The least expected, Christopher

[Alice Barlow]

April 1, 2012 ; 4:30pm

Alice Young was utterly and completely over men. The only man she cared about in the world was the little man who was currently spending time with his grand parents. Alice had every intention to make sure that Noah turned into the best possible man he could be and not anything like the other men that had been in her life. Every single one of them was a douchehog (minus her father and Noah's paternal grandfather).

The brunette drove her car a little more furiously down the road than she usually did. Her son wasn't inside, so she had no qualms with the more irrational driving. Especially since she was still using her turn signal to properly cut in front of other drivers to get back home as soon as she could. She was never going back to that town again. She was never using an online dating services again. Alice was ready to accept defeat and be a single mother for the rest of her life. Or possibly try the vow's services. Lord knew that anything she did on her own wasn't working.

Christopher was her first serious boyfriend. He was her first love and her first big heart break. That ended in tears and a son not only born out of wedlock, but with his father in Alaska and far away from them. Obviously not the Disney fairytale ending that she would have hoped for. Sure, Alice had a smattering of dates and boyfriends here and there. They all ended badly, though. And this last one was no better. In fact, it was worse.

She had become the other woman. It was a title that Alice never thought she would have. Ever. But this guy tricked her. Oh how he tricked her. He was wooing her. He was making her fall for him. He was a Mormon that believed in polygamy and wanted her for his second wife.

Um...How about a big steaming pile of Hell No?!

Alice was livid. She was mad and embarrassed. How had she never caught on? Was she really that lonely? So lonely that she couldn't see the signs that the relationship she was in was a bad one? That he loved all the womens? She had never felt more pathetic than she did that moment, driving through Evergreen after her ill fated date. And just went it looked like things couldn't get worse, God threw something sharp and pointy in the road for her wheel to catch, thus giving the woman a flat tire.

Groaning, Alice pulled off the road on the main street drag to check the damage. Stepping out of the car, she was hit with a short burst of cool air from the spring afternoon and another wave of anger set in over her. She had left her jacket at his place. She was in such a hurry to leave that she had left behind a jacket. One that she was never going to see again. Today officially sucked. Thankfully, her body was still holding the heat from her anger and it kept her a little more warm as she moved to the back tire to look it over for any signs of what caused the damage. Alice couldn't see anything, so she popped the trunk and grabbed the jack that the car came with then tried to figure out where to put it and how to make it lift the car. This was just not going to end well at all.

Finally giving up, Alice plopped herself down on the sidewalk, staring at the flat tire before her with the car jack beside of her. "This couldn't possibly get much worse." She said more to herself than anyone else as she basically cursed the rest of her evening. It could get worse, Alice just didn't think it was possible.

[Christopher Andrews]

Christopher Andrews was shitting his pants. He had never imagined coming back to the town that raised him but here he was driving aimlessly through its streets. He had spent his time away shaping and forming his gold mining business in Alaska. Yes, he knew it sounded like a ridiculous career but he made more money in a month than most people made in a year. He took a risk so many years ago and it had luckily paid off. However, like any risk it came at a high cost. He had left everything he had known and loved behind. The one person that topped his list and the only person that was running through his mind at that moment was Alice Young.

His high school girlfriend and mother of his son had consumed his thoughts in the last few weeks. He had received a call from his mother informing him that things seemed to be getting serious with her boyfriend and after a few hours of deep thought he found himself on a plane back to Evergreen, Indiana. It was a big fuck it moment. He would go to her and he would tell her exactly how he felt. He'd spill out his heart and hopefully she'd feel the same. He'd finally meet his son and they'd be one big happy family. If not, well, he'd come back to Alaska and live the rest of his life out here. It wasn't exactly pure torture.

He knew that she was now living in her parent's old house so that was his first stop. He knocked on the door for what felt like an eternity before giving up. She could be anywhere. His parents said that they'd be watching Noah tonight and he didn't want to just show up there. He wasn't going to spring himself on Noah like that. It would be too weird and traumatizing for the five year old. That was one thing he would do on Alice's terms. She set the rules when it came to their son. He would never cross that line.

Chris stopped by the local flower shop and picked up some forget-me-nots, her favorite flower. Now all he had to do was find her. That would be the task of the century. He knew that Noah would be staying all night so she could really be anywhere. He could always call her but that wouldn't be as romantic as he wanted it to be. He wouldn't be there to see the look on her face or to kiss her when she wanted to yell. No, this was something he was going to spring on her. She wasn't always the best at accepting surprises but this she would just have to deal with.

Then as if it was some sign from God, he turned on to the exact street she had just pulled off of with a flat tire. He parked his car quite a ways and grabbed his bouquet of flowers and took a deep breath in and out. This was it. This was the climactic moment that would determine the rest of his life. If she let him back in her life, he'd marry the fuck out of her. There was no longer any doubt in his mind. She was the one for him. He made the walk to her car and sat down on the curb next to her, "Be careful what you wish for." His voice was low and soft, gentle. "Alice Young, you're always getting yourself into a whole heap of trouble." He eyed her flat tire and a wide grin spread across his face, "These are for you." He handed her the bouquet of flowers as nonchalantly as possible. It wasn't like he had been gone for years. This was a perfectly sane situation for anyone to be in.

