Chapter One

SHAWN

I did what Corey told me to do. That was…well after I let the woman I was going to ask to marry me go to Europe for a year while I was wasted away among the skyscrapers and ethnic neighborhoods of The City.

I waited a year.

I didn't date anyone else. Just stayed in the guest bedroom of Corey and Topanga's apartment. I watched Topanga climb up the corperate ladder and I watched Corey be shuffled around to job-after-job like he was just a deck of playing cards being dealt out at a smoke-room.

Me? All I had was the mere thought of Angela being with me. She promised she would write everyday. She promised she would call everyday. As much as I loved her, right as she said it, I knew she wouldn't. Because people promise you a lot of things if you live in a trailer park and have never stayed in a "real" house for more than a couple of days. A house that really was your home.

As close as I had allowed myself to get to Jon Turner when I was a teenager back in Philly, I just knew. In the back of my mind I just knew it was temporary and that I shouldn't get attached. I tended to think that way about people. And no person could deny that a guy like me who has had times where absolutely no one was there for me who really gave two shits about where I slept or who I was with, for feeling the way I felt.

I had my friends while I was waiting for Angela's phone calls that never came. And I had Jack's letters from the Peace Corpse. Apparently, he and Rachel were in Ethiopia helping out with the famine. He even wrote t me about how he'd want to come back one day and adopt a kid or two.

And of course, Eric's stupidity for the first two months kept me amused, but after two months, he left the apartment, claiming he could freeload no longer. About a week after that happened and sleepless nights from Topanga that neither me nor Corey understood, Eric called and said that he was fine, living in Elmhurst with his girlfriend, Giselle.

We haven't seen him since.

After the fifth month of no Angela, and me, actually reading Irvine Welsh, either in the living room or in the nearest Starbucks, Topanga told me and Corey that she was pregnant. I was happy for them, flashed an old Shawn Hunter smile that I hadn't had on my face in a long time and said, "Christ, what the hell took you so long?"

Topanga was all giddy and went out for the night, chatting with her friends. I remember imagining their supple asses in mini-skirts, flaunting for strangers, and them in those bright, flashy clubs, and then regretted not pulling out Veronica again, to be with them so in a way, it wouldn't seem perverted. But it's not like, I wasn't happy just to drink beer-after-beer with Corey in the tiny kitchen, and listen to the sounds of The City woosh around below us.

It's not like I wasn't happy. Without Angela, life really was a shithouse, but every beer I drank, made me loosen up. That's all I remember, because the next morning, I woke up in a hospital room, with my head bandaged and the nurse telling me about alcohol poisoning. It took them a while to realize that I, Shawn Hunter, was not a member of the AA, and I didn't need to be.

But they did eventually.

Then, seven months went by and Topanga came running into the apartment, glowing from sweat probably, as she had a really swollen belly, telling me that Angela's plane was due to land in an hour from Bulgaria. I immediately, just remembered, jumping up from the couch, turning off some stupid rerun on MTV, and hugging her. Corey came home from his latest job, working at some swanky, over-priced restaurant, the kind that you needed to wear pearls or a tux just to be let in to, as a waiter. I just tackled him into the door and told him to get dressed. I told Topanga to meet me at the Airport and I ran down the five stairwells, and called a cab, just as it started to rain.

I climbed into the taxi, then after a quick ten minute drive to the Airport, I gave him all the money I had in my pocket, then ran into the Airport, checking the arrival screens as they flashed overhead.

Sofia, Bulgaria: 7:15PM.

I just waited, leaning against the wall, thinking that every woman I saw was Angela. Corey and Topanga arrived, just before her flight was scheduled to touch down. Corey was trying to shake free his wife's hand.

"Topanga, stop. You're crushing my fingers." He told her, but he was looking at me as he said it.

"Corey-" Topanga sighed deeply, collapsing against the wall, sliding down next to my jeans, her face as white as a ghost. "-Please be quiet."

Then she showed up. I knew her face anywhere. It was beautiful, dark, and shiny even, though I could tell she hadn't gotten much sleep. Her hair was still as long and wonderful just to look at as I remembered it. Her eyes were the same – big, chocolate-brown eyes, perfect above the lips I hadn't touched in a year.

"ANGELA!" I yelled hoarsely. "ANGELA!" I saw her look towards me and she broke into a run. I was running towards her, not caring at how many people I tipped over or pushed in to.

Suddenly, after one year or being apart, she was in my arms again. Her head rested on my shoulder as I brought my arms to move around her back, just feeling her in my arms again. Then I took my hands and held her face in my hands. I brought it closer to mine, kissing her slowly, savoring every second.

"Angela, I love you." I whispered.

"I love you too." She said softly. Even over the commotion of the airport, I could hear every word she was saying, like she'd screamed it.

"Angela, you remember that I wanted to ask you something before you left with your dad? Remember?" Angela nodded, her lips opened partially.

"Yeah. I think I do."

"Well I…I think I'm ready to ask that question again." I told her, feeling my voice grow deeper, like it had the last time I was going to ask her.

"There's something I need to ask you…right now." I told her. "Angela, when you love somebody, you just know you can take care of them forever…You just know it. No matter what happens, right?"

"Yes." Angela said, snaking her arms around my neck. "I know."

"Angela, I know I don't have much, I know that. But-" I took her hand and knelt down in front of her. "I don't have a ring either. But…I know I love you. Will you marry me?"

I looked up at Angela. Her eyes were shining and she threw her whole body around mine.

"Yes." She told me. "Yes I will."