Summary: When has one simple lie gone too far? Tommy Oliver and Kimberly Hart are about to find out. When Tommy finds out that his father is dying of cancer, he only wants to fulfill his last wish. What is that wish? To see his only son get married. Tommy has now convinced his entire family that he and Kimberly are engaged and to be married. Can these two exes play along long enough or will this lie spin out of control?

This will be my first long story here. I watched a movie on Netflix a few months back and took some inspiration from it to create this. If you are curious as to what movie im referring to, it is called One Small Hitch. I hope you all enjoy and constructive criticism or input is always welcome. Im not sure how long this will actually be but im hoping that it will be lengthy.

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

6:07pm

The tears would not stop rolling down her face as she hugged a bottle of jack.

At the young age of 28, Kimberly Hart had only allowed a few men into her heart. Her father, Tommy Oliver, and Spencer Blake. Every little girl's first idea of true love is watching their mother and father. Unfortunately for Kimberly, she didn't have the ideal family. Her parents divorced when she was in her teens and her family was divided. The divorce left her with so many insecurities that even now she has not been able to have a lasting relationship. That proved to be true with her first love, Tommy Oliver. First loves and high school sweet hearts, Tommy and Kim thought they would always be together. They knew that the odd were stacked against them since statistics said that the chances of them staying together past high school was not likely, but they figured their love would last. 3 years and some 2000 plus miles later, and their love story came to a close. Tommy and Kimberly were both devastated, but time heals all wounds. Now almost 10 years later and they are as close as ever. Moving on, she had begun dating Spencer last November and for the first time in a long time, it felt right. She has dated many men, but none that had captured her heart. She had only been romantically in love once before. It was a big step for Kimberly when she finally made the leap and invited Spencer to Jason's parent wedding renewal. They all knew that Kimberly was dating someone new but she stayed very quiet on the details. No one knew his name, not even Jason or Trini. All were excited about Kimberly's new boyfriend and couldn't wait to meet him. Although they had been dating for about 7 months now, she still wanted to keep him a secret and all to herself. She didn't want her friends and family hounding her for every detail. The only other person that knew who she was dating was her roommate and ex boyfriend, Tommy Oliver. Getting Tommy's approval on a guy she was dating was a big deal to her. That's why it hurt so much when Spencer showed up at her door just 5 hours before they were to board a plane and dumped her. Kimberly honestly couldn't remember exactly what he said and it didn't matter to her anymore. All she knew at that moment was that she was heartbroken and she had put up a wall around her heart all over again.

"I hate men...I hate them all...I should have learned my lesson about dating a man with two first names the first time.." she let out between sniffles and took a few swigs of her bottle

She could see her half packed suitcase on the foot of her bed from the warm spot on the tan couch, and contemplated for a moment on finishing packing her bags. She decided against it when she noticed a made for TV movie on the Lifetime Channel about a cheating boyfriend.

"Ahh.. Free therapy" she thought to herself.

"I hope Tommy is having a better day than I am," she murmured.

After a long day at the office, Tommy Oliver knew he would have to hurry home and finish packing his bags for his flight later that evening. His parents would kill him if he missed his flight. He smiled as he walked out of the elevator to his apartment building floor, thinking about what caused him to be held up at work. Rubbing his lips with his left hand as he twirled the keys with his right, he remembered the passionate kiss he shared with Carmen, the hot new 22 year old intern in the supply closet. He had a skip in his step as he could still feel the heat left on his lips.

"Miss Carmen, you are one memorable woman," he let out as he licked his lips.

Over the years, Tommy had turned into a bit of a playboy. He still very much respected women, but he was trying to live a little and have some fun. Hooking up with a woman every now and then didn't make him a terrible person.

After two long and monogamous relationships, he decided that it was time to have some fun with his life. Kimberly being his longest and most serious relationship and Katherine Hillard, the Australian beauty that took over Kimberly's spot once she left for Florida. Long have Tommy and Kimberly put the letter break up in the past. The ranger days were behind both of them. They both took a career in marketing and have become quite successful. They had become really close again in recent years. They moved in together 2 years ago when Kimberly moved to New York from Florida and Tommy's job transferred him from California to New York.

