Restoration of Love

Restoration of Love

This book is protected under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. All rights are reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is coincidental. Names of places and characters are intended to be fictional.

© 2013 by DreamWood Publishing

CHAPTER ONE

     Nikki Mills looked up from the mountain of files on her desk at the clock on the office wall. Twenty minutes after 4:00. Nikki felt the familiar sharp pain in her heart, which meant that she was about to start crying again. In less than four hours, she would be driving her only son, Brandon, to George Bush Airport. Brandon had been accepted to a top-notch college in Atlanta. She was so proud of him, but had secretly hoped he would choose a school in Texas, where he would be closer to her. But, Brandon had made up his mind to go college in Atlanta after he visited his father there two summers ago.

     Nikki tried to keep her disappointment to herself and not let Brandon know how hurt she was that he was going so far away. He often reminded her that he was no longer a boy, but a man. She accepted that, but couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy every time she thought about Brandon and his father spending so much time together.

     Nikki and Trent Mills had divorced four years earlier when Brandon was only thirteen. She had never given her son the specifics of the divorce, but she knew that he was smart enough to figure it out. Trent had cheated on her with someone he met at his legal practice. By the time Nikki had suspected something was wrong with her marriage and confronted her husband, he simply told her that he was in love with someone else and wanted a divorce.

     After she got over the initial shock and humiliation at the demise of what she considered to be the perfect marriage, Nikki knew she had to focus on preparing a life for herself and her son. At first, Brandon wanted nothing to do with his father. But Nikki talked to him relentlessly and assured him that no matter what happened between her and Trent, his father still loved him.

     Not long after the divorce, Trent remarried and moved to Atlanta. After that, contact between Brandon and Trent had become almost non-existent. Nikki grew weary of calling Trent and reminding him that he still had a son who would be a man soon and that these were the years he needed his guidance the most.

     Nikki was determined to be both mother and father to her son, even taking him on Saturdays to the local barbershop where she was usually the only female sitting in a room full of men. If he played in a baseball or football game, she was there. She felt especially proud when Brandon, rather than opting out of going to a father/son football banquet, asked her to go with him in place of his father.

     But now, the thing she dreaded most was about to happen. She was losing her son. She knew that once he stepped foot on that plane, a whole new world would open up to him. A world that she would no longer be a part of.

Just as she felt the tears run down her face, her best friend, Tia, appeared over the partition separating their desks.

     “Girl, you crying again? Why don’t you just leave? You’re getting more tears than ink on those files!” Tia teased.

     Nikki grabbed a tissue out of the box on her desk and looked up at her friend. “Tia, I’m going to miss him so much,” she said tearfully, “For so long my whole existence has revolved around being his mother. I just don’t know who I am without him.”

     Tia looked at her compassionately and said, “ Well, I think it’s time you found out. You said it yourself, Nik, for so long your world has revolved around your son. You’ve done your job. Brandon is a wonderful young man. Now it’s time to let go and experience being single. It’s time for
you
now.”

     Nikki placed the stacks of files on her desk and reached for her suit jacket. “I might as well go home. I’m not getting much done here. I should have taken the day off, but Brandon wanted to say some last goodbyes to his friends and I figured that being at home watching the clock would be worse.”

     “Go ahead, girl. I’ll cover for you and you can return the favor on Friday, when I leave early for my hot date with the investment banker I was telling you about.”

     Nikki forced a smile and headed for the door.

     The bright sunshine outside only seemed to make a mockery out of the way she felt inside…dull and drab.

CHAPTER TWO

     Nikki didn’t even remember driving home from the office. Her thoughts were only on what she would do when tomorrow came and she would no longer hear the front door slam and Brandon calling to her or hear the phone ringing incessantly for him. She would no longer be yelling, “Turn that rap music down!” She knew that she’d better pull herself together before Brandon came home to finish packing. She did not want him to see her like this.

     She decided that she would take a shower and perhaps a short nap since she had not slept well the night before. As Nikki slept, she dreamed of past years when she, Trent, and Brandon were a happy family. She dreamed that they were at the park on one of their Sunday outings. Trent was grilling hot dogs, she was lying on a blanket, reading, and Brandon was playing with his puppy, Rags. As the peaceful slumber started to leave her, Nikki willed herself to stay asleep where it was safe. Stay asleep where she could have everything exactly the way it used to be. But, the minute she heard the thumping sound of music vibrating from Brandon’s room, she knew it was time to face the inevitable. Even before Nikki looked at the clock on the night stand, she knew it was time to dress and take her baby to the airport.

     She walked down the hall to his room to make sure that he had finished packing. To her surprise, the door was open and Nikki took one long last look at her man/boy that she had raised virtually alone for the last four years. Brandon was already 6’3”, taller than his father and
much
taller than his mother. His caramel colored skin was exactly the same tone as hers. People who didn’t know them often mistook them for brother and sister. He had his father’s big, brown eyes, but everything else was his mother.

