Those 365 Letters

by Ford, Mia

  I arrived at the hotel and got settled into my room. After that I quickly got ready and went to the job sight. I could have taken at least half the day to relax and get prepared, but I didn’t want to do that. I was too excited. So, I went straight from the hotel to the job site where I met with the foreman. He went over the plans with me and showed me the progress that was happening.

  Overall, I was fairly impressed. The designs were solid and in just one-week time the crew had made an astonishing amount of progress. The entire first floor of the five story building was already fairly well done. I loved my job. I loved being on construction sites. Looking at the plans from the original architect I could see that I would have to change very little as the construction continued along.

  After about an hour of being there and getting a good feel of things, I began to get very hungry. I hadn’t eaten breakfast and it was almost time for lunch, so I decided to drive over to Andy’s Diner. It was a new place not far from the site. Mostly my job the first day or so there was to put a bit of fear in the crew if need be. Just by presence of someone from corporate being around them, it was designed to urge them to work harder and to not goof off, but judging by the progress the foreman had his men working like a well-oiled machine. I was impressed. In fact, I almost felt like I didn’t need to be there. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t see more that needed improved.

  When I got to the diner, I ordered a cup of coffee and a toasted egg sandwich. As I was relaxing with my coffee and waiting for my food, I grabbed a newspaper off the table and began leafing through it. I remembered how my father would always read the newspaper with his breakfast every morning when I was a little girl and as I sat there doing the same thing, an odd feeling of déjà vu flashed through me. I was becoming way too much like my parents. And I wasn’t sure that was necessarily a bad thing.

  I was still so wired up, both from the drive and from the fact that I was really branching out on my own to oversee a project. It was the opportunity of a lifetime and I was terrified that I would somehow blow it or at the very least, something would not live up to the expectations and I’d let Daniel and everyone who believed in me down.

  I took another sip of my coffee hoping to calm my nerves. For whatever reason caffeine has always had a calming effect on me. Or maybe it’s just the warmth and the bitter, natural taste of the black coffee I’ve been hooked on since I was fifteen.

  The waiter brought my egg sandwich to the counter and set it down. I was about to take a break from reading to dive into the sandwich when something caught my eye. And when I say it caught my eye, I really mean it grabbed my entire head and forced it to remain still until I took in this startling new change in my reality.

  I was staring at an article about Landon. Apparently, he was working on developing some new strip mall and shopping center in the area and the article was showcasing some of the new and interesting designs that he and his team had come up with. It was fascinating and the picture of Landon standing there in front of the groundbreaking ceremony a few days earlier looked fantastic. He was as handsome as ever. He looked almost exactly the same, only I sensed a coldness in his gaze that I’d never seen before. He looked more like a CEO and less like a guy who was just working for his father. I guess in a lot of ways; he’d become his father.

  I didn’t know whether to pity him, or pity those who had to cross his path. He clearly was not the man I thought him to be. Was that why he’d cheated on me? Did he want me to catch him? I’d always thought that he’d let me go so easily. If he’d wanted to find me, he easily could have. With today’s technology, it was almost impossible to hide from anyone.

  But I hadn’t heard a peep from him in four long years. It was just as well. He was doing great and so was I. Maybe it was for the best. I wondered for a brief moment if I still wanted to track him down. He might not even see me. He was too much of a big shot to bother with a little peon like me, right?

  I was about to drop the paper when I noticed something even more bizarre. The buildings… Along with the picture of Landon and the groundbreaking ceremony was a computer printout forecasted model of what the strip mall and surrounding buildings would look like. I recognized several of the designs immediately. They were my designs…

  “What…” I muttered. I could hardly breathe. I clenched my eyes tightly shut several times trying to get the image out of my mind, but every time I opened them again there they were staring right back at me. It was sickening. I wanted to vomit.

  He’d stolen my ideas. Those were the very same ideas I’d shown him after dinner shortly after we’d started dating. He’d asked me about my ideas and I’d decided that I could trust him enough to show him. I did. He raved about them and said he would talk to some of the architects and see about getting these considered for some future projects.

  Well, it looked like he was going forward with them.

  That was it; I was going to see this bastard and give him a piece of my mind. I was not some naïve little eighteen-year-old girl anymore. I was a college graduate, and I was a fast rising star with a great construction company. I could be a force to be reckoned with and I was going to face off against Landon Glatt.

  I paid my bill and left the diner without touching my sandwich. I was too angry to eat. I had somewhere to be.

  I slid behind the wheel of my car and pulled out my phone. I quickly did some searching online and found that Landon had purchased a new home a few miles from the home he’d been renting when we were together. I knew the area well. I pulled out of the diner and drove to his house, which was only about a fifteen-minute drive outside of the city limits.

  When I pulled up to the house I expected to see some big, fancy gate and a security guard announcing people, or at least some sort of an intercom system.

  But instead it appeared to be an ordinary house on its own large piece of land. It reminded me of a farmhouse without a farm. It was beautiful, plenty for one person, but not the type of place you’d expect to find one of the wealthiest, young men in the country.