Opening the front door of his apartment, he expected Kimberly and Spencer getting ready to leave for the airport soon. What he saw was a completely different picture. There on the couch with a box of tissues and a bottle of Jack was Kimberly Hart. Mascara running down her face as she yelled at the Lifetime Channel that all men were evil bastards. Tommy slowly closed the door behind him as he tip toed to Kimberly.

Kimberly turned her head to the sound of the front door slowly opening and saw Tommy smiling brightly.

"I hate your sex," Kimberly cried out bringing a tissue to remove a tear from her left eye

"Whoa, there Kimberly," he laughed.

"We never got that far. Unless you want to pick up where we left off," he joked as he gave a wink.

"That's not what I meant!" Kimberly shouted while she rolled her eyes

"Hey, I don't mean to sound like a complete idiot, but are you alright?"

"Geez Tommy, could you be any dumber," she cried out. "Do I look alright to you?"

"Come on, Talk to me. Did you and Spencer have a fight?" He said as he placed his wallet and phone on the kitchen counter as he walked over to the living room.

"Can't you see that I don't want to talk to you?"

"I don't exactly claim to know what goes on inside the female mind, alright. You can either tell me what has you all upset and I can try to help you out or you can keep crying into your bottle."

"Just leave me alone"

Must she always be this stubborn?

"Fine, But don't say I didn't offer," he said over his shoulder as he walked over to his bedroom

"He.. Dumped.. Me.." She cried back "I'm not good enough for him"

He felt like a complete douche. Tommy sincerely cared out Kimberly and her feelings. He would give Kimberly a rate from 1-10 on any new guy she brought around and she would do that same with him. Although Tommy would never admit that he would only give himself that 10. Tommy was pretty relieved when she brought home Spencer about 5 months ago. He actually didn't think Spencer was that bad of a guy and gave him a solid 7. Tommy and Kimberly shared a deep love for each other, but not in the romantic sense, it hadn't been that way for many years. They loved each other as family, friends... best friends.

Stopping dead in his tracks he bowed his head in knowing that he was not going to be getting any packing done any time soon

He turned around and walked over to Kimberly. He slowly took the bottle from her hands and placed it on the glass coffee table in front of the couch. He sat down next to her and pulled her into his arms. Kimberly made no protest and silently cried into his chest. She clutched onto his pale blue button up and tried to wipe the mascara stains she left on his shirt with her fingers. He brought his right arm around her as he caressed her head with his left.

He placed a few kisses on top of her head

"Do you want to talk about it?" He whispered

She slowly nodded her head no as she sniffled into his shirt

"Alright, you don't have to talk if you don't want to. I just want you to know that you are a smart, beautiful, vivacious woman and any man would be lucky to have you... That Spencer guy doesn't know what he's losing. I don't want you to think that you're not worth fighting for... Or... Or that you're not good enough... You are good enough. He's an idiot for letting you get away..."

Before he was able to get his next thought out, he noticed Kimberly's body go limp. He questioned if she was asleep until he let out a small smile when he heard the faint noise of her snoring.

He jumped when his cell phone that he had placed on the kitchen counter when he came into the apartment started to ring. He slowly placed Kimberly down on the couch and quickly covered her with a throw blanket. He walked over to the ringing cell and saw 'Dad' on the screen.

"Y'ello"

"Hey Tommy, how are you doing son? Can't wait to see you in a few hours. Your mom wanted me to make sure we had the time right to pick you up at the airport."

"I'll be there at 7am, Dad. I have a short layover in Chicago and then it's a straight flight."

"Right... You know I can be very forgetful"

"Don't worry about it, Dad. I can see where I get it. I'll see you in a few."

