Author's Note: So, I sent this to my Beta Reader yesterday, and am already halfway into writing Chapter Three, so I went through and edited it to the best of my knowledge. I may come back and rework it after she gets back to me, but here it is so far.
Any constructive critiques are welcome! I am a learning writer, and a learner needs teachers, so any comments would be great! Thanks to the reviews so far!
Chapter Two
Raye Mullin-Stansbury tapped her fingers impatiently on the table in front of her. She was irritated with her soon to be ex-husband and his tardiness for their meeting. She glanced across the table at her husband's lawyer. He too, was checking his expensive watch with his legal pad in front of him. Her lawyer was simply daydreaming, a stoic look on his face as he gazed out the window across from them. Her fury at her husband was continuing to build, making her light violet eyes darken with a tint of red, a peculiar color.
Raye thought about her soon-to-be-ex. He was handsome; sexy, as a lot of women would say, but to Raye, Darien was never more than attractive. Now sitting in a lawyer's office, she could not comprehend the reasoning behind their marriage. They loved each other platonically, but after four years, platonic leaves a person wanting more. At least, for Raye it had. Darien, it seemed, was happy being comfortable. It pained her to think she hurt him when she found Chad Nicholas although he had consented to the divorce easily.
'Passion,' Raye thought, 'that is what you are missing Darien.' If only her husband would have looked at her once with feral desire. He had never wanted her the way a man should, right down to the core of his system. He had never wanted her enough that every fiber of his being burned just by the thought of touching her; not like Chad had. It would have been almost weird for Darien to have wanted her like that, as she never desired him in such a way. So, the only thing she could do was leave him, and hope that one day he would find what she and Chad had.
'That is,' Raye's thought process continued, 'if his ass lives through-'
Her phone shrilled out in the silent room. She picked it up to see who was calling.
Darien.
'Good,' she thought, 'he better have a damn fine excuse for being late.'
"Excuse me," she said to the men sitting in their tailored suits, "I need to take this call." She got up and walked out into the hallway and angrily hissed into the phone, "where the hell are you at Darien?"
His deep voice resonated into her ear, "I'm terribly sorry Raye. I had a rough night. I'll explain later. I'm in my car on my way right now. I will be there soon."
"You had a rough night?" Raye's voice began to crack as she tried to control her temper, "do you have any idea how rough your day is going to be if you don't get here right now? This final meeting is by the hour, Darien, and there are two very expensive lawyers in the room, charging. It's going to cost me an arm and a leg."
"It's going to cost you an arm and a leg of the settlement money I agreed to." Darien yelled back in the phone, "Raye, you are damn lucky I am not wiping the floor with you. You committed adultery, need I remind you, and I stepped back graciously and filed for a mutual divorce. You'd get nothing if it wasn't for me. I could take the house, your car, and your money, but you may have forgotten that. So, like I said, I had a rough night, I'm on my way, and I will be there soon." She heard a click and then silence, signaling he had hung up on her.
"Fine!" She screamed into the mouthpiece and then slammed the phone shut. She stomped back in, slung her body back into the upholstered chair, and announced to the two lawyers, "that was Darien," their faces remained in their stoic state, "and he will be here shortly."
Raye leaned over onto the table, leaning her short maroon-black, angle-bobbed hair on her hand in frustration. Her mind began to race with anger. Why was it again that she married him?
Darien fumed at his phone that he irately thrown into his empty passenger seat. Her temper always brought out the worst in him. Even back in college, when they were stressed to the max during exam week their fury was always taken out on each other. They would both be studying and running low on their caffeine high and sleep, and they would snap. Darien would say something stupid or Raye would do something irritating and the fighting match would begin. People around them would blame it on their hormone levels. They would tell them to go get a room, and let the sexual frustration out, but they never felt this sexual tension that apparently loomed around them.
'What possessed me to marry her?' Darien asked himself. He began to look back at when he finally asked her. They had been sitting in his apartment, books strewn across the table in an attempt at studying, just like any other day. Two weeks and they would be done with their undergrad. Darien, kept looking over at Raye as she studied her physics book. Her then long black hair was tucked behind her ear and her pencil's eraser had found her lip as she became frustrated with what she was studying.
"Raye," he had said. Her violet eyes looked up at him, annoyance and curiosity flashing through them.
"Yeah?" She questioned.
"Why is it that we are so comfortable just like this?"
