BOLD

G- Gone

The next day I woke up next to Carson on the couch. My back was aching and Carson practically had me stapled to him.

"Carson," I whisper waking him up.

"Morning," he replies with his eyes closed.

"What are we doing today?" I ask.

"Relaxing," he says pulling me closer to him.

"Sounds good. But I just want to get out of this dress," I say trying to get out of his hold. He unzips the dress for me and I go put on more comfier clothes before I could think about the intimate moment. 

For the rest of the day we lay around in our workout gear telling each other we were going to go run. By the time Sunday was over I was miserable. I had work tomorrow. After dinner that Carson had made he had played some music and we had danced around the kitchen to it, making fun of each other. Then we fell asleep in the living room again.

Carson woke me up and we both rushed to get ready for work. He dropped me off and my first couple of classes were hard to get through. The kids wanted to know all of the details and to see pictures. None of them did their work.

It was lunch and I was grading some papers when a hand slams down onto the paper I was grading.

"Hey!" I say looking up to see that it was Carson. Standing up I rush around the desk and hug him.

"I have something to tell you about the merge," he says. I walk over to my room door and close it.

"What's wrong?" I say getting worried.

"I have to leave," he says. My heart dropped.

"Where?" I whisper not being able to look at him.

"Berlin," he replies. Then my heart was gone. When my dad had to go to the Berlin branch that means he was going to be gone for a long time. The minimum he has ever had to stay there for work was two months.

"How long?" I struggle to ask.

"Two months. So I should be home before Thanksgiving," he says.

"When do you leave?" I ask my voice shaking.

"Tonight," he replies. I can feel the tears falling. This wasn't fair. I was used to him now he had to leave.

He was my husband. We had just got married for goodness sake.

"What!" I hiss looking at him.

"I'm sorry," he says hugging me. I hug him tightly back. He was going to pick me up after school and we would go home. Then he would pack and then leave.

The bell goes off and he leaves heading back to work.

"Are you okay Miss. Howell?" Sebastian says peaking his head into the classroom. All the freshman look at him curious to why a senior was in the classroom.

"Yeah, why?" I say.

"Mr. Maximum told me to take care of you. He said that he was going to be gone for a while," Sebastian says.

"Thank you Sebastian. That's very sweet of you. Now get to class!" I say shooing him away. He smiles and runs off. The rest of the day I felt frail almost. I didn't know what to do while he was away. Or what we were going to do.

When Carson picked me up he asked me how my day was but I couldn't find words to reply. I couldn't say anything. We went into the house and I sat on his bed as he packed.

"Don't look at me like that," he says with a sigh.

"I'm not looking at you like anything," I reply. He walks over to me and then lays on top of me.

"Look at me," he says. My eyes had been looking at everywhere but him, "I can't. This isn't fair."

He gets off me and continues packing. When he closes his suitcase that's when I gave in and made eye contact with him.

"We will skype and call. It will be like I never left," he says wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

"But you are leaving though," I reply. He sighs and hugs me close.

"I have to go," he says. The ride to the airport was quiet and I had already felt lonely.

"Be safe over there," I whisper him. He hugs me close.

On the way home I realized how lonely I was before Carson. And how he filled a lot of the hole that was in my heart.

The first week we had set up a routine. To skype during my lunch time which was before he went to bed. It worked and Sebastian even was there with me sometimes. The kids had encouraged me to paint again. I was even hired by the city to paint a couple of pieces for the gallery that was going up in December. Mr. Maximum even came in to talk to the kids at the school that were interested in architecture.

The second week I could tell that Carson wasn't really sleeping because of the branch needing so much work.

"No, please, I'm not tired," Carson begs me not to hang up.

"Carson. Go to sleep. I will talk to you tomorrow," I say with a laugh. He rubs the back of his neck which told me something I didn't want to hear was going to happen.

"I won't be able to. I'm traveling to the jobs sites tomorrow. I don't know exactly what we are doing, but it probably will take all day and well into the night," he admits.

"Okay, that's okay. Just message me how it goes and all," I say understanding. We also were sending huge emails back and forth to each other. Almost like diaries, telling each other about our days. And trying to get to know each other a little bit more.

The bell rings and I close my eyes feeling frustrated. It only seemed like we had been talking for a few minutes.

"I will talk to you soon," I say sadly.

"I will message you," he says. I end the call and finish my day.

"Mrs. Maximum?" Eliza says as she was working on her painting after school.

"Yes?" I say.

"Where has Mr. Maximum been?" she asks curious.

"He is in Berlin for work," I tell her mixing some paint trying to get the color I wanted.

"How long?" she asks.

"He's been there for a week already. He's there until Thanksgiving. Thankfully, I didn't want to handle our families alone," I say trying to make the subject to feel lighter.

"Do you miss him?" she says.

"Of course," I reply nodding.

"You both must love each other very much even though you are so far apart," she comments.

"We do," I say.

I didn't really know what Carson and I were. It was confusing. We were married. That sometimes acted like we were, but were also more friends than we were a married couple.

"Thank you for letting me stay after and paint. See you tomorrow," she says. She leaves the classroom and I sigh. My phone beeped and I look at it to see that Carson had emailed me.

I reply and then leave work closing the door and locking it. I head to the bathroom and put on work out clothes. I have been working out since he had left. I've been trying to fill in my empty time that Carson had filled easily.

The miles were endless. I just wanted him to come home that way I could laugh at him. And adore his eyes. The way his hair had fell into his face sometimes when the gel finally gave out. When he was stuffing his face with food. Even when he showed me no emotion what so ever.

I really miss his smile.

And when he brings my favorite cheesecake only to eat half of mine. Who knew my heart could ache for someone that I had just met.