The Final Chapter
Snowflakes were falling around the campus as Reggie walked, the frosted grass crunching beneath his feet with each step that he took. A cloud of steam billowed out from his lips as he stopped in his tracks for a moment, looking at the corridor before him, wishing that he had never been walking down that corridor the day that he had seen Connor kissing Catalina. So many problems had stemmed from that day, and there he was, back in the corridor, looking down the length of it at a door that was closed to the winter day.
He walked toward the door, telling himself that he was doing the right thing, for once, he was doing what would make all of his mistakes right again. When he reached the door, he pursed his lips for moment and then took a deep breath and raised his hand to the frosted glass, knocking on it carefully.
“Come in!” called a voice.
Reggie pushed the door open and stepped in from the cold, closing it behind him. His eyes moved around the office he found himself in and despite what he felt, he had to admit that he liked the office.
“Can I help you?” the voice asked, and he looked over at the handsome man sitting at the desk in the corner by the window.
Reggie drew another breath and sighed, pulling his gloves off of his hands. “Yeah, Mr. James?” he asked. “I’d like to talk with you, if you have a moment,” he said politely. He knew Connor James from seeing him in the doorway with Catalina, but Connor had never met him and didn’t know who he was.
Connor looked up at the tall solidly built young man before him and indicated the chairs before his desk. “Have a seat, please.”
Reggie walked over to the front of the desk and extended his hand to Connor. “I’m Reginald James, but everyone calls me Reggie,” he said, introducing himself and shaking Connor’s hand.
Connor nodded and something rang a bell of familiarity in the back of his mind, but the connection was not made. Reggie saw the disconnect in Connor’s eyes.
“I’m friends with Catalina,” he added, and the moment he said it, Connor’s eyes grew large for a moment, and then he leaned back in his chair and covered his mouth with his forefinger, staring at Reggie.
Reggie knew he would have some explaining to do before he got to the real reason why he was there. He was also aware that he owed Connor a big apology.
“Sir, I wanted to come see you today for several reasons, but before I get to the heart of it, I wanted to tell you that I’m truly sorry for all the trouble I caused. I never meant for all of the fallout to happen after I told Harold about you and Cat.” He hesitated. “Harold is her father,” Reggie began, and Connor watched him quietly.
“Anyway, I know I caused a lot of problems, and that wasn’t what I was trying to do at all, but it just kind of worked out that way, and I wanted you to know how sorry I am about that, and that I’m here to try to help fix it, kind of,” he offered, his dark brown eyes looking earnestly at Connor’s.
Connor nodded. “Thank you for the apology. What is it that brings you here today?” he asked hesitantly. He hadn’t expected to ever meet Reggie, let alone to hear him apologize for anything that had happened, and a lot had happened. He wasn’t sure yet that he wanted to forgive Reggie for all of the damage that the young man had caused, but he was willing to listen to him, and that was a start.
Reggie took a breath and launched into an explanation of his side of everything that had happened. “So, Cat and I have been best friends since our first day of high school. We were both scared to death to be freshmen in a new school, but I was big for my age and she was really smart, and really nice, and so we became friends and started looking out for each other, and before we knew it, we were best friends.
“Then, sometime around Christmas that first year of high school, I fell in love with her, and I just never had the courage to tell her, so we went on being friends. She dated a few guys here and there, but she was never really into any of them. Not all the way through high school, not all the way through college, that is, until she started falling for you, and I saw it before she did.
“She started calling you by your first name and talking about you all the time. She would get this look on her face and her eyes would kind of… glaze over, and she would look so happy
when she talked about you.
“It started happening more and more, and I started getting jealous, because none of the other guys she ever dated really mattered. They just kind of came and went, and I knew that none of them ever touched her heart, but then things changed with you.”
Connor sat forward in his chair and leaned his elbows on the desk, listening intently to Reggie as the young man continued to explain.
“Anyway, I saw the changes in her and it scared me to death because, for the first time ever, there was actually a man who might steal her away from me. I had a plan for her and me; I was going to graduate and become an engineer, and build a house for us, and then ask her to marry me, and we were gonna have kids and a white picket fence, and it was all going to work out perfectly. “I figured that if I didn’t say anything about her dating other guys all through school that she would have all of that worked out of her system by the time we were out of college and then when I asked her to marry me, she would say yes because she would be ready to settle down.” He looked at Connor expectantly and Connor nodded.
“That makes sense,” he said simply, not wanting to derail Reggie from the train of thought he was on.
