Chapter 1: Revelations
Theresa had never seen two people that were as blind as Luis and
Sheridan.
They were so in love but to dumb to admit it. She had seen them fight,
and
she saw the love that was hidden underneath the dirty layer of hate.
“If
only I could make them see it.” Theresa muttered aloud as her husband
Chuck
entered the room.
“What?” he asked as he came up behind her. He put his hands on her
shoulders
and kissed the back of her head.
“Look at the chemistry, the love, the ah…I can’t think of the word. But
it
is written all over their faces. I need to get them together.”
“Good Idea.”
Theresa watched as Luis and Sheridan were flirting in the front yard of
their 2-story house. It was Thanksgiving. Luis, Sheridan, Ethan, Pilar,
Hank, and Beth were outside playing football.
Sheridan watched as the snow began to fall in front of the majestic
house.
Then she turned her gaze to Luis. The snow was clinging to his black
hair.
He was still the same Luis that she had grown to love over the years.
They
were good friends even if she wanted more. She was knocked out of her
thoughts as Hank tackled her to the ground. She was shocked but after a
minute broke out laughing.
“Time to eat.” Theresa yelled out of the door. Hank would want to sit
beside
Sheridan since they were going out. So she sat Luis directly in front
of
Sheridan and Beth right beside him because they were going out.
Theresa
cooked a wonderful dinner but Sheridan couldn’t keep her eyes off of
Luis.
Age had done him good. It had been 3 years since the incident on the
wharf.
Anyway, he started growing a little goatee, and there was an aura about
him
that made him mature, but handsome at the same time. Once again Hank
interrupted her thoughts. He turned her around in her chair to face
him. He
bent down on one knee. ‘Oh God!’ Sheridan thought to herself. He pulled
out
a black box. He just had to do this in front of everyone.
“Sheridan, will you marry me?” Hank asked. ‘How am I going to break it
to
him?’
“Sheridan baby. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine Hank. I just wasn’t expecting this. It’s so sudden.”
“Sheridan we’ve been dating for about a year now. We’ve known each
other
longer than that. This isn’t sudden.” Hank said briskly.
“No. I didn’t mean like that. Hank I don’t love you. I’ve tried to make
myself, but I just can’t. I’m so sorry.” Sheridan said as she got up
and ran
out of the room. Hank started to go after her when Theresa grabbed his
arm.
“Hank, you’ll only make things worse let me.” She said as she followed
Sheridan up the stairs.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Luis was shocked. He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. Sheridan
didn’t
love Hank. She’d just turned him down. He was glad, but totally
stunned. He
hoped that she would be okay. Beth brought him back from his thoughts.
“That was horrible. Poor Hank. Everyone is so concerned about Sheridan.
What
about Hank. He was the one that was turned down. I’m going to go talk
to
him.”
Beth’s behavior was kinda suspicious.
She and Hank over the past few
years
had become real close. He switched into cop mode and followed her. He
followed her through the living room to the guest bedroom. He listened
through the door.
“Yes! It worked! Now I can end it with Luis and we can be together.”
“Yeah, but I don’t understand why we had to do it like this.”
“We had to hurt them because they’ve been hurting us for the past 3
years.
Leading us on, when they didn’t love us. They deserve to be hurt. But
in the
end we’ll be happy.” Beth said as she leaned in and gave him a
passionate
kiss.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Theresa had never seen Sheridan so upset over something. She was
definitely
hurting. How could Hank do this to her in front of everyone? Just then
she
heard a knock on the door. Ethan walked in. Theresa and Ethan hadn’t
talked
a lot since her and Chuck had gotten married.
*Flashback*
“Ethan, You expect me to wait around on you forever? You keep juggling
me
and Gwen around. I’m not in this for the money, I love you. But you
obvisouly don’t love me. I’m sick of waiting on you if you don’t love
me.
I’ve waited for 4 years. I can’t wait any longer! I’m going to move on,
try
to get over you.
I just hope we can still be friends after this.”
Theresa
said before she broke down. Ethan came to comfort her. “Don’t touch me!
I’m
trying to leave! You’re just using me, when you want Gwen! I love you!
She
doesn’t! And you’ll realize that someday, and it will be too late.
Because I
can’t wait for you to make up your mind.” Theresa ran out of the house
and
took off.
“Theresa!” Ethan yelled out for her but it was too late. She was gone,
out
of his life forever. “I love you. I was going to tell you…” He stopped
when
he realized he was talking to his self. He broke down into tears. He
fell
out on his couch and pulled the little black box out of his pocket.
*Present*
“Come in Ethan. Maybe you’re the best to talk to her now.” Theresa said
as
she started to walk out.
“Theresa,” Ethan started as he grabbed her arm. “Can we talk later? We
need
to talk.”
“Sure.” Theresa said as she walked down the stairs to run into an
extremely
pissed off Luis.
“Luis, what’s the matter?” “Betrayal is in the air and I need to tell Sheridan right away.” Luis
said
as he stormed past her. She followed him as he almost kicked down the
door.
He stopped and clamed down a bit when he saw Sheridan lying on the bed
crying.
