Chapter Eleven

Moving On

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Don't own Come What May or any other reference to Moulin Rouge.

After waking up the next morning, a disheveled Kate stumbled out of bed. She pulled her messy hair into a high ponytail and walked into the kitchen to make some coffee. Will was at the kitchen table, looking blankly out the window of the backyard, where a large pine tree was, as well as a fire-pit and grass.

"I didn't expect to see you up this early," Kate said, scooping a tablespoon into the coffee grounds, then dumping it into the coffee maker, as well as some water.

"I couldn't sleep," he replied. "Is that coffee?"

"Yes," she said.

"You said I could try some yesterday. May I?"

Was it really only yesterday that she had met Will for the first time? It seemed like so much longer to her.

"Sure," she said, putting a little extra water and coffee grounds, then starting it up.

She saw that blank stare was back on Will's face. Kate thought that now was the right time to show him what she had stayed up until 11:30 preparing for. She walked to her room and got the stack of photos, then went back to the kitchen and sat next to him.

"What are these?" Will asked, touching the glossy pictures.

"They're photographs. They're a step up from paintings. I'll show you how to take one later on. But pictures can also tell a story." She laid the stack in her lap, then put the first one on the table. It showed a small girl, a few hours old, with light skin and hair, sleeping. "Once upon a time, there was a small girl, named Katherine Marie Sims. She was born in Minneapolis on March 15, 1989."

She set down the second picture, which showed a girl of about two years of age in blue overalls and a white shirt in blonde pigtails on a swing at their old house. "She always smiled, and loved being active. She could hardly sit still most of the time."

Kate set down another picture. She was about five or six years old in the picture, in a yellow lace dress that skimmed to her knees, sitting at a small tea area with a several stuffed teddy bears. Her hair was getting slightly darker. "But she loved acting like a girl sometimes. She even did silly things like host fake tea parties with her stuffed animals. Sometimes it was real people, though, too."

The fourth picture was placed between the two of them. She was in a red dress that went to her knees, paired with white tights, an embarrassed grin on her face. "One day she went to school for the first time. She made a lot of new friends, including her best one, who she still loves dearly to this day."

She put down the fifth, which was at her elementary school graduation, on top of the podium in a red and blue paper graduation hat she had made with her class the day before. "She didn't know that she was changing at that point, when she made the transition between two schools. She was now going to join the big kids at the middle school. She finally felt like one of them."

She laid down another. This time it was at her eighth grade formal four Mays ago, in a light pink halter dress that went above her knee. She was posing with a few friends, including Melissa. "Then she decided to step up and change her look. People finally noticed how beautiful she was."

She put down the seventh picture, one of her and her ex-boyfriend in front of a carousel. "But people started liking her for what she was: a beautiful girl with money. But all she wanted was for people to see who she was: a girl who just wanted someone to love her."

The eighth picture was between them. It was taken two and a half years ago at the winter formal with a tall boy with brown hair and green eyes. "Then she found that man that she was hoping to find for a year. She finally found someone who loved her for who she was. His name was Chris Jaison. He was her world."

She put down the ninth one. It was her favorite picture in her modeling portfolio. It was taken on the beach a year ago. She was leaning on a rock taller than her, one foot against it. Kate remembered it was taken early morning for a magazine somewhere out east. She was in a dark blue, short dress. That was her first big modeling gig. "She thought she had everything," Kate said. "She was living life as a model, had wonderful friends..."

Out came the tenth picture. She now had her dark brown hair that she had today. It was taken a month and a half ago at her prom. Chris was in the picture with her. Kate's hand was on her chest, posing in front of a friend's fireplace. "A great boyfriend..."

Kate put down the next one, where she was on a stage with Chris, both in turn of the century fashions, singing "Come What May" for a school performance, where a few select students got to preform a medley of songs from their favorite musical. This was taken a month ago. She slightly took in a breath. "This was the last thing they did together before Chris broke up with her. They sang about how they would love each other until their dying day. They were together for two and a half years."

"And then what happened?" Will asked, intrigued.

She put down the twelfth and final picture, one that she printed off of her computer last night. It was her in a blue and silver graduation robe, getting her diploma. "Life went on. She graduated and grew up."

Kate shuffled the pictures together into a neat pile. "I thought that Chris was going to be the man I was going to marry him. I thought that if we made it to graduation night, he would propose and we'd be getting married. But I guess he didn't." She cleared her throat. "Just don't try to expect too much from your first love, Will. You swear that they're going to be the one for you, the one that you'll marry and spend the rest of your life with, the only one that will ever make you happy. But you'll find out that you're wrong before it's too late and you're too deep in love. You and I both found it out the hard way."

Will looked up from the picture of Chris and Kate and looked out the window, that same blank expression on his face. "Do you still love him?"

"Do I still love Chris?"

He nodded, then turned to her to see the answer.

"I don't know. There are some days when I miss him and would do anything to see him again, but then there are some days that I think I'm over him and that I feel confident to go out and meet a new guy." She put a leg to her chest. "Do you still love Elizabeth?"

"I don't know. How do you know when you don't love a person?"

"You're always going to love someone that you've, well, loved. But it won't always be in the romantic way that it once was. You won't get that feeling inside of you whenever you hear their name that you once had, and you'll start liking other people. And eventually, they won't be the first thing that you think of in the morning and the last thing at night."

"How do you know?" Will asked.

"Because I'm feeling that right now," Kate said, looking him straight in the eye.

Oh, God, please don't tell me I just said that! Kate said. She wanted to go and hide in a dark corner. She hadn't meant to say it, she had just blurted it out. And it was actually an impulsive feeling. Literally, she had just started feeling it.

"Look, Will," she said, breaking his gaze and reshuffling the already tidy photos. "I'm still spent from my last relationship. I don't know how soon I want to be back in one. And I know you feel that way, too. But I think we both know that we'll find another person when the time is right."

As she met Will's eyes again, she realized they looked happier. They also seemed more softer and kinder, like she had gotten through to him. He had a small smile on his lips.

She returned the smile and poured him a cup of coffee, putting in some milk and sugar for both of them. She handed a mug to him.

"Thank you, Miss Sims," he said.

She picked up the double meaning. "Just know that if you need to talk...I'm here."

He smiled again. "I appreciate all of this. Letting me stay here, the story...all of this."

"You didn't leave me with much of a choice for letting you stay here," she joked. "But you're welcome. It's been no problem."

Kate took a sip of her coffee.

"Men still work, right?" Will asked.

She nodded. "I think we might wait a few days until we think about you getting a job. But–" She gasped. "I think I know the perfect job for you. There's a place about forty minutes away from here called Fort Snelling. It's a re-enactment place for the nineteenth century. It'd be so perfect! You would love it!"

He frowned. "Miss Sims?"

"There's a black smithing area...you could apply to it..."

His eyes light up. "Really?"

"I knew you'd love it! Except you really should try and adjust to twenty-first century life first rather than working at the nineteenth. I'll take you maybe next week. Or maybe on Friday...I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm sorry."

He laughed.

"What?" she asked.

He shook his head. "You remind me of someone, that's all."

"Who?"

He shook his head. "No one important. Not anymore, anyways."

Kate's Blog Entry

I sounded like the town idiot this morning when I was talking to Will. I was talking too fast, and my heart was racing, and...those are the classic symptoms of falling in love with someone. But it's only been a day! It can't be true, can it? And who did he mean when he said that I reminded him of someone? But it sounded like the talk I gave him this morning really loosened him up. He seemed happier...I'm glad that I could help him.