Love Leaps: A Short Story (4 page)

“But, I want you to know that this time
apart has helped me to see things clearly. I know I love you. I
know I want a life with you. We aren't living on some conveyor
belt. We're choosing each other or at least, I 'm choosing you with
all that I am and all that I have. I'm yours, Em, if you'll have
me,” he says with such an intense amount of honesty that tears well
up in my eyes.

“Yes, I'll have you. And, I want you to know
that I choose you too,” I say and kiss him.

“God, I was so scared you weren't going to
want me anymore,” he says.

“I was scared I wasn't going to want you
anymore either,” I say. “But I still do.”

“How did I ever get this lucky?” he muses
and kisses me again. “Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Of course,” I say with a smile.

“Will you marry me, Emma?” he stammers as he
drops down on one knee.

“Yes!” I exclaim, as tears trickle down my
cheeks. “I've loved you from the moment I met you, Gray, and I will
love you for the rest of my life.” Getting off his knee with a
broad smile on his face, he kisses me and swings me around. I wrap
my arms around the man I've always known I was meant to be with.
The roses in the Rose Garden are in full bloom and the smell is as
intoxicating as our love.

“She actually said yes!” Gray exclaims and
the other people in the park start clapping for us as he kisses me
again.

###

Thank You

Thank you for downloading
and reading my short story,
Love
Leaps
. I enjoyed writing it and I'm
honored that you chose to read it. If you have a minute, please
consider posting a quick review on Amazon – only a sentence or two
is needed to share your thoughts with other readers.

You can connect with me on
Twitter at
www.twitter.com/KarenJerabek
and you can visit my website at
http://www.KarenJerabek.com
. I post blogs about once a month there, including one of my
favorites
How My Dogs Rescued Me from
Divorce
. You can even sign up for email
updates to be notified of new blogs and new book
releases.

As an added bonus for my
e-readers, I've included a free sample of my debut novel,
Helping Karma
.

Much Love,

Karen

Other Books by Karen
Jerabek

Karen's debut short story
is an Amazon Kindle's Bestselling book. If you enjoyed
Love Leaps
, you'll be
sure to love this shortie, which is perfect for a quick read at the
beach, pool or even your lunch break. You'll meet Bree, a smart,
confident real estate agent living in Raleigh, NC. She has a great
career, great house, great best friend and is totally unconcerned
about the state of her love life. Well, that is, until she meets
Billy, a scruffy musician who whisks Bree off on a midnight drive
that's sure to shake up her life and leave her wondering whether to
trust her head or her heart.
Tuned In to
Love
is available in e-book format at
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, iTunes and many
more.

To go directly to the
Amazon page, please click the link:
http://www.tinyurl.com/TunedIn2Love

Helping Karma: a
novel

Karen released her debut
novel in November 2011. If you enjoyed
Love Leaps
, this longer Chick Lit
fiction book will sure to keep you captivated right up till the
last page, with twists, turns and an unforgettable ending. You'll
m
eet Meg, a vivacious young woman who's
life gets turned upside down when a twist of fate reveals her
lover's lies. Her three best friends rally around her, offering
their shoulders to cry on and a few pitchers of margaritas. While
Meg tries to rebuild her life, she can't help but wonder when her
ex will get a well-deserved karmic kick in the pants. Growing
impatient, she decides to take matters into her own hands and give
karma a helpful little nudge. You'll laugh and cringe as Meg plots
her revenge while her friends try their best to encourage her to
focus on the life that's passing her by.
Helping Karma
is available in e-book
format at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, iTunes and many
more.
A free sample of Helping Karma
follows on the next couple pages.

To go directly to the
Amazon page, please click the link:
http://www.tinyurl.com/HelpingKarma

Karen
co-authored
The Mini Marriage: 5
Bite Sized Memoirs of Young Divorce
with four amazing women who consider themselves divorce
sisters because they forged their friendships while they were
navigating difficult divorces. She co-wrote it with the purpose of
crusading for the millions of mini marriage alums in the world who
are misunderstood, stereotyped and judged by people who simply
don’t understand them.
The Mini
Marriage
is available in paperback and
e-book formats at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, iTunes and
many more.

To read more about it,
please visit our website,
http://www.TheMiniMarriage.com

Or to go directly to the
Amazon page:
http://tinyurl.com/minimarriagebook

I must be having an out of body
experience. My hands are freezing cold. Everything seems to be
moving in slow motion. I sit at my desk, unable to focus. My
thoughts are foggy and I have to remind myself to breathe. Instinct
sets in. I pick up the phone, and dial a number. I’m not sure who
will answer. I just know it’s the one number that I can remember at
this moment.

“
Hello,” says a friendly
voice.

“
Hello?” I ask, not quite
sure who I’m talking to.

“
Meg, is that you? Honey,
what’s wrong?”

“
Kate?”

“
Yes, Meg. It’s me. What’s
wrong?” she asks. Her voice is growing more alarmed, but that’s not
really registering with me right now.

“
Oh Kate, it’s
over.”

“
What happened?” Kate
whispers.

“
I haven’t fully processed
it yet,” I sigh. “I really need one of our weekends. Can you call
the other girls and see if they can come over later?”

“
Of course I will. I’ll
come over as soon as I can get out of here.”

“
Okay,” I say and pause,
lost in my own thoughts or non-thoughts as they might
be.

“
Meg,” Kate says gently.
“You’re going to be okay. Everything will be okay.”

“
Maybe,” I
mutter.