"Ugh... actually Tommy there was something I wanted to talk to you about, but I didn't know exactly khow to tell you"

"What's up? Forget where the airport was again?" He said with a laugh

When he didn't hear a laugh at the other end of the line, Tommy grew worried

"Is everything alright? Is mom okay? You're starting to freak me out."

"I'm sorry, Tommy. Yes your mother is alright, but no everything is not alright I'm afraid."

"Um, okay... You know you can tell me anything"

"I know that but I'm just afraid of how you're going to react"

Frank Oliver has had a wonderful life full of love, laughter, and joy. Life became complete for him at the age of 30 when He and Janice decided to adopt a baby boy. 28 years later and that little boy turned into a great man. Frank has always been a man of great health. He goes on hikes on the regular and tries his best to eat healthy. That is why it came as a huge shock to him when he was diagnosed with cancer. He was still so young. Now at 58 and with a terminal disease, he started to reflect on his own life and wondered what he would be missing in the upcoming years. The doctors gave him less than a year left and he was determined to make the best of it. One of his biggest dreams had always been to see his son get married and have his own children. Being a grandfather is something that he and Janice would often talk about during their morning coffee. Now it seemed to him that it was something that he would never get to see. He would scold his son about his playboy ways and would regularly tell him that he needed to get serious about finding a life partner. Those lectures would always come up unheard. When he was diagnosed 5 months ago, he was given 1 year left to live. Frank was so determined to prove the doctors wrong about his length of life, but now with 7 months left, he knew he had to finally inform his son. He had become so tired and weak and not like he used to be. Sooner or later Tommy was going to find out.

"Don't worry, Dad, I'm listening. It can't be that bad."

"Tommy... I have cancer and its terminal. The... Ugh, doctors said there isn't anything they can do. I just wanted to let you know what was going on."

Did he just hear that right? That can't be true.

"I'm sorry but what? Can you please repeat that because I'm sure I didn't hear you right"

"You heard me right, Tommy... This is hard for everyone right now, but I'm going to need you to be serious about this."

"Dad, there is no way that can be true. You're so healthy and so young... I... No"

"I've come to accept my sentence and I hope you can too in time. Well... I... Don't really have a lot of time left actually. Your mother and I were hoping to prove the doctors wrong, but it looks like the only one proved wrong was us. I have 7 months left to live, Tommy. I just wanted you to know that before you got here. I didn't want to keep you in the dark anymore."

Tommy could not believe his ears. Tears were starting now to form in his eyes as his brain tried to process all of this information. He was hurt he had not been told about this long ago

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" He said with his eyes closed to fight off the tears

"I didn't want to accept it in all honesty. I'm sorry... I'm sorry I won't be there for you in the future, I'm sorry I didn't tell you, and I'm really sorry I'll never get to be there for you when you get married and have children of your own," frank said while letting out a light sob

All Tommy ever wanted to do was make his father proud. He knew his father loved him with all his heart but he also knew that in recent years he has disappointed his father with his playboy lifestyle. He bowed his head as tears began to form and vowed to himself that he was going to be different for his father. Until then, he wanted to make his father believe he was different. Just a little white lie.

"Dad, I've been wanting to tell you this for some time but I actually have found someone," he lied. "I was planning on telling you this when I saw you tomorrow but I'm engaged to a wonderful woman."

His father smiled brightly but still in shock

"Tommy you were holding out on me too. Who is she? When did this happen?"

"I'm sorry but I didn't want to spoil it until it was a for sure thing. It's real and we're in love. It just happened recently but I wanted to surprise you with the news."

"That's so great Tommy. You have made me so happy. Come on, what's her name?"

Great he just backed himself in a corner. He began looking around for any name to pop into his head.

"Her name? Um... Her name... It's... Ugh... It's beautiful. Such a womanly name."

"Uh-huh and that would be what?"

"Umm... It's..."

Just then he heard Kimberly mumble and stir in her sleep. He smiled as he watched Kimberly sleep peacefully. A light bulb went off in his head.

"...it's Kimberly Hart."