The Difference Between Wishes And Dreams: Chapter 3

Written By: Angel Marie

As soon as both of us are in the limo and buckled up the driver takes off to wherever we are going. "You look very nice tonight, Angel." "Thank you. But I do have to admit that you look better," he smiles; he is wearing a regular tuxedo, but he looked a lot better in it than anyone else I had ever seen in a tux, at last in my opinion. "Did you forget to leave your hair down or did you do it to annoy me?" "To annoy you." "It worked, very well. So if you do not take it down right now I will for you." "You want to wager on that?" "Yes." "You gave me your word this was strictly a business dinner." "I know I did, but at the moment I want to break my promise, and just touch you in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with either of our jobs." "No. Don't say that, you are just making it worse." "Making what worse," he asks playing with one of the locks of hair that I had curled earlier that was hanging down the side of my head. "You are just making me more uncomfortable around you, I don't want to be scared, at least not scared of men in general, or you, specifically at the moment." He backs away, dropping the hair he had in his hand. "Fine." We sit there for about three minutes with no moving or talking, his cell phone starts ringing. "Would you mind if I." "No, go ahead." He flips open his phone, "hello, Quatre Winner speaking. Oh, hello Dorothy may I help you with something?" 'Dorothy. where does that. oh that bitch that broke that vase in Quatre's office.' "I had things to do. Do you really want me to answer that question?" he looks at me. 'Would you mind if I told her I am taking you on a date? Just to make her jealous?' 'No not really, I don't like her anyway. She was a total bully to your assistant, and she claims she is all-powerful, or some thing like that. Tell her that you are taking Angel Maxwell out not Angel Marie.' 'Okay,' he looks away again, "I am out, and I won't be at the office until a month from Tuesday. I will call you later and tell you I am busy at the moment. I am taking a very beautiful woman to dinner. No it is not my mother. Why should I tell you. Is that a threat?" He looks at me and winks, and I giggle, "The person who giggled. oh, that was Angel. Angel Maxwell, why?" "Quatre?" "Hmm," he says looking at me. "May I turn on some music?" "Sure, darling," he keeps his eyes on me but turns his attention back to the phone conversation. "No you may not talk to her. She is not just a child. No, absolutely not. I would never and you know it. I have to go bye." He says hanging up on her before she got a chance to try and stop him. "So where are we going," I ask. "Can't tell you." He answers simply, as if it answered all my questions. "Okay, why aren't you going to be at the office for a really long time?" "I will tell you that later, over chilled champagne." "And what, exactly, are we eating for dinner?" "Depends, what kind of pizza do you like?" "Me? Shrimp, are we really going to eat pizza and drink champagne?" "If you don't mind." He says, obviously pleased that he had slightly confused me, "are you okay with that." "Yeah, why wouldn't I be that is my favorite meal, how did you find out?" "Background research, I also know you absolutely love seafood, which explains why you picked shrimp pizza." "Are you okay with shrimp pizza?" "Yeah, I love it." "Hey, can I quiz you to see how much you really know about me?" "Yeah, sure, why not." "What is my favorite color?" "Red, you also like pink." "Umm, What do I like to do in my spare time?" He thinks a while, "sing, write, and draw, sketch, whatever." "What is my favorite language?" "Japanese." "What is my favorite place?" "France, you like the sound of Paris in particular." "Very impressive." "I know."