“
You need to go home. Go
tell your boss that you’re sick and need to leave.”

“
You’re probably right. I
really don’t need to be here when this starts to sink
in.”

After I hang up the phone, I sit there
frozen for what seems to be an eternity but it’s really only about
five minutes. I need to pull myself together just long enough to
get out of the office. I take a deep breath then grab my stuff and
stop at my boss’s office on my way out.

“
Hey, what's up?” Samantha
asks while studying some paperwork scattered on her
desk.

“
Well,” I say and
pause.

She glances up at me and the smile
fades from her face. “Are you sick?”

“
Yeah, I think I'm coming
down with something.”

“
There's nothing urgent,
so just go home and get some rest,” she offers while studying my
face.

“
Thanks,” I say with a
weak smile.

“
I hope you feel better,”
she says. “Call me over the weekend if you need Monday off
too.”

On my way out of the
building, several other people tell me I look awful and ask if I'm
sick. I nod and hurry past them as they tell me to feel better. I
know I must look awful. I feel awful. It isn’t because of the flu
or some bug, like everyone in my office believes. It’s much
more
severe
than
that.

Walking to the parking lot, my head
starts pounding and I’m feeling faint and nauseous. Luckily, I
manage to get in my car before I pass out in the middle of the lot.
I turn the key in the ignition and put my head on the steering
wheel for a moment. I don’t even know if I can make it home. But,
what else can I do? Tears well up in my eyes and I choke down a
pitiful wail. I quickly pull myself together, trying to keep the
emotional floodgates from bursting wide open. I seriously can’t
fall apart in my car while I’m parked right outside my office
building. I need to just focus on getting the hell out of here so I
can go to bed. Wiping my eyes with the sleeve of my shirt, I take a
breath and slide on my sunglasses. Then, I pull out of the parking
lot and pray for green lights.

I don’t quite remember how I got home
but I’m here, at my safe haven. The street is quiet. Everyone is
still at work and won’t be home for a few more hours. Maybe my luck
is changing. Probably not. I grab my gel eye mask from the fridge,
and a bottle of water. Popping my meds for my migraine, I collapse
into my sofa. I try to clear my mind so that I can rest, but my
thoughts are racing.

You know, this morning I woke up
thinking it was going to be a pretty good day. I had woken up ten
minutes early, stretched and lounged in my bed until the alarm went
off. The radio station was playing one of my favorite songs and I
hopped out of bed, ready to get this Friday started. I turned the
music up and sang along in the shower. Friday’s actually my
favorite day of the week. It’s the last day of the workweek, and
there’s so much anticipation about what the weekend will hold.
Anything is possible on a Friday.

As I stepped out of my house, almost
everyone I saw on the block seemed to be smiling. People’s spirits
have lifted now that spring is finally here and our long, dreary
winter seems to be behind us. I waved to a couple neighbors as we
climbed into our cars and started the daily commute.

The morning seemed so innocent and
full of possibilities. I even managed to make it to work early and
was able to sit down, enjoy my coffee and read a couple articles
before starting on my inbox. Before I knew it, it was past
lunchtime. I had been working hard all morning, slowly reducing the
huge slush pile in my inbox. Since it was such a gorgeous day, I
thought that I would walk down to the deli to get a sandwich.
Usually, I just nuke something in the microwave but I didn’t want
to be stuck inside all day. Walking past the store fronts, I
glanced in the window at Bailey’s Fine Jewelry store. The sunlight
made all of the diamonds, gemstones and crystal gifts sparkle and
cast rainbows all around. There was one vase in particular that
really caught my eye. I walked up to the window to take a closer
look and that one decision changed my life forever. And, I’m not
saying that in a melodramatic sort of way. It really changed my
life forever. My whole world proceeded to fall apart, because of
that vase.

“
Stupid vase,” I mutter.
Good Lord, my head is throbbing. I think I need another dose of my
meds. The first dose hasn’t touched the pain. People that haven’t
had migraines don’t understand what kind of excruciating pain a
migraine causes. They think that it’s just a bad headache. If they
only knew what we suffer with, they’d be more sympathetic! I have a
knot in my shoulder that is shooting pain up my neck into my head,
or the other way around. I can’t really tell. The pain is
centralized behind my left eye. It feels like someone is pounding a
spike into my skull. What makes it really bad is that the pain
isn’t consistent. Each pounding sensation causes a bolt of intense
pain that makes me wince. Then the pain eases slightly before
starting all over again.

Realize that my eye mask has gotten
warm, I consider trying an ice compress. Reluctantly, I drag myself
off the sofa and walk very slowly to the kitchen. I try not to make
any sudden movements because that might trigger extra poundings
from this hellish jackhammer migraine. The clinking of ice cubes
going into the compress sounds horribly loud. I get another
migraine pill and head back to my sofa for refuge where I settle
back into the cushions and rest the compress on my forehead. It’s
too cold to put directly on my eye but the cold sensation seems to
help reduce the intensity of the throbbing and it’s numbing the
pain a little.

My eyelids start to feel heavy. I just
want to stop thinking about today and just fall asleep. Luckily,
I’m so exhausted that I quickly fall asleep as soon as I close my
eyes.

A very loud and very annoying buzzing
sound wakes me from my sleep. It takes me a few seconds to decipher
that hideous noise because I'm so groggy. Kate must be here. I
don’t know why she’s ringing that buzzer so many times though.
Dragging myself off the sofa, I wrap a blanket around my shoulders
and stumble toward the door. Surprisingly, my migraine seems to be
going away.