Chapter 1
I sat in my chair on
the phone with a new colleague trying to see if he wanted to go ahead
with the deal. I hated when he blabbed, especially when it was about
nothing. After sweet-talking him a little more, he finally said yes
and I hurried to get off the phone with him. I sat back in my desk,
stretching my legs on the desk. My life couldn't get any better, even
if I could have written it. I was engaged to a wonderful, successful
businessman and I was a reporter for one of the most successful
magazines and on her way to starting her own. Yep Tara Cassim, can
have her cake and eat it too. Then I realized something, the secret I
was keeping from my fiancé. I grabbed the ring hanging around
my neck from a silver chain, remembering where it came from.
I
had been young and in love, so of course I was going to marry my
first. Every feeling that he made me feel was bright and new. I was
floating on air, until he broke my heart.
James is a successful
owner of a family business for hotels. He helped his father make
millions when he was still in high school. He had brown wavy hair
with ocean blue eyes. He stood about 6 feet and 5 inches. He looked
like he just walked out of a GQ cover. There was a major difference
between James and my ex-husband.
Yes, ex-husband, like I said I
was married once before when I was just 18. She fell in love with him
and he promised me everything. Everything was going great, till I
lost the baby worrying about his new career, wrestling. We were
constantly fighting all day and all night about it. I couldn't
understand why he would want to put himself in that kind of danger
especially with a child on the way. I didn't want to see him hurt.
Every since I lost our baby girl, we fought more often to the point
of when I caught him in bed, fucking a groupie. At 21, we divorced
and never spoke since. I was shattered after that and I couldn't
stand it in that town with all those memories. I left home and moved
to New York, wanting to make a name for myself and accomplish my
dreams.
"Miss Cassim, there's a call on line 1." The
voice scared me so, I almost flipped out of my chair.
"Hello."
I said picking up the phone.
"Did you tell him?" the
voice could only be Mina, my nosy best friend.
"No, I
didn't."
"You should tell him, what if he finds out,
then what?"
"Tell you the truth, I've been thinking
about that. I think I'm going to tell him tonight. You think he'll
take it pretty well?"
"Sure, you have to get him
slightly distracted, I mean how many men want to hear that the girl
they think is perfect got married and left college?"
"Thank
you for the reminder." I said sliding my shoes on.
"It's
true honey, it's been what, 10 years later and you are finally
happy."
"Thanks, I was just thinking about calling his
mom since we were pretty good friends, but I think it would hurt her
to hear my voice after so many years."
"Listen, don't
think about it. Tomorrow, we are going to view the church and
everything will be just fine. When is James' best friend suppose to
be arriving?"
"I think tomorrow." I said unsure. In truth I haven't been thinking about it, I've been so busy with
everything else, I forgot about James' friend.
"Well, just
that little thing to get past and you are walking down the aisle with
Mr. Perfect. I so hate you sometimes, you have it all."
"Yea,
I know." I said kind of sadden, "Is that what you think of
me?"
"Of course not honey, I just want you to be happy,
remember who was your bridesmaid at the first one; now I have to make
a repeat, damn you suck." I chuckled.
"See you
tomorrow." I said.
"All right, bye." I hung up
picking up my briefcase. Distract him? Well, I know something that
always distracted James, I thought with a smile.
I held on to
him as spilled himself inside of me He collapsed on top of me out of
breath. He was completely out of it. One bad thing about James, he
wasn't as good of a lover as my ex-husband. I know right now if I
was with him he would be ready for seconds and what the hell was I
doing? For some reason lately, I have found myself comparing the two
after 10 years. I told myself I need to make that appointment with a
therapist.
"I thought I told you to save that little gown
till our wedding night," he said holding me close.
"Well,
I thought I would give it a test ride." he chuckle and I sighed,
"There's something I have to tell you honey." I said
propping up on my elbow, not sure how to start this. I mean do I say
hey SURPRISE I was married.
"What's wrong?" he said
rubbing my back.
"Remember when I told you about my past?"
I asked.
"Yea, you told me that you moved from Texas to move
on with your life, so?" he wrinkled his forehead.
"That's
only part of it; I moved away to get away from my ex-husband."
he propped up on his elbow looking concerned.
"Did he hurt
you baby?"
"No, nothing like that, he wouldn't hurt
me. It was just the things that happened in our marriage, we were
young and we couldn't deal with It." he sighed, "You're
angry with me?"
"No, it's your past and I'm your
future. What you had with this other guy is nothing compared to our
life together. I love you." he branded me with his lips.
I
lay my head on his chest. Wow, he took that so well. I was not
expecting that, although I'm not entirely sure what I did
expect.
"When is your friend coming here?" I
asked.
"Tomorrow, I'm taking off to go get him and we were
going to catch a drink. I really want you to meet this guy, he is so
great. So many occasions where he has saved my ass."
"For
the last couple of days, you've been talking about this guy. You
haven't even told me his name."
"As soon as he get
here then we can get this wedding out the way. We're going to meet
you and Mina at the church. Hey, maybe we can set him and Mina up."
"I don't think she would appreciate that." I smiled. James had a tendency to ignore certain questions when he had a thought already in his head, a trait that annoyed the hell out of me, but now I learned to deal with it.
"Well,
at any rate, I know he will like you."
