First Love

by Amy Brent

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “My mother has cancer,” I said. “Battling it for the second time.”

  “Oh, Mason. I’m so sorry.”

  “She’s withering away, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

  “What happened when you got there?” she asked as she cupped my cheek.

  “We talked. I found out so many things.”

  “Like what?” she asked.

  “She left because she was unhappy. Apparently, my father and she started having problems. Problems he didn’t want to fix with therapy or anything like that. She didn’t want to pull me out of school or yank me away from my friends, so she left me with my father, and they agreed to split everything fifty-fifty.”

  “Sounds like an impossibly hard decision for her,” she said.

  “She could only find a third-shift position working in a factory, which was why she never picked up the phone for me. She said she wrote me letters every morning and sent them off before she went to sleep, but I never fucking got any of them. Our guess is that my father was intercepting them and doing something with them.”

  “Have you called him?” she asked.

  “I can’t. Not right now. I’m still too … angry. I don’t want any more anger in this situation. Just the truth,” I said. “She admitted she could’ve done more. Sacrificed her sleep to come see me. Taken vacation time and taken us somewhere. But looking into your eyes and seeing the toll your sacrifice took on you, I can’t—”

  She leaned forward and kissed my lips softly as I tried to choke back tears of my own. My arms wrapped around her and pulled her close, rolling her on top of me as my face tucked right into the crook of her neck. I took in her scent as her lips traced over my skin, and I could feel my pent-up emotions bubbling to the top.

  I began to sob into her skin as years and years of questions and anger came pouring forth, and all Sarah did was hold me until I was finished.

  “Mason, I’m so proud of you. You went your entire life not knowing her. Now, you can get to know her. Stick around and spend time with her,” she said.

  “And you, too. I want to see you as much as I can,” I said as our eyes connected again.

  “You can see as much of me as you wish. There’s just one question.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “The media. Where do we go from here?”

  “I don’t give a shit about the media frenzy. All I want is to be with you. I just don’t want you suffering any more losses to your fan base or the reputation of your show by being seen with me.”

  “I couldn’t care less about any of that now if I wanted to,” she said. “I’m tired of sneaking around. I want you to be able to hold my hand while we walk down the street. I want to be able to kiss you on the streets of the city I love most. I want you to visit me at work and have no one get upset. I want you to surprise me in my dressing room. I want us to be able to cruise with the top down in Dallas and not feel weird about it.”

  She smiled, and my entire world lit up like the sun. I cupped her cheek and brought her lips back to mine as her body sank between my legs. She tasted of sweat and love and adoration, and the moment she pressed her cheek to my chest, I could feel her heave a sigh of relief.

  “I love you, Sarah,” I said, “and we’ll navigate this together.”

  “I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d want to navigate this with,” she said. “Except maybe Hugh Jackman.”

  “It’s always Hugh Jackman,” I said breathlessly. “What is it about that guy?”

  “It’s the Wolverine thing,” she said. “The claws and the muscles and the fighting and the strength. Oh, and the body hair.”

  “You like his body hair?” I asked.

  “It’s manly! Don’t shoot the messenger,” she said.

  “I don’t think that phrase means what you think it means,” I said, grinning.

  “Well, anyway. There’s your answer,” she said as she snuggled deep into my body.

  “I could grow body hair, you know,” I said.

  “Don’t you dare change a thing about yourself,” she said as she looked up at me. “I love you just the way you are.”

  We held each other all night as we slept the evening away. Our bodies kept finding one another’s as we gravitated toward each other’s heat, like two magnets desperately searching for their counterparts. I woke up with her softness beneath my fingers and her light snores landing in my ear, and as I looked at her, I saw the rest of my life etched in her relaxed features.

  I was in love with Sarah Williams, and I wanted her by my side forever.

  Epilogue

  Sarah

  One Year Later

  “Come on, Sarah! Get up! I wanna go shopping!”

  I groaned as I listened to Emma shout out into my apartment. She’d had a key to my place forever, but she rarely ever used it. We preferred her townhome because it snuck back into a cozy little place where the paparazzi could never find us. But this morning was different.

  This morning, she was intent on ruining me.

  “What time is it?” I asked.

  “Ten in the morning. Get up. I’ve got you coffee. Throw on some deodorant and perfume and let’s get going.”

  “Oh, no. I’m showering first,” I said.

  “No, you’re not,” she said as she thrust a cup of coffee into my hand. “Come on. You’ve got thirty minutes.”

  “I could shower in five,” I said.

  “We all know that’s a boldfaced lie. Come on.”

  She dragged me out of the house thirty minutes later and tossed me into her car. I knew I promised her we’d spend the day together, but I figured the day wouldn’t start until our usual time. Emma was never out of bed before eleven in the morning, so there was a part of me that was wondering what the fuck was going on.

