He groaned. “And after the break, if she doesn’t come around, what then?”
I hadn’t gotten that far. I shrugged. “Then we’ll cohesively come to a decision…together.”
He looked in pain as we sat there, both knowing that we needed to get up from the couch and he needed to leave. I stood up from the couch, pulling him up after me. I walked him to the door and turned around to look at him. I brushed my thumb across his lips, before leaning in and taking his lips against mine. The kiss was soft and romantic, but I didn’t let it linger long into the moment because it would surely make for an even more difficult time if I had.
“I love you!” I whispered as we parted lips.
“I love you too!” I opened the door and he started to leave when he turned around and swooped back in for another kiss. This time he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me towards him. I didn’t even bother trying to fight it as the kiss kept us connected. After what seemed like forever, I forced myself to pull back. I looked into his eyes and we had such a connection that I knew that the next few days even would be too hard. He lifted his hand and waved to me and then left my apartment.
I walked over to the door and closed it, then turned around and fell against it, my heart breaking as he walked further away from me. I needed to do something to get through, but I didn’t know how time would pass without him.
Over the next three days, I didn’t even want to get out of bed, let alone go to work and try to live my life without him. During that time, Trevor called me two times and texted me five. Each one I had to ignore. The days that went by didn’t make things easier, they actually made them more difficult. I attempted to get on with my life, telling myself that I’m the one that wanted the distance between us, but one thing was true, my heart was growing more attached to him.
I wanted to check up on him with each passing hour, but I was being stubborn. When another three days went by and we were on the verge of a passing week, I didn’t think I could take it any longer. I wasn’t sure how I had made it so long the last time we parted ways when this was becoming increasingly difficult.
Every time I turned around, I thought I saw him. A few times I drove past his work, just so I could make sure he was still in town. The calls had stopped, but I wanted to make sure he hadn’t completely given up. When I found his car, I was confident that he was hanging in there and just trying to honor my wishes.
I kept telling myself that it’s just another week at most and then I would call him and we could talk. I did wonder what his parents were thinking about our split up and if he even told him, but the less I thought about Mr. and Mrs. Marx, the better off I was.
I had made it three more days, hitting the home stretch, when I woke myself up with a start. I clutched my chest. I kept hearing the same words over and over again. This isn’t goodbye. This isn’t goodbye. I couldn’t get the words out of my mind. I reached across to my phone and started to type out a text message.
Krystal: Hey. Woke up thinking about us and I really don’t think I can take another day of not being you.
After I got out the message, I shot a look towards the alarm clock and found that it was just after seven. I was sure he was up and at work already, so it wasn’t like the message would wake him, but I slowly deleted it. I sat there, frustrated at myself that I couldn’t just admit that I wanted to see him and be with him. I fell back in bed and stared up at the ceiling. I could still feel his arms around me. I could still taste his lips as we kissed. Yet, as each day went by, I worried that maybe he wasn’t missing me the way I was missing him.
I rolled onto my side and looked at the clock, trying to will myself back to sleep, but I couldn’t do it. I sat up in bed and slipped out of the covers. I needed to do something proactive and I knew exactly what that was.
I was showered, dressed, and out the door by the time it reached eight thirty. Driving towards The Mirage hotel, I tried not to think too much about what I would say. I just wanted to wing it and hope for the best, but I knew it was what I needed to do.
I entered the hotel with as much courage as I could possibly have. I went up to the desk in the lobby. A woman, possibly in her thirties or forties, looked up. “Welcome to The Mirage. How may I help you?”
“I was wondering if you could tell me what room. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Marx is in?”
“I’m sorry, but we’re not allowed to give out guests’ information.”
“Well, can you ring the room and tell them they have a visitor?” I asked. Even though I wanted to sneak up on them, so they couldn’t find reasons not to see me, this was going to be the only option. Or, so it appeared.
“Are they expecting you?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No…not really.”
She frowned. “I’m sorry, but I don’t really think I can help you.”
I sighed, desperate to find another way. “Can’t you just ring their room and see if they’ll see me?”
She sort of rolled her eyes, then went to her phone. The plus was, I knew that they were still there, so I could at least have a chance to talk to them. After a moment of waiting, she hung up the phone and walked back over to me. “I’m sorry, but there’s no one in their room. Would you like to leave a message and I’ll get it to them?” she asked.
I felt sad that I was going to miss the chance to speak my mind, especially when I had gotten the courage to take the drive. “No, but thank you! I’ll try later.”
I turned around and headed towards the door when I heard my name. “Krystal?”
I looked to where the voice came from and saw Trevor’s mom gawking at me. Standing next to her was her husband, and he had sort of a sheepish grin on his face. I walked closer to them. “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Marx,” I said.
“What are you doing here?” his mother asked, not paying me the same respect.
“Well, I obviously came to see you both. Can we talk?” I asked.
After a few awkward glances between his mother and father, she finally turned to me and nodded. “Let’s take it up to the room.”
