Providence

I looked back to the chapel, hypnotized by its beauty. It stood tal er than the other buildings with its meager two stories.

“Do you want to look inside?” Jared asked, gently tugging on my hand.

“I don’t think so. I just want to stay here.”

“Okay,” Jared murmured, obviously curious at my emotions.

I couldn’t explain it, but I felt a bit weepy. It was as if the building had spoken to me, asking me to stay a bit longer. Jared wrapped his arms around my middle, touching his lips to my hair. I felt the sweat bead on the skin of my back that pressed against his chest.

“What is it?” Jared asked after several moments.

“It’s just so beautiful,” I said, my voice breaking.

“No…there’s something….” he said, clearly confused by my mixed emotions.

I leaned my head back against his chest. “We’re going to get married in this chapel.”

“Right now?” Jared asked. I turned to scold him for mocking me, but he had a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

My grimace instantly turned into an appreciative grin. “I’d like to come back here…when the time comes.”

Jared’s irises glowed with the same azure blue as the sea. “I would travel to the ends of the earth to marry you.”

He grazed the line of my jaw with his thumb and pressed his lips against mine. I melted against him. Jared’s grip tightened as he sensed my elation, and my imagination transformed my clothes into a white dress and Jared’s khaki shorts and t-shirt into a suit.

“We’d better get back,” he said, looking up at the dark clouds rol ing in from the horizon.

I nodded, and he led me away from our chapel. I watched it as we walked down the block until it disappeared behind the palm trees.

Friday morning came too soon, and Jared became the authoritative personality he transformed into when organizing the progression of our things from one point to another. Once in the air, Jared put his hand on mine.

“You’ve been quiet al morning. You want to talk about it?” he asked.

“I wasn’t ready. It went by too fast,” I murmured, looking out the window of the plane.

“We’l take another vacation soon. The moment you finish your last final, I’l have Robert take us to the airport and we’l get on a plane…just you and me. Somewhere with air conditioning,” Jared promised, kissing my hand.

I sighed and nodded. Even though the prospect was infinitely appealing, I couldn’t rise above the morose I felt.

Jared lifted my chin to look into my eyes, appraising my mood for a moment. He seemed to deliberate something, final y pressing his lips together.

“I was going to wait, but I think I should give this to you now,” he said, standing up to dig inside his duffle bag.

He sat down beside me and placed a smal woven box in my lap. “Open it,” he smiled.

I pul ed at the lid. Sitting on tiny shreds of palm fronds sat the ring I’d tried on in the vil age. A smile broke across my face.

“You liked that one, right?”

“I loved that one,” I said.

The sadness from our departure intertwined with how touched I was that he somehow went back to the vil age and bought the ring without my knowledge. Tears formed rapidly in my eyes.

Jared lifted the ring and held it between his fingers. My eyes darted from his hand to his eyes; he seemed nervous about something.

“I have a request,” Jared said, smiling sheepishly.

I raised an eyebrow. “A condition?”

“No, no…just a request. Once I put this on your finger, I’d like for you not to take it off until I replace it.”

My pessimism al but forgotten, I didn’t hesitate. “I promise.”

“You don’t have to promise, it’s just a request,” he said, heartened by my reaction.

“I promise,” I insisted.

Jared beamed as he slipped the silver band on my left ring finger. It fit perfectly.

“You had it sized?” I asked.

His smile widened. “I wanted it to be perfect.”

He laughed at me each time he caught me lifting up my fingers to stare at my left hand. I was stil sad to say goodbye to our island, but knowing I had brought a piece of it with me made the trip home a bit easier.

Once we landed, I stepped onto the wet tarmac and pul ed my coat tightly around me. The bitter cold wind swirled around me, and I was glad when Jared offered his warm arms as insulation.

“Why don’t you go ahead with Cynthia? You don’t have to stand in the cold with me,” Jared said.

I began to argue, but I saw the clouds in his eyes. “What is it?”

Jared’s brow fel inward, and I could see he didn’t want to tel me. Beyond Jared’s shoulder, a tal dark figure caught my eye.

“Samuel?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said through his teeth. “It must be pressing, or he wouldn’t have come.”

“I’l meet you in the car.” I choked back the tears. We had barely touched the ground and already the harsh reality of our lives in Providence insisted we pay it attention like a spoiled child.

“If you love him, you’l have to accept that this is the way it wil be,” Cynthia said apathetical y.

I watched Jared from inside the car. His expression was grave; it was not good news. He nodded once and walked towards the door Robert dutiful y held open. Samuel was no longer there. He didn’t disappear, he didn’t fizzle out or his form blink from the space it occupied; he was there one moment, and then he wasn’t.

Jared slid into the seat beside me. “You can go, now, Robert.”

“Yes, sir,” Robert said, nodding in the mirror and then looking ahead.

I watched Jared work to keep the tension from his face. I didn’t need supernatural perception to know what he was feeling. He had the same look on his face when he pul ed the book from the safe. He was afraid.

Chapter Fifteen

The Last Supper

Jared instructed Robert to drive us to the loft, and then take my things to Brown. I noticed that he didn’t speak much on the way, but there was no point in trying to talk to him. Not with Cynthia sitting on the other side of me.

When the car slid in next to the curb, I kissed my mother goodbye. Jared led me up the stairs with one hand, his duffle bag and luggage in the other.

He put a few things away, and then trotted down the stairs.

From the railing I watched him mil about. I wasn’t sure when reality would final y set in. His perfection was something only seen on the silver screen or a magazine cover, and yet he casual y walked around just below me. He was thumbing through his mail until he paused to look up at me.

“Everything al right?” he asked.

“I should be asking you that, shouldn’t I?”

“No, not necessarily, why?” His face was too relaxed, his features intentional y at ease.

“You’re not going to tel me what Samuel said?”

Jared smiled, seeming to ignore my question. “If you’re worried about your things, I had Robert take them to be laundered. We’l pick them up later and swing by Andrews to get anything else you need.”

“Jared…Samuel—,”

“Lil ian wants to meet you,” he interrupted.

“She wants to meet me? But…I’ve met her,” I said, bewildered.

“Nina, you haven’t been around her since you were a girl. And she wants to be properly introduced to my girlfriend, not to mention Bex has been dying to meet you. You’re sort of a celebrity at my house.”