  “Come on. This store’s got a sale going on,” she said.

  After a couple of stores and one more cup of coffee, I started to wake up. We dipped into jewelry stores and clothing stores. We went into a candle store and came out with headaches that prompted us to slip into a drug store. We stopped for lunch and had wonderful sandwiches before getting smoothies to go. Then we decided to pamper ourselves and get our feet done.

  We threw all our bags into the trunk of her car and started for the salon.

  “I haven’t had this done in weeks,” Emma said. “It feels so good.”

  “It always tickles when they start in on the loofah sponge,” I said as my feet jumped.

  “You’ve always been overly ticklish. Is that something my brother knows yet?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “He does. I wonder who told him?”

  Emma started giggling as the owner of the salon brought of glasses of wine.

  “A complimentary glass for the heart of Dallas,” she said.

  In the past year, my career had taken off. They gave my show the lunchtime hour, and my ratings were higher than they’d ever been. I got to continue doing the hard-hitting interviews I wanted that educated Dallas, but I also got to throw my little spin on it as well. Emma would come in and co-host with me on occasion when she could pull away from her own job, and she was doing fantastic. Having two powerful women with headstrong opinions on the show bolstered the ratings, and I wanted to see if I could groom her to be my regular co-host one day.

  And this time, I didn’t have to worry about my host making out with my boyfriend.

  “Emma, how are you feeling about the show?” I asked.

  “Oh, I love doing that thing with you. I don’t know how you do it every single day, but I can see why you love it.”

  “You wouldn’t want to do it every day?” I asked.

  “I mean, I’d have to quit my job obviously.”

  “How do you feel about that?”

  “About no longer being the general manager of a restaurant? Count me in,” she said, giggling.

  “Fine. I will.”

  “What?” she asked.

/>   “Count you in. Whenever you want to come by and talk to Mac, he’s ready to go over the terms and conditions of your first season.”

  “Sarah, what are you saying?” she asked.

  “I’m saying, if you want to quit your job and come be a co-host full time, then do it,” I said.

  Her eyes lit up as everyone around us started taking pictures. Emma lurched from the hands of the pedicurist and threw her arms around my neck, pulling me close as she laughed with joy. She held me for what seemed like ages, and I could feel her shoulders shaking with delightful anticipation. I pulled back and saw her eyes filled to the brim with tears of happiness, and I swiped them away before I placed a kiss on her cheek.

  “Welcome to ‘Does This Affect Dallas?’. It’s going to be a whirlwind of a ride,” I said.

  We got our toes done and decided to get manicures, and by the time we walked out of there, it was past dinnertime. Emma started driving us back to my apartment, but then she diverted last minute and turned us around.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “I’m starving. And I’m sure you probably don’t have any decent food at your place. So, a restaurant it is.”

  She had a point. I spent so much of my time either with Mason or out in the city that I didn’t do a ton of grocery shopping. I usually had a bottle of wine stocked along with some nonperishables in the pantry, but the only thing I kept in my fridge were juices and eggs.

  We pulled up to The Soufflé Salon, and I looked down at my clothes. I was in a pair of dark-wash jeans and a top that fell off my shoulder on a good day. I looked back up at all the people filing in, with their little black dresses and their glistening jewelry, and I shot a look over at Emma as she scrambled out of the car.

  “Just come on. I’m starving, okay?”

  I climbed out of the car and hurried to her as we crossed the road. I had no fucking clue why she was bringing us to one of the most upscale restaurants in town, but I guess when the stomach wants a soufflé, this really is the only place to go. We walked in and the hostess greeted us with a wide smile, but instead of asking us how many were dining in, she simply started walking back into the restaurant.

  And Emma followed.

  “You coming?” she asked.

  I had no idea what was going on, but as we moved through the restaurant, I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. We dumped into a private room as the hostess held out her arm to usher us in, and it was filled with people I knew. Mac and the producers. Angie and her daughter. Tony Thomas who stood by a woman I’d come to know over the past year.

  Mason’s mother, with her shining smile and her stature that had tacked on twenty pounds since she was found to be in remission eight months ago.

  Then, the crowd parted as Mason stood there in a beautiful pinstriped tuxedo, and all I could do was hold my breath as he approached me.

  “What’s going on, Mason?” I asked.

  And still, without a word, he got down on one knee.

  “Oh, holy shit,” I said breathlessly.

  “Sarah Williams, I have loved you since the day I first had you. Since that first night in my home where you came over and gave in to me, I found myself lost in you.”

  “Mason, what are you doing?” I asked, whispering.

  “You have been the single greatest force in my life. You are the person who convinced me to open our new headquarters in Dallas. You are the one who convinced me to open up the new security branch of the company. You, Sarah Williams, are single-handedly responsible for my success and happiness over the past year.”

  “Mason,” I said. “I look like shit.”

