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What a valiant roar…
—
Living is harder, but Isabella Marie Black has learned how to do hard things.
Jake’s alarm goes off, as always, way too early in the morning. Bella watches through one slitted eye as, on his side of the bed, he sleepily hits the snooze button. It’s been two decades since her first breakup, and Bella still sleeps best next to Jake. She always will.
Eight minutes later, he hits the snooze again. Delicately, she kicks him in the leg, under the covers. He startles, rolls off the bed, the covers dragging Bella with him. She slides off the satiny sheets and lands on his chest, winded but laughing like a maniac.
A fist pounds on their bedroom door. “You guys better not be being gross again!” Julie Renee shouts. Their oldest daughter retreats with deliberately stomping steps, so that they can definitely hear her.
Now Jake is laughing, too.
—
…what a bland goodbye.
—
Julie Renee Black, 2013.
Beaufort Harry Black, 2015.
Fitzwilliam Darcy Black and Jane Bennett Black, 2020.
It used to be that Bella Black wanted time to stop. She didn’t want a future if it meant no Edward. Then she stood on a cliff, in the middle of a storm, knees bent, poised to jump… and instead turned around, got back in her truck, and drove home.
“Angela,” she said on the phone, drenched and shivering. “Can you come over? I don’t think I can be by myself right now.”
Angela stole her parents’ car and sped the entire way there.
Time kept moving, keeps moving, and now she loves it.
—
The coward claimed…
—
Her mother was an elementary teacher. Bella is a college professor — English, teaches mandatory classes on composition, Shakespearean comedies and historicals, and, when enough enterprising young ladies sign up, women’s lit. Her students have sparkles in their eyes, not their skin.
That morning, there’s a new student in class. Her hair is strawberry blonde, pulled up into a graceful knot; her face is perfectly symmetrical, reminiscent of supermodels, actresses, statues of Greek goddesses. Brown eyes, but that could be color contacts. Bella notes her clothes, which are designer but basics. Jeans, a white button down, black flats, and a walnut-sized diamond dangling from a cord around her neck.
Bella checks out the tiny window in her classroom. It’s raining.
Just before class ends, she taps the new girl’s desk, says, “Do you mind staying a few minutes after?”
The girl smiles politely and stays in her seat until everyone’s gone.
“I’m sorry,” Bella says softly, “I didn’t catch your name. Or your admission.”
“I’m auditing,” the girl says. Her voice doesn’t sound like wind chimes — it sounds like the slice of a scalpel through layers of skin and fat. “My name is Caroline Hale.”
Bella frowns, looking her up and down. “Please tell me Carlisle didn’t change you just so Edward could spy on me.”
Caroline shakes her head, making the diamond at her throat bounce. “Oh, no. I died of COVID five years ago. Edward wasn’t pleased about Carlisle’s choice. I’m rather a fan of it.” She pauses. “He wanted to know if you were well. What would you like me to tell him?”
“Tell him I’m well,” she says. “Tell him I’m alive and I’m happy and I’d like to keep it that way. And tell him that my husband won’t be as kind the next time one of you visits.”
Bella Black gathers her things, gets to her car, and sinks down into the driver’s seat before finally bursting into tears.
—
…he was a lion.
—
Living is harder, but Isabella Marie Black is hardest. As the Jacksonville sky clears and the sun comes out, she carefully cuts up an old thrift-store edition of “Romeo & Juliet”. Once it’s in chunks, she calls the girls out into the backyard with her.
“Bennett, Jules,” she said, “I’m going to tell you a story.” Then she lights their bonfire pit.
-
And I’ll still see it until I die…
—
When Jake gets home from work at the engineering firm, she debates, at first, if she should tell him about her mystery visitor. Then she pussies up and tells him everything.
“Thank you,” he says afterwards.
Bella wrinkles her nose. “For what?”
He takes her left hand and presses it against his chest. Inside it, she knows, beats the heart of a wolf. But he hasn’t been part of the Uley pack for a long time. He’s part of her pack now, one they made together. “For staying.”
—
…you’re the **** of my life.
—
Living is harder, but it’s worth it.