Her Forever

Sadie

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. My sleep was dreamless, and I was happy about it. Telling myself that Maria was in a better place with her lover and was happier there helped me get through the night.

I was still wearing the same funeral dress from yesterday, so I grabbed a quick shower and packed my suitcase of all of my other clothes from the past week. The Dobson’s were the sweetest couple. Their daughter had become my best friend growing up. Lilly was one of the few friends I had besides Tobias.

I never had time to go out to parties, sports activities, and such. I worked at the diner too much. However, Lilly always made me part of her life. Lilly, working at her parent’s diner, helped, and having a texting buddy to keep me up on the latest gossip in school kept my mind off things.

Lilly was coming in today from college, along with my other friend, Tobias. They went to the same school a few states over to have some familiarity with them. They both wanted me to go with them but never argued because they knew my attachment to Maria and wanted to help as much as I could.

“Sadie! I made breakfast!” Mrs. Dobson broke me out of my train of thought, and I thumped down the stairs not so gracefully. She took one look at my suitcase. “Sadie, I said to stay here. Why do you keep wanting to leave me?” She put her hand up to her chest to make it seem like she was mortified I would leave her.

“Come on, and you know Lilly is coming home today. I think she would want her room back.” I grabbed the ready-made plate from her and ate.

“Oh, she could sleep on the couch,” she scoffed. Mrs. Dobson admired my hard work ethic while Lilly was more into boys. “Oh, Tobias is coming back today as well!” She said in a sing-song voice.

I pulled in a sharp intake of air into my lungs. “I just don’t have feelings for Tobias.” Taking my fork, I poked at my over-easy eggs. “It’s hard to see him, and I love him as a friend, nothing more. I don’t want to hurt him.”

Mrs. Dobson nodded her head and started washing the dishes from making breakfast. “I don’t understand why; he’s the perfect gentleman. He has girls chasing him all the time, and he only has eyes for you,” she said sweetly.

I keep my promises, unlike Lilly. Little does Lilly’s Mom know, Lilly has had a significant crush on Tobias since she was 15, but I will never tell. However, even with that crush Lilly has, I have never felt a romantic attractiveness to Tobias. I have even started not answering calls and texts to keep him at bay.

I finished my plate and grabbed my bags. “Mrs. Dobson, I’m going to drop my things off at the cottage and head to the lawyer’s office. I’m supposed to go over the will.

“Alright, dear, I’ll text you when Lilly gets home so you ladies can catch up.”

The town is so tiny I rarely use the car. I have come to like my silent walks down the street. I have even taken up running the past few months and have come to quite enjoy it, especially since not getting to enjoy sports in my past. If I could have done any sport, it would have been swimming. I could out-swim any kid in town when I was a teenager at the lake.

I unlocked the door to our, well, now my tiny cottage. It was a two-bedroom, with a small kitchen with an eat-in kitchen table. The cottage is as essential as you could get. One bathroom between the two bedrooms and crisp white walls engulfed the room. Bright yellow curtains hung on every window, and the hardwood floors were dark only to enhance the room to look much larger than it was.

I unloaded my bag and almost forgot my rose from Maria’s coffin yesterday. I quickly grabbed the wilting flower and pressed it between the pages of my large print Jane Eyre novel.

Once the rose dries and flattens, I put it in the rose album that I have created. I have been gifted a deep red rose with a black silk ribbon attached to the stem every birthday.

I was six years old when I received my first one. I woke up with it placed on the pillow next to me. Asking Maria if it was her that gifted the rose to me. Her eyebrows furrowed and would gently shake her head. She looked genuinely confused, and I think she would have been speechless if she weren’t mute.

Every single birthday, this deep, b***d-red rose appeared on my pillow. I hoped that maybe it was from my long-lost parents, whom I could not remember at all. I would try and stay awake to see where the rose came from, but was always disappointed because I fell asleep.

Once I turned 18, however, the roses became more frequent. I received one on my birthday, Christmas, Valentine’s, graduation, and even small milestones such as becoming a shift manager at the diner.

As weird as it all was, Maria said nothing. She became too depressed to pay attention. I kept the roses, however, and only told my closest friend Lilly about them, who would only shrug her shoulders.

