break the window

Second Chances xx
[Posted: 04/17/19]

Chapter 1

“A guy stopped in asking for you.” Maddie, Amy’s coworker, spoke to her.
“Oh, was it Bright? I don’t think you two have met yet.”
“No, it definitely wasn’t Bright, I’ve met him before.”
“Well, I’m sure they will come back in.”
“I hope so, he was really cute.”
Amy smiled. “You said that about Bright, too.”
Maddie shrugged. “They’re both cute then.”
“Okay, whatever you say.” Amy rolled her eyes, smiling.
“I think he said his name was Ephram…Edward, something…”
Amy almost choked on her coffee. “Oh, Ephram, yeah, we went to County High together and dated for a couple of years. He is…or was friends with Bright. He must be visiting from New York.”
“I’m guessing you more than just dated?”
“Why would you say that?”
“When I mentioned his name, you choked on your coffee and started to blush.”
“I did not.” Amy felt herself get defensive.
“Yes, you did.”
“Okay, so I did.” Amy relented.
“What happened, why aren’t you two together now?”
“Well…”

**FLASHBACK**

Amy knocked on Ephram’s bedroom door. “Wow, you really are leaving.”
“Yeah, tomorrow morning.” Ephram was tossing more clothes into his suitcase. “Can you hand me my shaving kit?”
“Oh, yeah, here you go.” Amy sat in the middle of the bed, watching him. “What time do you leave in the morning.”
“About six, I have to be at the airport by seven.”
“Wow, so soon, feels like you should have another month.”
“Yeah, it did come really fast.”

The tension was starting to build in the room and neither could deny it.

“So, what are you going to do when you get back to New York?”
“I don’t know. I keep saying I’m leaving home to go to New York when I am going back home.”
“Yeah, you are.”

Ephram looked over at Amy. He always saw how she wore her emotions on her face. He handed her the envelope from his back pocket.

“Open that.”
“What is it?” She started to tear off the adhesive.
“I got it in the mail yesterday and I’d like you to open it for me.”
“Just like we were opening our SAT scores, I opened yours and you opened mine.”
“Something like that.”

Amy read the contents from the envelope and looked up at Ephram.

“Wait, why did you get me a ticket to New York.” Amy called out to Ephram as he walked back into his room from the bathroom.

Ephram placed the items he was holding in his suitcase and knelt down in front of Amy.

“I love you and I want you to come with me.”
“Wait, what? What would I do? I don’t have a job or a place to stay. You have that figured out already, I’d just be….there. I don’t know anything about New York. You've already had a life there.”
“We’d be together, building a life together…we can figure everything out when we get there.”
“Ephram, where is this all coming from? We haven’t talked about this or even planned any kind of future together.”
“Let’s plan it now and we can figure everything out on the plane. I have an apartment already fixed up, we can both live there. There’s a million things to do in New York, you’d get a job in a day, a week, max.”
“Why are you doing this Ephram?”
Ephram was silent for a moment. “Doing what?”
“Thinking that it’s so easy. That everything is going to work out.”
“It will work out. I want to spend every day with you in New York, every day.”
“Every day.”
Ephram smiled. “Yes, every day.”
Amy got up and started to slowly pace around the room. “You said everyday.”
“Yeah, what’s wrong with that?”
“I was hoping you’d say the rest of your lives.”
“Everyday, rest of our lives, same thing.”
“No, it’s not, Ephram.”
“Amy, I love you, don’t you love us enough to take this journey with me?”

Amy did but she couldn’t find the words to say, so she stayed silent. That gave Ephram the answer he wasn’t looking for.

“So, this is it?” Ephram ran his fingers through his hair. “We’re done?”
“Ephram, we’ve been over for a year. The fact you want me to move in with you in a different state is just, i don’t know what it is.”
“It’s me making a gesture, me making a move.”
“A gesture? A gesture is kissing me when I least expect it or telling me that you just want to hang out with me for the night and watch crappy movies instead of hanging out with Bright. It’s not uprooting everything and moving across the country.”

Ephram thought about what Amy said about making a gesture and he laid a passionate kiss on her lips. Amy kissed him back, softly.

“When do you have to leave?”
“Not until six.”
“Good.” Amy kissed him back again.

A few hours later Ephram opened his eyes and looked over to the other side of the bed and found a note.

