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.
But I was done waiting. She needed to know that I didn’t expect her to wait forever and I wanted to take her on a damn date.
“I’m not perfect. I’ll be honest with you there. I work way too hard. I have no experience at being a good boyfriend. But I’d like you to come out to Los Angeles with me. If you can?”
“What would I do there?”
“Whatever you want to do. I’m not saying that you need to tie yourself to me or anything like that. You can live with me or I’ll pay for an apartment if you don’t want to. I’m actually staying with Spencer right now. But after our phone call, it felt like you didn’t know how I felt about you and I couldn’t stand the thought of that. I cherished out time together and I’d really like to take you on that date I promised you.”
“Are you going to your meetings?” she asked.
“Yep, three times a week at six o’clock.”
“Are you sober?”
“One hundred percent.”
“How did you know I’d be up here?” She started to get suspicious of the insider information I had to have received to know she was there.
“Your dad told me,” I smiled.
She moved closer to me and didn’t let go of my hand. A smile flashed across her face as she looked out over the mountain and didn’t talk for a little bit. I waited. I was in no hurry. I had all the time in the world for Cassidy.
“Well, if my dad already likes you…” she started to say.
I swept her into my arms and kissed her all in one, swift motion. She felt so good in my arms, like I had been missing a piece of me for months. We didn’t know what the future was going to bring for us, but we didn’t care. In that moment, all that mattered was that we were together and we were going to make plans together.