed,
smiling to myself that I had referred to it that way in my
head.

I eased my body back under the covers,
propped my head on my hand and just watched him snooze for a while.
He really did sleep like the dead, not even stirring at the motion
of my climbing back in bed with him. His eyes moved back and forth
under his lids and I was pretty sure he was dreaming.
Was he
dreaming about me?
I hoped he was. A sweet smile spread over
his face, and I convinced myself he actually was thinking of me. I
edged closer to him. I wanted to reach out and touch him, so I did.
Leaning over, I gently kissed his lips. His eyes fluttered open in
response.

“
Good morning,” I
purred.

“
It is now. That’s the
nicest alarm clock I’ve ever had.”

“
I’m sorry I woke you. You
were sleeping so peacefully and you obviously needed to catch
up.”

“
Don’t apologize. I’d
rather be awake and spending time with you. It looks as though
you’ve been up for awhile. I hope I didn’t snore or kick
you.”

“
No, don’t be silly.” He
obviously didn’t remember his second episode, and I thought it best
not to mention it right now. He leaned in so his mouth was right
against my ear. Waves of warmth and tingles from him being so close
washed over me.

“
I’m sorry about last
night. It’s not how I imagined our first night
sleeping
together would be,” Aiden whispered into my ear, his voice sounding
slightly embarrassed, yet still in good spirits.

“
You’ve thought about
that?” I was shocked.
I thought it was just my little
fantasy.
I felt badly he was upset about it. It didn’t really
bother me at all, and I was happy I hadn’t mentioned it to
Cheryl.

“
I’m sorry. It’s wrong of
me. We’ve just met. I’m being way too forward. Forgive me. I don’t
even know if you’re thinking the same way I am.”

I was too quick to answer him but I
needed him to know. “No, I feel the same way. We keep stumbling
across this same thing, this connection we have. I think we’re
beyond feeling like we’re being forward and apologizing for
it.”

“
Agreed.” He reached out,
grabbed my shoulders and pulled me down to him. We lay face to face
with our arms and legs entwined. Everything about the phone call
jumped out of my head. All that mattered was right here, right now,
with Aiden.

“
So, I was thinking. We
actually haven’t had a proper date. If I’m going to allow things to
continue at this pace, I need you to know that I want to give you
everything, not just an attraction, and you’re letting me stay here
with you. Don’t get me wrong, this has been wonderful, but I want
to show you that you mean more to me. And I want you to enjoy
having someone pursue you. You deserve to be treated the proper
way. Would you like to go to the park while it’s still nice out and
maybe have a picnic? The weather reports I watched yesterday said
we’re in for some bad ice storms later in the week.”

It was like he had read my mind. I know
I hadn’t mentioned those thoughts on the phone with Gina or Cheryl,
so he didn’t overhear me say anything to them. We were just on the
same page. My heart did a little flip in my chest.

“
I’d really enjoy
that.”

“
I know you must have other
work you need to attend to, so you let me know when a good day
is.”

“
Nope, I told you before,
you’re it. A day in the park would be working for me. Today would
be absolutely perfect.” I smiled and placed a soft kiss on his
lips.

“
I want a job just like
yours, so I can kiss you all day long. Think you can help me find
one?”

“
I’d probably get fired if
anyone knew we were kissing, let alone your staying here with
me.”

“
Well, can we just not tell
anyone? I don’t want you to get fired, but I don’t really want to
be away from you, either. I feel very
drawn
to you, like I
can’t be anywhere else but with you. Right here, right now,” he
confessed to me.

“
I really feel the same
way. It’s crazy, right?”

“
It’s rather surreal.
Things like this only happen in the movies. It’s definitely not
normal reality. It just doesn’t happen on a daily basis, and rarely
ever lasts an eternity.” He had a serious expression on his
face.

“
Oh, I … We don’t …” I felt
my chest tighten and tears begin to well in my eyes. Cheryl was
right. He was already regretting this.

“
Please don’t say it. I
didn’t mean what you’re thinking. I don’t want you to pull away,
and I’m certainly not pulling away on my end at all. I just meant
this is special. You don’t see this in life often. This is kismet.”
He gestured between us.

I heard his words answer the fears in
my head, almost as though he were reading my thoughts again; yet
the tears still came. I had no idea why. I just suddenly felt
relieved. In fact, I felt great relief at hearing him dispel the
worries that had been planted in my head earlier that morning. He
reached up and wiped a tear away and then put it to his lips. It
was a very sweet gesture. He pulled me closer to him and cupped my
cheek.

