Chapter 34

So this is going to be the last post of this story. I've run out of ideas and I've had trouble even getting the last few out. Sorry if it's not written well, especially the end. I really just kind of taxed my brain on this one.










“Oh man, am I happy that I finally have time off,” I said to Corey as I flopped down on the couch next to him. He leaned over and kissed me as I cuddled up to him.

“So, you have nothing for the next two days?” he asked. I nodded as my eyes fell shut. I was exhausted. I’d just wrapped on filming another movie. “Well, let’s go then.” Corey stood up and my head fell to the couch in the space he’d just vacated.

“What? Go where?” I mumbled, my face still firmly planted in the couch cushions.

“It’s a surprise,” I heard him say. I groaned.

“I’m too tired,” I declined. “It’s nap time. I’ll see you in two days.” I suddenly felt myself being pulled up off of the couch. I made a whining noise as Corey placed me on my feet before walking away. I opened my eyes to see him grabbing one of the suitcases that I’d just lugged in upon returning home.

“Are all the important things in here?” he asked, pointing to it.

I gave him a confused look, but nodded. He smiled over at me and then grabbed his car keys off of the table. He jerked his head towards the door, indicating that I should follow him. I watched him open the front door and walk out, dragging my suitcase behind him. Why the hell did he need my suitcase? I stayed where I was standing, just too exhausted to move. I was not up for some adventure right now.

“Amelia!” he yelled from somewhere outside. I whined loudly again before picking up the purse I’d just set down and walking out the door, locking it behind me.

“Where the hell are you taking me?” I grumbled as I dragged my feet to his car. He lifted the suitcase and placed it in the trunk. I noticed he had a bag for himself in there already.

“It’s a surprise.” I made a face at him.

“I’m way too tired to do anything, Cor. Seriously.” He opened the passenger side door and nudged me towards it.

“Trust me, you can sleep on the way.” I made another face and got into the car. By the time he’d pulled out of the driveway I had fallen asleep.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when I felt myself being shaken awake. I moaned in protest as I stirred. I heard Corey get out of the car and shut the door before I even opened my eyes. When I finally did I saw that we were parked on a tarmac with a plane in front of us. We were flying somewhere?

“I only have today and tomorrow off, you know!” I called over to Corey as he dragged my suitcase towards the plane.

“I know, Brianna told me!” he called back. I followed him to the plane where I was greeted upon entrance. No one else was on board when we got on. I took the seat next to Corey.

“Where are we flying?” I asked, as I laid my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes.

“You’ll find out in a few hours,” he whispered, placing a kiss on my forehead.

The plane took off not long after and I fully expected to fall asleep right away. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. My curiosity about our destination was keeping me awake and I didn’t like it. At the same time, I was too lazy to do anything more than sit there with my eyes closed so I chose to think about Corey and I instead.

Another year had gone by since I’d flown to Corey’s house and told him I needed him in my life. He’d agreed to change and he’d done a good job of it. There were still arguments about the conflicts our careers caused, but they were few and far between. Things between us had been just about as perfect as they could be.

Brianna and Ryan were doing well in their first year of marriage. It was really nice for Corey and I to have our best friends married to each other. It had been Brianna that had finally made me realize that I needed Corey in my life to be completely happy. When Corey and I had broken up she’d originally thought I was better off without him in my life. Over the following year of being around us both, her mind had changed as she learned both sides of the story. I thanked her all the time for the email of pictures from her wedding.

At some point, my thoughts faded to blackness. I felt myself being shaken awake again. I opened my eyes feeling a little more refreshed after my nap and looked out the window. All I could see was tarmac, which didn’t help me in finding out where we were. Corey kissed me before helping me out of my seat and held my hand as we got off the place.

“Ready?” he asked as he led me to a car.

“Don’t I have to be?” I returned. He laughed as he got into the backseat of the car beside me.

I kept my eyes on the scenery outside the window as our driver pulled out of the airport. It only took me a few minutes to realize exactly where we were. We were in London. Corey had taken me home? Why were we here? I looked over at him with eyebrows raised, hoping he’d explain himself. I was met with a small smile before he turned his head and looked out the window on his side of the car. I sighed as I realized that he wasn’t going to tell me anything.

I watched as familiar sights flew by the window. Memories of growing up flashed through my mind as we drove on. I realized that most of those memories included Corey. When we pulled into the parking lot of the high school we had gone to, I was really confused. Corey got out and then held his hand out to me. I took it and got out of the car as well.

Without saying a word to me, he led me up the stairs and through the front entrance of the school. He led me down the hallways until we reached a door. He gave me another smile before pulling the door open and leading me inside. He brought me over to a desk in the room and pointed at it. I sat down at the desk and he moved over to another one and sat down.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” I asked him after a few minutes. He laughed.

“Do you know where we are?” I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, at our old high school,” I replied. He laughed again.