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As soon as we picked up the pizza we dug in. "Mmm, you have no clue how much I love you right now." I say with a mouth full of shrimp pizza. He laughs, "man, if I would have known it was that easy to get a woman to love me I would have done this a long time ago." He looks over at me; his blonde bangs hanging in his face, his blue eyes full of laughter, "now that you love me, will you merry me?" "Where is my ring?" He reaches in his pocket and my heart starts pounding against my ribs, he pulls out a small, but long, black velvet box. He opens it up and inside sits a necklace made of gold with a amethyst teardrop gem surrounded by round diamonds, he pulls it out and I gasp as he holds it out to me. "It's not to ask you to marry me," he says, "it is a gift. From me." "I can't take it, it is far too expensive. And you barely know me." "Then just try it on, I want to see if it looks good on you." 'He knows that if I try it on I will have to keep it. damn him! And how did he know I had a weakness for.wait a minute! I am going to kill my brother!' He laughs, 'did he hear that?' I take the necklace from his hands slowly and he grabs it back. I look at him. "Let me." I shake my head, knowing that it's not a good idea. "Please let me." I sigh, turning so he is facing my back. He raises his arms and hands so that they go over my head and become wrapped around my neck, he quickly clasps the necklace in the back and turns me so I look at him again, he looks down at the necklace, causing my heart to pound against my chest until I think I will explode. "Jesus, it fits you so well, the perfect size and all. The color of the gem accents your eyes and so does your dress." He says all this very slowly and looks up at my face. He moves his face a little closer to mine then just freezes there, as if testing if I would stop him, I don't I just turn my face and look out the left window of the limo. He groans, confused, "why are you afraid of men so much, or is it just me?" "Men in general, but you do make me a bit more jumpy than most men." "Why are you afraid of men?" "Ask my brother, he knows." Would you mind if I called him right now?" "No, you do have the number, right?" "Yeah," he says while dialing the number, "do you want me to put it on speaker phone?" "Sure, why not? I'll ask for him, his new girlfriend is probably there." He hits a button and I hear a ring and then someone picks up on the other line. "Hello?" A woman with a southern accent says. "Hi, may I speak to Duo please?" "Oh sure honey," she pulls the phone from her ear and yells, "Duo, its for you. it's a girl." 'I didn't know your mother was from the south.' 'That's Duo's new girl friend, not my mom, that would be wrong.' "Hello?" I hear my brother's voice through the phone. "Hi Duo, how are you?" Quatre asks. "I thought it was Angel on the phone, but that's okay. I'm fine, and how are you?" I look at Quatre when he doesn't reply, "Oh, I'm getting by," he says after a minute longer of silence. "I need some information on your sister." "What kind of information?" Duo asks slowly. "Why is she so afraid of men?" "Does she know you are asking me this?" "Yes I do Duo, honey." I say. "Oh, Angel is there, by the way darling, where did you put my silk boxers last time you wore them?" "Try in your underwear drawer." We hear a bunch of clattering of things. "Thanks, now are you alright with me giving Quatre this information?" "Yes, otherwise I wouldn't let him ask, I will stop you if you get close to saying too much." "Can you tell me now?" Quatre asks "Fine, calm down. The main reason that Angel is afraid of men is because her father raped her mother to get her pregnant with a little boy but when a little girl was born, when she grew up, the little girl ran away because she was afraid that he would do the same thing to her. The night before she left, ran away, she heard him talking in his room, we don't know if he was talking to himself or another person but he said that he was going to rape her and kill her since she was too young to produce any children yet, he even said exactly how he was going to do it in excruciating detail." "That little girl was-," he turns to look at me, "Angel." I nod slowly, "Oh you poor darling, did he ever hurt you?" I don't respond at all. "Angel," Duo says quickly knowing that I will not ever answer that question in front of anyone I barely knew. "Your daughter wants to talk to you." He hands the phone to a little girl who says "Mommy?" "Hey Jasmine, baby, how is uncle Duo treating you?" "He let me eat cake for supper, mommy. It was strawberry shortcake, so it was good for me," she said with a slight lisp. "Oh, and I suppose he told you that." "Yeparooni, ooh! Mama! Guess what! Uncle Duo brought another pretty lady with him when he came home, she has long black hair just like you." Quatre sits there looking at me, "you have a kid?" I nod, "but you are only sixteen, how old is she?" "Three!" Jasmine claims. "Almost three," I correct her. "Nobody told me you had a kid," he says trying not to think of how young she must have been when she had the little girl on the other end of the phone line. "Hey mommy who is that man talkin' in the back?" "That is Mr. Winner, he is mommy's boss." "I want to meet him! Please momma!" "Honey-," "Why not?" I hear Quatre say and I look over at him. 'You don't have to. she really is a handful.' "I don't care, I love kids. Please momma?" He says, evidently deciding to side with Jasmine. "Fine, why not." "Goody!!!!" Jasmine yells through the phone.

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"You didn't have to do that." "Yes I did, if that man is going to feed her cake for supper we have to spoil her more, we mustn't be out done by your brother." He smiles and I lay my hand on his. "Thank you, for being so kind." He pulls our hands up to his mouth and kisses mine. "No problem." The car stops and a little girl races to it with a man and a woman following her. I open the door and get out, crouching on the ground as my daughter flings herself in to my arms. "Mommy! I missed you." "You just saw me this morning." "I know but I wish I could come to work with you, it gets kinda boring with only an uncle and his girls around all the time. I want to go home then go to work with you on Monday." I look up at the man standing behind me, picking up Jasmine and balancing her on my hip I stand. "Mommy he is cute," she whispers in to my ear, "you should keep him." "I can't keep him," I whisper in to her ear. "Why not?" "You don't keep people, or you aren't supposed to." I look up at him; from what I can tell he is comparing us, comparing her long, black hair to mine and her blue eyes to my purple ones. "Angel, she is beautiful, I have never seen a prettier young lady." Jasmine giggles. "You want to hold her while I scold my brother?" "Sure, if she doesn't mind." "I don't," she tells him and I hand her to him, walking to my brother. "Duo? What did I tell you about giving her sweets for supper?" "I won't do it again. Promise." "You better not, I have to go, bye." "Bye." I walk to the limo and follow Quatre and my daughter in.