Reggie took a deep breath and his shoulders sagged a little. “Then she started going on and on about you, and for the first year or two, it was just little stuff. She wasn’t attracted to you or anything, she was just really impressed with you, then you became her advisor and she started admiring you and all the things you did, and then this last year… that’s when it all went downhill and she started falling for you, and I could see it, and she couldn’t.
“She would swear that there was nothing going on in her heart for you, but I was on the outside, and I could see it clear as a bell. She got so wrapped up in you, and then the two of you took that trip, and when she came back I knew I had lost her to you. She started telling me everything… all of the details, and can I just tell you, Mr. James, it is hard as hell to listen to a woman you are in love with talking about making love with another man.
“I thought I was going to die of heartbreak right there, but I kept telling myself that she was my best friend and I owed it to her to be a good friend, no matter how hard it got for me, and well, that didn’t last too long.”
Connor felt his cheeks warm slightly and he began to feel sorry for Reggie.
Reggie looked directly at Connor. “I knew that I was losing her to you, and I panicked. I didn’t know what kind of man you were, and I didn’t know if you were just another teacher who sleeps with his students or what, so the more she got involved with you, the more I felt a need to protect her, and I finally had to admit to her that I’ve been in love with her this whole time, because I thought if I told her that it would make a difference and she would realize that she ought to be with me.
“The problem was that I never thought that she wouldn’t be in love with me, too. I thought that she was and she just didn’t know it. I thought I could show her how much I love her, and then it would all work out from there, but it didn’t. She just couldn’t get over you.
“I felt like I had nowhere to turn, no other choice to make but to go to her father. I just thought he would stop her from seeing you, and then I could try to make her see that she could love me like she does you, but everything kind of went straight to hell from there.” Reggie sighed and looked down for a minute in shame.
“Yeah, it really did go to hell after that,” Connor agreed.
“Well, I didn’t realize just how mad Harold was going to be. I didn’t ever imagine that he’d go all the way to the dean here, and that your job would be on the line, and that Cat would hate me and stop being friends with me.
“I lost the love of my life and I lost my best friend, all at once, and that’s a hard loss, Mr. James, let me tell you. Then things just went from bad to worse. I’ve never seen her so heartbroken and sad as I did the whole time she had to stay away from you, and now….” He paused and bit his lip looking back up at Connor.
Connor grew worried for Catalina, and he leaned forward anxiously. “….and now what?” he asked expectantly.
Reggie bit his lip again and nodded. “Well, now she and I are friends again, and that’s great, but there’s a little more going on. She came by here to talk to you, but you weren’t here. Your fiancée was here, and she gave Cat kind of a hard time, and Cat left here really upset. She didn’t know you were getting married, and it broke what was left of her heart.”
Connor felt like he was going to be sick. He shook his head and rubbed his hand over his eyes. “Oh no…. no, no, no….” He sighed. “I’m so sorry.” He fell back against his chair and buried his face in both of his hands, rubbing his fingers over his forehead and temples.
“I can’t believe she came here and talked to Deborah. That is just about the worst thing that could possibly happen.”
Reggie shook his head slowly. “Nope. No sir, Mr. James, that is not the worst thing that could possibly happen.”
Connor dropped his hands from his face and looked at Reggie in confusion. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?” He sat up a little in his chair. “What’s worse than her meeting Deborah and Deborah lying to her?”
Reggie frowned in surprise. “Lying to her? What do you mean lying to her?”
Connor shook his head. “I’ll explain that later, first, what are you talking about? What’s worse?”
Reggie pursed his lips for a moment and then breathed out the truth. “Cat’s pregnant,” he said simply, his eyes locked on Connor. He was going to know how Connor really felt about it before he let Cat talk to him. He knew that it was Cat’s right to talk to him about it, and she was probably going to be mad at him for telling Connor before she got a chance to tell him, but Reggie was anxious to protect her from another fall if Connor didn’t care about her being pregnant.
He could see right away that Connor cared. Connor cared a great deal. He leapt forward in his chair, his hands flat on his desktop, his eyes wide with panic as his heart nearly beat itself right out of his chest, and he stared at Reggie.
“What? She’s… she’s pregnant?” he gasped in utter astonishment.
Reggie nodded and kept his eyes on Connor. “Yeah. She thinks she got pregnant while you two were in Springfield.”
“She’s pregnant….” he whispered, the shock arresting him as he fell back against his chair and stared off into space. He mouthed the word and no sound came from him, and then he said it again in a barely audible whisper. “….pregnant?”
Reggie had long been over the shock himself, but it was still weird for him to think of her as being pregnant. His eyes stayed on Connor.
