Page 52 of Beauty and the Nerd
The days quickly sped past, each one a little sweeter than the one before it somehow. The only downside to any of it was the harassment from his mother and the stupid comments from the idiots back home would leave every time she posted pictures of them together.
Christmas arrived faster than she expected, and it was strange to walk back into her parents’ house with Ben three days before it. They were spending through Christmas Day with them, then heading down to St. Lucia for about a week the day after it.
It was the first time she’d been back since Christmas their freshmen year, and she was glad that Ben was next to her as they went shopping at the mall. It looked so different somehow, but it really wasn’t. The same stores were there, the same groups were hanging out in the food court—even if they were different people—but none of it felt right any longer.
“New York really is home now, isn’t it, baby?” Ben said as she rested her head against his shoulder.
“Yeah, it definitely is,” she mused as someone called out her name from behind them.
Ben held onto her still as they turned, and Emma gave a little wave to David and Steve as they headed their way. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Uh your pictures,” Steve said pointing at one of the newest ads from Satin Touch on the board just ahead of them.
“Damn girl, you went to New York got all famous and just forgot about us, huh?” David added.
“Not really, just felt safer to be in New York than come back here,” she admitted, and Steve’s brow rose hilariously.
“New York feels safer?” he asked.
“Well, when you compare that I’ve only been groped once while in New York but had that happen at least twice here, plus assaulted by the same person twice, and ended up with two concussions while here, yeah,” she said, and Steve’s chin lifted a hint.
“Right…but at least you don’t have to worry about that one trying anything for a while now,” Steve said confusing both her and Ben.
“You didn’t hear?” David asked when it was obvious they weren’t following.
“Heard what?” she questioned as the two shared a glance.
“Carter’s in jail, in Florida,” he told them, shocking her a bit. “He’s been locked up since Spring Break.”
“He tagged along with some of the others, and I guess he thought he was untouchable or something, even after what he pled to with you,” Steve added. “He assaulted at least two girls down there. He had no remorse at all about it when he was arrested, and they wouldn’t let his dad pull any favors down there. With him on the list and having another case against him before that, he was facing a heftier charge, and he wouldn’t accept a plea. They wouldn’t give him bail, knew he’d come back up here and hide if they let him out, so he was stuck in jail down there until the trial, which they finally had last month, and he was found guilty on two counts.”
“Apparently Florida has some serious penalties and because he did it more than once it tacked on extra, so he was sentenced to like thirty years, because both of the girls they had his DNA on, ended up in the hospital,” David told them. “Theybrought up all of the former charges against him, even though he somehow got off on the other, and with you pressing charges against him for what he did at New Year’s, there was no doubt in the jury’s mind.”
“He tried to claim they must have had ‘consensual’ sex before they were attacked, but they also found his DNA under their fingernails and defensive scratches on him so he really should have taken their plea deal for five years of jail time,” Steve said shaking his head a bit and Emma’s heart ached for the girls he hurt, she was relieved he was in jail and couldn’t upset their visit this time.
“I haven’t seen anyone talking about it online,” Emma said as Ben’s hand ran down her arm, calming her a bit more.
“I got rid of all that shit freshman year. I flunked midterms because I was scrolling on shit rather than studying so I figured it had to go,” Steve said shrugging a bit at their surprise.
“I’m either in class, the gym, or playing ball so I don’t got the time for it either,” David added. “I’d say most likely if no one was saying anything it’s because his dad paid off the guys he went down there with not to say anything, so most people don’t know. I only do because one of the guys from the team got picked up for a drunk and disorderly and recognized the name of our town when the group in the drunk tank were talking about it. I told Steve and we looked it up.”
“Wow, I mean…definitely not what I was expecting but it’s the best place for him to be,” she said, resting her hand on Ben’s chest and the light bounced off her ring drawing their attention to it. “I’m guessing you didn’t see anything about us getting engaged last year then did you?”
“Definitely not,” David said. “You seriously got engaged during college?”
“Married actually,” she said, laughing at their expressions as Ben dropped a kiss to her temple.
“I proposed last year when we were in Hawaii at the end of May and we got married on September thirteenth,” Ben told them.
“Ben’s been working basically full-time over the summers for Cortland Finance. Lyle Cort owns it, and he’s married to Emerson who owns Satin Touch. I met Emerson and between her and Megan, they convinced me to do some modeling for the company. Lyle stopped by after we were done and this guy knew who he was, so we had dinner with them after the second shoot, which led to him working with Lyle, and us going to Hawaii with them. The guys had a four-day conference then some extra days to spend with us, and he proposed,” she said with a grin at their continued shock.
“We didn’t start making any plans for the wedding or really talking about until about a year ago, just to get a feeling on it. The thirteenth is the day that we decided to work together during high school, and it’s where we really started to connect, so it was the perfect day it felt. We told everyone else the date on New Year’s Day, and our wedding day was perfect. Lyle was my best man, Emerson was Emma’s matron-of-honor, while Megan was her maid-of-honor, and we had some newer friends fill out the rest of the wedding party,” Ben said smiling when she pulled up her phone to show them the photos of it. Including the one of the four of them that Emerson posted on the Satin Touch media page congratulating them.
“Damn, how’d your dad take it?” Steve asked as they passed the phone back to them.
“Good, he already knew Ben was going to propose, maybe not exactly when but that he was going it before he did and gave him his blessing.”
“After he’d already given me permission to move into the apartment with Emma that summer before I showed him the ring,” Ben said sending their surprise even higher and she lovedhow differently her dad reacted to Ben, how much he knew he’d never hurt her, would only love her. “We’re staying with them for Christmas then taking about a weeklong honeymoon in St. Lucia.”