  Then again, maybe that was what Landon was going for.

  I parked in front of the house, got out of my car, and strode up the walkway to the front door. When I arrived there, I suddenly found myself a bit nervous. I was losing some of my gall. The anger that had flooded me since seeing the article was beginning to abate a little bit.

  I took a deep breath, dug my heels into the ground, and rang the doorbell. I only had to wait for about ten seconds before the door swung open.

  Landon was standing in front of me.

  Being in his presence was surreal. It was like waking from some kind of a beautiful dream, but I still didn’t know if I was awake or not. I thought for a moment I might faint, but I quickly regained my composure. I couldn’t just forget about the pain this man had caused me and the pain he was now continuing to cause me by stealing my work.

  The look on Landon’s face caught me off guard. He looked overwhelmed with shock. His eyes were almost tearing up, swelling and growing red. He put his hands on his face. They were shaking. His breath came in slow, controlled gasps. Was he hyperventilating? I’d never seen him this way. He looked like he’d seen a ghost.

  Landon stepped forward and pulled me into his arms. And I went. I didn’t resist. Tears were now welling up in my eyes, that old familiar sting. I’d shed far too many tears over this man. Was I going to give all that away now and let him just hold me as if nothing had ever happened.

  No. I couldn’t do that. But it felt so good. I wanted to be there in his arms. I wanted to erase it all and just start over, maybe pick up right where we left off. Why couldn’t we just start over?

  Because life doesn’t work that way. This man cheated on me. He destroyed our beautiful union. How dare he have the guts to hug me after all this time?

  I stepped back and pushed him away.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I asked.

  Landon was confused. Tears were still falling from his eyes, over a wid
e, heartbreaking smile. He was acting strangely. I did not picture this going this way at all.

  “I… I can’t believe you are here,” Landon said. “Finally, you are here. I’ve been waiting… I’ve been waiting so long…”

  Landon looked like he might fall to his knees and cling to me, but he remained standing.

  My confusion was exacerbating.

  “What are you talking about?” I demanded. “You cheated on me. This is your fault!”

  Landon’s eyes grew fearful as he slowly looked up at me. His face was filled with dread and total disbelief.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” He asked.

  Chapter 24

  Landon

  “I did not cheat on you,” I said.

  I was actually saying those words out loud. I was actually defending myself against asinine allegations. I tried to breathe steadily, but my chest was hurting and my lungs felt like they were stuck between two large, grinding gears.

  When Cora showed up on my doorstep, I didn’t know what to think. I thought I had to be dreaming. This was the thing I’d been waiting for since the day she left me and now, it was actually happening. I’d given up on her three years before, but knowing that she was with me now, in my home—that was all it took to bring back all of the old feelings I had for her.

  I was so happy to see her. But I was not ready for these preposterous allegations.

  “Then who was that woman?” Cora asked. “She clearly gave me a tie at your home with her lipstick on it. The implication was obvious. And then you just disappeared. You never even tried to contact me. And what is with you stealing my designs? I saw the paper. Did you really think you could get away with that?”

  “Wait a minute,” I said. “Hold up. This is crazy.” I sat down on the couch, taking a break from pacing back and forth as I usually did when I got nervous. “Listen, I don’t know who that woman was. It doesn’t sound like anyone I know and it sure as hell isn’t someone I slept with. I would never cheat on you. I did not cheat on you. And I didn’t steal your designs. I fully intended to have someone contact you about these designs and make sure you get the credit you deserve. I told you they were spectacular. Why would I lie to you about this?”

  “I don’t know,” Cora said dismissively. She was getting flustered, but I could tell that the doubt was now entering her mind. She had to know that she was mistaken. This was all a huge misunderstanding.

  I licked my lips and leaned forward. “If I didn’t care that you left and never contacted you then why would I lie to you now about cheating if I did it?”

  “Then where have you been? I never heard from you again after the police station.”

  “That night I went to Los Angeles, and then after my work was done I tried to call you. I couldn’t get through. Then I started getting the message that your number was disconnected.”

  “Yeah, I lost my phone at the gym. So, I had to get a new number,” Cora said.

  “Ok, that makes sense. But when I called your friends they wouldn’t speak to me. I tried to contact you on social media and suddenly, I’m blocked on all of your accounts.”

  “Yeah. When you cheated on me, I decided to get you out of my life.”

  I swallowed hard. Every time she said that I cheated on her I wanted to punch a wall. I would never have done that and for Cora to actually think that I would really hurt me. What was she doing? Surely, she knew that my love for her was way stronger than that.

  “I did not cheat on you,” I said through gritted teeth. “Start there. Acknowledge that you are wrong in this. Honey, I never would have hurt you in any way. I did not cheat on you.”

  Cora looked deeply into my pleading eyes and I saw, at last, a slight sparkle in hers. She believed. She knew I was telling her the truth. Finally.

