A New Pair of Wings

Part 6

  Months had passed. Carson and Hailey's relationship had grown stonger than ever. Carson stopped dragging Belle along as a third wheel, but occasionally when they were hanging out as a group of three, she would be the one sitting in the middle of a flirting session between them.

"Monkey face."

"My slice of hotcake."

"Icing sugar."

"Sunflower."

Don't remind me... Belle thinks to herself as recollections of some of Carson's and Hailey's nicknames came to her mind. She rolls her eyes and props her legs up on a chair as she sits on the couch in her living room. They've been going steady for almost a year already.

She sighed to herself as she looked at her laptop screen. Then a thought about her collection of romance novels came to mind. I've just finished reading my latest one. It'll take a while before I can find time and money to go to the bookstore and find more. Ever since Carson and Hailey started dating, Belle has become an avid reader of romance novels.

She thinks back to an advertisement about a site that contained thousands of webnovels to read for free. Maybe I should go look it up on the net. She enters 'web novel' into the search engine and presses the 'Enter' key. She clicks on the first webnovel site that she sees.

Just then, her phone rings. Belle picks up the call. "Hello?" She speaks into the receiver.

"Hey Belle," Carson greets her on the other side of the line, "Umm, this is kinda sudden, but are you free on Friday?"

"Yeah, why?"

"See, I'm doing something really special, and I'm inviting some family members and friends over. Hailey will be there too. It's gonna be a dinner at this fancy restaurant, so I really hope you can get into something fancy."

Belle begins to get curious. "What's the occasion?" She asks.

"Oh, nothing. It's an occasion that I want all the important people in my life to be a part of," he says cautiously.

"So this is kinda like an appreciation dinner."

"Yeah, think of it as that."

"Makes sense. After all, Thanksgiving is coming up."

"Yep. So...will you come?" He asks nervously.

"Sure. Anything for a friend," Belle replies with a smile.

"Thanks so much, Belle," he gushes with relief, "You have no idea how much that means to me."

Belle smiles even wider. "You're welcome," she says.

"See you, bro." Carson hangs up.

Belle breathes out a huff of hapiness. So I'm still important in his life after all, she thinks. She closes her laptop and decides to do something a little more productive. Working as a freelancer definitely had its ups and downs. One of the downs is the fact that she's mostly non-productive.

  Maybe I should go out for a jog, she thinks to herself. She tries to get up from her couch, but a mental weight seems to be pulling her butt down. I'm really getting too comfortable, aren't I?

  Ah, screw it! She decides as she plops back down on her sofa, Romance novels, here I come!

  She looks at her laptop screen. The website she had clicked on earlier was now displaying on the monitor. 'WebNovel' was written on the top of the page. Belle scrolls down and immediately clicks on the romance section. The first novel that appears on the list is entitled 'You Deserve It'. She clicks on it and starts reading.

  Meanwhile, Carson is pacing around his house. He had been busy calling friends and family in the past hour. While he didn't want too many people at the dinner, he also wanted to make sure that the important people were there too.

Carson smiles as he finishes making his last call. All of the people he had called had time on Friday to come to his special dinner. He puts his phone aside and starts thinking about the arrangements. I should make a reservation, he thinks. He has his eye on a particulat restaurant in town, the one Belle had taken him to before. He takes his phone out again and looks up the restaurant's name in the search engine. At last, the restaurant comes up on Google Maps. He looks for their contact number, then he proceeds to make a call.

"Heather's Haven here. How may I help you?" Asks a voice on the line.

"Hi, can I book a reservation at your restaurant?" Carson requests.

"Why yes, how many people are there?"

"Eight people."

"Eight people. Under whose name?"

"Carson Stevens."

Carson then proceeds to tell him the date, and orders a 6-course meal for the night. The person then thanks him for calling the restaurant and hangs up.

Carson breathes out a bigger sigh of hapiness. He couldn't wait for the night of the grand dinner. The dinner of which he had told everyone was a 'dinner of appreciation'. But he has a different intention in mind.

  Carson gets up from his seat on the couch and makes his way up the stairs. As he arrives at the top, he walks over to his bedroom and enters. He goes to his bedside table and opens the front drawer. There were a lot of things in there: a comb, a pencil, some paper, an old card game, and...a romance novel.

  A romance novel that Belle had told him about, and he decided to read it. He had always wondered what was so good about those books.

  But among all the things in his drawer, there is a small, black object that is kept away in the corner of the drawer. Carson ever so gently takes out the small black object. It's a small, black box that he bought recently at a store. The contents of the box came at an expensive price.

  He opens the box to reveal a small, sparkly object.

  Soon, Hailey. He thinks to himself, Very soon.