by Tara Hart
Red shoes stood in front of the door, her arms now crossed over her chest with her mouth set in a serious pout. She was all lips and attitude.
“Where are you headed?”
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “South. Towards the wharf.”
She slipped inside the cab graciously, peering at me once seated inside. Her eyebrows reached high, her lips parted slightly as if she held onto a dark secret. “Me too. Get in. We can ride together.”
I should have hesitated, but I didn’t. Instead, I ducked my head into the cab, letting my body follow eagerly. I’m sure I reeked of desperation, but at that moment, I didn’t care.
She said she was taken, the words echoed in my mind, but I couldn’t explain that to my cock. She was gorgeous and I knew she felt something for me too otherwise, she never would have invited me to share the cab.
She told the driver her address and I followed cue with mine. We settled into an uncomfortable silence, neither of us saying a word, but both completely aware of the other’s presence.
“Your fiancé waiting for you at home?”
There I said it. The question that had been playing on my mind. She was taken, yet she was still playing games with me. Her subtle flirtation did not go unnoticed.
The driver looked at us in his rearview mirror. He met my eyes as they narrowed. His focus turned back to the road. Nosey bastard.
“My fiancé?” She laughed. “What are you talking about.”
I snatched her hand from her lap but found her ring finger bare. She’d removed the rock from her finger when she’d changed clothes.
“What are you doing?” She pried her hand away from me and moved closer to her door.
If she wasn’t creeped out before, she well and truly was now.
“You told me that you’re engaged,” I said. “You wouldn’t tell me your name because you’re taken.”
Confusion painted her features and then all of a sudden, she burst into a fit of laughter. She laughed so much that her stomach hurt, she grasped it as she threw her head back.
She dabbed her index finger at her eyes before turning her attention back to me.
“You spoke to me tonight?” she questioned.
I nodded my head, yes.
“And I wouldn’t tell you my name?”
“No,” I answered angrily. “You wouldn’t tell me.”
She looked down at her clothes. “Was I wearing denim shorts with a hideous plaid shirt?”
My eyebrows rose up my forehead. “I wouldn’t call it hideous…”
“Oh, the outfit was horrendous. Trust me.”
I held my hands in the air in protest. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
She smiled, revealing a peek of her teeth. “That wasn’t me you were speaking to.”
“But…”
She laughed. “Let me finish, Romeo.”
I swallowed roughly, the air in the cab was stale and the beer was starting to catch up with me. I cracked the window and waited for red shoes to finish talking.
“As I was saying, that wasn’t me.”
“That’s impossible,” I interrupted once again.
She shook her head. “You were speaking to my sister, not me.”
“Your sister?”
She nodded her head. “My twin sister.”
I felt as though I was in a warped version of reality as if I was the subject of a cruel reality show and the cameras were still rolling. The driver wasn’t even attempting to mask his curiosity now, watching the spectacle via the rearview mirror every time he stopped at a set of lights.
I shook my head defiantly. “No. You’re the same chick.”
She rolled her eyes, even in the darkness I could see how annoyed she was. She reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone, angrily pressing at the screen.
“Here.” She shoved her cell in my face. It took my eyes a moment to adjust, but what stared back at me was the cold hard truth. They were twins. Identical, in fact. And it blew my fucking mind.
I stared at the picture, my mouth hanging open. Brunette number one smiled at the camera, while brunette number two pulled a duck face. I had no idea which twin I was sitting next to at that moment.
Did it matter? They were both stunning.
I leaned back in my seat, finally settling in for the ride. Now that everything made sense I kind of liked being in red shoes’ company. There it was again—I didn’t even know her name.
“Jared.” I held my hand out to her.
She stared at it for a long hard minute before offering me her hand hesitantly. Her handshake was pathetic. Loose and impersonal as if she was worried I’d give her cooties or something.
“I’m Selina,” she said eventually.
She looked back out the window. Her dreamy gaze watching the street lights pass on by.
“Nice to meet you, Selina,” I said softly, but she didn’t acknowledge me again. She just stared out the window until the cab pulled up in front of her apartment building.
She dug around in her purse in search of money.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” I told her.
She screwed up her face as she passed a couple of notes to the driver. “I can pay for my own ride.”
I watched as she stood on the sidewalk, bending down to take one final look at me, flashing her cleavage in the process.
“You coming?” she asked, raising one eyebrow.
“What?” I almost choked on the word.
She placed her hands on her hips for the umpteenth time since I’d known her.
“Hurry up and get out of the cab.” She said, now borderline impatient.
The driver turned to look at me. The expression on his face told me that I’d be crazy if I didn’t jump out of the cab.
“Okay,” I muttered under my breath for his benefit. I reached for the door handle and pushed out of the backseat.
The taxi drove off immediately in search of his next client, leaving me standing on the sidewalk, looking like a lost boy in someone else's neighborhood.
“What now?” I asked with my hands hanging in the pockets of my jeans.
She turned around, her heels so high that walking looked like a chore.