"I can't wait,"
I said ready for sleep. I couldn't wait till tomorrow; it was going
to be a new chapter in my life.
There
were flickers of lights covering the room, following the motions of
our bodies. I felt his rough kisses on my neck as I bit my lip to
sustain a moan. He pushed deeper inside of me with his large shaft. I
gasped against his lips as he let me adjust to his size. I grabbed on
to his big arms as he slowly stroked inside of me. He looked down at
me with those intense green eyes letting me know to get ready for the
ride. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he quickened his pace. He
bit on my neck as my breast were crushed under his chest. I felt his
tongue lick my cheek till it came in contact with my lips. I kissed
him passionately running my fingers through his hair.
"Oh
baby, I miss you." he whispered.
"I miss you too,
Mark." I moaned.
I sat up quickly waking up from that
dream. I ran my fingers through my hair. Damn, that's all I need, an
erotic dream about him. I was knocked out of my shocked state when I
heard my phone ringing. I reached for it ready to get my mind off of
my dream.
"Hello." I said.
"What took you so
long?"
"I was sleeping, what the hell you want?" I
said knowing it was Mina.
"Good morning to you too, you must
of have a bad dream. Are you ready?"
"Give me about an
hour, then we can go out." I said getting up pulling the sheets
with me. I hung up and went to take a shower.
I scrubbed my body
remembering that dream, every fucking detail. I'm getting married,
why is he haunting my dreams? This wasn't the first one; although I
wish it was. I could explain it then. I sighed and finally emerged
from the shower. I know I have been comparing them but this is
getting fucking ridiculous.
I put on my red pencil skirt and
black short sleeve sweater. I zipped up my knee length high heel
black boots, putting on my black duster. I combed my long brown hair
into a high ponytail. I went to the kitchen and saw some cereal,
bowl, and milk sat out with a note. "Made you breakfast",
it read. I shook my head and ate a little.
I met up with Mina
and we went to the spa. I needed my hair and nails done.
As Mina
and I sat under the hair dryer, I looked through some of my wedding
magazines.
"Did you tell him?" she asked.
"Yea
and he was actually really sweet about it. He told me that he was my
future now." I smiled proudly.
"You're so lucky to find
a man like that."
"Who are you telling?" I picked
up another magazine and saw his picture with him standing there
looking very intense. The WWE logo stood proudly on top of his head
as he wore his hard pose. Mina took the magazine away from me.
"When did he get popular?" she asked.
"I
don't know, I don't watch wrestling."
"It says here
that the Deadman is back."
"Now, he's dead?" I
said drawing my eyebrows together.
"I don't know if
he's dead but I certainly see an animal I want." she replied
biting her lip and I laughed looking at the picture of this other
huge guy.
"I'm glad he's happy with his new career,
obvious." I said as the girl came and fixed my nails.
"Don't
think about him. You know I have nothing against Mark. No, yes I do,
the fucker cheated on you."
"Mina, I moved on from
then, I don't plan on seeing him anytime soon. Besides, you liked him
at one point."
"As a friend. I had to because you
shook your ass in front of him and he fell for you." I kicked
her as she laughed.
"Now, that part is over and I love
James." I said as my mind flashed to that dream.
After we
left the beauty shop, we went out to lunch. I showed Mina my design
for her dress. She absolutely loved it.
"That place did
good on the nails." Mina said tossing her black hair.
"Yea,
I have to have my fingers look good to show off this big rock."
I said showing off my engagement ring.
"Keep on, you going
to have someone snatch it off."
"They will have to chop
off my hand and then afterward, I would still come after them, one
hand and all." I laughed and I noticed she only partly laughed
with me.
"You still wear it," she said pointing to my
neck.
I grabbed the necklace and held the small simple ring.
There was a small diamond in the middle, he didn't have much money
back then, he only got what he could afford.
"Yes, it's
cute."
"I agree it is, but does that mean you are still
attached to him."
"Not necessarily, I might be attached
to the ring, mind your business." I said throwing a French fry
at her. She threw another one at me as we exploded in laughter.
We
were quite surprise how huge the church was when we arrived.
Everything was so amazing right down to the antique statues. Mina and
I talked to the Reverend and he told us about different parts of the
church. He gave us a brief tour of where our positions will be and he
assured me that everything will be what I dream of. It didn't take
much to convince me, I was on cloud nine about the place especially
when I saw James come out of his limo.
"Hey honey, how does
it look?" he asked.
"Great, it's beautiful. I want it
there, James."
"Good. He's here; I can't wait for you
to meet him. I'll go get him." I turned toward Mina as he went
back to the limo.
"How do I look?" I asked.
"Great,
why do you care?"
"Because James wants to make an
impression on this guy and I don't want to disappoint him."
"That's
logical." I saw Mina look up and her eyes bulged out and her
mouth dropped. What's wrong with her? She looked as if she seen a
ghost.
"Honey, this is my friend, " I turned around and
my smile faded, there he was, "Mark." my ex-husband. James
smiled at him and me, as Mark looked me over slightly shocked.
"Hey
Tara, I heard a lot about you." he extended his hand.
I
couldn't really focus on it, I couldn't focus on anything besides the
fact that he was standing right in front of me, the man I claimed I
would never see again. He was my fiancé's best friend and
his best man. My eye rolled in the back of my head and the next thing
I knew, I hit the floor.