“Mr. Levy.”
The young man took forever to get Bob onto the phone, and when he finally did, I went over my tentative plan for surprising Cassidy. Quite honestly, I wasn’t sure he was going to like the idea, but I hoped he would at least allow me to give it a go.
My nerves were getting the best of me. I even considered forgetting about it all. But one thing I had learned in my treatment was that I had to finish. I would never get the results I wanted in my life if I didn’t follow through. So, this was me, following through.
“Erik?” Bob said as he came on the phone.
“Yes, sir. I’m glad I got a hold of you. I’ve had a change of plans and I’m flying your way right now. Do you think you’ll have room for me at your party?”
“Damn straight, we will have room. I’ll tell Cassidy you’re coming; she’ll be so excited.”
I loved how excited her father was to help me. It eased my nerves a little bit, and I was able to focus better on what I needed to do. But I didn’t want him to tell Cassidy anything. I wanted to surprise her and that meant that Bob couldn’t go talking about my plans with her. He had to stay quiet, and I wasn’t sure he could do that.
“Actually, I was thinking of surprising her. Do you think you could help me with that?”
“She’s not a big fan of surprises, but I think since it’s you she’ll be all right. What do you need me to do?”
I went over the details of my plan. He even threw in some of his own ideas to make sure I had the perfect opportunity to surprise Cassidy. I really liked Cassidy’s dad; he was a nice man who genuinely seemed to care about his daughter and her happiness.
When I arrived in Aspen, I had a car waiting for me and I drove to Bob and Katherine’s resort. Bob had given me directions on how to get to the where the fireworks were going to be shot up, but in order to get there without being seen, I had to hike up the mountain.
It seemed pretty fitting that in order to surprise Cassidy I had to hike up the same mountain she and I had before. As I started my trek, it was much easier than I remembered it being. Maybe all my working out had paid off, or maybe it was because the weather was nice and there wasn’t any snow on the ground. But for whatever reason, I crushed it up the mountain and was waiting in the lodge a good twenty minutes before everyone else was set to arrive.
Bob was going to send Cassidy up on one of the chair lifts and tell her she needed to make sure everything was ready for the big night of events. So, I just waited. The anticipation was difficult for me, and I even started to have a panic attack as I thought about what might happen if Cassidy said no to me.
She might not want to see me, at all. There was a real possibility that Cassidy had moved on from what we had together and wouldn’t be interested in seeing me and really wouldn’t be interested in coming out to Los Angeles with me. But I used my coping skills and pushed my anxiety away as I tried to regain my composure for when Cassidy arrived.
It didn’t matter if she said yes or no. I was there to show her how I felt and tell her in person. She deserved that much, at the very least. Sure, it was entirely possible I was going to get my heart trampled on, but I just had to be all right with that.
Nothing big ever came to a person who wasn’t willing to risk something. I was risking it all as I waited there for her. It was either going to be a yes and Cassidy and I could start our relationship out in Los Angeles, or it was going to be a no and I would go home alone and have to figure out a way to move forward.
I stood looking out over the mountain like I had done months before on that first day I had arrived at Paradise Peak. It was even prettier there in the summertime. My nerves were going wild as I heard footsteps by the front of the building and it took everything in my power not to turn around yet.
I had come so far in the last year of my life. Nothing had turned out at all like I had planned, yet my life was better than I could have imagined.
In that moment as I waited for Cassidy, what I was sure of was that I wasn’t going to just quit. I had climbed the mountain and I was going to climb the last few proverbial feet so I could see the view of the rest of my life ahead of me.
Cassidy had to be there. I took a couple deep breaths as I waited for her to walk through the rest of the building and find me there, waiting for her. I didn’t know if this surprise was going to go over well or not, but I hoped she would like what I had to say.
“Erik?” her voice questioned from the other side of the room.
Slowly, I turned around at looked at her. She was insanely beautiful in her red summer dress with her hair pulled up in a ponytail. To be honest, I hadn’t remembered her being this beautiful. She seemed to be even more radiant than the memories I had of her.
“Sometimes on the phone, I’m not as good at saying things as I am in person,” I said as I walked toward her from across the room.
“What did you want to say to me?” she asked with a smile.
“First of all, you’re the most beautiful woman I know,” I said as I reached for her hand and held onto it. “Secondly, I should have called you.”
She smiled and her face looked relieved to hear what I had to say to her. I was excited, so excited that I felt myself sweating through the t-shirt I had under my button up shirt.
“Why didn’t you call?”
“Because I’m a man and we do stupid shit.” I laughed. “I wanted to have my life together and whisk you out to Los Angeles to visit me. I didn’t want to get wrapped up in what we had going until I felt like I really had something I could offer you.”
“And now you do?”
Her question was a fair one. I didn’t really have anything to offer her. I had moved to Los Angeles with Spencer and didn’t even own my own house at the time. Most of my money was tied up in the new movie studio that was also tying up most of my time.