Ephram,

I love you more than I have ever loved anyone in my entire life. For that reason, I don’t think me going to New York with you is the answer. You make me feel like the most special girl in the world and I don’t want to ruin that. I feel that making such a HUGE STEP and move to New York together
would just absolutely rip us apart.

If you meet me at Sam’s in the morning I will know that you do not want to go to New York and
you want to give us another chance. If not, I will understand and wish you the best in your
new..or old life.

I will always love you and I hope you will always feel the same.

Amy.

**END FLASHBACK**


“I’m guessing he didn’t meet you at Sam’s?”
“Maddie, we were young and just not ready to take a big step. Now, yes, I’d move in with him in a heartbeat. But things are different now.”
“Well, you might get your chance.”
“It’s been too long, he probably just wants to catch up.”
“Yeah, the way he looked when he said your name, I’m not sure all he wants to do is catch up.”

**

“How’d the reunion go?” Bright picked up his daughter Katie from the crib, getting ready to feed her.
“It didn’t, Amy wasn’t there.” Ephram plopped down on the couch in the nursery.
“Wait, Amy is always there, she lives for that place.”
“Whoever I spoke to said she wasn’t there yet.”
“Who did you speak to.”
“Maddie…I think her name was?”
“Yeah, that’s her assistant, you can probably find Amy there this afternoon, she can’t be away all day.”
“You know, Bright, I’m not sure I want to see her.”

Bright was rocking Katie as she took her bottle.

“Why not? She is why you came back to Everwood, right?”
“You know Delia, my sister, is getting married. I come back for Delia’s wedding.” Ephram saw the look Bright was giving him. “And…maybe Amy.”
“Just ask Amy if she would be your date for the wedding, just as friends.”
“Remember the last wedding we all went to, when my dad and Nina got married?”
“No, in fact, Hannah and I left right after Hannah caught the bouquet. I went to find you and Amy, but you both seemed to disappeared.”
“Yeah, we kind of checked out sometime after the reception started.” Ephram had a nervous laugh.
“Where’d you go?” Ephram gave Bright the look. “Never mind, I don’t think I want to know.”
“Yeah, we weren’t dating and it still happened.”
“Dude, it’s been like almost ten years since you’ve seen each other. Things change.”
“I still love her Bright. That hasn’t changed and I don’t think it ever will. I don’t know if anything has changed for Amy, though.”
“Okay, I’m totally breaking the brother code in saying she’s still hung up on you.”
“Really?” Ephram turned to his friend, hopeful.
“Yeah, she even went ot New York a couple of years after you left. She saved up enough money to get an apartment and make a life there.”
“I never knew that.” Ephram could feel the air leave his body, he couldn’t breathe.
“She got there and said it was like this magical place that she could never compete with, or would need a lot more than a place to stay and some random job. Amy said something about making a grand gesture.”
Ephram chuckled. “Yeah, sounds familiar.”
“But don’t tell her I said that.”
“Mom’s the word.” Ephram hesitated and finally spoke. “Speaking of your mom…”
“Yeah, everybody’s good.. Ever since my mom’s cancer went into remission they’re taking lots of trips, traveling the world. Next year they’re planning on a Christmas trip to Tuscany, apparently it’s on my mom’s bucket list. I think it’s to get away from the Colorado snow.”
“I thought Mrs. Abbott always loved snow.”
“Yeah, until last year we got like thirty feet of snow.”
“Thirty inches?”
“Yeah, that sounds more accurate.”


“Hi boys.” Hannah came in carrying her and Bright’s other son, Ryan.
Ephram observed both Hannah and Bright. “I know you said you had twins, but seriously, seeing two babies makes it all the more real.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Bright smiled down at his daughter. “But everything becomes clear when you become a parent and especially two. It’s double everything, but it’s everything that you’ve always wanted.”
“And that’s all you’re ever going to get Bright.” Hannah had a big smile.
Bright waited for Hannah to leave the room. “She’s been hounding me to get a vasectomy.”
“Wow, she really doesn’t want any more kids.”
“We did, originally. But her carrying the twins, she was on bed rest for most of the pregnancy and was really sick. I can’t blame her for not wanting to go through that again.”
“What do you want?”
Bright smiled. “Whatever Hannah wants, it’s all up to her. I have the girl and I have the kids. We aren’t getting a dog, that decision we can agree on, so we’re perfect.”
“Look at you, the family man.”
“I feared turning in my dad, but now, I can’t imagine having any other life but this life.”
“Yeah.” Ephram took a deep breath, not letting his emotions get to him.
“Ephram, go find her.”
“What if she doesn’t want to see me?”
“She will want to see you, if not, just give her time.”
“Bright, it’s been ten years, a decade. A lifetime almost.”
“Please go, go find her. Because if you’re going to mope around town with that look on your face, the entire time you’re here, then I don’t know what to do with you.”
“I do not mope.”
“Yeah, you do.” Hannah came back into the room.
“See.” Bright gave him a look.
“Fine, I mope…a little.”