I closed my Jane Eyre book and hopped in the shower to scrub the salty tears from the day before off from me. I quickly jumped out, dried myself, and put on a pair of dark wash jeans, a dusty pink t-shirt, and a small black cardigan.

My blonde highlights were growing out, and my natural hair color of deep brown came through. Lilly and I loved to color each other’s hair, but I’ve gotten out of the habit since she left for college.

My hair now looks like I used to be in the sun constantly, but now that I work indoors it had grown out to a nice ombre style.

I put on my signature winged eyeliner and mascara and grabbed the keys to my ’98 red Jeep Wrangler. She may be old, be she’s ole’ reliable!

The lawyer’s office smelled of cigarettes and chewing tobacco. This guy was old and crusty. That was the only way to describe him. He was always lovely to my aunt but a bit of a flirt. Lucky for me, Maria told him I was off-limits and not to even joke about trying to get into my pants. The thought of her writing that down to show him made me cringe inside.

“My dear Sadie!” Mr. Donnavan boomed.

“Good morning sir, I’m here to have the will read to me,” I said straight to the point. You cannot joke with the man, you cannot be too friendly, or he will take a mile.

Donnavan put out his cigarette in his ashtray. “Right, right, come in and sit? Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

*****

I stood outside Donnavan’s office with the most aghast look on my face. I was the proud owner of a cabin a few provinces away—a beautiful cabin located in the town of Pineville Creek.

The picture he showed me was magnificent; it was a two-story, 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom, and a nice sized kitchen. The cabin has not been used in 20 years, and it will need a lot of work to bring it back to its former glory.

There was no recent photograph, but I am sure it is also overgrown by weeds, trees, and probably bugs and critters. But it is mine! Maybe this was my push to get out of this town and do something different with my life.

Donnavan also handed over several envelopes that I had to read once I got to this cabin with instructions. The town also had a small bank with a safe deposit box and a bank account in my name.

I sighed, and I suddenly felt my butt vibrate from my phone.

“SADIEEEEEE!!!” the demon from hell screamed. “Oh my gosh, come to my house right now!”

“Of course, Lilly, I will drop everything I am doing and come visit you right now.” I am sure she could see my eye roll through the phone.

“Great! See you soon, love!”

As I am about to hop into the Wrangler, I feel a slight touch on the small of my back. There is only one person who has ever touched me there, and, in that instant, I knew it was- Tobias. “Hi Tobias…” I slightly g*****d.

Tobias stood back with his hand gripping his chest, “is that a way to treat your lover?” I started giggling and punched his right arm.

He leaned in closer to me as if to challenge him. His sea foam eyes complimented his dirty blonde hair that was cut short military cut. He was a medium build with nothing but muscles to show. I always found him intimidating, but he always had a friendly glare towards me.

His 6-foot frame still towered over my 5-foot 4 inches one. Even though I was short, I was strong. Running in the mornings helped my endurance, but I did lack in my upper body strength.

“Listen here,” I pointed at his chest, “I am not your lover, and stop saying it out loud. People will get the wrong idea,” I smirked.

Tobias put his hands up in surrender. “You are still an innocent little lamb, aren’t you?” He smirked.

“Of course I am, unlike you, you horn dog.” For a moment, I could see a flash of hurt in his eyes, but he and I both know he fools around with tons of women. He just does not get into a relationship. Ever since he confessed his love for me at 15, I knew he wasn’t the one. He still went around behind my back and flirted and had s*x with tons of girls.

If you can confess your love to someone and say they need time to think about it, you would think the person would wait. Well, his thing did not think that through. That was when I knew he was not for me. Someone who really loved you would have waited.

“Listen, I am sorry. I shouldn’t have said that, Tobias. I was only joking; I did not mean to hurt you.” Taking both my hands, I rubbed the sides of his arms. “How about we go to Lilly’s?”

Tobias whined, “come on really? I have seen her enough already. Let’s just you and I hang out. I mean, I am the better-looking friend…” he wiggled his eyebrows.

“Oh, my dear,” I started sarcastically, “Lilly technically called me first before I saw you, so maybe I should just hang out with her first.” Tobias thought for a moment and gave up.

“Fine, let’s go.”