     Nikki could not have been prouder of her son. Not only was he a handsome, bright, articulate young man, but also he had character. All his life, Nikki tried to instill in him the importance of being honest, trustworthy and a man of his word. All the things that his father was not, or at least hadn’t been with her.

     However, Nikki knew that there were things she hadn’t taught him. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she didn’t know how. There were skills that he had learned all on his own like how to throw a baseball, how to fish and how to hunt. More importantly, she worried that she had not taught him what to do when he had his heart broken for the first time. She had been divorced from his father for four years now and still had not taught herself how to handle the pain. She still didn’t know how to handle hearing Trent’s voice on the phone. She still didn’t know how to avoid the pain of reaching for him in the middle of the night only to wake, remembering that it wasn’t her bed that he shared anymore.

     As she watched Brandon bounce to the rhythm of the music vibrating from his small speakers, she smiled as she thought how blessed she was. This son of hers had never given her a moment’s trouble. Oh, he had his rebellious moments like most teenagers do, like testing his curfew or wanting to drive before Nikki thought he was ready. But, overall she couldn’t have asked for a better kid. Silently, she wished that she could capture this moment and hold onto it forever. Brandon, interrupting her thoughts said softly, “Mom, are you okay?”

     “Yes Son, I’m fine. I just wanted to make sure you have everything you need,” she said smiling at him.

     “Yeah, I’m straight. Oh Mom, we aren’t going to have to call out the medics at the airport, are we?” he asked jokingly. “You gonna be able to control the water works?”

     Nikki answered him by picking up a shirt off of his bed and throwing it at him. That evening, she left his room without telling him to turn the music down. She reminded herself sadly that it would be a long time before she this house was full of rap music again.

CHAPTER THREE

Nikki and Brandon arrived at the airport only thirty minutes before his plane was scheduled to leave. Not only had they gotten a late start, but also there had been an accident on the freeway that delayed their trip. Brandon checked in and was talking on his cell phone while Nikki absent-mindedly leafed through a magazine. Nikki’s head jerked up when she heard Brandon’s flight announced over the loud speaker.

     “Flight 452 to Atlanta, Georgia now boarding. Flight 452 to Atlanta, Georgia now boarding.” Would the customer service rep have announced it so non-chalantly if she knew that Nikki’s heart was breaking?

     Brandon grabbed his black Nike bag and looked at her with concern in his eyes, “Well, Mom, that’s me. Are you gonna be all right?”

     “It’s gonna be party time every night of the week,” she smiled trying to muster up whatever humor she could find.

     “Mom, listen,” Brandon said, his voice suddenly sounding serious. “I left something for you on the kitchen table. That’s why I ran back in the house at the last minute. I didn’t want you to see it until I was gone.”

     Nikki looked at him with sadness and confusion as she wondered what he could have left behind for her.

     “Gimme a hug,” Brandon continued as he pulled her into his lanky arms. When Nikki realized that the next time she would see him would be Thanksgiving, the tears started and she sobbed uncontrollably.

     “Mom, stop”, Brandon pleaded gently, “You knew this day would come.

     “But, I didn’t think it would come so soon”, Nikki said through her tears. “Promise to call me as soon as you land. I don’t care what time it is and then call me again when you get to your father’s house.

     “Mom, I will. Stop worrying. I’ll be fine, you’ll see.” She could hear a touch of annoyance in his voice and knew she had to let go.

     “I know. I know you will.” But, just the thought of Brandon being fine without made it even harder for her to hold back the tears.

     Brandon let go of her and headed toward the long hallway that led to the plane that would take him thousands of miles away from her. Nikki stood there and watched until he was out of her sight. Seemingly frozen, she stood in the same spot for several minutes, expecting him to miraculously turn around and run back to her, saying that he had changed his mind and decided to go to school in Texas after all. When he didn’t come back, Nikki wiped her tears and turned into her future alone.

CHAPTER FOUR

     By the time Nikki reached home, it was dark and a light rain had begun to fall. She pulled the small SUV into the garage and turned on the house lights with the remote. As she entered the kitchen through the garage, she gasped. With her mind on Brandon’s flight, she completely forgot that he said that he had left her something. But what she saw took her breath away. On the kitchen table were the most beautiful red roses that Nikki had ever seen. In front of the roses was a card with ‘Mom’ written on it. Nikki took one of the roses out of the vase and held it against her nose. She picked up the card and began reading it.

     “Dear Mom, I hope you like the flowers. I wanted to give them to you in person, but I know how you are. Mom, thank you for everything that you have done for me. No matter how big of a brat I was, you were always in my corner. Mom, my wish for you is that you look at my leaving as a new beginning for you and your life, not as an end. Go out, meet new people, have fun. Even hook up with someone, just let me check him out first (smile). Seriously, Mom, you’re a beautiful, caring, giving person. Don’t waste your life away just working, coming home and watching TV. There’s more to life than that. Give yourself permission to live. Most of all, give yourself permission to love. Love forever, Brandon.”