Chapter Seven
Of course it wasn't long before I heard someone's footsteps shuffling behind me. "You can forget it, Irene. I'm not about to change my…"
"Molly, wait!" I spun around at
the sound of Carey's voice. He rested his hand on my shoulder. "Are you sure
about this?" His eyes searched mine.
I nodded slowly. "I just can't
do something that I don't believe in. It's wrong. I hate having no control! I
have to just stop myself, say goodbye, before it went too far. Do you
understand that?"
He smiled at me in admiration.
"You're really quitting."
"Think she'll hate me?" I asked,
trying to smile back through the tears brimming in my eyes.
"Probably," Carey said, wrapping
his arm around my shoulder as we continued down the hallway. "Let's get out of
here." I didn't know where he was planning to take me, but it didn't make a
difference to me. I wasn't trapped anymore in the confines of Irene's
management. I wasn't cooped up from life.
He pulled into a parking lot and
I eyed the surroundings. We were at a shopping center; Hope Springs seemed to
have a lot of those popping up nowadays. "What are we doing here?" I asked.
"You'll see," Carey replied with
a mysterious grin. Once we were both out of the car, he grabbed my hand and
dragged me through the sparse gathering of people along the sidewalk. He was
running, as though we would miss the event of the year if another second went
by. "Ta-da!" he exclaimed triumphantly.
I looked around at the striped
patterns and smiling children. "An ice cream parlor?"
"What, and you're going to tell
me that you don't like ice cream?" Carey asked, giving me a childish pout.
"Come on, this place has the best ice cream in town!"
I laughed because he looked so
adorable like that. "Okay, okay!"
He grinned, taking my arm and
pulling me over to the counter. "Hello, what can I get you today?" a
blond-haired boy with a nametag that read Sam asked us.
"We want two cones," Carey told
him. "One peppermint and one…" he glanced at me, raising an eyebrow. "Vanilla?"
"Vanilla," I confirmed, still
laughing. Our cones arrived shortly and we sat down at a small round table with
tall, wiry chairs.
As expected, Carey finished his
long before I was even halfway through with mine. "I can't remember the last
time I went out for ice cream," I said between licks.
"Well, then I guess it was about
time," Carey responded, watching me. He was right, again. I needed to learn how
to love my life like I used to and enjoy the little things. He was making it
possible.
When I had finished, we went
back to the car and drove off again. "Thank you," I said.
"For the ice cream? It was
nothing, really…"
"Not just for the ice cream," I
responded.
"Then for what?"
I turned to look at him. Did he
really need to be told? Couldn't he see how he rescued me? "For everything,
Carey. For cheering me up when I was down, for always comforting me, for
staying by my side when I needed you, for brightening my life… You showed me
what it is to be happy again. What it is to take control, to believe in myself,
and so much more."
"I did all that?" he asked in
disbelief.
"Yes." He smiled, still staring
straight ahead at the road. How did I ever get so lucky? We were both quiet
then, and once again I lost myself in my own mind, caught between the jumble of
my thoughts, the predominant one being: what would I do if they ever found out?
"Do you wonder what would happen
if they knew? About us, I mean. It makes me so angry that we have to keep it a
secret, because when two people are so happy together, shouldn't the whole
world know about it? But in our case, if the whole world knew, they'd make us
miserable. Why is it wrong? Is it age? Why should that matter?"
I stared at Carey, shocked that
he had just spoken my exact thoughts. How did he do it? "I do wonder about
that… all the time," I added.
"But what would we do?"
Carey asked, turning toward me. His eyes were wide and worried. "I wouldn't be
able to take it if they tried to tear us apart…"
I broke his gaze and looked out
the window. They were everywhere. A man and a woman standing by a lake, staring
into each other's eyes. Another couple walking by, holding hands. Everywhere I
turned, I saw them. Love came so easy to them. Why was it so complicated for
us?
"I can't afford to lose you."
I stared at Carey in shock, who
was watching the road again like nothing ever happened. His words were enough
to bring another tear to my eye. Did he really mean that? He didn't even notice
what an impact it had on me, but it meant so much. This whole time it never
really seemed like he felt the same way about me as I did about him. Everything
seemed surreal; it was too perfect.
Too
perfect.