Page 9 of Wishing for Christmas
Over a gin martini in the Darlington lounge, Clara discovered that Brent was not only handsome, but he was also incredibly interesting—and thoughtful too. To top it off, hewasfunny, in a dad-joke kind of way. They had shared their first kiss there, another departure from her usual “wait for the right time” mentality. Clara had felt an undeniable spark and, soon after, they’d shared their second. Matthew never crossed her mind again that night.
They hadn’t been dating long now, but she was excited to see what would happen with their relationship. So why was she suddenly getting the ominous impression that something was wrong?
Clara decided to brush off the feeling and forced a smile as she approached the table with caution, hoping it was all in her imagination.
One thing she knew about Brent was that he always looked her right in the eye whenever he saw her. But not tonight. She couldn’t help but notice that he avoided her gaze as he stood to pull out her chair. Still a gentleman, like always. He leaned down to kiss her on the head, a strange greeting for someone who always went in for the lips.
Her legs gave a slight wobble as she settled in. “What’s wrong?” she asked immediately. Whatever the problem was, she wanted him to get to the point right away. He was clearly uncomfortable. She just didn’t know him well enough yet to understand what it meant.
Brent sat down, and the leg bouncing resumed. He noticed and stilled it. He looked at her with a shake of his head. “Clara, I’m so sorry. You don’t deserve this.” He picked up the bottle of wine in front of him and poured some into her glass. His hand was shaking.
Clara pressed her lips together and closed her eyes. It felt as if her heart had plunged straight into the ground. So itwasgoing to be that kind of talk. Years of experience with Matthew had conditioned her to anticipate what would be coming next.It’s not you, it’s me.I need some space.We’re moving too fast. She had heard them all, always from him.
But for as little time as she’d known Brent, she certainly didn’t expect to be hearing this fromhim. At least not so soon.
She pressed her hands against the sides of her head. She couldn’t believe this was happening. They had been so happy upto this point. Hadn’t they? She couldn’t imagine what could have caused such a sudden change of heart.
She opened her eyes and began to speak. “Brent, I’ve really enjoyed our time?—”
“Clara, I’m being deployed.”
He’d blurted out the words so quickly she wasn’t entirely sure she had heard them at all.
“Deployed?”
He nodded.
She allowed herself a deep release of breath as she felt the weight of an impending breakup lifted off her shoulders. Her entire body relaxed. She let out a slight laugh. It was just a deployment. Well, that wasn’t so bad. It was a part of his job. Clara supposed a deployment every now and then was the price one paid to date someone in the military, right? It would probably be sometime in the new year, and she reasoned he’d be back in a few weeks or so.
She smiled at him, her jaw unclenching. Relief flooded through her body as she took a sip of her wine and leaned back in her chair. “Off to save the world, huh?” She gave him a playful wink.
Brent didn’t smile back. He tried to pick up his wine glass, his hand still trembling. He set it back down. He looked her straight in the eye, his expression grave.
Her concern returned.
“I leave immediately,” he said.
Clara blinked.
“And I’ll be gone for a year.”
Her eyes flew wide open. She wanted to draw in a breath but suddenly couldn’t. The restaurant seemed to go silent. Everything faded into a black vignette around her. Had she heard him correctly? She couldn’t be sure since the only sound was her own heartbeat pounding in her ears.
She leaned forward in her chair, set her elbows on the table, and pressed her palms over her eyes as she tried to get a hold of her bearings. A wave of dizziness flowed through her head. She drew in a breath slowly through her nose and tried to calm her racing heart. “A year—you’ll be gone an entire year?” It wasn’t exactly a question, more a statement of disbelief. Even so, she looked at him through desperate eyes, waiting for an answer.
He only nodded, a look of defeat on his face.
“Wow.” Clara noticed her chin quiver and commanded it to stop. “And what do you mean by ‘immediately’?”
He lowered his gaze to the table. “I leave tomorrow.”
Her jaw dropped as she clapped a hand over her mouth. Any breath she had in her lungs seemed to rush right out of her.
Brent continued, fidgeting with his hands, as he spoke. “One of the pilots who was supposed to go on this deployment . . . well, he got injured pretty badly yesterday.” His voice cracked. “And I have to fill in for him.” He looked up at Clara to gauge her reaction so far, then shifted his eyes back down to the table again. “I won’t return until this time next year.”
She stared at him with horror-stricken confusion. She couldn’t be sure she was hearing any of this correctly at all. Could they really do this? Could the Air Force just send him away like that, with no notice?
He raised his head and reached across the table to take her hand with an earnestness she had never seen before. “Clara, I’m so sorry.”
