Authors: Tabitha Freeman
Tyson also had some transitioning of his own going on. He moved out of his dad’s house just two miles away to live with Jake and the drummer in his band, Pete.
People around us were changing, too. My mom was promoted within her company and for the first time since my dad passed away, there was a genuine smile on her face. Emily and Jake broke up amicably, giving Emily the opportunity to transfer to a prestigious college in California and giving Jake the opportunity to enjoy true college bachelorhood. Life was good. Simple, normal, and really falling into place for everyone.
Tyson and I celebrated ou
r one-year-anniversary in November
by going back to that little church where we’d first met. We had a picnic in the grass and just talked for hours.
“You think we’ll get married here?” he asked me as we watched the sun set. I looked at him, smiling.
“You want to marry me?” I asked him. He laughed.
“What moron wouldn’t want to marry you?” was his reply, followed by a sweet kiss on my lips.
Six months later, at the beginning of the summer after my freshman year in college, Cassie and I decided to give up the dorm life and move into an apartment five miles from the VSU campus. After a long day of unpacking
our dorm into our awesome new place
, Tyson told
me he wanted to go grab some
thi
ng to eat, just me and him
.
An hour later, on the way back from stuffing our faces at the Sonic drive-thru
, I was surprised when Tyson pulled off the road and parked the truck in this field that was covered in clovers and poppies.
“What are you doing?” I asked him, puzzled.
“Let’s go look at the stars,” he said simply, giving me a sly smile and getting out of the
car. He went to the bed of his El C
amino and pulled out a blanket for us to lie in the grass. Clearly, this had been planned. He spread the blanket out on the grass.
“Tyson, you’re insane,” I laughed, as I sat down on the blanket.
“I have to tell you something,” he said, smiling
at me. “We got a recording deal!
”
“That’s great!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him. “Oh, Tyson, when did you find out?”
“Today,” he told me. “The record label
called Pete and said they loved the demo we sent them. They want us to come in on Thursday and look at some contract papers for us to sign on their label.”
“Oh, baby, that’s so fantastic!!” I squealed, kissing him. His hand cupped my jaw and his lips lingered on mine.
“There’s something else, too,” he said softly, his eyes searching mine when we’d pulled away.
“Yeah?” I whispered. He took my hands in his.
“What if I told you that I’ve found my forever?” he asked me. I didn’t reply, but instead, just stared as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, red box.
“Tyson,” I whispered, my hands covering my mouth and my bottom lip beginning to quiver. He opened the box and inside was a sparkling engagement ring.
“I think about you in more than just the now,” he said, his eyes never leaving mine. “I think about you and how you looked when I first met you
—falling out of that church
window. I think about you and how you looked today
—
in just jeans and a t-shirt. I think about how you’ll look t
omorrow, or six months from now,
when you’re graduating from college, or when you’re going to your first day on a new job that you’ve wanted all your life. Or when you’re walking down the aisle towards me in the most beautiful white wedding dress I’ve ever seen…I even see you playing out in the backyard of a house we have yet to buy with the kids, in just a pair of dirty sweatpants and a hoodie.”
Tears were streaming down my face now. He took my hand in his again and slid the ring on my left third finger. It was a perfect fit. The sparkle on that diamond reminded me of the sparkle that was always in Tyson’s eyes.
“I told you the first night we met that I hadn’t found my forever yet,” he continued, and I saw tears in his blue eyes now
—
blue eyes that were brighter than I’d ever seen them before. “But I was lying then. Even that night, I knew it was you, Ava. It sounds corny and ridiculous, but I just…there you were.”
He paused for a moment before
going on with his speech
.
“I am so completely taken by you,” he whispered, his voice quivering slightly. “A-and I want to be completely taken with you for every day for the rest of my life
—
” His voice cut off then and I threw my arms around his neck, squeezing him tightly.
“Yes!” I cried. “Yes, the answer is yes! I want to marry you becau
se you’re my forever,
too
and I’ve known that just as long as you have!” I pulled away and kissed him, long and hard.
“Infinity plus one,” he whispered, smiling crookedly.
“Yeah,” I whispered back. “Infinity plus one.”
When I got back to the apartment
that night, I wordlessly
stuck my hand i
n Cassie’s face, causing a major flip-out moment
. We both started jumping up and down, screaming and crying and laughing.
“I’m going to be the maid of honor, right?” she said, through all this commotion.
“Of course!” I laughed.