“What now?” She laughed, seemingly amused by the question. “Follow me,” she said without looking back.
I chuckled to myself for a moment. Either I was about to get seriously lucky or this was a setup. Either way, I was too young and naive to know any better.
I followed Selina home, and after that night, I never left.
Chapter 22
“It was you I wanted and it was her I went home with,” I say. “You were my desire and Selina was my consolation prize.”
Her eyes go wide as she sits upright on the bed, her knees glued tightly against her chest.
“I loved you from the moment I saw you.”
She shakes her head. “I’m not Selina, Jared. Not even close.”
“You’re right. You’re a better version of her.”
“Don’t say that, Jared,” she says softly.
I shrug. “Why not, it’s the truth.”
“You loved Selina. You were obsessed with her.”
I chuckle. “Is that what she told you?”
She nods her head. “I saw it for myself.”
That’s not how I remember it at all. Not even close.
“From the first moment I saw you, I wanted you, Savvy.” My voice breaks from the weight of my confession. “Even when I was with Selina you were the one I wanted, the one person I connected with. I thought you felt it too.”
She looks shocked as if this is the first time the possibility has ever crossed her mind.
“I don’t—I don’t know,” she says.
I can’t hide the disappointment from my face.
“Jared,” she starts when she notices my expression. “You were with Selina. No matter how I felt, you were off limits because you were Selina’s man.”
I scoff, shaking my head as my fin
gers wrap around the back of my neck.
“If you said the word, I would have left her in a heartbeat.”
Savannah’s face falls and I notice tears rise to the surface of her eyes. “She’s my sister, Jared.”
There’s no use either of us denying it. It’s the truth. The truth that we rarely acknowledge, Selina and Savannah are sisters and no matter how Savannah feels about me, her sister has always come first.
“I know,” I concede, “but it doesn’t make it any easier.”
She nods her head. She knows too.
I don’t know if we can ever go back to that, to the way we were on that first day. All innocence and curiosity. I hung on her every word and she toyed with me. The harmless flirtation that could have been so much more. It feels like a lifetime ago, and in the same breath, it feels like only yesterday.
Our only problem is deciding where to go from here. I would sign everything over to Selina and move countries if it meant having Savannah by my side, but I know she’ll never agree to it. She’s torn.
She stares at me, a blank expression on her face. I loved this woman from the moment I set eyes on her.
I think she feels the same way about me, but I fear that with time she’ll realize how much she doesn’t want me—how much she doesn’t need me—and she’ll walk out of my life for good. I hate the feeling that she’s slipping away from me even though we’re sitting in the same room. I feel as though she might as well be one-thousand miles away.
Her voice is hoarse when she speaks again as if she hasn’t spoken in days. “I don’t know what you expect me to say, Jared,” she says. “I can’t tell you what to do.”
I lean back, my hands cushioning my head as my elbows brush against the taut leather of the headrest.
“I don’t need you to tell me what to do,” I say, a familiar confidence returning to my voice. “I already know what my answer is.”
I take her hand in mine, bringing it to my mouth and kissing her palm tenderly.
She offers me a sideways glance, she’s wary of me, even now. Her eyes focus on my face before trailing down my body.
“You worry me, Jared,” she whispers.
Her fingers lace together with mine. I worry her and yet she’s not letting go.
She lies by my side, staring at the ceiling dreamily. She’s the most relaxed I’ve seen her in weeks and when I think about our life together, this is how it could be. Weekend trips to the markets, Saturday nights spent cooking meals for friends, every other night spent cuddling next to the fireplace. Yes, this is it. This is how it should be.
I don’t need a fancy car or the big house, I’ll be happy right here with her.
“Tell me you feel it,” I say, my eyes boring into hers.
“Feel what?”
“Me and you.” I gesture between us. “Tell me it feels right like this is how it’s meant to be.”
She nods her head slowly—cautiously. “You’re not imagining it. It feels right.”
She clears her throat quietly, unsaid words resting upon her lips. “So…what are you going to do?”
I prop myself up on my elbows and glance down at her face. A wrinkle settles in the middle of her forehead, she’s overthinking things again. I reach between us and rub the pad of my thumb over the crease.
“I’ll give her whatever she wants,” I say with a smile. “But I’m not giving up on us.”
She presses her lips together as she tries to suppress a smile—or frown—who can tell anymore?
“Jared, don’t make this decision with your heart.”
I chuckle lightly, my fingers brushing against her arm. “Too late.”
She sighs as if on cue.
“You think you’ll be happy with me Jared, but you won’t. Not in the long term.” She pauses, her eyes continuing to search my face for any semblance that I understand what she’s saying. I don’t.
“You’ll always blame me, Jared. Despise me even.”
I shake my head. “How can you say that?”
Her eyes close as she draws in a breath. “If you lose your money, you will blame me. You may think you won’t, but you will. You’ll blame me and I will never forgive myself for that.”
Her wide eyes take me in, she looks at me as if she can see into my soul, I’ve never felt such a connection with another being and she wants me to give up on it all.