“No, I meant this room. Do you remember this room?” he asked again. I glanced around the room as realization hit me.

“We had history together in this classroom. I sat in this very desk and you sat at the desk you’re in now.” He smiled over at me and nodded.

“But there’s more to it than that.” I raised my eyebrow in curiosity.

“Oh yeah? What else is there?”

“I fell in love with you in this room.” My eyes widened in surprise. I hadn’t known that, nor had I expected that to be his response.

“What?” I asked.

“We’d just lost both of our games over the weekend and had a long bus ride home. I was exhausted when I got to school that Monday. All I wanted was to see you. I walked into this room knowing I’d finally get to see you, but by the time class started you weren’t here. I was miserable until about halfway through class, you walked in late because you had a morning dentist appointment. You sat down at your desk, and before you took anything out of your bag you looked over at me, made some silly face, and then flashed me that smile of yours. I forgot about the weekend in that instant. That’s when I knew I was in love with you.”

I listened to him in shock. I hadn’t known what to expect when Corey had brought me here, but it wasn’t this. Hearing him tell me that brought tears to my eyes. I was stunned into silence at his words. He got up from the desk he was sitting at and made his way over to me. He squatted down so that he was at my level as I remained seated.

“This room holds my favorite memory. I’m hoping it will hold another one.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

I watched as Corey dropped down onto one knee and reached into his pocket. My breath caught in my throat as I watched him pull out a small black box. He looked up at me with a smile as he flipped open the lid, revealing the same ring he had shown me two years prior.

“Meels, I realized I loved you in this room. I’ve loved you ever since. I know we’ve had our ups and downs, but I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it. Will you marry me?”

My hands flew up to my face as I felt the tears fall. I struggled to force myself to breathe and couldn’t find words to say. Instead I grabbed Corey, pulling him to me, and kissed him. It was the only way I could say yes at the moment. When we finally pulled apart we grinned at each other.

“I’m hoping that’s a yes,” he joked. My voice returned.

“It’s a yes.” He slid the ring on my finger and pulled me up from the desk. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me again.

“We have something we have to do now,” he told me.

I followed him out of the school and back to the car we’d arrived in. I knew almost right away where we were headed as I saw which roads we were turning down. The car pulled into my parents’ driveway and I looked over at Corey. He squeezed my hand before we got out of the car. He held my hand in his as we made our way up the front walk. Before we even reached the door, it flew open and my parents both flew out screaming, followed by my sister.

“Congratulations!” my mom called out, wrapping me in a hug.

I hugged her back before looking over at Corey. He just shrugged, and I knew that he had told my family that he was proposing before he’d even brought me here. My father hugged me while my mom wrapped her arms around Corey. He then shook Corey’s hand as my sister screeched out her pleasure when she looked at the ring on my finger.

Corey and I were married the following summer. Brianna served as my maid of honor while Ryan was Corey’s best man. Despite all the problems we’d had over the years, Corey and I couldn’t have been happier together. He had always been that guy for me and I was grateful that we’d run into each other that day in the café. As we got into the limo after the reception we locked eyes. I was never so sure of anything in my life as I was that Corey and I would definitely live happily ever after.

Chapter 33

I wrapped on filming my latest movie and got ready to fly back home. I packed up my stuff and had everything ready to go for my flight the next morning. I called up room service and lounged on the couch eating dinner with an old movie on. A beep went off alerting me that I’d received an email. I saw that it was from Brianna and smiled.

She’d promised to email me from her honeymoon. I opened the email and read her message telling me all about the honeymoon so far. I couldn’t help but smile as I read through it. There were very few people in this world happier for her than me. She told me there were pictures attached that I had to look at. Assuming they were some goofy "wish you were here, but not really” pictures of her and Ryan I opened the attachment immediately.

My smile faded the second the first picture popped up on the screen and suddenly I doubted if there was anyone in this world who hated Brianna as much as I did. Staring back at me was a picture of Corey and I from the wedding. I remembered taking it. They’d matched up everyone in the wedding party. I’d felt awkward about it, but had sucked it up and let them take the picture.

I’d fully expected the expressions on our faces to show our displeasure in the picture, but that wasn’t the case. We both looked like we couldn’t be happier. Not only did the smiles we had on look genuine, but his arm was around my waist and I was practically cuddled up to him with my head resting slightly on his chest. You could ask a million people what their impression of that picture was, and every single one of them would tell you that we were a couple.

I fought back any emotion I was feeling and clicked to the next one. I didn’t like it any better. It was a picture of Corey and I dancing. I had my head pressed against him with my eyes closed and his head was resting on the top of mine with his eyes closed as well.

The third picture was another one of us dancing except this time we were looking straight into each other’s eyes. If I hadn’t realized it was the two of us I would have thought the two people in the picture were desperately in love. You could almost feel it radiating off of it. I continued to scroll through the pictures Brianna had sent, and every one of them included both Corey and I. There was no mistaking her intentions in sending these to me.