Connor shook his head and then leaned forward again toward Reggie. “Is she alright? Is she okay? Does she need anything?” Realization and panic had set in, and all he had in his mind and heart were questions.
Reggie nodded. “Well, that’s a matter of perspective, really. Physically, she's okay. She’s healthy and she isn’t doing too bad; no morning sickness or anything, so that’s alright, but she is going through a really tough time right now, and that’s why I’m here sitting in front of
you, telling you everything.”
Connor’s brow lowered in concern. “What do you mean, she’s going through a tough time?
What’s wrong? I mean… other than the obvious issue that she’s pregnant?”
Reggie sighed. “Well, for starters, she got told off by your fiancée, and you’ll excuse me, but I know your fiancée, and that woman is a cold hearted bitch. I can’t figure out how you would want to marry her and leave Cat, but whatever; everyone has their own standards, or none at all.” He eyed Connor and then continued. “So there’s that, which is making her miserable, and then there’s her dad.”
Connor shook his head. “Deborah is not my fiancée, so please stop calling her that.”
Reggie looked at him in surprise. “She isn’t?” he asked incredulously.
Connor shook his head. “No, she isn’t, but I will explain that later. What about Cat’s dad? What’s going on?”
Reggie tipped his head to the side as he tried to explain without making Harold sound like a monster. “Well, Mr. Marshall is pretty upset about the baby, and he’s really pissed about you being with his daughter, so he told her that she has to leave this school and go finish her classes up somewhere else, and graduate from another school, so that’s really upsetting to her because she started here and she wanted to finish here, but he’s just not going to let her do it. Then, he’s not having the pregnancy. He’s not going to change his mind about that. He told her that she has to get an abortion and focus on school and graduate.”
Connor’s heart flew into his throat. “NO! No!” he shouted, standing up out of his chair. “She didn’t get an abortion, did she? Am I too late?” he asked anxiously, his eyes wide and his heart racing.
Reggie stood up as well, sliding his hands into his jean pockets. “No, Mr. James, she hasn’t had the abortion yet. She doesn’t want to; she was thinking she would rather give the baby up for adoption, but she is in a tight spot right now. You see, her father is really the only support she has because she lives at home with him, and he is paying her way through school and giving her a place to live and you know… taking care of her.
“He’s all she has, besides me, and I’m still living at home with my mom, so I’m not really able to help her either, especially since neither of us has graduated yet. We don’t graduate till spring. So, he told her that she has to have an abortion or get out of his house, and she has nowhere to go.
“She feels like he is going to force her to do it, and she will have to let the baby go, except she doesn’t want to. What she really wants is to keep the baby, because she’s grown kind of attached to the idea that she gets to carry your kid and have some small part of you and the love that you two shared, and that’s important to her, so she’s definitely against the abortion, but she is also struggling with giving the baby up for adoption, which she thinks is the only viable option since she has no way to take care of a baby.
“It’s just that her dad put his foot down about the adoption idea. He absolutely won’t hear about it at all. As far as he is concerned, she either aborts the kid or gets the hell out of his house, never to go back. So, she’s really stuck.”
Reggie shrugged and looked deeply at Connor. “That’s why I’m here, which I am sure you were wondering about. She won’t come to you because she thinks you don’t care about her at all because you are getting married or whatever it is that you are doing, so she doesn’t feel like she has anywhere else to turn, but I thought that you should know, because I thought that maybe you could try to find some way to help her out, if you care about her.”
Reggie finally stopped speaking. He had said all that he came to say, and maybe a little more, and he had left the ball in Connor’s court.
Connor stared at him for one long moment and then said, “I need your help.”
Reggie looked at him with a little smile. “Yeah? What are you going to do?” he asked as he watched Connor pulling his coat on.
“I’m going to go to her house and talk to her and to her father, and things are going to change one way or the other, but if I have anything to say about it, she and I are keeping that baby, no matter how we have to do it. I need you to take me to her father’s house. I don’t know where she lives.” He looked at Reggie imploringly, and Reggie pulled his gloves back on and nodded his head.
“Alright! Let’s go!” he grinned as he followed Connor out of the door.
Twenty minutes later, Reggie and Connor walked up the sidewalk in front of Catalina’s house and knocked on the door.
Reggie was certain that he had never been so nervous in his life. Harold pulled the door open and looked at them.
“Good morning, Reggie,” he said, not sure who the other man was. “Do you and your friend want to come in? It’s cold out there.” Harold stepped back and held the door open for them.