When I told my mother over the phone the next afternoon, she didn’t take the news quite as well as Cassie had. She was
a little reproachful, to my extreme surprise
.
I tried to ignore her reaction and told myself that m
aybe she was just convinced that I was making a huge mistake by totally and completely giving my heart to someone.
“Not all love stories end badly,” I tried to tell her. “I know you’ve lost fait
h in ‘forever’
, but Mom, you have to admit
that
even though you lost Dad, when you were with him, it was the best time of your life.”
She was quiet for a moment after I’d said this.
“Well, as long there’s love there,” was her trite reply
finally
. “And Ava?”
“Yeah, Mom?”
“He’d better take care of you,” she told me. “He better make it wo
rth it. E
very day of your life better be full of happiness. I mean that.”
5
.
We didn’t set a date
for our wedding
.
I wanted to graduate from college before starting a new life, and Tyson wante
d to focus on his music career
after signing with a new recording company.
Our three
-year anniversary came at such a euphoric time in our lives. Tyson was playing with his band at major public places and events so often and they were really getting their music out there. As for me, I wo
uld be graduating college
with the highest possible honors in
my major of business marketing
and I was already getting several job offers from some of the biggest ad
vertising firms in the region.
Things were going so amazing for us, in fact, that we
finally began to plan
to get married two months after I’d graduated.
However, in early April of that year, just a mere semester before I was to graduate, something very strange happened. Tyson and I were sitting in the hammock in his room when he said something that made my heart nearly stop.
“What if I didn’t make it to your graduation, baby?”
“What?” I replied, surprised by the question. “Why wouldn’t you make it?”
“I dunno,” he said quietly. “It’s just that…Ava, what if one day, you woke up and I just wasn’t there anymore?”
“Tyson, I don’t understand where you’re headed with this,” I told him, frowning.
“I’ve got this feeling, is all,” he said, his eyes searching mine. “I can’t exp
lain it…but I want to know, Ava…what would you do if I…
if I didn’t live forever?”
I just stared at him for a moment.
“I-I don’t want to think about that, Tyson,” I replied, really not liking this conversation. “Why are you asking me this?”
He took my hand in his then and rested his head on my shoulder.
“If something ever happened to me,” he said slowly. “I wouldn’t want you to be alone forever because you felt like you had to be faithful to me.”
“I don’t want to think about my life without you in it,” I said, taking my hand from his.
“Ava,” he said, sitting up and looking at me. “I’m being serious, okay? Don’t get mad.”
“I’m being serious, too,” I replied hotly. “I don’t want to think about that! What, are you planning on leaving me?”
“No!” Tyson exclaimed, touching my cheek tenderly wi
th his hand. “Look, I told you,
I can’t explain it, but I have a really strong feeling that something could happen to me. I’m not invincible or immortal, Ava. And if something did ever happen to me, and I couldn’t get back to you in this life, I want you to promise me that you’ll let yourself love someone else.”
“Listen to yourself!” I cried. “You’re scaring me, Tyson! And what the hell kind of promise is that? You know I could never love anybody else like I love you!”
“I know that, but I don’t want you to be alone for the rest of your life!” he said loudly, getting up from the hammock. “I love you so much, Ava, but if I couldn’t be with you anymore…if being with you was out of my control, I mean…I want you to let yourself be in love again.”
“This is a ridiculous conversation and I refuse to go any further,” I said coldly, crossing my arms. Tyson sighed and bent down, scooping me up in his arms and twirling me around.
“Let’s play Mario,” he said then, setting me down on the ground, with his arms still around my waist. I giggled.
“It’s funny how we refuse to participate in playing video games manufactured after the
original
Nintendo generation,” I commented. Tyson laughed.
“That’s because Mario kicks ass,” he replied. “C’mon. Oh, and I’m gonna be the princess this time.”
And just like that, I put the d
isturbing conversation we’d
had out of my mind.
Friday
of that week
, Tyson and the band were off to Raleigh, North Carolina to play at this big, new, ritzy club on the beach.
I was still asleep
in my bed at my apartment
when he got up that morning around 8:30. The noise he made as he showered, dressed, and got all his stuff together eventually woke me up.
“Hey, honey,” I yawned, turning over and looking at him through squinty eyes that were slowly adjusting to the new day’s light shining through the window.
“Hey,” he whispered loudly. “I’m sorry I woke you up. I was trying to be quiet.”