Raye had shrugged then, thinking about it and replied, "I don't know Darien. Because we both have so much in common. Because we like being around each other. Because we are just that awesome," her sarcasm continuously becoming more apparent, and she then set her book down and said, "Really, I don't know. Why do you ask?"
Darien, himself, had no idea why he had thought about it, "I don't know. I guess graduation is coming up around the corner, and it has me thinking about, well the future." He looked over at her, gauging her response.
Raye's eyes softened, "the future is not that scary Dare. We'll always have each other. What else do we need?" She walked over and sat down on the couch next to him, and patted his leg.
For the first time he looked at her. He actually noticed how beautiful she was, and how much he really did need her. He had no one else in the world that he could feel this content with. After all he and his sister had gone through during the years, he needed that contentment.
"I need you Raye," his worlds barely audible.
She locked eyes with him, and he noticed the soft silver flecks encased within her purple irises, "I know Darien. I need you too."
"Marry me," Darien blurted out suddenly.
Raye looked at him stunned and said, "what?"
"Sorry, that just came out."
"Okay."
"Huh?"
Raye looked at him and smiled, "yeah. Okay. Who else would I marry? We both need each other, and most couples would kill to have the contentment we have, not to mention the great friendship. Let's do it."
"Let's do it," he nodded in agreement, and so they did.
Their marriage had been happy and content, most definitely. Their sex life was minute, but neither of them cared. Sex was not the reason they were together in the first place. Raye had had better and she knew Darien had, so they had four years of happiness, and then Raye had met Chad.
"Darien. We need to talk." Raye had said to him on a night he had come back from work.
Darien furrowed his eyebrow, "what is it?"
"I met someone…"
Those three words had ended their marriage. Darien's hands gripped his steering wheel as he pulled into the parking ramp of the lawyer's office. He had not been upset when she told him. How could he be? She had met someone who she wanted, she did not need Darien anymore. What she needed was that passionate love, something he never could give her. Their love was in friendship, not romance. What saddened him the most was how he could love Raye with all his heart and never feel what he felt for a woman he had slept with drunk.
His mind went back to the blonde he had met in the bar. The reason for his delayed arrival to his meeting for the divorce finalization continue to plague his mind. Her soft blonde hair, and warm body did things to him no one else had ever been able to do before. Before Raye, he had enjoyed many sexual partners, finding the physical act an easy way to ease his emotional loneliness. The night before his divorce was final, he had reverted back to his old, pain-healing ways only to experience something completely different. There was something different about her. Now all he had to do was find her again.
Darien adjusted his tie as he walked into the sterile building. He reached the door of the room he knew his party would be in and glided in. Inside he sat down next to his lawyer and said, "sorry I am late. I was held up."
"No worries," Raye's lawyer replied a smile on his face, "I am sure it was something really important."
Darien just stared back at him, keeping to himself what it was that detained him. None of them ever needed to know. His lawyer cleared his throat in a gesture of authority and said, "shall we get started then? I had an early lunch scheduled that I am now going to have to make a late one."
"Yes." Raye and Darien replied in unison.
"The proceedings are pretty cut and dry," Darien's lawyer continued, checking his notes, "since you both came into the marriage well off in your own, the money you two came into the marriage with is yours."
They nodded in agreement.
"The only shared asset you two have is the home," he paused, looking at Darien with a disapproving scowl, "which is going to Raye Mullin-Stansbury."
"Cut and dry," Raye's lawyer finally put in.
"Is that all?" Raye asked, "we knew this wouldn't take long. It's not like we are in divorce court because we cheated."
Darien scoffed at her remark and she shot him a look that could melt a glacier. He composed himself and said, "yes, I agree. Is that all? We really would like to get going."
"After you two sign these documents, all is done," Darien's lawyer said as he handed them each their own set of papers with pens.
Darien looked down at the paper in front of him. Soon it would be legal. He was divorcing his best friend. He let out the breath he did not know he was keeping and brought the pen to the parchment. With one swish of the pen his name was on the document, cutting his only marital strings he planned on taking for a long time. He handed the papers back to his lawyer and stood up; Raye did the same.
"Well," she said, "I'm starved." She looked at her now ex-husband and smiled as they started walking towards the door, "Chad is busy today with work, want to go grab an early lunch?"
The two lawyers looked at each other in confusion as Darien replied, "food sounds real good."
"Our normal spot?" Raye questioned and smiled.
"Perfect," he said as he hit the elevator button to go down, "so I take it you aren't mad at me anymore?"
