Bent (29 page)

"Just like riding a bike," Carly laughed.

"So, have you decided what you're going to do?" Carly asked a few laps later. It was the first time she brought up the topic but she knew Julia was trying to decide before the end of the year whether she was going to stay in New York or not.

Julia shook her head, "No clue yet. I really miss the guys and it's not fair to them to keep asking them to wait for me to figure out my screwed up head. But on the other hand, Colton is really keeping me busy and I don't want to quit my job and lose him. I think if he can get his head out of his ass, he really has a lot of potential."

"Seems to me there's a lot of that going on," Carly laughed.

Lap after lap, the women twisted and turned trying to see how many of their childhood skills they remembered. Out of breath, Carly told Julia to keep skating, that she'd be back in a few minutes. Normally, Julia would have stayed with her friend but she felt more free than she had in a long time so she stayed on the ice. It was the release she needed to think. Less than a lap later, she felt someone fall into her.

Fumbling to maintain her balance, she turned around, "Hey, watch where you're--" she stopped talking when soft lips landed on hers.

"What in the--" She was unable to finish her thought. Nearly a thousand miles from where he should be, Micah teetered on his own skates.

"Hey baby, you surprised?" Micah laughed.

"What are you doing here?" she asked throwing her arms tightly around his neck. They kissed on the ice as skaters made crude remarks suggesting they find the nearest hotel room. He laced his fingers in hers and they skated to the edge of the rink. The entire time, Julia's eyes stayed fixed on him.

Micah pushed back on Julia's shoulders urging her to sit down. "I couldn't wait to see you. I hope you don't mind," he said nervously.

"Of course not," she said cringing at her nearly squeaky tone. "I'm just... wow, I can't believe you're here." What she really couldn't believe was that he had the timing to plow into her at the exact moment she wished she could see him. This was the sign she'd been looking for.

Sitting down next to her, Micah pulled off his gloves. Julia did the same and grabbed his bare hands. They sat in silence for a minute, watching the end of the skating session. "I know I screw up," Micah said softly. "I screw up a lot. You're going to have to get used to hearing me apologize because I'm not sure I'll ever stop making mistakes."

"Micah--" she started. He pressed a finger to her lips silencing her.

"I made one of the biggest mistakes in my life when I left you," he continued. "I don't want to do that again. You are the only woman I've ever loved. I think I loved you even before we were a couple. I know I loved you when I shouldn't have. I never stopped loving you."

Skaters bumped into the couple as they cleared the ice. "When I saw you that night at The Oasis, I knew I needed to try to make you see how much you mean to me. When you came outside yelling at me for waking you up the next morning, I knew I was going to have a fight on my hands. When we went to dinner that night, you gave me hope."

Micah pulled a small wooden box from his inside pocket. "I'm not going to stop fighting for you this time. I love you and I want you to come home. To our home."

Julia started to say something but she was stopped again. "I bought this ring the day we graduated high school. I wanted to give it to you the day you left for college so you'd know that I would be waiting for you. I screwed that up but I'm still waiting for you."

He opened the box to reveal a small diamond solitaire set in white gold. "I'm not asking you to marry me. Not yet. But I want to give you this to promise that I'll be waiting for you."

Micah reached for her right hand to place the ring on her finger. She pulled it away. "You're not asking me to marry you?" she asked suspiciously.

"I don't want to pressure you into making a decision, so no," he said. Julia's face fell and he continued, "Don't get me wrong, I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life trying to make you happy. If it wasn't fighting dirty, I would have bought the most beautiful diamond I could and I'd be on my knee in front of you right now."

Without a word, Julia stood in front of Micah and placed a kiss on his forehead. She dropped to her knees in front of him. "Micah Aaron Anderson, will you please take me home and make me your wife?" she asked looking into his eyes.

A smile illuminated Micah's face, "Are you serious?" he laughed. She nodded and he pulled her into his arms, "You've just made me the happiest man alive."

Forgetting they were both still wearing ice skates, they nearly fell to the ground as Micah swung her around in his arms. "You're really serious?" he asked while their lips were pressed together.

"I'm really serious," Julia giggled. "Now, where's my ring?"

He pulled the ring from the oak box and reached for her hand, "This isn't an engagement ring. I meant it when I said I would get you a nice one but this will have to do for now."

Pulling him close, Julia assured him it was the perfect ring because he'd bought it for her and held onto it for all of the years they were apart. When he tried to argue that it wasn't what she deserved, she silenced him by placing her lips against his and gently coaxing her tongue into his mouth. That was the end of the argument.

"I guess we know who's going to be wearing the pants in this family," boomed a deep voice behind them.

Julia turned around to see her brother with his arm wrapped around Carly with Caleb following close behind. For the second time in less than twenty minutes, Julia was speechless. "Shut up, Adam," she joked. "So, what's this?" she asked motioning between Carly and Adam.

Carly surveyed Julia's face before she started talking, "Well... um... are you pissed at me?" she asked, squinting one eye.

It was fun to see Carly squirm. "Do you mean for tricking me into coming here or for whatever you have going on with my baby brother?" she asked playfully.

"Both," Carly responded.

Julia shook her head, "Sure. I'm pissed at you for the best surprise ever. And hey, if you want Adam after all the stories I've told you, more power to you both," she laughed. It felt good to be genuinely happy. She wrapped her arms around her friend and her brother. "I love both of you, thank you."

Caleb made his way to Julia. "I had a big speech prepared and everything," he said with mock disappointment.

Micah laughed at the look on Julia's face. "He thought I needed a good wingman. If you didn't listen to me, he was going to beg you to come home."

