“Anyway, wedding is in five days. I need you here today, I need to fit your dress and I need you to keep me calm. I’m freaking.”
“I’ll find the next available flight and come straight away, and why are you getting married so fast?” I ask her pulling out my suitcase to begin packing.
“Not my brilliant idea, it was his. God, this man doesn’t do anything slow.”
“Okay, I’m packing now. I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
“I already booked you a ticket, I knew you wouldn’t say no to me. No isn’t a good word for you. You leave at seven tonight. See you then, bye,” she says not giving me a chance to say anything before she hangs up on me.
I feel nervous, nervous leaving everything behind. Nervous being back in the same town as Zeke. Well, possibly, just being near Zeke. I didn’t plan to leave to see him. Actually, I would prefer not to see him again. We’ve had our time together, and now it should be time apart. Especially now he knows who I am and what I’ve done, I would hate to see him again, but a big part of me also craves it.
We love because it’s the only true adventure.
~Nikki Giovanni~
They want her dead. I know they’re up to something. Dunk is mostly, I see it in his eyes. He’s having hushed conversations on the phone, and a prospect’s jacket is missing. I may not be here every day, but I know the in’s and the outs of this place.
“Did she get the package?” Dunk asks into the phone then he mentions her name. I walk to him. He’s at the bar with his back to me, not realizing I am standing there. I snatch the phone from him and throw it to the ground. He looks shocked at first, then angry.
“You do not retaliate.” I try to keep myself calm, but it’s hard. I want to rip his head off. I want vengeance. My mind is so fucked up right now. She’s the only woman I have been this close to, who I’ve let in. But at the same time, I want to strangle her, watch as her eyes pop and the life flows from her. Then I feel sick after those thoughts, like harming her would cause me physical harm. I don’t understand my feelings at all.
“She messed with you, she messes with us,” he says and the men cheer in response. I look around the room, angry and proud. They would jump off a cliff if I asked them to.
“You will not, under any circumstances…” I look around the room pointing, “are any of you to get involved.” Most nod their heads, except for Dunk, who stares shaking his head. He is not the president, I am. He’d do well to remember that fact.
I call church and we have a club meeting where rules are established. Then I get a phone call. I’m going to a wedding and at this wedding I’m going to fuck with her head.
Love, its soul crushing, painfully beautiful.
~T.L Smith~
Her dress is ivory, her hair is curled and sitting on the top of her head like a crown, she makes a beautiful bride. A stunning one to be precise. I’m wearing a baby pink knee high strapless dress, my hair is slightly wavy and my face is covered in makeup. Ember looks over to me and smiles, handing me a glass of champagne. Lance comes over and wraps his hands around the mid-section of his now wife. They look good together, his eyes shine brightly when he watches her like she’s everything he wants, everything he needs. The wedding was beautiful, over the top, but still beautiful. Lance has money, a lot of it, and he spared no expense on this occasion. There are famous people everywhere, even the band they have singing right now is famous. I would usually be intimidated by being around such people, but I don’t even care who they are.
“I’ve come to steal my wife,” Lance says with his hands still wrapped around her waist.
“Bex, there is something I need to tell you,” Ember whispers to me. “I didn’t have a choice, he’s friends with Lance,” she says and then is being pulled away by Lance. She smiles up at me and I take her glass from her and watch as they head to the dance floor. People follow and separate making room for the bride and groom as they do their bridal waltz. I’m smiling brightly as he dips her down, and she laughs when I feel eyes on me, boring into me. I try not to look, it could be anyone, but I have a feeling that I need to look. And when I gaze across the dance floor, I see Zeke, with a smirk on his beautiful lips, watching me. I try to smile, to be polite, I do, I really do. But when a beautiful woman walks up and kisses him on the cheek then plants herself on to him, I know my smile turns sour, and I know he sees it.
As soon as the last dance is announced and people join the couple on the dance floor, I leave the area and head straight to the bar. Away from him, far away, as far as I can get. He doesn’t see me, his vision is blocked by a rather large-breasted slutty-looking woman, who’s trying to pull him onto the dance floor. I would have laughed, if it wasn’t for our situation, if we were just an average couple who’d broken up and gone our separate ways, but we aren’t.
I order a glass of champagne, and when I finish that I order another one, but a man stops me and instead orders one for me. I want to tell him no thank you. When he turns to me and smiles, this man could give Zeke a run for his money, of that I’m sure. Except his hair is light, almost sandy blond, his eyes are brown, chocolate brown, and his smile is large, contagious.
“So beautiful,” he says looking me in the eyes. I give him credit where credit is due; his eyes aren’t roaming my body when he says that, instead they’re glued to my face. “Tell me, what’s someone so beautiful such as yourself, doing here alone?” he asks offering me my glass of champagne he just ordered for me.
“Who says I’m alone?” I fire back adding a smile. He smirks, and I know he must use that look to get the girls, because if my mind weren’t entirely consumed by a particular person right now, I would swoon, and swoon hard. I sip my drink, keeping my eyes on him.
“I’ve watched you all evening. You, my beauty, have had no man by your side all night.”
“So you like to watch women?” I joke with him.
“Only ones as beautiful as you are.”
“Do your words usually work on a beautiful woman?” I ask him.
“I don’t know, you’ll have to tell me.”
“I think you have some potential.”
His face changes very fast. Gone is the easy going flirting man. I think for a moment if it was something I said, until his voice carries over me from behind.
“Mika.”
“Zeke,” the man who I now know is Mika says to Zeke and he’s now standing directly behind me. I don’t turn; I keep my face and body turned toward the man in front of me. When his eyes drop to mine, the hardness softens for a second before they lift back up to Zeke.
“Bexley,” he says. I close my eyes and breathe through my nose trying to wish him away. I can smell him, his scent fills the space and captures me.
“So Mika, was it?” I ask when I finally open my eyes and look at him. I offer my hand and he takes it gladly and kisses the top of it. I smile at the small gesture and take my hand back.
“And you must be, Bexley,” he says, ignoring our looming figure still at the back of me. “Would you like to dance?” he asks.
I nod my head and place my glass on the bench, he takes my hand again leading me to the dance floor. He places his hands on my hips and brings me close to his body, not touching, but so close that if I took another tiny step forward, we would be. My hands circle around his neck and I smile softly at him.
“Friend of yours?” he asks referring to Zeke. I go to shake my head but decide otherwise.
“Acquaintance,” I say and leave it at that. He dances with me for half a song without saying another word when Zeke walks over and taps him on the shoulder, wanting to cut in. I want to tell him not to leave me alone with Zeke. I’m afraid of what will happen, of what I might feel, but I don’t get a chance as he stands in front of me. Wrapping his hands around my waist, he brings me flush with his body, not bothering to leave a gap between us. My hands dangle as I’m not sure where to put them, when I decide to place them loosely around his neck. He doesn’t speak at first, just dances from side to side rubbing me in places with his body with such a closeness that he may not be meaning to, but I can feel every inch of him. I try to tell my body that this is a man that we don’t need or want anymore, but it doesn’t care, it knows what this man can do for my body and it fucking wants him regardless.