“You look great, honey.” Nina looked at Delia in her wedding gown side by side in the mirror. “Adam is going to faint when he sees you.”
“As long as he says ‘I do’. We’re all good”
“Yeah, we don’t want a groom down. But in hindsight, we will have two very credible doctors in the room.”
“Yeah.”

Delia sat down, looking at her shoes, very slowly undoing the straps.

“Something wrong, Delia?”
“No, everything’s perfect.” Delia looked at Nina for courage before speaking. “My Dress is great, the shoes are great, dad is trying on a tux for the eighth time to make sure it’s perfect. It’s all perfect.”

She looked at Nina again with glassy eyes.

“Then why do I get the feeling this is a moment for a Kleenex commercial.” Nina grabbed the tissue box for Delia to grab one.
“Me and my mom…we were looking at dresses while Ephram was picking out a tuxedo for one of dad’s events and we stood side by side as you did with me. She said,” Delia paused to fix her vision. “This is what it will be like when we stand side by side on your wedding day, just you wait” and now my wedding is here and she’s not.”
“Oh, Delia, I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about Julia. Do you need a minute.” Nina felt like she wanted to run towards the door.
“No, that’s not the reason why I’m crying.”
“Then, what is it?”
“There is no doubt that you’ve been there for me in every way my mom would’ve been. For a second, just a second, I thought ‘this is the moment I’ve been waiting for, this is perfect’. And I looked at you and in the back of my head I said with mom, and I had a picture of you. It’s like I forgot about my real mom for a second. Today its the one day I would need her the most and I forget about her. I feel like I’m forgetting her all the time.”
“Delia, I am honored that you thought of me as your mom. You were so young when your mom died, it’s perfectly acceptable for you to lean on someone else when you need her the most. I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to know we have that connection. As time goes on, new memories replace the old ones. I’m glad I’m able to be apart of your new memories.”
“I’m really glad my dad married you.”
Nina smiled. “Yeah, me too.”

Andy opened knocked on the door as he came in.

“Everything okay in here?”
“Yeah, she’s great.” Nina diverted Andy’s attention by having his back face Delia. “Did the tux fit?”
“The tailor is running late and I am on my way there now. Just wanted to see if you ladies needed anything while I was out.”
“No, we are doing just fine.”
“Delia, honey, are you crying.”
“I was…” Delia sighed. “Thinking about mom.”
“Everything okay? If you need to talk…”
“No, Nina said exactly what I needed to hear.”
“Then everything turned out okay.”
“Yes, she’s great, Andy, just great. I’ve got it covered. You go, get fitted.” Nina kissed him quickly.
“
“Do I get the feeling that you are trying to get rid of me.”
“Well, um, yeah!” Nina patted him on the back. “So, get going, happy fitting.” Nina closed the door behind him. “Greatest doctor on the planet, worst man to keep on time.”

Andy stood in front of the mirror, trying on his second jacket. He looked beside him and smiled when seeing her.

“You look dashing Andy.”
“Yeah, I kind of do, don’t I.”
“Delia will be so honored to have you walk her down the aisle looking like that.”
“She looks just beautiful when I saw her this afternoon.”
“I know, I saw her dress. Nina picked our daughter out a good dress.”
“How do you know Nina picked it out?”
“I can feel things, moments in my children’s lives. I see both my children and the wonderful husband and father you have turned into for Nina and Ephram and Delia.”
“I had a lot of encouragement.”
“I can take some of the credit, but Nina has to take a lot of the credit too.”
“Nina is amazing. I think you’d like her.”
“You married a good woman.”
“Well, actually, I’m lucky to have done it twice.”
They stood there a few minutes, then Julia finally spoke. “Ephram is in trouble.”
“What do you mean?”