Reggie chuckled and gave Connor a sidelong glance. “My friend…” he mumbled as he laughed and Connor looked back at him.
They walked into the house together, and then Reggie looked at Harold and took a deep breath. “Mr. Marshall, this is Connor James. Connor, this is Catalina’s dad, Harold Marshall.” He made the introduction and then he immediately took several steps backward.
Connor held his hand out to Harold and as he was saying that it was nice to meet him, Harold’s voice raised the roof off of the house.
“WHAT?!” he roared furiously. Then he looked directly at Reggie. “You brought this son of a bitch to my house!”
Connor dropped his hand and pursed his lips, looking downward for a moment before raising his eyes toward Harold again.
Reggie shrugged. “Well, Cat needs some help, and he’s the father of their baby, so… yeah. That’s why he’s here. I’m looking out for my friend,” he answered bravely, still standing several feet back from Harold and Connor.
Harold’s head swung back to face Connor and he glared hotly at him. “I can’t believe you’re standing in my house!” he yelled as he closed his hand into a fist and drew it backward.
Connor’s eyes grew large and he followed Reggie’s example and took a few steps back. “Sir, I’m sorry to come here unexpectedly, but I just found out about the baby, and I obviously have a responsibility that needs my immediate attention.”
Harold shook his head. “You’ve done enough to my poor girl; she doesn’t need anything else from you, you bastard. All she needs is to change schools to get away from you and get that damn abortion and then all her problems will be solved!”
His fist was still waving behind him, so Connor kept his distance. “Mr. Marshall, I don’t want her to get an abortion; I want her to keep the baby and I want to help her raise it,” he told Catalina’s father honestly.
Harold’s anger reached new boundaries. “The hell you say!” he hollered loudly, “She is not keeping that bastard kid of yours, she is going to go get an abortion and focus on herself and her education, she’s going to graduate and then she is going to make a good life for herself and you are not going to get in her way again! Do you understand me?” he thundered angrily.
Connor was about to argue back, but just then Catalina came out of her room and looked at her father. “What on earth are you yelling about out here!” she began, but then she looked over and saw Connor and Reggie standing there and her mouth fell full open.
“What are you doing here?” she asked in amazement.
Connor tipped his head toward Reggie. “Your best friend let me know everything that’s going on,” he told her seriously, and then he looked between her and her father. “I’m here to tell you that I want you to keep the baby!” he told her firmly before her father could interrupt them.
Her hands flew to her mouth as she covered it in surprise. She shot a look of shock at Reggie. “You told him about the baby?” she gasped.
Reggie shrugged. “Someone had to do something, nothing good was going on here,” he said, taking a couple more steps backward and bumping into the wall.
Catalina looked back at Connor. “What do you mean, you want me to keep the baby? How am I supposed to do that? I have no way to take care of a baby!” she cried out anxiously.
He looked back at her with wide eyes. “Yes, you can keep the baby. I’m going to help you!”
She shook her head and narrowed her eyes. “You’re going to help me? What about your wife? Don’t you think she might object to you having a baby with another woman and helping to raise it?”
Connor shook his head. “It isn’t like that!” he told her, and Harold grew furious, stepping toward Connor as he swung his fist behind him.
“You’re wife? You have a wife? You’re married and you went after my innocent little girl? You rotten piece of filth! What the hell is the matter with you!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, launching his rock hard fist in Connor’s direction. Connor ducked and Harold narrowly missed him and then almost fell over when he lost his balance.
Catalina ran at her father, reaching for his arm and calling out, “Daddy, no!! Daddy, please don’t hurt him!”
Harold turned on his daughter and fired his anger in her direction, yelling at her. “You stay out of this, you’ve done enough damage already! Look at the mess that you’ve made!” he snapped angrily at her before turning his hateful glare back to Connor.
Connor looked at Catalina and waved his hands in the air. “Cat, I’m not married! I’m not married, and I’m not engaged! Deborah lied to you! She was trying to blackmail me to get me to marry her. She told me that if I married her, she would save my job, but if I didn’t, then she would make sure I got fired and that I wouldn’t be able to work as a teacher at any other colleges ever again!”
Catalina’s mouth fell open once more as surprise spread through her. “You… you aren’t engaged? You’re not getting married?” She blinked in wonder. She had spent hours upon hours agonizing over the knowledge that he was getting married, and as she stood there before him, realizing that he wasn’t getting married, her whole universe seemed to shift and she tried to comprehend it.
“Cat, I want you! I couldn’t marry her, not even as a business arrangement. She’s a horrible woman!” he told Catalina.