  “There is never a moment I’ve ever seen you where you look anything other than ravishing. Breathtaking. Exquisite. There isn’t a moment where I hear your voice that I don’t melt right into my shoes. Your touch is the only thing that calms me down after a harsh day, and you are the only person in my life who has ever been a constant source of encouragement. Even at my lowest, there are nothing but kind words from you before you start in on a plan to fix things, and that is just one facet of the many things that pull me to you time and time again.”

  “I love you so much,” I said.

  I watched him reach into his pocket as he pulled out a small red box. He popped it open and displayed for me a ring. A beautiful, shining ring that forced a tear down my cheek. I reached my fingertips out to it and danced around its beauty as everyone’s eyes were on us. But right then, it was only me and the man I loved.

  “Sarah Williams, there isn’t another moment that I want to spend with you that harbors the risk of me losing you. I don’t want to live another second of my life wondering if you’ll be there when I wake up. From the moment I first told you I loved you, I knew I was looking at the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Sarah… my beloved moon and stars… will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

  Tears rushed down my face as I slowly sank to my knees. His eyes were hooked onto mine as my hands cupped his cheeks. I scooted toward him, feeling his hands settle on my hips, but the moment my lips meet his, I felt his arms wrap around my back.

  The crowd held onto their breaths as I pulled back and smiled.

  “Yes,” I said breathlessly. “I will marry you, Mason Baker.”

  The crowd erupted into cheers as Mason slid the ring onto my finger. I buried my face in my hands while he pulled me back against his body, shielding me from the commotion as he landed kiss after kiss on my neck. I heard waiters and waitresses filing in with trays of food as everyone sat down in their respective seats, but I stayed where I was, kneeling on the ground with the only man I’d ever loved while he held me tightly in his grasp.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  “Starving,” I said, whispering.

  “Then why don’t we get you some food?”

  “My God, I can’t believe I looked like this while you proposed to me.”

  His finger crooked underneath my chin and raised my gaze to his before we slowly stood to our feet.

  “There is nothing about this moment that isn’t perfect. Including what you’re wearing,” he said. “But, if you really care about it, there’s a dress I picked out for you in the restroom if you’d like to go change.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief as I planted a kiss on his cheek. I scurried off to the bathroom to get changed, but as I pulled all the clothes from my body, I heard the door to the bathroom open.

  Then, I heard it close.

  Then, I heard it lock.

  I smirked as the bathroom stall door slowly swung open. Mason was staring at me hotly, his eyes taking in my naked form as his bowtie sat undone around his neck. His hands undid the buckle of his belt while his eyes devoured my naked skin, and soon, I was being hiked up the wall with his thrusts into my body while I tried to muffle my moans into his tuxedo jacket.

  My body ached for him, and his cock throbbed against my walls. My legs clung to him tighter than they’d ever had before. Our lips were everywhere while my hands mangled his hair, and I could feel us quickly approaching our end as I coated his cock with my juices.

  We came together, swallowing each other’s groans as his cock filled me to the brim with his thick spurts of cum. He held me there, pinned between himself and the wall, his lips trailing down along my neck. He kissed, and he sucked, allowing me time to catch my breath before I got my feet back on the floor.

  “Well that was familiar,” I said, grinning.

  “Did you enjoy it?” he asked.

  “I always enjoy giving my body over to you,” I said.

  “Do you think they miss us out there?” he asked.

  “I think they’ll eventually notice both of us are gone,” I said, giggling.

  “Are you happy?” he asked. “Really, truly happy?”

  I looked up into his eyes and saw the doubt still swimming around in them. After a year’s worth of press, of resituating our lives, of rekindling relationships with family members and of blossoming
both our businesses, he was still hesitant about the decisions he was making.

  Like at any moment, I’d walk out that door and never come back.

  “There isn’t a word in any language spoken on this earth that encompasses how happy I am with you,” I said.

  The smile that bloomed across his cheeks was one I would remember for the rest of my life.

  “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m extremely hungry,” I said.

  “Just make sure you save room for dessert,” he said, winking.

  “Oh, Mason. You should know me by now,” I said as my hand reached down and cupped his sopping wet cock.

  “I always have room for dessert.”

  The groan that left his lips was nothing short of salacious, and my touch would leave a memory for him that would follow him all through dinner. We pieced ourselves back together and went to sit down, savoring the food we once had during that infamous day when the world found out about us.

  They knew we loved one another before even we did, and as we shared in the joy of our next step with everyone we loved, I thought about how things always come full circle.

  His mother laughing at his side. Emma giggling at mine. Our friends and family members enjoying the best French food in Dallas while we celebrated a future we had yet to carve out for ourselves. I took the hand of the woman who was going to be my new co-host and the hand of the man I’d pledged myself to, and I brought them both to my lips for a kiss.