Laura's Illusion

Chapter 6 - The Messy Middle

They continued to talk or see each other daily either

via Facetime late at night, in person at a coffee shop, 

or catching a movie after work and sometimes early 

on the weekends. Tom kept it cool and would only 

hold her hand when they were together and hug her 

goodbye. All the while they were getting to know each

other. He discovered Laura was the baby of her family 

and so was he. He was not close to his siblings and he 

had two sisters, but was really close to his mom. His 

mother loved him more than all of her children. She 

was the one who got him guitar lessons. They didn't 

have much money but she worked two jobs to take 

care of him and his sisters. The sisters didn't seem to 

appreciate the mother like he did and eventually 

moved out of the house with their respective boyfriends.

None of them had married because they had lived 

their parents' horrible marriage so did not have a 

positive view on commitment. Dad moved out when

he was a teenager and didn't come back. He was really 

angry with his father and his ability to walk away. That 

is why Tom wrote, he wrote that pain away. He was able 

to make enough money now between his job and gigs to

take care of his mom so she didn't have to work two jobs. 

His mom still kept her wedding ring, an old family heirloom, 

as a precious symbol. Tom hated that ring when he was a 

teenager. He would to get the ring out sometimes when

his mom was at work and look at it. He thought his mother 

was silly to see how beautiful the ring was as when he 

looked at it he saw nothing but pain. Lately though spending 

time with Laura he started imagining her wearing that ring. 

He liked the idea, a lot. However, he wasn't so sure she could 

see herself wearing a ring or married to him. He also had to 

face it, this was way too soon, and he had not even kissed her yet.

Laura was enjoying their time together. He was so different

from anyone else she had dated but she honestly had not 

dated that much. She had a serious boyfriend from High 

School and through college almost 8 years together. She really

thought this was who she would marry and have her family with. 

She caught him one night with the other girl in their apartment. 

She was so hurt she couldn't even look at him. He begged her