I would have been fine doing it in the restaurant at the hotel or even the lobby, but instead, I followed them to an elevator and we took the long ride up to their hotel room. It was quiet and very sterile and I felt like I shouldn’t even allow myself to breathe.
When we got to the room, Mr. Marx opened it with his key and then held it open for both of us to go inside. Once inside, I noticed that their luggage was stacked up by the door. I looked at it, then them. “Were you guys leaving?” I asked.
Mrs. Marx didn’t say anything, instead, it came from Trevor’s father. “We just had breakfast and planned on checking out when we got back to the room.” Of course, they would because they believe they’ve won.
“Oh…I see,” I quietly stated.
“Have a seat,” he said, pointing to the edge of the bed.
I slowly walked over there and sat down. That’s when the nerves fully set in. “So, for starters,” I began, “I don’t know if you guys know what’s been happening between Trevor and myself over the past week and a half.”
His mother nodded. “Oh yes…we’re fully aware,” she said. “I can’t say that I’m surprised.”
“Matilda!” Trevor’s father quickly said. It came out in a scolding manner, surprising me.
She looked at him and then turned back to me. “Go on!” she said.
My eyebrows furrowed, but I continued. “Well, so I want you to know that I still very much love your son and when I opted for a break, it was because I wanted to give everyone involved a chance to think about things.” I shook my head. “You have to know that I don’t want you guys to dislike me. I don’t want you to be upset with Trevor. This past week and a half have been rough on me and I have come to the conclusion that Trevor’s happiness is truly the only thing that matters to me. If me staying away, so that Trevor can be completely happy, then I’ll do it. However, if he misses me as much as I miss him, then I would want to mend our relations
hip.”
I paused, giving them time to say anything, should they want to. Instead, they just kept this silence between them, where they continued to glance at one another and then look at me.
“I really don’t want to come between you and your son and so if there’s some way that Trevor can find happiness, that involves you guys going along with it, then I feel that would be the best option.” I wrung my hands in my lap, as I looked between the two of them. With neither one still saying a word, I felt it was a lost cause. “I guess that’s it,” I said. I stood to my feet and frowned. I didn’t know why they couldn’t at least say something. “Goodbye! Have a safe trip home.”
I started to move past them when it was his mother’s voice that stopped me. “Sometimes I can be stubborn, I do know that.”
I turned around and looked at her in shock. “Excuse me?”
She nodded and there was even a hint of a smile in her eyes. “Thomas used to say that it was one reason he fell in love with me.”
Thomas laughed and I cast a glance his way. “Yet, sometimes she can be a little too stubborn,” he said.
I found myself smiling as she gave him an annoyed look. “We both know how much Trevor loves you and how much he has always loved you. That’s never really been a question. I’ve just always tried to put his best interest at heart.”
“Your best interest,” her husband quickly stated.
She nodded. “My best interest. You were right when you said that I’m worried about what my friends would think, but honestly, I don’t give a damn what my friends think.” She paused. “Not when it comes to Trevor’s happiness. Hearing you say that that’s the most important thing to you, really resonated with me. Because, above all, I want the woman that my son loves to put his happiness, ahead of even her own. And I can see that in you.”
“You can?” I asked, utterly shocked at this sudden revelation.
She nodded. “You are a nice woman and any mother should be satisfied with just that. I’m sorry that I let my stubbornness cloud my judgement.”
I shook my head. “I do love your son, Mrs. Marx. You have to know that that’s the only reason I would try to make things right because he adores you both so much. I couldn’t imagine being the reason that there was tension between you guys.”
She looked at her husband and then turned her attention back to me. I saw tears in the corner of her eyes and I was amazed that we could finally be at a point where they would accept me. “We saw Trevor last night and he pleaded with us to just let him be happy and I was still believing that he didn’t know what would make him happy, but all along it’s been you.”
“You don’t know how much this means to me,” I said. “I feel like I’m in a drea” I started to go on when there was a knock at the door.
“And right on cue, that should be Trevor,” Mr. Marx stated.
“Really?”
His mother nodded. “He was going to pick us up and take us to the airport,” she said.
I couldn’t believe the moment was coming down to this. Thomas walked to the door and opened it up and like a magnet, his eyes went to me. His mouth hung down. “Krystal? What are you doing here?” he asked. He moved into the hotel room and looked at his parents and then back to me.
“I needed to try to talk to them and make things right.”
“Wow!” he said. He moved closer to me and I looked at his parents, before turning back to him.
“Everything is perfect!” I said.
He tilted his head. “It is?” he asked.
“We just want you to be happy,” his mother said. Trevor turned to her and he frowned.
“I’ve been telling you forever now that Krystal is what makes me happy. So, why the change of heart?”
“Well, because I have seen Krystal come forward and profess her love numerous times now, but having her come to the hotel today and say that your happiness is all that matters and that she has this undying love for you, it reminded me of our love.” Mrs. Marx wrapped her arm around her husband’s waist. “For the record, your grandmother didn’t like me much when we first started dating either. I just never pictured I would become your father’s mother.”