  Cora ran a hand through her hair. “Ok. Then who was that woman? What happened with that fake phone call to the police?”

  I sighed. I knew that approaching this was going to be delicate. I’d had a feeling about this theory for a while, but I couldn’t really prove it until now. I had Cora’s account to corroborate things.

  “Cora, has it occurred to you that someone did not want us to be together?” I asked.

  Cora furrowed her brow. She shook her head slowly. “No… I mean, who wouldn’t want us to be together? What business is it of theirs?”

  I sighed and tried again. I wanted this to be her conclusion, not mine. It would go easier that way, otherwise she was going to get defensive. And she would have a right to.

  “Well, think. Is there anyone you can think of who for whatever reason thought it was a bad idea for you and I to be together?” I asked.

  Cora thought for a moment. And then her eyes lit up. She started shaking her head. “No… that can’t be…”

  “What?” I asked. “What can’t be?”

  “My parents wouldn’t do that,” she said.

  Her parents. I knew it.

  “Cora, I wrote you a letter every single day for one year. I sent them all to your parents’ mailing address. I didn’t want to chase you down. I didn’t want to disobey your wishes if you didn’t want to see me. Did they ever show you any of those letters?”

  Cora’s eyes were wide with doubt and fear. I could only imagine what she was going through. Her parents had orchestrated a pretty elaborate and evil scheme to keep two people apart. They’d interfered with their daughter’s life on an epic scale. How would she ever trust them again? I felt for Cora. I hated to do this to her and bring this scandal to light, but she had to know the truth. We both deserved another chance to be happy. Her parents did not have the right to make that decision for her.

  “No,” she said. “They never mentioned it. You wrote me a letter a day for a year? I never received even one of them. As far as they talked about things, they hadn’t heard from you at all.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “But I wouldn’t lie to you. I sent those letters and I had a feeling that you weren’t getting them. But I kept sending them anyway, just hoping that one day you would write back or at least talk to me, reach out to me. Eventually, I gave up.”

  “I don’t understand why they would ever do that,” Cora said. “They… they couldn’t…”

  She was crying now. I knelt down beside her and reached out to touch her hand. The pain she felt must have been unbearable. The people she trusted most in the world had done a terrible thing to her. They’d messed with her life and ruined her chance at true happiness.

  “I feel so stupid,” Cora said. “I should have realized it sooner. My parents thought we shouldn’t be together because of your wealth. They are very hung up on social classes and thought I’d never fit in or be happy in your world. They did all of this, didn’t they? They set up the girl. They hid your letters. And they convinced me to shut you out of my life for good, that they were right about everything. I can’t believe it. I don’t have any idea how I can ever be their daughter again.”

  Cora rested her head on my shoulder and I hugged her tightly.

  “It’s ok,” I said. “We have a new chance now. We don’t have to play by their rules anymore. We can start over and do it right this time, without anyone else’s interference. If you want to.”

  Those words left my mouth as if I’d been rehearsing them every day for the past four years. I guess in a way I had been. In the back of my mind I’d worked out what I wanted to say to Cora if I ever did see her again. We would find out what happened between us. I would discover why she had left me the way she did.

  And now I knew the truth. We were both duped. We were fooled and used for someone else’s selfish interests.

  “Do you really mean that?” Cora asked. Her eyes were wet with tears, but for the first time since she’d put together what had really happened, she looked hopeful. Her sweet, beautiful face… I couldn’t help but embrace it between my hands as I leaned in slowly and kissed her quickly, softly on the lips.

  “I absolutely do,” I whispered. “I’ve mis
sed you so much.”

  Cora smiled as the tears began to fall again.

  She grabbed me behind the neck and pulled me in closer to her. Then she placed her lips on mine and kissed me hard, pushing into me, her passion and strength all being unleashed within the expression of that one magical kiss.

  It was everything I’d been dreaming of for four long years. Feeling Cora next to me again, her sweet skin, her soft, perfect lips, her hot breath mingling with my own—it was the only thing in the world that could make me so happy.

  Cora was suddenly viciously turned on. She began to peel off her clothes, beginning with her blouse, and then the bra beneath. Finally, the skirt and her underwear came off her body. I had never seen her this fired up before. And I knew why. I felt it too. We both pretended to be strong and that we had moved on, but in truth, in actuality, we were both just waiting for each other. That passion had built up over the years until now it was something that just could no longer be contained.

  I ripped my shirt over my head and then furiously undid my jeans, kicking them to the floor and stepping out of them, almost leaping. With one last, quick movement I dropped my underwear to the floor revealing my huge, throbbing member waiting, just begging for Cora’s touch. I was so ready. I couldn’t remember a time it had been so hard. It was hurting from the pressure. I was afraid it might explode at first touch, but Cora new exactly what to do with it.

  She reached out with her long, slender, soft hands. Oh, they were so smooth… Cora grabbed my dick in her hand and began to rub it up and down from tip to base, squeezing along the way at random intervals. Sometimes she would squeeze hard and sometimes just a little bit.