“Always Late Kate – Chapter 1”
(Writing Prompt - A close friend has a life-altering decision to make and asks your protagonist for advice. What advice do they give?)
Kate was surprised to find that not only did her job interview go smoothly but she was already given her first assignment. She was now working as a reporter for “Simstar Times Newspaper”. While she was most likely the lowest paid reporter at the company and her desk was in the worst location possible, right next to the coffee maker. She was thrilled to finally have a job; so even though she had to make a million coffee runs for the more important people in the company all day and had only a small story it was hers and that was enough for her!
Kate woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready to start her day! She was happy for the first time in ages and nothing was going to bring her down….nothing that is till she showed up at Whispering Lakes Wedding Hall for her assignment.
Kate knew she was to cover the wedding of Celine Etoile, daughter of the town’s governor, but she had no idea the groom was Caleb Dawson!
Caleb was her best friend Kendyl Margiotta’s ex-boyfriend. They had been together since high school and everyone just knew they were going to get married and grow old together. Their love was the of stuff romance novels. When the time came for them to get married everyone came to celebrate the happy couple’s wedding. Everyone showed up….everyone that was but the groom. He had left Kendyl at the altar with no answer as to why. She spent weeks trying to find him; she felt he owed her an explanation if nothing else. After searching for him to no avail, she finally gave up and went into a deep depression. Many of her friends did not think she would ever pull out of it and be whole again. Three long years later Kendyl had finally pulled her life together again. She was even dating someone else a guy named Jeffery McGee that no one had met yet but who seemed to truly care about her.
Caleb was her best friend Kendyl Margiotta’s ex-boyfriend. They had been together since high school and everyone just knew they were going to get married and grow old together. Their love was the of stuff romance novels. When the time came for them to get married everyone came to celebrate the happy couple’s wedding. Everyone showed up….everyone that was but the groom. He had left Kendyl at the altar with no answer as to why. She spent weeks trying to find him; she felt he owed her an explanation if nothing else. After searching for him to no avail, she finally gave up and went into a deep depression. Many of her friends did not think she would ever pull out of it and be whole again. Three long years later Kendyl had finally pulled her life together again. She was even dating someone else a guy named Jeffery McGee that no one had met yet but who seemed to truly care about her.
Kate stared at the Caleb Dawson talking to his new bride-to-be, frozen with fear and confusion. What should she do? Should she act like this man had not broken her best friend’s heart and write her story on their wedding? Should she scream at him and slap him for hurting Kendyl the way he had? As she stood there deep in thought, trying to decide what to do next, Caleb saw her and began heading her way.
*reaching his hand out for a handshake*
Caleb begins to speak,” Nice to meet you, Kate! I am told you are the one who will be covering the wedding. If you have any questions or need any help please don’t hesitate to ask. My fiancé Celine is busying going over the guest list for tonight’s rehearsal dinner so she will be with you a bit later. In the mean time is there anything I can do for you now?”
Kate couldn’t believe it! Speechless, she just stared at Caleb like he had grown three heads. They grew up together, went to school together, he was going to marry her best friend how could he stand there and act like he had never meet her before?
*Just than a loud crash happens in the distance and a women screams*
Caleb says, “I’m sorry. I must go see that everyone is ok. I will be back soon.” And with that he darts out of sight.
As Kate stood there trying to figure out the recent events that had just taken place as well as what, if anything, she should do about them Caleb new fiancé, Celine, walked up and introduced herself.
“So you must be the new reporter who will be covering the wedding”, Celine says. “Daddy said you would be here for the rehearsal dinner and that you would be interviewing us as well. Do you have everything you need? Will you be taking pictures as well? Because my hair is a mess and I really would hate for daddy to be disappointed in my appearance after he worked so hard to put together everything for my special day. Oh I am doing it again; I am so very sorry I tend to ramble when I get nervous! I just want everything to be perfect. Please forgive me.”
Kate couldn’t help but to like this woman. She was very polite and seemed like a very sweet person. She could see why Caleb liked her but that did not excuse him for what he had done to her best friend! That however, was not this woman’s fault, it was something that had happened years ago, so for now she would just do her job and decide later what to do about Caleb.
Kate spent the rest of the afternoon talking with Celine about her wedding plans, what her dress looked like and other small details about the wedding. Unable to stand it any longer Kate decided to ask Celine how she had met Caleb. She hoped it might shed some light onto his disappearance and explain why he acted like he had never met her before. She listened closely to Celine’s story of how they first met.
“It was about three years ago,” Celine started. “My father and I were driving into town to meet my mother for dinner. It was getting to be about dusk and there was a horrible rain storm going on. We were about four miles on the outside of town when we saw a car turned over on its side, half off the road. There was a young man in it who was dressed in a suit and he was badly hurt. My father and I helped to get him out of his over-turned car and took him to the hospital. He was in a coma for three weeks before he awoke. No one knew who he was and the cops said that he had no ID of any kind on him. In their opinion they thought he was robbed and that they had taken everything of value including all of his identification. There was a very good chance he would not have survived had daddy and I of not found him when we did the doctors told us.
Once he awoke from his coma he had no memory of who he was or where he lived. Since no one had come to the hospital to claim him and he did not know where his home was or even if he had one daddy let him move into the west wing of our house. I am sure you can guess that as time went on we fell in love”, Celine finished.
*a tear drop rolled down Kate’s cheek*
How horrible it must have been for him to wake up and not remember anything or anyone. If only everyone had known! It explained why the name on the invitations did not ring a bell with her, since he did not know his name he must have picked one for himself. Kale Dursam wasn’t that close to his real name, but it at least made sense to her now. It also explained why he had no idea who she was and believes they had never met before today. What should she do she wondered? Should she tell Kendyl what she had learned? Oh the decisions! Either way she needed to finish interviewing a few other family members before she could head home.
She got home late that night; wanting to make sure she got everything detail down that she could so she could write an amazing article on the wedding. She had given it a lot of thought and she decided she needed to tell Kendyl what she had learned. She needed to know what happened; she needed to know so she could truly close that chapter of her life.
So the next morning Kate called Kendyl up and invited her over for breakfast and a talk. While they ate Kate told her everything that had happened and everything she had learned about what happened to Caleb. Kendyl just listened in silence to the story as Kate told her everything. When Kate was done and Kendyl had taken it all in she looked at Kate and asked her a question that could change everything.
“Should I tell him who he was? Who I was? Should I let him know about his past or should I leave him alone and let him live out his future?” As Kendyl asked the question she was quietly shaking in her chair and Kate knew it meant a lot to her. She knew that her answer could change a lot of people’s futures and she didn’t want to give the wrong one.
After some thought on the matter she had decided that the best advice she could give was no advice. She looked at Kendyl and told her, “I am sorry girl; I know you want me to tell you what you should do because you don’t want to make a bad decision and I know how important this decision is to you, but in my opinion the worst decision is not making it yourself. Only you know how you feel and you are the one that has to live with the decision you make. So give it some time and think it over and decided for yourself what you are going to do about Caleb.
“You are right Kate, as always. This is something I have to decide for myself for now I think I am just going to go home and think about everything you have told me. Take care and I will talk to you soon.”