"Oh no," Raye replied, crossing her arms over her chest as they stepped into the elevator, "I am still irked at you, but I have to know, where were you this morning? You are never late for anything. Being late for our divorce finalizations is nothing like you."
Darien looked down at his tailored shoes and began to scratch his head in shame. He did not want to tell Raye. She looked at him, an eyebrow quirked and her smiled twitched knowingly.
"Who is she?" she asked, unfolding her arms to poke at him, "I bet she looks like me. Oh wait. Darien it isn't that secretary at the office you are always talking about? You know that office romances never work."
"No, not Beryl," he replied, "not for lack of trying, on her part. I just am not interested in red heads."
"I thought you were never interested in anyone."
"I'm not," he continued, "which is why last night when I met this beauty I couldn't control myself, but God she was wonderful. And no Raye, to answer your earlier question, she looks nothing like you."
"Wow, I'm surprised," she said, "please tell me you did not sleep with this girl."
"I kind of did," he replied as Raye shot him a disapproving, yet understanding glance, "the worst part is, I was so worried about running late for our meeting this morning that I forgot to pay attention to where she lived."
Raye looked at him in confusion, and said, "well then call her. It's not like we live in the stone ages."
Darien grimaced sheepishly and replied, "see there is a slight problem in that. I don't know her number, because I met her in the bar."
"Wait a minute!" she said, raising her voice a little in exasperation, "you slept with some hoozy from the bar?"
"She wasn't a hoozy, Raye," he replied defensively, "she was in pain. We made a connection, and I want to find her."
"So you met a woman in a bar," she stated, putting one finger up in count, "she was not a hoozy, and now you want to go looking for her?"
"Yeah."
"Good luck, Romeo," Raye said as she jerked her head back in amusement, "does this woman even have a name?"
"I think it was Serena," he said, his uncertainty lacing his voice, "or maybe it was Selena...Sabrina? It ended in an eena, I know that."
Raye shook her head in amusement and patted him on the back, "oh, Darien," She rolled her eyes. "I hope you can find this elusive, mystery girl."
Darien gazed at Raye in agreement as they left the elevator heading towards their lunch destination.
Serena padded into the kitchen after giving herself time to calm down. She walked to the ebony cabinets and found her motrin. She pulled open the top and let the mahogany colored tablets spill out onto her hand. Normally two pills would be suffice, but her head beat in loud rhythms, so she pulled out four and set them on the black countertop. She reached into the cupboard above her, pulled out a glass and filled it with water. Along with the water, she threw the pills in her mouth and let them wash down her throat. The throbbing in her head continued and she leaned against the counter to try and gain some sense of relief. One thing was for sure, alcohol was not going to be a solution to her problems anymore.
"Long night?" a voice piped from the entryway of the kitchen. Serena shot around to see her almost mirror image. Her sister Mina had the same build, the same long golden locks - cut in a slightly more rocker style - and sparkling blue eyes. Her sleeping attire seemed to be the big difference in telling the two identical twins apart. After waking up nude, Serena had put on her normal, black ribbed tank and grey, two-sizes-too-big for her sweatpants. Mina, on the other hand, opted for her skimpy striped boxers and navel-revealing deep pink cami.
"Like you wouldn't believe," Serena replied, walking over to the table. She pulled out one of the black modern kitchen chairs and sat down at her sister's table. For some reason unknown to her, Mina seemed to like everything modern. The first time Serena walked into her expensive apartment, she cringed at how sterile everything seemed. Her black and white all over seemed so cold. If it was up to Serena, this apartment would be warm and inviting, splashed with rich colors, but she planned on being gone by the end of the week anyways, so she just dealt with the difference in taste her sister had.
"Coffee?" Mina asked as she poured herself some in a blue mug. She pulled out her sugar and slopped some into the cup before grabbing another identical cup.
"Please," Serena replied, slamming her head down onto the smooth table surface. Mina placed the cup in front of her and she breathed in the comforting aroma. She picked up the mug and allowed the substance to make its way warmly down her throat as she closed her eyes in a comforting ecstasy.
"So," Mina curiously began prodding, "I heard the front door slam this morning. I assumed it was you going to work, but obviously you didn't, so..."
"We have holiday. Something about the founder of our school day or something like that," Serena said as she sipped more of her coffee, purposely avoiding her sister's accusatory gaze, "I really didn't pay attention, a day off is a day off."
