Getting Ready To Leave Eden

Brennan

When I woke up, I stretched. Today was a big day. Not as big as tomorrow, but it was big in its own right. I got up to shower and get ready for my day. I couldn’t help but be excited. Tomorrow, I was going to finally see Leah again. I wasn’t sure how it would play out, but I hoped it would go in my favor. I hoped that when I told her that I was in love with her, she would not marry Armadillo. I hoped she would fall into my arms and tell me that I wasn’t alone. I couldn’t even begin to put into words how it would make me feel to hear her say that she loved me too.

After my shower, I left my office to go to the Adams’ house.

Well, Miriela’s house. No matter how many times I told myself that it was not Leah’s house now, it didn’t feel right. It was where I went to see Leah. It was where I fell in love with her. It was where I found myself on so many lonely nights, just sitting outside the door, wishing that I could hold her. My imagination hadn’t even scratched the surface of how good she felt in my arms. I shook my head in an attempt to clear it as I bounded up the stairs to knock on the door.

“R.H.M., is everything okay?” Nathan asked when he pulled the door open.

“Yeah. After you make sure she eats and gets ready for the day, will you come back to the office? There are a few things I want to discuss with you for when I leave tomorrow morning,” I answered.

He nodded. “Give me about half an hour. She’s in the shower now. I want to get her to Rose’s so she can start getting out of the house.”

I frowned at him. “Just make sure you’re not pushing her into things before she’s ready.”

He glanced over his shoulder before hesitantly inquiring, “Do you think I’m moving her too fast?”

“I do. But not too much. Just a little bit. You rescued her from a very bad environment. I am worried that if she goes out into the community, she will be frightened. Not only are there strange men, but there are a lot of naked people. It can be overwhelming, especially so soon after arriving,” I gently explained.

“So, how do I know when she is ready?”

I studied his face for a moment, wondering if he was truly as invested in her as he appeared to be. He seemed like he was completely devoted to her, but a situation like this was hard to handle, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about her well-being. A bond created in this environment could either be the deepest, truest one, or it could have the opposite effect. It held just as much of a chance of weaving a resentment so deep that they would eventually hate each other. And that was not something that I would tolerate happening in Eden. It wasn’t why I built it.

“Can I be honest with you?” I finally asked.

“Please do. I just want to help her.”

“She trusts you. She seems to be most comfortable when you’re around. Give her another week to get adjusted to being free inside the house, and then start taking her out. Start off slow. Bring her onto the porch and have people walk by and wave to her. Then the next day, take her off the porch and let her walk around the yard. Have Rose come stand at the fence and try to talk to her, but be by her side. You can start taking her farther away from the house, and then eventually you can have her go out with Rose. She’ll be exploring Eden by herself soon. When she starts to be more independent, you have to give her space and let her do it by herself. I know it’s going to be stressful, but you have to trust her as much as she trusts you.”

“You think she trusts me?” He asked happily, making me groan.

“Did you hear anything else I said, or did you just focus on her trusting you?”

“I heard everything. It’s just that it makes me hopeful that I can actually help her. It’ll make the process a little easier.”

“We’ll talk more later,” I told him as I heard the water stop in the other room.

He nodded. “Okay. I’ll be there in a little bit.”

As I made my way back to the office, I stopped at Rose’s house, knocking on the door. I wasn’t sure if she would actually answer or not. She hadn’t spoken to me since she spoke to her dad. Even Doc was obviously pissed at me, which made me wonder what I did wrong even more. I hadn’t wanted to hurt Leah. It had just happened. It was like I was in my body, but I couldn’t control the stupid words that came from my mouth or stop the stupid actions that my brain told me were logical reactions to things that happened between us. I knew, even when I was doing them, that I shouldn’t. I was trying to make excuses for myself, but fear and sorrow were two of the worst emotions to experience when one was trying to heal.

“She still doesn’t want to see you,” Taco told me when he pulled the door open.

“I know. Will you just tell her two things for me?” I requested. 

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Depends on what they are.”

“Tell her I’m sorry, and ask her to help Nathan when I leave Eden tomorrow.”

“Where are you going?” Rose spat from behind the door as she stepped into my line of vision.

“I’m going to get Leah.” I sighed as I stuck my hands in my pockets. “Well, I hope to anyway.”

“Fine, I’ll help him, but I swear to God if you don’t fix this with Leah, I will punch you so hard in the balls that they will become your tonsils!”

Both Taco and I winced at the image her words created. I had no doubt in my mind that she would punch me that hard. And if a punch didn’t work, she would just kick me.

“I will. I swear!”

She glared at me for a moment longer before slamming the door in my face, leaving me standing on the porch with all my earlier excitement completely gone. Rose had that effect on people when she was pissed. She was a firecracker in every sense of the word. I spun around to go back to my office to write out a tentative plan for Miriela while I waited for Nathan to arrive. She was his first, and probably most important, Eden ‘client.’ When he arrived at the office a little over an hour later, he was not as happy as he was earlier when I spoke to him, causing me to wonder what happened.

“What is wrong?” I asked.

“I don’t like leaving her.”

I sat back in my chair with my hands clasped over my stomach. “Did something happen when you went to leave?”

“She cried. She panicked. That’s what took me so long to get back. She was hysterical without being hysterical. She didn’t do it in front of me. I heard her sniffling by the front door after I closed it. When I went back in, she was sitting beside the door with her arms around her knees, crying. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to know that I was the cause of her tears?”

I remained quiet as I guiltily lowered my eyes to the list in front of me. “Trust me, I know how that feels. To be the source of your woman’s tears…it makes you feel like shit.”

“Yeah, it does. I do not know how you do it. This fucking sucks.”

“I know. The only thing you can do is your best to comfort her. I will not keep you long. I just wanted to make sure that you were comfortable with everything I’ve taught you so far. I’m leaving in the morning, so this is the last chance to ask any and all of your questions before I do. You’ll be able to contact me while I’m gone, but I can’t guarantee that I will answer immediately.”

“I do not have any questions. Everything is fairly simple. And if I have any questions, I can also ask Rose or Doc. I know you asked them to help me,” he replied.

“Alright. I wrote you a sample time frame for getting Miriela out of the house. I do not know if you will use it, but here.”

I handed him the plan before waiting patiently for him to look it over, which he did quickly before meeting my eyes again.

“Thank you. I will try to keep to this pace for her.”

“Perfect.” I raised an eyebrow at him as he shifted in the chair again, glancing at the elevator. “Go on. I won’t hold you hostage anymore. Just be careful. You do nott want to create unrealistic expectations. You have to go slow with her.”

He nodded as he jumped up. “I will. I promise.”

As he rushed out of the building, I went into my room to pack a bag. The more I put into my bag, the more excited I got again. I was beyond ready to lay my feelings out for her. She deserved it. She always had. The only thing that was different now was that I finally believed that I deserved it too. I carried the first bag down to the car that was still sitting at the gate in anticipation of my departure before jogging back upstairs. While I was walking toward the elevator with the last two bags, my watch alerted me to someone approaching the main gate. I set my bags down so I could pull up the surveillance cameras on my computer. As soon as I saw who it was, my heart stopped before pounding erratically inside my chest. What was Leah doing here?