That caused Trevor to laugh and he turned to me and moved in closer. We were going to have the reunion that we both wanted. “I love you, Krystal.”
“And I love you!” I wrapped my arm around him and pulled him to me and we kissed. We didn’t care who was there to witness it, we were finally going to have our happily ever after.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
The address was on my GPS. I didn’t know where it was going to take me, but the further I drove, the more convinced I was just chasing a white rabbit. “Where you taking me Trevor?” I asked out loud.
He sent me a cryptic message that told me I should drive to this address and come inside when I got there. Some would say that it was not nice to send me to the unknown, but for me, I found it thrilling.
Things had been great with us since he permanently moved all his things to Vegas and we were now living together. I had never been happier in my life and what was even better, was the fact that everyone in our lives was happy for us.
I turned another corner and the GPS said that I was only 1,000 feet away from my destination. I frowned as I came to a strip of stores. I parked in the parking lot, but that left me unsure of which store was the correct location “1085, 1085,” I kept repeating out loud as I got out of the car and walked to the walkway. “1085.” The building numbers were labeled well, so it wasn’t hard to come to the right location. However, when I looked up at the name of the building, my jaw dropped. “Baker Street Jewels?” The window displays were layered with rows and rows of jewelry, from watches to rings.
I hesitated at the door, but then opened it up and entered the small store. I was the only customer in there. In fact, I appeared to be the only person in there. I frowned. I wasn’t even sure I had the right address. “Hello?” I called out.
Then from the backroom, a woman came out and greeted me. “Hello and welcome. My name is Calista and I’ll be assisting you today.”
I laughed. “Assisting me with what?” I asked.
She tilted her head and smiled. “Whatever your heart desires.”
“Ummm….okay, well my heart desires to know what’s going on,” I said, laughing nervously. “Is Trevor Marx here?” I asked.
She frowned. “Who?”
That confused me because she should know who he was if she knew who I was. “Well, my boyfriend. I received a message with this address, telling me to drive out here, but now I’m here and he’s not.” I laughed. “I’m really confused.”
She chuckled. “I can see that. Would you like to look at necklaces?” she asked.
She came over and grabbed my hand, then pulled me to a display case that had hundreds of necklaces. I looked down at the case, but that didn’t change the fact that I was confused. “These are nice,” I said. I looked up and around and then back at her. “Are you sure Trevor Marx isn’t here?” I asked.
“How about some bracelets?” she asked, pulling me over to another set of cabinets.”
I laughed. “Am I on a TV show and someone is going to jump out with a hidden camera?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, my dear. If you don’t want a necklace or bracelet, how about a fine watch?” She pointed out the displays of watches, and it was like I was talking to myself.
“I’m sorry and I really don’t mean to be rude, but I really thought my boyfriend was going to be here and I really don’t understand what’s going on. Maybe I’ll just leave.”
“No!” she quickly stated, startling me. “If watches, necklaces, and bracelets aren’t your thing, then how about a ring?”
She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the cabinets that had the rings. I looked at them and it was rows and rows of engagement rings. “Very beautiful,” I said.
“Does any stick out to you?” she asked.
Trevor
and I had talked about looking at engagement rings down the line, but I always thought he would be by my side when I looked at them. However, in the moment, I spotted one and pointed to it. “I like that one,” I said.
I looked up and she grinned widely. “You do?”
I laughed and nodded. “It’s gorgeous.”
“Would you like to try it on?” she asked.
I felt weird saying yes, but then something just felt right. Trevor had drug me out there, and now he wasn’t even there, perhaps the whole point was to look at engagement rings and he got stuck at work. I was hopeful that that was his plan all along. I nodded. “I would love to.”
She nodded. “Then turn around!”
I frowned. “Turn around?” I slowly turned around and I found Trevor behind me. He was on one knee and holding the ring that I had chosen.
“Trevor?”
He was grinning like a schoolboy. “From the moment we met, I fell in love with you. Sure, we’ve had obstacles, but it has only strengthened that love. As I kneel before you today, I am blessed to know that you love me too. So, the next logical step is for you to be my wife. Will you marry me Krystal and make me the happiest man in the world?”
Tears overflowed from my eyes. I covered my mouth and nodded, feeling the love only grow for him. “I will marry you Trevor!” He pulled the ring from the box and slid it on my finger and then stood to his feet and wrapped his arms around me. We kissed in the middle of that jewelry store, wearing the perfect ring, and standing beside the perfect man. I was blessed and nothing was going to ever get in our way of finding our forever happiness.
BONUS CONTENT
Meeting A Stranger
Emily Vincent
Chapter 1
7:30 on a Friday night was probably not a good time to die. The city morgue was closed. They’d stuff her lifeless body into a body bag, dump in a freezer somewhere where she would do a slow rot. The coroner would arrive first thing Monday morning and find her stiff as a log, bluish gray like meat gone bad, with a sheen of ashy fungus growth covering her whole body.
On Fire (Seduction Series Book 3) Page 9