“I don’t know, Mrs. Elliot. It might be a little too soon for that. I’m not sure she would be too keen on saying yes to me so soon. Especially with the news about the promotion and I’m not sure how she feels about any of that.”
“I think you should take the time to think about how much this promotion means to you,” she said.
I looked at her with my head cocked to one side. I wasn’t quite sure what she meant, but she continued to clarify for me.
“Money is there. It will always be there. You can always make more of it, or you can lose it all. But love, that’s something that isn’t a guarantee in life. If you find someone who is worth hanging onto, then do it with all you’ve got in you. I’m telling you, there will be more money in the future, but you might be walking away from Harper forever on this. Just the ramblings of an old woman, though. You don’t need to take them as prophetic,” she said.
I smiled. “And what if they are? Are you telling me if I choose to stay here with Harper that she and I will live happily ever after?”
“I’m telling you that time waits for no one, and one day you’ll be old like me. What choices you make in life now are going to affect the kind of life you live when you do reach my age. Of course, there’s the usual aches and pains you’ll have to handle, but I mean talking about family, about love,” she said.
“Thank you, Mrs. Elliot,” I told her. “You have given me a lot to think about, and I really appreciate it.”
“Just use that thinking for some good. Like I said, the clock is always ticking, and you want to make the choices now that are going to lead you to happiness when you are older. You don’t want to wind up lonely now, do you?”
“No, I do not,” I told her.
She smiled.
“I’ll get the nurse for you to help you out of here, and I’ll see you next week. How does that sound?” I asked.
“I’ll be here,” she said.
“I’m looking forward to it,” I told her.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Harper
It had beena long week for me, and I was glad school was out for the weekend.
I hadn’t talked a lot with Trevor throughout the week, but I wasn’t being distant, either. I knew he was busy with work, and he knew I had my own obligations to tend to, so there wasn’t an obvious lack of communication, but, considering the fact I was giving him space to figure this out for himself, it felt like the week took forever.
Every time my phone chimed, I checked to see if it was Trevor, and the times that it was, I hoped he was texting me to let me know he had decided he was going to stay.
But, throughout the week, our conversation stayed on pretty much anything but the fact that he had been given that job opportunity, and instead we focused on the mundane little things that filled our days. It was difficult for me not to be the one to bring it up, but I also had told him that I was going to give him the space he needed to think about this, and I meant it when I said it.
I didn’t want to go back on my word and add pressure to him. But, I also wanted my answer. I hated that I couldn’t do anything but sit around and wait for him to come to me with what he was doing. But, I also didn’t feel that it was my place to ask him about it or to offer my own opinion on what he should do.
The only way I would do that was if he were to ask me for my thoughts on his leaving outright. Otherwise, I was going to sit on the sidelines and wait for him to be the one to come to me. I knew that the offer was on the table, but there wasn’t any sort of deadline on the note that I’d read, so I had no idea if he was going to let this go on before he finally came to his decision.
And I didn’t want to rush him on it, either.
The only person I wanted to talk to about this was Raya, but with her busy work schedule conflicting with mine, it was tough for us to find the time to just sit down and talk to each other. It was why we made a point of seeing each other most weekends or at least one afternoon during the week, but so far this week we hadn’t been able to match our schedules.
At least it was Friday now, and that meant I could chill out tomorrow. It wouldn’t make me any more patient to get the answer out of Trevor, but it was something that would allow me to not have to focus on the kids and what they needed from me.
Instead, I could just focus on myself and the situation and decide what I was going to do if he decided to go to Texas and leave me behind. The thought was enough to make a lump form in the back of my throat, and I knew it would be a lot harder for me to face him leaving and life on my own than I was letting on to anyone – even myself.
I already knew if he left and we broke up, it would devastate me. I would be okay eventually, but it would take a very long time before I would want to date anyone again, if ever. I felt like this was the man I should be spending the rest of my life with, and instead, I was grappling with the thought that he might be leaving me – for good, too.
My mind was brought back to the present when the door opened and Samantha came inside.
“What are you still doing here?” I asked. “I thought your brother picked you up fifteen minutes ago.”
“No, he said he was running behind at work but he’s going to be here soon,” she said. She had her own cell phone, so I wasn’t too worried about what she was doing. However, I would stay with her until her brother did come to get her. I wasn’t about to leave her here unsupervised. I didn’t care how close her brother said he was to getting there.
She was my responsibility until I handed her back to her family members, so until he arrived, she would be in the school room with me.