The Heart of the Matter

Chapter 1: The Return

Growing up, Georgia's favorite movie was Wall-E.

She loved other movies such as Beauty and the Beast and all the other princess films, but there was something about Wall-E that tickled her little 7-year old spirit.

The amount of dialogue in the movie is close to zero, but that was the best part. Wall-E and Eve fell in love with one another with little communication. They knew each other. They had fun with each other—they balanced out the flaws of the other and in return, brought out the traits that had been tucked away. Georgia knew that was the kind of relationship that she wanted.

She classifies herself as a hopeless romantic, which is why for twelve years she kept trying. She hoped that one day, Adam would change. He wasn't always so bad. When they first got together, she even considered him to be sweet.

Before, they'd only talked in passing. Their families were acquainted, and she could always sense that their partnership would happen. It wasn't an arranged marriage per se—more like a very firm nudge.

They went to the same high school as well. Adam was the backup quarterback for their school's football team—decently popular and known for the parties that he'd throw when his parents were away on business trips. Georgia wasn't as known, but she didn't mind. She had a few friends who shared her interest in art. Popularity didn't matter to her.

When she and Adam got together, people were shocked. There was no outrage—like in some of the books that she'd read when the unpopular nerdy girl and the jock would get together—more, people just would never put the two of them together in their head.

Adam was fine at the beginning. He did all that he was supposed to do. They went on dates. She felt proud about being his. She even had a few butterflies in her stomach when she was around him, believe it or not.

It all changed after she gave birth to Christian.

Adam was ecstatic. She'd given him a son. But when her body didn't bounce back right away—when he noticed the new stretch marks that raked her skin, something changed. He stopped surprising her with flowers. He became colder. Her mother told her that it was normal—that most men felt this way—that it was her job to bring him back, to make him want her again.

And she listened. She worked out at a rate that surely overexerted her body. She started a diet that absolutely caused an eating disorder. But those things worked. Adam got her pregnant again. But after giving birth to Ollie and doing the process over again, Adam still didn't come back. He became a different person; ultra religious, mean, and utterly useless.

Ultimately, she stayed because that little 7-year old girl inside of her still believed that this was the love that she'd been waiting for. But now that she's older, she knows that what she felt for Adam wasn't love.

Love gave her a couple of butterflies here and there. It made her feel steady. Stable. Love made her feel protected. It made her confident. Instead of getting a couple of butterflies, she'd simply feel warm, because she knows a person like the back of her hand. Love made her feel scared, because so many things could take it away in an instant, but she simply had to keep her heart open and hope that it doesn't. Love made her vulnerable. It created a safe place to cry, to laugh like an idiot. To voice her anger. To be in love was amazing, and she feels it pumping through her as she watches Rowan work.

Rowan has tons of paper spread across the desk that they had recently dragged into the room. A couple of years ago, she and Rowan had taken the task of renovating the old master bedroom into an art space, and since Georgia happened to use the room so much, they decided to put a desk in the corner of the room where Rowan could do her college work while Georgia drew. It allowed them to share a space while partaking in their own activities. It was nice.