I groaned and exited out of the pictures. It wasn’t until then that I realized I was crying. I put a hand to my face to wipe away the tears and it felt like a dam had broken. My cheeks were soaked. Unable to hold it in I crawled into bed, pulled the covers over my head and let myself cry.

I cried because I didn’t think things would ever work for Corey and I. I cried because I realized how badly I really wanted them to. I cried because I missed him more than anything. I cried because he’d made enormous efforts twice and I’d blown him off each time because I was still hurting.

When my alarm went off the next morning, it didn’t take me long to turn it off. I was wide awake. There had been no sleep for me that night. I’d spent the whole night thinking about Corey. I caught my ride to the airport and walked up to the desk to check in. As I put my luggage up to check it I glanced at the departures board. My breath caught in my throat. How was that the first place I’d zeroed in on?

“Excuse me, wait!” I called to the woman taking my luggage.

“Yes, miss?” she queried. I hesitated. I shouldn’t be doing this.

“I need to change my flight,” I told her. Despite the confused look on her face, she nodded and walked over to a computer.

“Where to?”

“Are there still seats on this one?”










“So what are you doing tonight?” Ferris asked. Corey looked over at his friend and shrugged before picking the dumbbell back up. He finished his rep before answering.

“No idea. How about you?”

“I think some of the guys were going to head out somewhere. You in?” Corey thought about it for a moment. He didn’t have anything better to do.

“Yeah, let me know what the plan is.”

Corey finished his workout and headed home. He made himself a snack before hopping into the shower. He’d just settled down on the couch with his laptop when his doorbell rang. He groaned and got back up to answer the door. He actually took a step back when he saw Amelia standing on the other side.

He wasn’t sure if he was seeing things and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t asleep. When he refocused she was still standing there. What was she doing at his house? He couldn’t read the expression on her face, but then again she was wearing sunglasses and he couldn’t see her eyes. She stood there like a statue and he wasn’t really sure what to do.

“Amelia?” he finally managed to say.

Her face faltered then, just for a second. He saw her mouth twitch. He’d seen that twitch before. He reached up and gently pulled the sunglasses off of her face. Tears were welling up in her eyes, threatening to spill over any second. He couldn’t take it and pulled her into a hug.

The second her head hit his shoulder she began to cry. Giant sobs overtook her and he held her as her body shook. She held on to him too, almost too tightly, like she thought he’d float away. He wasn’t sure why she was here but as he began to think about it he started to get upset. Last time he’d seen her she’d wanted nothing to do with him and now she was here crying on his shoulder. What would drive her to him like this?

“Meels, sweetie, please. What’s wrong? Did something happen?” he asked, pulling away from her and looking into her eyes. She sniffed and nodded, but didn’t say anything.

He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into the house. He didn’t want to leave her standing on the porch when something awful had obviously happened in her life. She followed his lead over to the couch and sat down next to him.

“Okay, please tell me what’s wrong. Is someone sick? Did someone get hurt?” All she did was nod and his heart dropped. “Who, Meels?”

“Me,” she whispered. He felt sick.

“What?! What’s going on?” He was panicking now as every worst case scenario ran through his head.

“I love you.” He looked at her in shock. That had been the absolute last thing he’d expected her to say. “I tried not to. I tried to be okay without you in my life, but I’m not. I need you, Cor.”

He took a deep breath and tried to figure out how to respond to that. It wasn’t like he didn’t have the urge to jump all over the furniture Tom Cruise style, but he didn’t really think that’s what Amelia wanted him to do. All he knew was that he’d finally heard her say what he didn’t think that was appropriate.

“I love you too,” he finally said.

“I need to have you in my life, but that doesn’t change how I’ve felt this whole time. This is it for us. If things don’t work this time, they never will. I think we have to take things slow.”

“Sweetie, I’ll do whatever it takes to have you back in my life. I fucked up, I know, but I promise you that I’m working on being better for you. I have been since Hawaii, even when I thought I didn’t have a prayer when it came to getting back together. I’ll do anything for you.”

She gave him a small smile and wiped the tears that had stopped off of her face. He looked down into her eyes and couldn’t hold back any longer. He grabbed her face with both of his hands and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he knew that there was no way he was going to fuck this up again.

Amelia only stayed for two days because she had to get back to LA. Thankfully he was only a couple weeks from returning for the season. He gave her a long lingering kiss at the airport and stayed where he was until she was completely out of sight. She kept turning around and flashing him that smile of hers as she walked away, and he was determined to see every last one of her smiles.

He finally got back into his car and started to drive home. On his way he couldn’t help but worry about how things were going to go when he got back. Amelia was crazy busy and almost had her next few months planned out and he just hoped that he was going to be able to keep a cool head about it all. No matter what, he was going to have to because he wasn’t ever letting her go again.