The Road to Price (16 page)

“Mommy,” he said
groggily as he was squinting his eyes to look up at me. “Why do I have to wake
up so early?”

His facial
expression was so cute. I absolutely adored my little boy. How anyone could
look at a child a not see what a miracle that child was, baffled me. This six
year old, fifty-five pound little boy was the love of my life.

“Miles, you’ve got
to get up. Charlie is going to be here soon to take you to breakfast and get
you off to school.”

Miles’ face
brightened at my words. He loved his mornings with Charlie. It was what Miles
called his “Man time.”

Charlie had been
dating my mom for the past four years. She really loved him and when he moved
in with her a couple months after they started dating, he became instant
family. He took a real liking to Miles too. I was glad Miles had a male figure
in his life.

Charlie worked at
the local factory, the one that Kyle used to work at. Kyle should be thanking
the Lord he is in prison because if he weren’t, I could guarantee Charlie would
kill him.

“Yes! Breakfast
with Grandpa Charlie is the best,” Miles shouted as he jumped out of his bed.
“Do you think he will let me order of the adult menu and get steak & eggs
again?”

Miles walked over
to his dresser where I had placed his outfit for the day.

“I don’t know
buddy. I’m sure if you ask him really nicely you might get your way,” I winked.

I don’t know why
Miles even asked me that. He knew he had Charlie wrapped around his finger. I
don’t think the man had ever told Miles no.

I walked over to
the dresser to help Miles get dressed. He was wearing a pair of carpenter jeans
and his favorite top, an
Atlanta Braves
t-shirt. They were his favorite
baseball team. We had gone to a game last summer and Charlie had bought him
this t-shirt after they won. Miles would wear it every day if he could.

The doorbell rang
and I heard the front door open. “Where is my favorite six-year old?” Charlie’s
voice echoed through my small ranch.

Miles took off
without finishing putting his socks on. I followed after him into the hallway
where Miles had jumped into Charlie’s waiting arms.

“You ready for
breakfast buddy? I don’t know about you but I’m staving,” Charlie said as he
patted his stomach with his free hand.

“I’m starving to
grandpa Charlie, I just have to brush my teeth-“ 

I cut him off
mid-sentence, “First you need to finish putting on your socks.”

He laughed in
Charlie’s arms, “Oh yeah, I can’t go to school missing a sock,” Miles replied
as he jumped out of Charlie’s arm and grabbed his white sock out of my hand.

I walked into the
kitchen while Miles finished getting ready. I went to the fridge and grabbed
out our lunches for the day. I placed Miles lunch box in his backpack and put
it by the front door. Then I grabbed my lunch, purse, and suit jacket and
walked over to the front door to wait. Charlie and Miles came a few seconds
later. We were ready to go.

Miles and Charlie
walked out of the house and I followed after locking up. I ran over to
Charlie’s car to give Miles a hug and a kiss goodbye. “I’ll see you after
school okay? If your good for Charlie we can stop for ice cream on our way home
tonight.”

“Okay Mom, Love
you!”

“I love you too,” I
said as I moved away and shut the door. I walked over to the driver’s side
where Charlie was already seated with the window down. “Thanks again for doing
this. I hate when I have these early morning team meetings. I learn nothing and
it takes a morning away from my son.”

“Don’t worry about
it kiddo. You know I love my time with Miles. He’s like the son I never had.
You go enjoy your meeting and we’ll eat some extra pancakes for you,” he
chuckled at me.

Charlie started to
back away as I heard Miles say from the back seat, “I don’t want pancakes.” I
laughed at his response and waved as there car drove down the street.

I walked over to
my car and got in the driver’s seat, placing my lunch and purse in the
passenger seat. I started it up and checked my make-up in the rearview mirror.
I turned my radio on to my favorite classic rock station and backed out of my
driveway.

I drove in the
opposite direction of Charlie. My meeting for work was twenty minutes outside
of town. We were going to be implementing a new system for online banking. So
as a manager, I had to sit down and figure out a training schedule for my
staff. Why I couldn’t just do this at my branch was beyond me.