Reggie shook his head with wide eyes. “She’s a mean cold hearted bitch. That’s what she is.”
Connor glanced at him and nodded. “Yes, she is.” Then he looked back at Cat. “She was trying to force me into a marriage by blackmailing me using my job. What she didn’t know is that I applied at another college and got accepted, so I’m leaving for another college across town. I’m going to be making twice the money there, too, so I’ll have plenty of support for you and the baby!” he told her desperately.
Harold shook his head. “She is not having that baby! She is going to get an abortion and she is going to focus on her education and graduate and that is final!” he insisted fiercely.
Catalina looked at her father in desperation. “Daddy, please! I don’t want to abort the baby! I want to keep it!”
He pointed his finger sharply at her. “You are not keeping that bastard baby. You are going to get rid of it!”
She shook her head. “NO! Daddy, I want to keep it!”
Connor started to walk toward her and Harold moved swiftly in between them. “You stay away from my daughter, do you hear me? You’ve done enough damage! I can’t even believe you’re still standing in my house! Get the hell out of here!” he shouted at Connor, but Connor looked over at Catalina, who was standing just behind her father, looking over his shoulder at Connor.
“Catalina, I love you! I love you with all of my heart, and I just cannot keep living without you. It’s like torture for me! I need you. I need you with me for the rest of my life. I want you to marry me and be my wife. Let me take care of you and the baby and I promise you that everything is going to be alright!” he called to her and she stared at him as her heart felt like it stopped in her chest.
Harold had finally had all that he was going to take. He launched himself at Connor and Connor dodged out of the way, moving behind him and grabbing Catalina’s hand in his, pulling her into his arms.
Harold hit the floor instead of hitting Connor and he swore as he landed hard where Connor had been standing a moment before. Reggie moved to help him up, but Harold waved him away and got up on his own, turning to face his daughter and Connor.
“You get your damn hands off of my daughter!” Harold yelled at Connor, but Connor turned and looked down at Catalina.
“Marry me, say yes. Right now, just say yes and we will walk out of that door this minute and you can come be with me. We’ll go to my home and you can live there with me. You can finish school and graduate, and I will marry you and we will raise our family together. Say yes… now!” he pleaded with her.
She looked from him over to her father who was back on his feet and storming toward them furiously. “You get your hands off of my baby girl, you son of a bitch!” he demanded and Catalina stepped in between her father and Connor, and her father suddenly stopped short, unwilling to touch Catalina.
“Daddy, no! Please stop! It doesn’t have to be this way!” she begged him, but he looked down at her and shook his head.
“I told you what you could do, and that’s the only way that this is going to work! Do you understand me? I told you that you owe your loyalty to this family and to me, and you need to remember that! Now you get away from him! You are not going to have anything to do with him or his kid! You have a responsibility to me and to your mother for all that we did to put you through school, and you have a duty to yourself to make the best life that you can! Now you let go of that fool you’re guarding and you get your butt back in your room. I’m going to kick this jackass out of my house!” he yelled.
Reggie watched it all from his place up against the wall. He knew how mad Harold was. He had been around Harold a long time, and he knew that Harold didn’t take anything from anyone, and that having Connor in the house would be more than Harold was willing to put up with. But he also knew that Connor and Catalina needed a chance to talk things out, and as he stood there watching them both, he saw the change in them as it took place, and he knew that the visit he had made that morning had been exactly the right thing to do.
Catalina looked from her father up to Connor and she shook her head. “It doesn’t have to be this way, Daddy… it doesn’t. I can love you both. We can have a whole family together if you just let your anger go! Please, Daddy…” she begged, but Harold shook his head.
“Don’t you dare choose that bastard over me. I am your father! I am your family! You are my daughter and I am telling you right now, if you walk out of that door with that man, you are never going to walk into this house again. Do you hear me?” he shouted at her with tears in his eyes, and Cat looked back at him and shook her head, reaching for Connor, who wrapped his arms around her and began walking with her to the front door.
“Catalina!” her father yelled out more in pain than in anger. She shook her head again and they moved toward the front door together.
“Daddy, you are always going to be welcome in my home, and I am always going to love you no matter what,” she said tearfully as she walked with Connor out of her father’s house, and she heard her father howl in rage as the door closed behind her, and Connor took her by the hand and walked with her to his car.
Reggie watched through the window from inside the house, and he stayed where he was against the wall until Harold had thundered into his room and slammed the door closed. Then he went into Catalina’s room and gathered some of her favorite clothes, tossing them quickly into her suitcase, and he walked quietly out of the front door, closing it gently behind him.
*