"I don't care about your day off Serena," Mina replied, pushing her hands towards her, in emphasis of her annoyance, "although, with as hard as you work, you need a day off every once in awhile. I was talking about who left this morning. Obviously no one came back in, so spill."
"It was just a guy I met at the bar," Serena blushed as she told her.
Mina looked at her with a cheshire grin, "just a guy, eh? Was he good?"
"That's none of your business," Serena retorted, trying to hide her embarrassment behind her cup of coffee, "but if you have to know, even drunk, he was phenomenal."
"Better than Seiya, good?"
"Well..." Serena began, truly thinking hard about the night before, "it was passionate, nothing like I had ever felt before with Seiya. It was different and new, but with all the heat in the room there was one thing truly important missing."
"Something missing?" Mina scrunched her face in confusion as she asked. Realization dawned on her, "he wasn't a chick was he?"
"Mina! Don't be so crass, of course not!" Serena set her coffee mug on the table as she annoyingly looked at her sister, "I'm not that kind of girl."
Mina defensively put her hands up and said, "okay, okay. Then what was missing?"
"Love," Serena said simply.
"Love?"
Serena began to trace her index finger around the rim of her near empty porcelain mug as she stared at it, "as much as I hate to admit it, I loved him. What happened last night was amazing, but it doesn't compare to what Seiya and I had at the beginning."
"Do you want it back?"
"Not now," Serena replied and looked up at her sister, "I just told you I felt passion like I never had before, but no love. Love grows with time, but passion can't. I will find a man that gives me both some day. Except today, I do have to talk to you about something a tad more serious."
Mina again scrunched her eyes in concern as she looked at Serena. She put out a hand seeing the distress on her face and let it land softly on her arm and asked, "what it is?"
"Mina, we didn't use protection," Serena said, "and I stopped my birth control the day I moved in here."
Mina smiled, relief filling her eyes as she replied, "is that all? Oh Sere, they make a pill for that. Just go to the drug store and ask for the morning after pill."
"The morning after pill?" Serena looked at her and said, "I'm not too sure. I have heard there are risks in taking it."
Mina laughed, "oh Serena, your innocence is far too adorable. It's not bad at all. It's actually proven to be better on your system than birth control. I have taken it a few times myself when I have been stupid."
"All right," Serena said and sighed in relief, "the drug store, you said, has them?"
"Yep."
Serena stood up from the table, looked down at her sister, and said, "Well then, the drugstore is my next stop." She set her coffee cup in the sink and trekked back to her bedroom to put on clothing more suitable to go out into the public in.
The lady at pharmacy the counter greeted her with a smile. She had her white lab coat on and her white teeth shone against her dark tan skin. The woman's deep chestnut hair was pulled back in a tight bun and her blue nametag read, Sandy.
"How may I help you today ma'am?" Sandy asked Serena, her smile and friendly voice almost too sickening for Serena to handle.
Serena glanced around making sure no one was listening as she leaned in and whispered, "I'm looking for the morning after pill."
The woman smiled knowingly and shook her head in understanding, "Ah. No problem." She walked in the back of the pharmacy and put the bag together, and within two minutes, brought it back to the counter and asked, "have you used this before?"
"Um, no," Serena replied, looking down at her hands that had begun to fiddle with each other.
The lady chuckled and said to her, "it's not a problem. Make sure to take this within 72 hours of the sexual activity. The sooner the better, and it works best within 12 hours. It may cause some nausea, but there are no serious side effects."
Serena took the bag she handed her and nodded in thanks after she paid for it and walked away. She decided the drug store bathroom was as good as any to take the pill, so she walked towards the side of the store where the blue triangular girl was hanging on the door. She swung open the door and checked to make sure no one was around. As soon as she knew the bathroom was clear, she pulled the pill out of the bag and reread the side effects and directions. She took a deep breath and opened the package.
Serena looked at the pill in her hand. With this tiny pill she could wipe away any mistake that had come of her previous night's adventures. This pill could take away the chance for her to have what she wanted. She looked at her complexion in the drugstore mirror. Her blue eyes twinkled with the thoughts of finally being able to have a child. But was this how she wanted it? Did she want a child out of passion? Her thoughts went back to the conversation she had with Seiya. Did she not tell him the only way to have a child was out of love? Would she be a hypocrite now if she chose not to take this pill? Would she hate herself if she did? But how could she possibly raise a child without a man? The questions swarmed in her head as she tried to reason with herself. She looked down at the pills in her hand again, then back to her reflection. Her eyes were hard with resolve on the decision she made. It was now or never.