[Alice Barlow]

Things were just not going in Alice's favor today. Thankfully it was a Sunday and the weekend was just about over. The downside was the next day was a Monday and who really had a good Monday. She was already making plans to call in sick to work and just take the day off to do nothing but lay in bed, eating chips and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Not together. She had tried the late night snack flavor of their ice cream that had potato chips in it and she found it to be quite disgusting.

And what else was disgusting was this day. Sighing, she checked her pockets for her phone to call someone to help when she realized that her phone wasn't in her pockets. She had more than likely left it inside of the car. The same car that she didn't have car keys in her pockets for either. The same car that she didn't want to think about the fact that she was fairly certain that she had locked herself out of her car on top of everything else.

Alice Young was ready to cry.

Groaning, she brought her elbows to rest on top of her knees so that she could hide her face inside of the palms of her hands. This day. This damned day. Part of her was wishing she hadn't said NOah could spend the night with his grandparents because she could really use a cuddle right about now and Noah gave the best cuddles. They were sometimes sticky, but there was so much love behind them that it was hard for her to be upset at the fact that cheerios could be stuck to her back. At least he was much older and that didn't usually happen as much as it used to. That was one of the joys of her little boy getting older.

At least she lived in a small town. There had to be someone that had their store open on a Sunday that could help her. At least someone to get her to a phone to call a friend to drive her home to get the spare key to get in the house and then get the spare key to the car. Maybe she needed one of those lock boxes that you put under your car with a spare key? Just as she was about to stand up, there was a body beside of her, sitting on the sidewalk with her and a voice running through hear head. A voice she knew that she knew, but also knew that she hadn't heard it in what felt like forever.

When he said ehr name, Alice dropped her hands and turned her head so that she could look at the face of her ex. Her mouth hung open in what was more than likely the least possible attractive look she had made to date.

Christopher. Christopher was here. He was right beside of her. He was right beside of her and talking to her. He was such an asshat.

Slowly her expression turned from one of confussion to one of slight anger. Of course this would happen on today of all days. Of course he would come back and give ehr flowers. Hey wait. Flowers? Alice took them, holding the bunch in her lap as she loked them over, biting on her bottom lip as it was the last hope for all sanity. "Forget-me-nots..." she said softly before turning her head once more to ook at him. It was hard ot be mad. So hard to stay pissed when he was sitting right there. There were so many things that she wanted to say to him. Things to yell. Things to smack him for. But she couldn't think of the first one. Not right now. Plus sitting on the sidewalk wasn't really the best place for smacking someone. That was done better standing up and facing the person. He didn't deserve a smack in the arm like the sidewalk would allow. He needed a straigh smack to the face.

"What..Chris, what are you doing here?" She asked lamely, her once angered expression slowly turning to one of hurt. He had been gone for so long. He hadn't talked to her. He had left her and now he was back and talking to her as if it were just another day. Did this not bother him? Was he this ok with what had happened to them in the past? Because Lord kenw that she wasn't. And Alice wasn't sure that she could even handle this right now. That much must have been evident at the fact that she wasn't sputteringout long streams of words. When she got reall flustered, Alice has a tendency to just close up and keep quiet. Now was proving to be one of those times.

[Christopher Andrews]

Chris’ heart was beating fast and he had never been so nervous in his life. Just being this close to her made every hair on the back of his neck stand at attention. It was all too familiar. It brought back memories that he thought he had long forgotten. He could remember the first time he asked her on a date in the eighth grade. He had been saving up money to take her out for ice cream and it took a lot of convincing for her to finally say yes. She looked different and the same. She still had the same gorgeous features but she was a woman now. Her body was soft with curves. He was drinking her in. Even if she turned him away, he wanted to remember every inch of her.

Then she was making a face that made him force back some laughter. She always had such an expressive face. She couldn’t hide anything. When she was happy or mad, you knew it. He could always tell when she was trying to preserve his feelings when she didn’t like something he bought her or cooked her. That was one thing he always loved about Alice. She was honest but she’d go to the ends of the earth to protect the people she loved.

Oh, then there was the anger. Yup. He saw it taking form in her features, the slight crinkle of her nose and the narrowing of her eyes. He had timed the giving of the flowers perfectly. It threw her off guard and he gave himself a mental high five. Alice was different than most girls. She didn’t go for roses or lilies or any of those cheesy go-to flowers. Forget-me-nots were special. They symbolized true love and memories. Two things that Alice and Chris knew well. "Yeah, they're your favorite." He smiled at her, "I remember." At least he hoped they were still her favorite. It would throw off his whole smooth-guy vibe if they weren't.

He knew that it was wrong to just spring himself on her but it was always so hard to surprise Alice. She was always prepared. She knew what was coming and how to react to it. It kind of drove him insane how in control she had to be sometimes. "I'm here for you and for Noah. I'm here to win you back, no matter what it takes." He looked deep into her green eyes and tried to convey the seriousness he was bringing to the table. "I just... I love you so much, Ali. I've missed you. I've thought about you every second that I was away." He wasn't even stretching the truth. Alice consumed every part of his life. There was something about her that he could never let go.