“Ethan can you give us a minute we really need to talk about a very
important matter.” Luis asked.
“Ethan, let’s give them a minute.” Theresa said.
“Sure.” Ethan replied.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Sheridan felt two strong hands grip her waist as they turned her over
onto
her back. Luis was standing beside the bed looking down at her almost
crying
himself. At the sight of Luis she cheered up. She sat up and dried her
eyes.
“What’s the matter Luis?”
“I don’t know how to say this.”
“Just say it Luis. I can handle it.”
“Okay. I followed Beth and she went into the bedroom with Hank. I
listened
through the door…” Luis had to stop to gain his composure. “They did
this on
purpose. They wanted to hurt you and me. They said that we’ve been
using
them all along, and that we deserve to be hurt.”
“You mean Hank didn’t want me to marry him?”
“No. I’m sorry.”
“Good. That makes it a lot easier on me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well. Now I know that I didn’t hurt him. By turning him down.”
“Oh…Okay. You’re taking this a lot better than I thought you would.”
“Oh…It’s okay. He’s not the man I love anyway.”
“Well…Then who do you love?” Luis asked. He hoped that it was him. He
watched as her face turned red.
“Luis…Please…Nobody. What did they mean by we were using them?”
“I don’t know. Let’s go ask them.” Luis said as he grabbed her hand.
They
ran down the stairs to the dinning room were everyone was gathered.
“Beth, Hank, we need to ask you something.” Sheridan stated.
“ Yeah. I heard the 2 of in the bedroom. I heard everything. The
question is
why did you say that we had been using you for the past 3 years?” Luis
said
as the temper crept up in him again. “ I would never use anyone.”
“Come on Luis. You used me. You led me on. You didn’t love me, you
loved
her!” Beth yelled and pointed at Sheridan. “That little slut is the
woman
you wanted all along!”
“Don’t you ever talk to her like that. She’s no like you Beth. You’re
the
slut. Cheating on me with my best friend.”
“Luis…” Hank cut in. “I know that you have a hard time admitting
things, but
you two do love each other.”
“Hank?” Luis said. “What makes you think that.”
“Well…one thing is you haven’t let go of her hand since ya’ll came in
the
room.” Luis looked down at his hand that was tightly griping
Sheridan’s.
Then he averted his gaze to look into her eyes.
“Maybe we should talk.” Luis said as he guided her to the door. Theresa
was
smiling from ear to ear. Maybe they’d finally see.
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
They stepped outside into the snow-covered yard. Luis took Sheridan’s
hands
into his and looked into her puffy swollen eyes. They were still
beautiful
to him. It had been so long since they had touched. They had just been
friends. But now as the snow fell in her flowing blonde hair he could
see
what a fool he’s been to think he didn’t have feelings for her. Over
the
years she’d grown her hair out past her shoulders, and had it tapered
around
her face. Other than that she was still the same Sheridan that he loved
so
passionately and so deeply.
“Luis, what just happened back there?”
“Well, when we were standing there listening to their accusations I
realized
that I should tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“How I feel.”
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“Theresa, I really need to talk to you.” Ethan said as he grabbed at
her
arm.
“Okay. Okay. I’m coming.” Theresa said as she followed Ethan out the
back
door to the little swing under the big oak tree. “What is it Ethan?”
“I thought that it was about time to clear the air between us. I need
to
talk to you about the day you walked out on me.”
*Flashback*
“Theresa will you marry me?” Chuck asked. “I know it’s a little sudden
and
all since you just broke up with Ethan, but I love you. And we should
be
together.”
“Yes. Chuck I will marry you.”
Meanwhile…
“Yes. Gwen I mean it. Will you marry me?” Ethan asked half heatedly.
“No! I won’t. You don’t mean it. You don’t love me. I can see it in
your
eyes. You love her still. You came to me because she turned you down.
Well,
Forget it!” Gwen yelled as she stormed out of the house.
“God, how can you let this happen to me? I love Theresa. Make her see
that.”
Ethan yelled. “I’ll go talk to her. Make her see it.” He jumped in his
car
and drove. He was about to come to the driveway when he saw Theresa and
Chuck kissing in the front yard. The diamond ring glistering in the
sun. He
kept driving.
*Present*
“I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’m going to tell you flat out
what
happened.
You were yelling at me and I was about to ask you to marry
me. You
ran out before I could. Theresa I loved you. I was going to tell you
that,
but you didn’t give me a chance. I tried to come talk to you about a
week
later and saw you and Chuck in the front yard and the diamond on your
finger…” Ethan broke off as a sob he was holding in came out making him
cry.
“I usually don’t cry, but you hurt me. I just needed to tell you.”
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
“What do you mean… ‘How you feel’? “ Sheridan asked dumbly.
“Sheridan, I think that maybe I do have feelings for you. And that
maybe we
should go out again.”
“Really?” Sheridan asked as she began grinning from ear to ear. “I’d
love to
go out with you!”
“Great! Hey do you want to take a walk around the grounds?”
“Sure let me get my coat.”
To Be Continued...