“Daddy, would you leave poor Baylor alone,” she lectured as she rounded down the stairs into the living room. When I got the full look of her dress, I felt as if I needed to pick up my jaw from the floor and try to find a way to retrieve my swallowed tongue. She was a complete vision in a maroon deep-cut sleeveless minidress. I wasn’t a big fan of shorter dresses but Eden rocked it. She had on a pair of gold metallic high heels and I lacked for appearance in comparison. She had absolutely gone all out for this reunion, as she definitely should.
“Eden,” I whispered, adding, “you look absolutely stunning.” I moved from my place on the couch towards her, offering out my arm for her to grab ahold of. She threaded her arm through mine and looked back at now both of her parents as her mother appeared next to her father. “Don’t wait up.”
The closer we got to my car the more nervous I was becoming once again. I opened the passenger side door allowing her to slide into the seat and I quickly rounded the front of the hood. I knew that once she went to buckle her seatbelt she would find the gift box. I just hoped that she wouldn’t throw it back in my face.
I slid into my own seat and fired up the engine before I even chanced a peek at her. She was holding the box wrapped in gold paper adorned with the same color bow on top, “What is this?” she asked looking every bit of surprised.
“Open it and see,” I urged, trying to calm my voice.
She carefully peeled back the wrapping, trying her hardest not to tear it. That was just like Eden, savoring the entire process. She was always the slowest person to open a present; she loved building the excitement before she finally saw what was inside. I almost regretted wrapping it and not putting it in just a gift bag, but then I would have missed the focus and determination on her face from precisely opening it just right. Once she had the paper completely off the box, she peered up at me one last time before lifting off the lid. A gasp escaped her lips as she sent a hand flying to her chest, no doubt to calm her beating heart. If hers was anything like mine it was beating erratically without any sign of calming. “Baylor,” she cried, “You really shouldn’t have.”
Her hand was trembling, so I took the liberty of taking the piece of jewelry out of the box it was nesting in and clasped it around her slender wrist. “I wanted to, so I did.” I went on explaining myself even further, “This heart symbolizes mine so wherever you are, you have my heart with you, always.” A sob escaped and she dropped the box to cover her mouth, leaving her hand in the palm of mine. Now adorning her wrist was a solid white gold dangle heart bracelet. “I was out at the mall today and came across it and it practically screamed out to me. I thought it would look beautiful on your wrist and as you can see I was right. Your beauty makes it absolutely shine. And when you go home tomorrow, I wanted you to have a piece of me with you.” My bashful side was making an appearance but I did nothing to try and cover it up. She needed all of me right now, the good and the bad, to know that I meant what I said. “Look on the heart.”
She brought it closer to her face and held onto the dangling heart so she could get a better look at the inscription that simply read, ‘Edie.’ That’s all I needed it to say so she would always know it came from me.
“Baylor, I absolutely love it, thank you,” she cried again, a few tears escaping down her face. She leaned forward, grabbing my cheeks and guiding me down to her lips where she captured mine in a loving kiss.
Even though I didn’t come right out and say that four letter word, I knew deep in my soul that I did indeed love her. She had the most important part of me that she could always keep and hold close; my heart.
We were still plenty early when we arrived at our alma mater but we went ahead inside to scope everything out. I knew Dean would already be there and by the looks of it he was already partaking in the open bar. Looking around at our surroundings I was a little disappointed that after fifteen years the gym still looked the same. No updating of any kind had been made and we all knew that it could sure use it. I almost wondered if they had the common decency to plug up the small peephole that led from the boys’ to the girls’ locker room. Norah would be attending the following year and I would definitely move that up on my list of things to find out about beforehand.
There were several tables set up throughout the floor space and a stage was placed at one end of the room while the bar was placed at the other. Eden’s hand was tucked right into mine in a way that I had become used to over the past couple of days. Even though I only had eyes for her I was honest in saying that she was the most beautiful woman in the room.
Eden leaned into me and said, “I’m kind of nervous to be here. At least you have seen most of these people within the past fifteen years, I really haven’t.” There was her reason for her impeccable dress choice, she wanted to not only feel a bit comfortable with herself and what she was wearing, she wanted to show everyone that she had been living a wonderful life.
I placed my free hand over hers, “Don’t be nervous, you’re here with me,” I winked.
Just then Marcie came rushing towards us in a frantic frenzy. “Eden! There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you.”
Eden kind of looked around us then back at Marcie, “I’m still pretty early, what’s the problem?”
“The problem is you agreed to be the announcer since it falls in line with your job, I thought you had decided to back out.” Her erratic behavior never wavered.
“Shit!” Eden yelled while stomping one of her gold pumps. “I completely forgot all about it, Marcie.” She apologized profusely. Marcie’s eyes grew wide and it appeared that anger had set in. I was beginning to get a little worried for Eden’s safety, but fear not, Eden stepped in. She raised a hand towards Marcie, “Don’t worry about it, I’ve got this. Part of my job is also improvisation and rattling off things on the fly. Just get me the name of the band and all the members and I’ll be golden,” she assured her.
Marcie’s eyes lost all sign of anger, “Ok, I’ll go gather that information now,” she turned on her heel and all but ran off in the other direction.
“Dodged a bullet, huh?” I asked.
“I can’t believe I forgot, but then again my mind has been otherwise occupied for the majority of the week,” she playfully winked. “She asked me while I was half drunk before we started singing karaoke the other night. I wasn’t very thrilled about it but I couldn’t turn her down. Besides did you see the look she was giving me? I’d hate to see what look she’d have waiting for me if I had refused,” she chuckled, but I just couldn’t seem to laugh about it. Marcie seemed pretty out there even for Marcie.
“The only thing I know about the band is that one of the guitar players is Marcie’s cousin and she had to beg them to come up here and play.”
Dean came up to us wielding a beer in his hand, leaned forward and gave Eden a kiss on the cheek and then shook my hand, “How are you guys doing? Still looking pretty cozy, eh?”
I almost detected a bit of jealousy dripping from his mouth, but it just couldn’t be. Could it? I did recall the last time we were in here all dressed up it was prom, I went with Kristina and Dean and Eden went together as friends. Even back then I detected that Dean might have had a crush on Eden but he never came right out and confirmed it. I didn’t know if it was because he knew my feelings about her and knew her feelings about me, so he was kind of the middle man. He really needed a girl who could keep up with him but also knew how to put him in his place when he began to get a little out of line. Dean had a wild side to him and not the kind that just any ordinary girl could tame. Just ask his two ex-wives.