Severing Ties (Book 2. Ties)

36. He Loves You

I had never understood why everything had to happen around the same time. For example, there would be a few months I felt like I would see pregnant women everywhere I turned my head. Towards the end of the year and into the beginning of 2014, I was experiencing ambush of that type of scenario. The difference was it was not pregnant women I was seeing, instead, there were weddings after weddings.

After such a long time of being engaged, Sophie and Liam got married in October. The other couple who had put off marriage for too long had been Raven and Rayan. But they finally had free time for a marriage between them to be officiated in November of 2013. The last pair of lovebirds to commit to each other that year were Elena and Noah after a year of engagement.

Noah had proposed to Elena when they had spent Christmas Eve together with his family, so they decided to get married exactly a year later. That year, my family did not struggle to find where to spend Christmas, since Elena and her fiancé were having a Christmas wedding. Elena invited Joy and Farrah and their families because of my mom. Through the years, all four of them had formed relationships and become part of each other's lives, so it was logical for Elena to want them at her wedding.

During my best friend's mom's wedding, my mind did wonder for a minute about what my... What Nicholas had been doing for the past Christmases, since Aunt Joy had not celebrated Christmas at her house for two years. But, I quickly put away those thoughts. The man did not deserve my time or worry.

With the New Year, more weddings followed. One engagement I could indisputably say I made happen was Calvin and Blake's. I had continued working at their art studio and became part of their time and routine. While I was there, I made it my mission to make Calvin change the dynamics of his relationship with Blake. They had been best friends for too long and secretly in love for too long. I had bothered Calvin to the point that when he saw me, he ran the other way. But I was annoying enough to force him into the point of taking a leap of faith, and he could not say he regretted it. After all, he ended up marrying his best friend and the girl of his dreams all in one. A few months later after Calvin and Blake's wedding, there was one last wedding that had been the most unexpected.

If I went back to the time when Farrah and Frederick had decided to quit their silent treatment, I would also have to include another important event. After a lot of deliberation, it was agreed that Faith would have the surgery to get a cochlear implant.

I prayed for everything to go well. I prayed and I prayed until my brain couldn't think anymore. The surgery was a success, but it was only part I. We would have to wait about a month for Faith's surgery area to be healed, then, we would go back to the hospital to see if the implant would work.

It was astounding how many people could fit in a room that only seemed would fit approximately five people.

There we were in a room, cramped and anxious and hopeful. Mom, Lucius, Faith, Robin, Farrah, Frederick, Elena, Noah, Stephanie, Lucas, Julianne, Frank, Joy, Peter, Ezra, David, Jason, Liam, Sophie, Raven, Rayan, and I were all squished together in the room along with the audiologist. The specialist would turn the implant on and play some beeping sounds to see if Faith reacted to them. Everyone in the room had to stay completely quiet while that occurred.

It appeared as if all the people in the room had been holding their breath when the audiologist said she would be making the first sound. Faith sat on my mom's lap while she played with the toys in Lucius' hands who was sitting next to her. At first there was no reaction, so the audiologist slightly turned up the volume.

Faith froze the following time the specialist had played a beep. A little scowl formed on her forehead in confusion. The woman in charge of creating the sound did it again. Faith's eyes widened in fear or awe; I could not distinguish the difference. She looked up at her dad and put her hand to her ear. She was not trying to take the piece off her ear but was simply demonstrating that something was happening in her ear.