Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met - and who doesn't even know Elsie exists.
Interweaving Elsie and Ben's charmed romance with Elsie and Susan's healing process, Forever Interrupted will remind you that there's more to one way to find a happy ending.
Elsie Porter, ready to give up on ever finding love, runs into Ben while picking up a pizza.
'He looked handsome in a way that suggested he didn't realize just how handsome he was... He was tall and lean with broad shoulders and strong arms.'
He asks her for her number and texts the next morning eager to see her for lunch. Excited, Elsie gets ready too early and decides to go for a walk to lose her jitters, only to find she's locked herself out of her apartment. She remembers a doggy door installed by the previous owners all the way up in her balcony door. She tries and tries to climb up onto her balcony with the intent of fitting through the doggie door.
Ben arrives for their date and finds her in the awkward attempt. He volunteers to ascend for her. At first he thinks the doggy door too small, but after some intense wiggling he gets through. He's her hero. He promises to take her on a 'true adventure' which turns out to be a run-down, out-of-the-way taco stand. After she insists they go for her favourite dessert in East L.A.
'"Gelato," [Elsie] says.'
'"Gelato?" he said... "We're racing across town for Gelato?"'
The Gelato is delicious and they're having such a great time together neither of them want the day to end.
'"What if we go back to your place?" he suggested. "I promise I won't get handsy."'
'What's wrong with handsy?"' she teased.
To their delight the forgotten remains of unopened New Years champagne sits, waiting, in her fridge. They waste the afternoon drinking and kissing. Suddenly, it's evening and they're hungry. They agree on Chinese. Still reluctant for the evening to end she invites him to stay overnight, to sleep, she insists and all the time Ben continues with his 'gentlemanly behaviour.'
They part that morning eager to see each other again. They meet for dinner later. He worries they're going to fast, though they come to agree it feels natural. Elise thinks maybe they're crazy to have such a strong connection. She compares them to a supernova.
'"It's some sort of start or explosion that's so powerful it can emit the same amount of energy that the sun will emit over it's entire lifetime but it does it in, like, two months and then dies."'
They agree on five weeks, where, at the end, they'll assess how well they're getting along.
'"... if... we just aren't jiving, we've only wasted five weeks."
'[Elsie] asked. "Jiving?"'
At the end of the five weeks Ben admits, 'suddenly serious, "I made up the whole five week thing because I was afraid I'd tell you I loved you too soon and you wouldn't say it back and I'd be embarrassed..."'
He also admits he hasn't told his mom about Elsie yet.
'[Elsie] was confident enough by this point that [she] had Ben's heart, that the issue... was not [her].'
Elsie cannot understand but tries to act like it's no big deal.
'"I mean, you'll tell her eventually."'
When Elsie tells her best friend, Ana, that Ben is moving in Ana thinks she's crazy. Elsie just smiles as if Ana doesn't even know what she wants. Living with Ben is fun and exciting. Elsie loves having him around so often. The transition is smooth, their whole relationship is smooth. At the end of the month, in a haze of doctor prescribed pain meds he asks her to marry him. The idea thrills her and she is afraid to admit the truth to herself.
'[She] needed him in the future... [she] wanted him to be the father of [her] children..."
'"I think we should get married."' Ben repeats after the brain numbing effect of the painkillers wears off. '"I'm not joking," he says... "I want to be with you for the rest of my life and I know that it is soon, but I would like to marry you."' He echoes what is bouncing through her own mind. Overjoyed, Elsie accepts.
Ben starts talking about planning a wedding but Elsie isn't close to her parents and shies away from the idea of a big wedding, even a small wedding.
'"If it were up to me, there wouldn't be anyone there," she says.'
'"... we're going to Vegas, right? Isn't that how people elope?"' en quickly warms up to the idea and the two of them pack to leave, eager to get married as soon as possible.
'"[They] were two hours outside Las Vegas when the cold fee set in."
They pull over under the guise of eating.
Ben is upset he never told his mother about Elsie. To get married without here there is nearly unthinkable. Elsie is worried it's because he doesn't want to marry her. She feels her whole life, her whole future, slipping away. He insists he does want to marry her. She calls him a coward for not telling his mother sooner. He is afraid they're rushing for no reason. She wants to rush into it, it feels that good. She knows that when they leave the restaurant they'll either drive to Nevada and get married, or home to Orange County.
***Bloggers note***
The novel, Forever Interrupted is a fairly simple read that enchants you right away. Every page leaves you longing for the next bit of the story, the next heart-touching moment. Each character poses a very different point of view, and as a reader, you begin to sympathize with each one, at different moments, for very different reasons. The unexpected love and the importance of family are key to this novel's theme.
Spoiler: keep the tissues handy.
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