Julia wrapped her arms around the guys who managed to steal her heart. It wasn't the life she planned on but she knew it was the life she was meant to have.

That night, Julia pulled herself away from her fiance long enough to meet with Krista for drinks. While Krista wasn't happy to be losing a full-time employee, she ensured Julia they would find a way to make things work and wished her well. Julia agreed to come back after the first of the year to tie up some loose ends and discuss how they could continue working together.

As she sat alone in the cab headed back to the dingy apartment that would only be home for one more night, she realized how wrong she had been. She didn't have to choose which dream to follow, she simply needed to let life play out so her dreams had time to become intertwined within each other. That's when the true beauty of life could shine through.

Breaking the Rules

Coming Late Spring 2013

Tech week is affectionately dubbed "hell week" by theatre companies everywhere with good reason. It doesn't matter how well everything has gone from casting through rehearsals, everything that can go wrong will in the last week before a show opens. Carly Turner knew that everything was going too well with the latest production at the small theatre on 42nd Street.

"Turner, get out here," barked the stage manager. "Do you see the problem? How are we supposed to open in three days like this?" he shouted flailing his arms towards the ceiling.

Weaving her way through set pieces trying to avoid moving anything off its mark, Carly looked at the cause of Dax's current freak-out. Yes, this was definitely a problem but Carly had no clue what he expected her to do about the two dark light rigs hanging above the stage. She wasn't a lighting tech, she was a gofer working on the show because she was desperate for experience.

Carly nodded, "Yes Dax, I see the problem. What, exactly, are you hoping I will do about it?" she asked. Dax Jameson was the one person she wasn't going to miss when this show closed. She'd worked with difficult stage managers before but there was something about this one that made her skin crawl.

"I don't know," he moaned, "Just get the damned lights working." He stormed off the stage leaving Carly alone to solve the latest in a long line of hell week problems.

By the time Carly reached the control room, one of the junior lighting techs was waiting for her. "Here," he said flicking a business card at her, "You're going to have to call ETS. Cheapskates around here keep putting off fixing shit until it's too late. Now, we have four days to get the work done. Accounting office is gonna love that."

"Thanks, Clark," she said giving him a peck on the cheek, "You're a lifesaver."

Grabbing her purse, Carly ducked out the back door into the alley. If she had to sit on hold, she was going to do it while getting some fresh air. And by fresh air, she meant she was going to enjoy a cigarette while surrounded by the smell of rotting garbage from the deli next door.

Just her luck, less than half-way through her cigarette, the hold music stopped. "ETS, this is Adam. How can I help you?" His voice was deep and rich. The type of voice Carly was insanely attracted to.

"Hey Adam, this is Carly with Schumann Theatre in New York," she said, "I'm hoping you can help me. We're supposed to open in four days and we have a dark stage."

"Well, that would pose a problem," he laughed. Carly failed to the see the humor in the situation.

Adam started running through a script of troubleshooting questions that Carly didn't have answers to.
Why isn't someone from lighting making this damned call,
she wondered. Beyond knowing the end result of the problem, Carly was clueless.

She crushed her cigarette against the side of the building and ran to the booth. "Here, you talk to him," she snapped. After listening to Clark assure the ETS rep that they had already gone through the entire process and still couldn't get the lights to work, he handed the phone back to Carly. "Told you they're going to have to send someone out. We're going to be in the dark for tonight's rehearsal. He said he'll meet someone here at eight tomorrow morning." Clark laughed, "I feel bad for whatever sap draws the short straw and has to come in that early."

Carly already knew who was going to get stuck opening the doors for the techs. No way in hell would Dax get out of bed before noon when he could tell Carly to come in early.

The morning commute was Carly's least favorite time of day. Even more than normal, everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere and common courtesy was non-existent. She could feel judgmental eyes boring down on her as she followed the fashion-forward pedestrian current in her cut-off denim shorts and bright orange oversized t-shirt. There was no point in trying to look good when you were going to spend most of the day painting and cleaning.

The only comfort to be had from coming in so early was that she had a few hours before Dax would grace her with his presence. That almost made it worth the anxiety she felt over being the first person in the building. Ever since
Phantom of the Opera
Carly was terrified at the thought of being alone in the theatre. Yes, it was irrational but she had yet to find a way to combat the fear.

Moving the set was normally a job tackled when there were at least two people working. Too much could go wrong trying to do it alone. Unfortunately, no one thought to move the cumbersome pieces last night and they would need to be moved before the contractor could do his job. Carly cursed her irrational fears when she tripped, shoving the roof of a building directly into one of the curtains.

"Hello?" a deep voice resonated from backstage.

"Out here," she shouted, still wrestling to pull the set piece out of the curtain without causing any damage Dax would make her fix later. She blew a stray hair away from her eyes as the lighting contractor rounded the corner. "Adam?"

The broad shoulders and angled jaw were all new but there was no mistaking the icy blue eyes looking down at her.

"Carly Turner?" he laughed, "What are the odds..."

When did he get so tall?
Carly shook the thoughts out of her head. There was definitely a rule about drooling over your best friend's little brother.

"Well, I think they're probably long enough that there's no point in buying a lottery ticket tonight," she joked.
Oh god,
she thought,
did I just compare seeing Adam to winning the lottery
?

"What in the hell are these?" Adam laughed, twirling the long blond pigtails that fell in front of her shoulders. This morning, they seemed like a good idea. Julia felt her glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose. Pushing them back to her face using a knuckle, she looked away. This was, without a doubt, the least put-together Carly had been in a long time and Adam just happened to be here to see it.