To recap: It begs the question, have you ever wondered just how much the Universe is capable of conspiring to make something happen…to make something come true? To bring two people together…

Part Four continued the story of a girl, and her journey to happiness. She’ll again be typed in this color and she’ll be known simply as the girl. As before there are also three boys, there’s the ex and he’ll be this color and called the ex. There is also the boy, he’ll be this color and called the boy. (And last, but not until the very end of this story, there will appear a third and final main character; the One, and he’ll be typed in this color as the One.)

Part Five; The Finale (What Became of It)

We continue where we left off; after spending a year at home, the girl had taken baby and moved to the city to start college in their first apartment, and the boy began his second year of school. They were both dating other people, but the boy’s relationship ended first. Then two things happened to the girl; first her relationship ended, then she’d become friends with the boy’s ex-girlfriend. After multiple events occurred where the boy really hurt her, really pissed her off, the girl knew some rough roads were in front of her. Once she moved into a second apartment, the fun really began…and as we see what unfolded, we are still left to ponder if it’s even possible that it’s all part of the Universe’s grand plan? Could this really be true?

…

Despite everything that was wrong in her world, life with baby, who was now turning two, was such a bright spot. Watching a child grow into their own person is truly amazing. And she was so fortunate; her child was a happy, healthy, sensitive, inquisitive, bundle of energy who loved things such as reading, learning, singing and giving hugs.

Life was busy, and the girl took a part time weekend job for some extra money. The boy had worked there a bit, too, at first, which is how she had come to work there, but he had quit that job and taken another elsewhere.  She worked on the weekends, and often baby went with his grandparents, which both the child and her parents loved.

She was going to school, and baby was in a fabulous daycare.

Then it started to become apparent that the boy was acting increasingly peculiar; calling her apartment several times each day, having people keep tabs on her, accusing her of wrongdoings – some of them utterly ridiculous and salacious

When she did answer his calls, when she wasn’t in class or working, he would tell her that he knew what she’d been doing, where she’d been, and that people were watching her. She was starting to get really baffled by this.

…

Things escalated over the winter; the calls and allegations made by the boy became more threatening and vitriolic. This was becoming very taxing on the girl.

She continued to go to class, and work on the weekends. She also continued to attempt a small social life with her friends; a few from home and a few from school.

Once again, this did not sit well with by the boy.

…
They had made a schedule of when he would take baby for the weekend, usually once or twice a month. He started arriving to pick up later and later. She knew that this was to punish her, to possibly wreck her plans or make her late to work, but as she watched her child ready and waiting, watching out the front bay window, her heart broke.

She was trying really hard to keep all this negativity; all the quarrels and name calling and worse, to herself, and away from her child. She was also keeping this secret from her parents, family and friends. She felt ashamed and embarrassed that this was her life.

The girl started to buckle under this burden.

…

Early that spring, normal had become overwhelmingly challenging to face. An inevitable breaking point came, and the girl made an appointment with a doctor she’d been referred to by a friend from school who was also a single mom and student.

She ended up there at her appointment, where she was finally able to unload. Despite everything she was carrying around, and how heavy her heart had been feeling, she was kind of shocked at how alarmed the doctor reacted to her revelations.

At the end of their appointment the psychologist referred her to Family Services Association. She felt the girl needed their help and advice. She wrote her a letter to provide to them, outlining her fear for the girl’s and her child’s safety.

She went home and read, and reread, the letter a million times. It was the first time someone unconnected to herself or the boy had weighed in. She was still in shock at how much her situation seemed to disturb a professional.

Yet…she did not go to the Family Services, she was too ashamed.

Several weeks later she ended up at the on-campus office of Counselling and Psychological Services. She was falling behind in her school work and her ability to focus on her assignments was dwindling.

A psychologist wrote her a letter in the hopes that she could salvage some of her school year. This was extremely helpful.

That summer she was finally able to get into a freshly renovated apartment in the very same building as the beloved daycare. So once again she moved all their belongings and settled them into their new space.

She was focused on her life as a single mother and making this life a great one for them both. She honestly felt that the love she had for her little one had gotten her through everything. But she knew she had to do something about the boy.

It may or may not surprise you to know that she truly believed that she would be single forever, that no man would want to take on the both of them. She didn’t think these thoughts with malice or scorn; she thought that she was being practical.

Plus the baggage that she’d have forever with the boy, I mean who would put up with that? And so she attempted to forget all about true love and happily ever after.

Instead she started focusing on their future; mother-and-child.

…

One night she had a revelation, she had unwittingly answered another phone call from the boy and he was haranguing her once again, when suddenly she had a moment of strength and clarity.

She shouted into the phone for him to, “Just shut up! Just stop this!”

It seemed to stun him. For some reason, maybe the tone she used, he went silent.

She continued. Telling him to just leave her alone, she was done listening to him, she was done with all this bullshit. She was DONE.

(Of course she was not done with him, but she had found her voice for a brief time that night. And it didn’t go unnoticed.)

She hung up on him.

It was not the first time she had hung up on him, nor would it be the last…but it was a memorable one.

…

A lucrative opportunity came to her at work late that fall. She really wanted to take it, but it would require childcare every Thursday, late afternoon until about nine or ten o’clock.

She approached the boy about it, but he refused to “babysit for her”, and she was stuck. She had made some amazing friends who helped her out often, she was really lucky, but the thought of arranging for one of them to come over one week at a time was less than ideal.

One night at work she mentioned her conundrum to her coworkers, who were also her friends. She was really stressed out about the situation, but she really needed the money.

Seemingly out of the blue one of the guys present who had overheard her talking spoke up. Right then and there he offered to do it. She thought either; she’d misheard him, he’d misunderstood her or he must be joking around.

But he told her that he really meant it. If you can believe this, he told her that he loved kids and he’d actually been considering signing up to the Big Brothers, Big Sisters organization.

She didn’t know what to say, she was quite stunned…

…

Every Thursday this “friend from work” started picking up from day care. He’d watch her child while she worked. They bonded; going to museums, movies, the playground, the “golden arches”, and they both seemed to love it.

At first, he left as soon as she arrived home. Then as the weeks passed he started hanging around for a bit, watching tv with her.

Over that winter they started getting quite close. The girl did not really think that anything was going to come out of this though. And she started to push down the feelings that were growing for this man.

By Easter though, they officially went out on a date. It was somewhat of a rocky beginning as she clearly had trust issues, among other issues! And he was taking things trepidatiously too; for several years he’d been searching for true love himself, and had already begun to doubt it existed.

Not to mention there was a little one involved.

…

Okay now…it wasn’t quite a Disney Fairy Tale, there was a lot to overcome and work through…

However, I’m here to tell you that there was simply no fighting it. Maybe it wasn’t conventional. Maybe it wasn’t what many people expected.

But it seemed to be inevitable…they embarked on a journey together, the three of them, and…as fate would have it…the guy…the “friend from work”…was after all…the One!

…

So it would seem that the Universe intervened throughout her life to put her on the path that would lead her to the One; the man who would protect her and love her even as she thought that was impossible, even though she thought that she was unlovable…only to find out that he had been feeling quite similarly, for his own reasons.

And it occurred to her one day that it had been the boy who had introduced her to this man, her love, the One, the very first time she’d actually met him.

How about that?

— Raina K Morton December 23 2014

*Title from the 2000* song “Absolutely (Story of a Girl)” by Nine Days
**The color coding is purely for identifiable reasons & whimsy, anything else is a coincidence**
***This author claims all rights to this story about a girl in all its parts***