You Were Meant For Me

[Cori]

[OFF-CAMERA]

October 7th, 2016
Tampa, Florida

She had canceled all gym lessons for the past few days with the hurricane picking up stride. In all truth, even if the storm completely missed them it was better to be safe than sorry. You had to keep that in mind if you lived here. Caroline hadn’t moved from her bed the entire day.

It would have been a struggle otherwise, with the dull aches in her frame that would have quickly turned to feeling like hot pokers against her skin if she tried to roll herself out of bed. It was just as well that she had canceled those gym lessons. She could have barely helped or do anything outside of speaking to them. She didn’t know how Colleen could stand it day after day, all respect to her for that. She put her hands on her knees and pushed herself up on the bed, the side almost seemingly untouched.

She never noticed how big of a bed it was until now, forcing herself to stand up and then faltering back and sitting on the bed in quiet.contemplation as she looked around the bedroom. Her bedroom now.

No. No. It was still their bedroom. He was going to come back. She was sure of it. She believed that entirely. It was just...

He just needed time.

Maybe it was just frustration with work. Maybe feeling like he had met a pique with his career just for the moment, hitting a wall even meant he needed to just... Get away from everything.

He just needed time.

Maybe it was just... Frustration with her. There were hardly many arguments they ever had. A lot of spirited debates, as one could expect from a couple like them and glorious ways of ‘meeting halfway’. She should have been more honest with that whole housewives thing. She should have been more upfront with the situation Cole had put her in.

Maybe he found out somehow. Maybe Cole had told her husband and he couldn’t take her lies and half-truths anymore.

He just needed time.

She forced herself to stand and Caroline Da--No. Stark. Still Stark. Dallins? ...

She forced herself to stand and C hobbled around the bedroom. She could have taken that invitation from Jo. She should have but somehow she convinced herself that it was better to just stay home, even in the face of the weather. It had been hell doing all of the shutters by herself but it was necessary. Just in case. Maybe he and Cara both were off somewhere, taking care of something.

He just needed time.

She looked at their dresser with the giant mirror atop it. All of his clothes were gone, she checked. His closet as well. Empty. He still had the house key though. That meant that he would come back right? That meant that maybe this wasn’t going to be... Permanent, whatever it was. She tried texting him, a few times. She knew he was alive, they’d been read. She could tell thanks to that little display but then... Then they were just set as ‘delivered’. No time stamp. He’d answer them eventually. Of course.

He just needed time.

She didn’t slump back on the bed. She put a hand on the wall and slid backward against it. She used to sing for him she mused. She remembered early in their relationship. She wondered briefly where that went, C did. She wasn’t the best singer even but he always seemed to watch her with such a mystifying glance, like she was the only person in the room.

Where was he now? When was he coming back.

“I hear the clock, it's six A.M. I feel so far from where I've been.
I got my eggs, I got my pancakes too, I got my maple syrup, everything but you...”

She found herself singing, melancholic and strained to no one but herself. She stared ahead and kept singing, as though he would just... Appear in the doorway, watching her. Then they would make up or they would embrace and they wouldn’t address the topic until days later, just for the moment enjoying each other’s presence and company and touch and even so much as sharing the same breath.

“I break the yolks and make a smiley face, I kinda like it in my brand new place.
Wipe the spots up off the mirror. Don't leave the keys in the door. I never put wet towels on the floor anymore 'cause....
Dreams last so long, even after you're gone I know that you love me, and soon you will see,
you were meant for me ...And I was meant for...”

She stopped. Feeling incredibly stupid for thinking this was like some television show where suddenly everything gets tied up in a bow, she forced herself up and dropped herself across the bed. She crawled under the sheets and Caroline laid there for some hours. The grumbling pangs of hunger and pain asking to be dealt with with painkillers nudged at her. She ignored it all... He’d be back. She needn’t tell anyone about this. She was sure he’d be back.

He just needed time.