“
Sydney, I have waited my
whole life to meet a girl like you. Actually, I think I was waiting
to meet you. Now we have this
one chance
to have something
other people search for their whole lives. It’s being handed to us.
I don’t want to stop or slow down. I want to be with you. Why are
you crying? Is this all too much?”

“
I want this to be real and
don’t want to lose you. I don’t want this to end, and it’s barely
even started.”

“
I have no intentions of
leaving you. If it ends, it will be because you chose something
else, a different ending to your story.”

“
To my fairytale?” I’m not
sure why I used the same words from my conversation with Cheryl,
but maybe it was because he played off them by using the word
‘story.’ They just seemed to fit. But this was more than a simple
fairytale or story; this
was
real.

“
Yes, if you want to call
it that. But not every fairytale has a happy ending, Sydney. It’s
all about how it’s perceived. Don’t you agree? Some people think
happiness is all about having money and fancy things. While others
find happiness in a trailer park, barely making it by. It’s all in
their perception. Happiness is a matter of perception.”

“
So, it’s what I perceive
as making me happy?”

“
Yes. What you perceive as
your fairytale happy ending, someone else might not think is the
right ending at all, or a happy ending at that. Does that make any
sense?”

“
It makes perfect sense to
me. Right now, being with you … it makes me happier than I’ve ever
been.” I thought about Cheryl’s perception of Aiden verses
mine.

“
So you think being with me
could be your happy ending?” He waited for my response with an
adorable smile.

“
It’s certainly looking
that way. I’ve just never connected to someone like this ever
before. We click.”

“
We do click.” He tousled
my hair, released me and began to get out of bed.

“
I’m going to get ready for
our day. Would you like to use the bathroom first?” I wanted to
share the bathroom with him this morning. Visions of showering with
him dominated my head.

“
I won’t be too long.
There’s a fresh pot of coffee downstairs. Bet I’ll be finished
before you get back up here.”
Oh, I’d be finished all right.
My plan was to get myself off in the shower because he had me so
turned on right now. Just his body pressed against mine was enough
to do the trick. This man had a very strange effect on me. I
considered taking an extra long shower so he would have time to get
his coffee and join me. I smiled at myself and proceeded to do my
thing.

I wanted to look nice, but still remain
casual. This was our first date and I wanted to look pretty for
him. I applied my signature light make-up, straightened my hair,
and wondered if he’d like it this way. I chose a pair of skinny
jeans, thumbhole shirt, and a cute jacket shirt with a fleece
lining. I wanted to be warm, but not too warm because I needed him
to come to the rescue of the freezing damsel in distress with his
hot body.

We reconvened downstairs in the
kitchen.

I grabbed cold cuts and began making
various finger sandwich scenarios so we had a few different
options. Aiden diced cheese, then made wine suggestions from my
rack to compliment the assortment. We packed up the bag with lunch,
stemware, and a blanket, and embarked on our date to spend the
entire day at the park together.

When we got there, we looked for a spot
by the river. Aiden found the most private and beautiful one that
he could. I had been to this park a hundred times before and had
never seen this section. It was almost like he knew exactly where
it was.

We spread out our bounty and began to
nosh while chatting and occasionally pawing each other.

“
Do you believe in fate,
Sydney?”

“
Why do you ask? That’s an
odd question.” I didn’t really think it was odd; I just wanted to
see where he was going with it.

“
Really? Because I think
it’s perfect, based on how we met and the way things are
progressing,” he told me.

“
So you believe we were
destined
to meet?”

“
I completely believe with
every essence of my being, that you and I were destined to be
together.”

“
So those mythological
fates are real to you?” I questioned with a hint of
playfulness.

“
Please don’t make light of
this. It’s something I strongly believe in. Think about it. What
are the chances we would have met in regular everyday life if it
hadn’t been for this war? I’m not even from this area to begin
with. Had I not joined the army, I would never have been here to
meet you.” His toned turned quite serious.

“
Where
are
you from?
You haven’t said much about your past. Your files don’t say much,
either. It didn’t even list your most recent address.” He now
seemed uncomfortable that I was bringing work up.

“
Why does it matter? I’m
here with you now. Isn’t that all that counts? Our pasts mean
nothing. They’re done and over with. They’re
irrelevant.”

I was starting to hear Cheryl in my
head again. He wouldn’t even tell me where he was from.
Didn’t
most people like to talk about their past? Was he hiding something
from me? Even worse, was he hiding from someone?

“
Are you saying the past
means nothing?”