“This whole affair was a mistake, Jared. You will see it as I do one day. I never should have started these games.”
A smile slowly spreads on my lips and she wrinkles her forehead in response.
“What?” she questions. “Why are you smiling?”
Even when she’s trying to be serious, she’s adorable as hell.
She makes my skin burn and my heart pound and with a flutter of her eyelashes, she makes my cock rise to attention.
She shoves me in the shoulder. “Stop it, Jared. Why are you smiling?”
“Because you have no idea that I started this whole thing.”
She sits upright, her back straight, her eyes wide. “What do you mean?”
The evening that started it all, Savannah came over for dinner, Selina wanted to set her up with some jackass photographer with long hair and a crooked smile. I was jealous that I had to witness the beginnings of a relationship that wasn’t meant to be, so I did what any normal guy would have done. I planted the seed of doubt in Savannah’s mind before the night had even begun.
I didn’t say anything to her, it was all physical. I grabbed her hips in my hands and pulled her back against my body. Her ass grazed my cock, and instead of fighting it, she welcomed my touch. I couldn’t have planned the situation better if I tried. Sure, I didn’t know Savannah was going to run and tell Selina, but on the flip side, it worked. Savannah never saw that Corey jackass again.
“You,” she starts, holding her finger in the air as she points at me. “You knew I wasn’t Selina when you grabbed me.”
The smug look on my face is admission enough.
She picks up a cushion from the bed and throws it at my head. “You are sly,” she says, but there’s a hint of playfulness in her voice.
I hug the cushion to my chest as I recline back on the bed. My eyes drift closed, but I’m well and truly awake.
“As I said, Savannah, it was always you.”
Chapter 23
I’ve never been one to gloat, but the spring in my step is impossible to deny. I spent an incredible night with Savannah and for the first time in weeks, I feel like we’re back on track.
Picking the paper up from the doorstep, I halt when I see her standing on the front porch. It’s the house we used to call home together. I carried her over the very same threshold eight years earlier.
I remember that first day so vividly. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face because, in my mind, marriage meant something. It was like I’d ticked another thing off my list. I was doing the things that grown-ups were meant to do.
When I watched Selina walk down the aisle, my heart stopped beating, partly because I couldn’t believe she agreed to marry me and then again, for exactly that reason. She agreed, and we had to go through with it.
I remember that she stood by my side and held onto my hand tightly, the tension in her body clear as day. I looked to her side, there Savannah stood in the blue dress that brought out the color in her emerald green eyes. She smiled at me, a genuine smile and I returned it, my gaze eventually traveling back to Selina. She was the love of my life, I told myself. And moments later, she was my wife.
Now here we stand. She might as well be a stranger.
I don’t say anything, I don’t have to. She speaks first, her usually red lips now a glossy pink. Her hands hanging loosely by her sides instead of imposingly on her hips.
“Hello,” she says. “You look well.”
I shrug, rolling my head to the side. I felt great before coming home only to be greeted by my soon to be ex-wife.
“Jared, I’m leaving. For good this time.”
Okay, now she’s piqued my interest.
“Leaving?” I question. “Where are you going?”
She exhales, her lips part as she tries to hold her composure.
“France.”
She waits for me to respond, but I don’t. I know that she’s leading a double-life. I know that she plans to use my money to fund it. I may be naive at times, but I’m not fucking stupid.
“Do you need a lift to the airport?”
I’ll happily drop her off at the terminal doors. I’m ready to wave goodbye to that chapter of my life.
She rolls her eyes and the memories come flooding back to me. There’s the woman I married. She couldn’t hide forever. Impossible.
“I’m here to pick up Cooper.” She gestures towards the door, signaling for me to unlock it and invite her inside.
I study her face for a long moment. She seems like a tame version of the woman who visited me during the middle of the night just a few weeks ago. I don’t know if it’s an act, but I guess I’m about to find out.
I step around her, unlocking the deadlock and pushing the door open.
“Go,” I say. “Make it quick.”
She brushes past me, her familiar scent washing over me like an unwelcome guest.
I wait on the doorstep, my hands on my hips as I look up at the dewy morning sky. Clouds are rolling in far above. It looks like rain, it smells like rain, but nothing will dampen my mood. Nothing.
When she returns, Cooper’s in his travel bag that’s emblazoned with a highly pretentious symbol that insinuates glamor and class, or so Selina hopes.
She hangs the bag over her shoulder.
I reach for the soft, mesh window, my fingertip touching his nose.
“Bye, boy. Be good for your mom.”
Selina smiles slightly, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. She looks as though she has the weight of the world on her shoulders and I almost feel sorry for her—almost.
“Jared.” She clears her throat. “I’ve dropped the lawsuit.”
My body sways as her words hit me like a punch in the face. I really need to take a seat. I fall back against the door as I try and work out if this is a reality or if this is all part of her wicked, devious plan.
“My lawyer will be in touch with Shaun,” she pauses. “You know, to finalize the divorce and all.”