My Sweet Redemption

Chapter 4 - "Your shoes are untied."

Carters POV                    

I woke up with a start; cold sweat drenching my body.I had been having of…..those dreams again. I wasn’t sure if I should classify them as nightmares, since in every one I had, I saw her. Piper, my dead fiancé.  The only woman I had ever truly loved. I got out of my bead and walked to the windows. I pulled the blinds up and a healthy dose of sunlight flooded my room.

I looked out the window, staring aimlessly at the lazy Sunday morning traffic on West 46th Street. My mind wandered to the dream I had. It was actually more of a memory. It was the first date Piper and I had gone on. Being the unorthodox couple, we had opted for spending it in the woods, staying in my family cabin which was by a lake 70 miles from civilization.

 In the dream I was standing on the dock of the lake, watching Piper run along the lakes border, laughing, as her fiery waist length red hair fanned out behind her, with the sunlight shining on her. Her hair flowed down her back like golden red silk, waving gently. She was wearing a simple white dress, and I thought she looked like an angel.

My Angel.

These dreams have been haunting me ever since her death two years ago.  

I sighed, moving from the window, I headed outside to get something to eat. Grabbing a blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee from the French Café on the street, I headed to the park about 2 blocks from my building. I had seen it on my way to work and had fallen in love.

Piper would have loved a place like this.

 I strolled around, with no particular destination, feeding pieces of my muffin to a couple of ducks.

I stopped under a huge oak tree, took off my jacket and sat on it.

The park was perfect. Almost like a slice of heaven. I looked at the sky, a beautiful canvas, with pure, milky-white fluffy clouds drifting lazily across it.

 I closed my eyes and listened to the various sounds around me, birds chirping, and the resilient hum of the bees. Not too far away, I could hear a wood pecker hammering away at a tree trunk.

I met Piper in a park quite similar to this one.

I had been out jogging when I saw her red ponytail ahead of me, swaying to a rhythm as she jogged; I caught up with her, trying not to be a creep as we made small talk. She barely responded to me, holding her head straight, but I never gave up.

She finally looked at me and said, “Your shoes are untied.”

I felt like an idiot. I laughed and stopped to tie them quickly then ran off to catch up with her.

That day we jogged about three miles.

I kept going back to the park, t the same time every day, just to see her. I eventually got her number and after  getting to know each other on the phone, a month later, she agreed to our first date.

I shook my head and smiled fondly at the memory. Piper had been something else.

I got up, took my jacket up, and headed back to the apartment building. I opted to climb the stairs, trudging slowly up them. I thought of Piper and our perfect relationship.

We really were perfect together. She couldn’t deny that. Which is why after two months of dating, she agreed to be my girlfriend. We were happy together and had a blissful three year relationship before I proposed to her.

Of course she accepted.

And then things went downhill.

A year before our set wedding date, Piper started having chest pains; she was constantly wheezing and coughing. I tried to persuade her to go to the doctor, but she refused, simply blowing off all her symptoms.