Traffic wasn’t too
bad on the roads and I made it to our corporate office with a few minutes to
spare. Not one to waste time, I went into the building and headed straight up
to the third floor. The conference rooms were to the left of the elevators.
When the elevator chimed, I walked out and veered to the right towards the
kitchen. I needed a cup of coffee before this meeting so I would stay awake.

Jonathon, a branch
manger from a different location, was already pouring himself a cup of coffee
from the industrial size coffee maker. He was the first person I met when I
started working here and he was a good friend, probably my only real friend.

I didn’t share a
lot of my personal life with him but I still considered him a close friends. He
was my partner in crime at these meetings and always made me laugh.

He looked up from
his cup of coffee and spotted me.

“Mia,” he
exclaimed as he walked over to me and kissed my cheeks as if we were French.
This was his greeting for me every time we saw each other. “I was going to text
you to see if you wanted to get lunch after this meeting.”

“I wish I could
Jonathon but I made a lunch today,” I said. I actually really wanted to go to
lunch with him but I couldn’t afford it. I had to save every penny I could.

“Oh, stop,” he
waved his arm at me like what I was saying was ridiculous. “You put that lunch
of yours in the fridge at work and you can eat it tomorrow. I haven’t talked to
you in ages and I am taking you to lunch. My treat and I won’t take no for an
answer.”

Well, when he puts
it that way…

He poured a second
cup of coffee before handing it over to me, “How you can drink that stuff black
is beyond me.”

Jonathon was a
coffee snob. I was actually surprised he was even drinking the coffee at
corporate. He usually liked to go to an expensive coffee chain, order some kind
of latte, and pay a ridiculous amount of money for it. I, on the other hand,
could not fathom paying five dollars for a cup of coffee.

We walked out of
the kitchen, through the hallway, and into the conference room. We took the two
furthest seats from the front and planted ourselves down for the morning. The
room was quickly filling up with other managers, IT personal, and random people
from corporate.

“Hey,” Jonathon
whispered, “Cameron really wants to meet you. I was thinking of having you over
for dinner at my place… maybe this weekend? We can have wine, play board games,
get drunk and dance to horrible music. What do you think?” Jonathon looked
really excited about the idea of me finally meeting Cameron.

Jonathon and
Cameron had been dating for the past year. It was getting pretty serious and
every time we planned to finally meet, I had to cancel. I was actually looking
forward to meeting him.

“Okay, well let me
talk to my mom and Charlie tonight. Maybe they can watch Miles on Saturday and
I can come over-“

I stopped speaking
as my boss stood up in front of the room and started his presentation. He
started with how our banking system was ancient. That our customer complaints
were at an all time high. This new system was supposed to be very competitive
with other financial institutions across the country.

A few minutes in
my phone started buzzing in my purse. I ignored it and continued to pretend to
listen to my boss’s presentation. The buzzing stopped and then immediately
started up again.

I reached into my
purse to search for my phone. By the time I found it the buzzing had stopped.
My caller id showed two missed calls from my mother. I went to put my phone
back into my purse when it started to buzz in my hand. The caller id showed my
mother again.

She was calling
for the third time so it must be urgent. I stood up and excused myself from the
room. I tapped the answer button and placed the phone to my ear as I was walked
out of the room.

“Momma, I’m in a
meeting. Can I call...”? I stopped speaking. I could hear my mother crying into
the phone. After a few seconds of silence I spoke again, “Momma?”

“Mia… you… you…”
her voice was trembling into the phone. She was having a hard time getting her
words out. “You have to…. to get down to the hospi… hospital right away.
Charlie and… Miles were in an…. accident.”

My stomach
dropped. My hand started to tremble as my phone dropped to the ground. I leaned
over and picked it back up off the floor and ran down the hallway. I took the
stairs to the main level instead of waiting for the elevator.

My thoughts were
everywhere. Were they okay? Was Miles hurt? How bad was the accident?

