WORK IN PROGRESS: Challen and Addy

Chapter 6 (Challen): A Cry

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

The first time I saw my wife, one Friday night at a college bar, I felt like my present had finally opened up to my future. She was my ideal that I didn't even know I'd held in my mind. Before Addy, I would have said I didn't have a preference or a type, but the second my eyes found her in the crowd, I couldn't look away. I had found perfection.

Soft, so soft, not one single part of her looked taut or gym-earned. She was gently rounded everywhere, and I just wanted to go up to her and hold her against me. Having never had that feeling before for anyone, it held me frozen as my eyes devoured her. She was smiling, dancing with her girls, simply enjoying herself. As I watched her, I started thinking about the odds of her punching me if I walked up to her and took her in my arms. 

And never let her go.

My friends were harassing me because I was so focused on this unknown woman. In the end, I'd headed toward her when she walked off the dance floor, introduced myself and told her the truth: she'd caught my eye on the dance floor and had ruined me for all other women.

She'd laughed at me and had shaken my hand, then went back to her table with her friends, clearly not believing me. Feeling like the worst sort of stalker, I watched her the rest of the night, hoping no man walked over there I'd have to back away from her. When I saw her group getting up to leave, I hurried over to her. 

"Would you please give me your number?" 

She hesitated.

"My name's Challen," I said as I slipped her a napkin with my name and number on it. "If you don't want to give me your number, here's mine. If you think I'm just interested in you for a quick hook up, I'm not but only time will prove that to you. If you think I'm drunk, I'm not. I've had one beer all night. It's just...I saw you and everything clicked for me, and I feel like if you walk away from me, I'm going to be shit out of luck for the rest of my life."

She put the napkin in her tiny purse. "My name's Addy," she said. "And I'll think about giving you a call. Challen."

I hoped this wouldn't be the last time I'd see her.

"Would references help?" I asked before she could walk away and never call me. Possibly throw my number out. "My mom's my number one fan, my dad's taught me everything he knows about engines and my professors love me."

That got a lip twitch from her.

"My boss also thinks I'm reliable. And...I was an Eagle Scout. All four of my brothers and I achieved that rank, just like my dad did."

For that, I got a smile.

"So I promise I'm sincere in wanting to get to know you better."

"OK, Eagle Scout Challen, I have your number, and I'll think about calling you."

I smiled at her, and she smiled back and walked out the door. Forcing myself not to follow her out, I returned to my friends who were laughing their asses off.

"Swing and a miss!" Eric said.

"Fumbled that ball pretty badly. Never saw you go after a girl like that, Challen," Brett had to add his two cents.

"I know," I admitted. "But my family has this thing."

Then I stopped, realizing too late what I'd been about to tell them. But they jumped on that and harangued me until I told them that the men in our family tended to know when they'd met their future wives. 

"Looks like you're going to be single because that girl's never going to call you," 

That's what I was afraid of.

"There were a lot of girls who had their eyes on you tonight," Brett said. "But you couldn't see anyone but the one girl who didn't want you." 

"Fuck off," I grumbled as they continued laughing at me.

But surprisingly, five days later, Addy had called me.

"Is this Challen?" she asked.

She'd barely said more than a handful of words to me in a crowded, noisy bar, but I'd still known her voice on the other end of the line.

"Addy!" I exclaimed, my mood suddenly on the rise.

"Yes," she said. "I was going through my purse, and I found your number."

"I'd been hoping you'd call," I said.

"Well, I thought maybe we could just talk for a while," she suggested. 

"Sure," I'd agreed. 

Anything she wanted. So we talked about her double major, art and business, and I told her I was an Information Technology major. We talked about our families, why we'd chosen the university, and what we wanted to do after we graduated. We talked about movies, books and TV shows, all of the typical getting-to know-you things and near the end of the conversation, she gave a startled exclamation. 

"We've been on the phone for three hours."

I'd stay on the phone with you all day and night.

"I've really enjoyed talking with you, Addy," I'd said. "Could I call you tomorrow night?"

"I need to study for a test," she said. "But how about the next night?"

"I'll call you at seven," I said.

"Eight," she countered. "I have to get some studying in."

"Eight," I agreed.

She wouldn't do anything but talk to me on the phone for the next two months, but eventually she agreed to meet me for coffee.

My mother's hand patted my knee after I finished describing meeting Addy to her. She'd asked me to tell her about it, down to the last detail. 

"I remember how head over heels in love with her you were, Challen," she said to me in the waiting room. 

I was still waiting in here every day for Addy. I'd brought my laptop and worked during the day, seeing her parents walk by every so often, on their way to the cafeteria, her mother not looking my way, her father glaring as he walked past. If my mother was with me, she'd get a nod from them, or a little wave from my mother-in-law.

Today was one of those days that my mother came to sit with me, and she'd asked her question to distract me.

"So let me ask you, son, when was the last time you fell in love with your wife?"

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. When was the last time you fell in love with Addy?"

"Mom, I fell in love with her when I met her."

"That was years ago, Challen. Marriage isn't static, it isn't a one and done when it comes to love. Your father and I fell in love with each other over and over. We changed and grew and we fell in love with each new iteration of the other. We never let our love stagnate because that's when a lot of couples get into trouble."

Stagnate. That word left me cold.

Convicted.

"People want the happily ever after, but it's work to get that. It doesn't just happen through some magical miracle. Along the way, you and your spouse can go through some really rough times, times where you aren't even sure you like your spouse. Times when you take them horribly for granted. Times when you don't remember why you fell in love. That's when people let go."

It was getting hard to breathe.

"You let go of Addy, Challen. You filled your time with work and this Jennifer woman. You forgot that Addy is the woman you fell in love with and why."

"Mom," I said, but it was more like a cry.

"The question now is, can you fall in love with her again?"