I made it to the
main level and ran out the doors of the corporate offices. I spotted my car
right away. I dug my keys out of my purse as I ran to my car. I opened the car
door, hopped in, and sped off to county hospital. I hung up on my mother before
I got any information out of her but county was the only hospital in a
fifty-mile radius to us.

The drive took me
about fifteen minutes. I was lucky to have not run across any cops. I was
speeding and running every red light.

He was going to be
okay. My mother was a very dramatic woman. She cried over everything. Miles
probably doesn’t even have a scratch on him. I’m racing over there for nothing.
I’m going to go into that emergency room and see him laughing and smiling.
He’ll probably be talking about all the cool things the paramedics showed him.

As I’m going over
all this in my head, my heart told me different. I knew I needed to prepare
myself. Call it a gut instinct, I don’t know, but I knew deep in my heart that
Miles wasn’t okay.

I felt a tear drip
down my cheek and I wiped it from my face.

Don’t cry. There
is no reason to cry. He is fine. He will be fine. You are going to laugh about
this later with him. Miles is going to think it is so funny that you are crying
over this silly accident.

I pulled up to the
emergency room at our county hospital. I didn’t bother finding a parking space.
I pulled right into the ambulance parking and jumped out of my car. I didn’t
even bother turning it off and taking the keys out of the ignition.

When I went
through the automatic double doors I spotted my momma. She was sitting in the
chairs against the wall on the far side of the waiting area. She was crying
into a man's chest. I realized it wasn’t any man... it was Charlie.

My knees started
to shake and my eyes began to water.

Miles wasn’t with
them.

No! This isn’t
happening. This is a mistake. He’s fine. Miles is fine.

Charlie looked up
and spotted me first. The look on his face said it all. It was somber,
apologetic, and devastatingly heartbroken.

My mother’s face
shifted towards mine with Charlie’s movement. When her eyes connected with
mine… I wanted to die. Tears continued to fall down her face as she stood up to
walk over to me. My face felt wet as well, and that is when I noticed I was
crying too.

My body was full
blown trembling by the time she made it to me. I couldn’t control it and I
couldn’t stop it. My momma’s arms wrapped around me and we cried together.

I couldn’t ask
her, if I asked her that would make it real. I needed it not to be real.

She pulled away
from me slightly so that we were face to face. “Mia, honey, they did everything
they could,” she sniffled back her tears and continued. “The damage to his body
was too severe… he’s gone Mia. I’m… I’m so sorry baby but Miles is dead.”

That was the last
thing I remember about that day. My vision blurred, my body felt week, and I
was trembling. Then I blacked out.

Present

I’m sleeping.

I can feel the
touch of someone’s hands rubbing up and down my arm. I want to turn into those
hands but I am still so tired.

“Mia,” I hear my
name being called to me.

His voice sounds
so raspy, sexy and strong. The hands that were rubbing my arm a few seconds ago
are now shaking my body back and forth. The sexy voice is back but now sounds
panicked.

“Mia! Wake up
Mia.”

My eye’s dart
open. My body is drenched in my sweat and I can feel my heart beat racing. My
cheeks are wet and my eyes are slightly blurry. I look around the room to see
what could have startled me but I see nothing. That is when I feel the tender
touch of someone’s hands on me.

I turn into the
hands to see a worried Sebastian. He is gently caressing me with his hands as
his eyes show concern. I want to reach out to him and ask him what’s wrong. I
want to ease him from whatever is causing him to look the way he looks.

“What’s wrong? Are
you okay?” These are the only words I can think to ask at the moment.

Sebastian’s eyes
squint at me like he cannot believe what I just asked him.

“Mia, Honey... am
I okay? That is…” he drags his hand through his hair as he contemplates what to
say next. “Are you okay? You were screaming in your sleep, you’re covered in
sweat, and you’re shaking.”

Huh? I look over
my body and I realize he is right. I am shaking.

“Honey, were you
dreaming? Do you want to talk about it?”

Was I dreaming? I
didn’t think so. I haven’t had a dream in a long time. If I was dreaming and it
affected me this much I would remember, wouldn’t I?