Charming: A Modern Day Sexy Cinderella Story

by Jennifer Miller

  A sick heat made up of dread and disbelief runs through my body, twisting in my gut, making me wretch. My eyes, no doubt big as saucers look at Katie and she stares back at me. By silent agreement, neither of us makes a sound, hoping he’ll assume we aren’t home and will leave.

  “I know you’re in there, dammit. Both of your cars are here. Answer the door. I’m not leaving until you answer the door. Talk to me. Please. Please talk to me,” he says, his demands turning to pleading. He sounds desperate to speak to me, but all it does is make me angry. What is he thinking? That I’ll forgive him? That I’ll be okay with the fact he got my stepsister pregnant, and what? We can work it out and I’ll be a stepmom to his kid? Um no. I can’t believe he even has the balls to be at my door right now.

  Walking to the door, ready to yell at him, I stop when Katie grabs my arm. “No! Don’t you dare open that door,” she whispers harshly.

  “I’m not,” I shake my head. She holds onto me for a moment longer, but then nods and lets me go. Walking to the door, I keep it closed but yell loud enough to be heard through it, “Go away, Jeremy. I have nothing to say to you. I can’t believe you would even come here. Leave.”

  “Ella, please I’m begging you. Open the door. Let’s talk about this. It isn’t what you think.”

  “Are you serious? Oh thank god! So you mean your dick just accidentally found its way inside of Jackie? How stupid do you think I am?”

  “Just hear me out.”

  “No way in hell. How could we possibly work this out? Go away. You made a mistake coming here.”

  “Fine,” he growls. “I will give you tonight, but I will be back here every single day until you talk to me. I’m not giving up on us.”

  “It’s not going to work. Just go away. We’re done. The fact that you could even think anything differently is ridiculous. Leave,” I say sternly, “And don’t come back.”

  “We’ll see. I’ll get you to talk to me eventually.”

  His words make anger rush through me fast and furious and I have my hand on the doorknob ready to open it and scream in his face, but once again Katie is there. She places her hand on my shoulder and the small act is like ice water on a burn, I instantly calm down and am able to realize that the last thing I want to do is talk to him, look at him, hear anything he has to say.

  Dropping my head between my shoulders, I take some deep breaths calming myself. Then I sink to the floor once again. This is becoming a really shitty habit. “What am I going to do?” I ask not really expecting an answer.

  “We should leave,” Katie says.

  My eyes whip to hers, “Wouldn’t that also be known as running away from my problems?”

  “No, I prefer to call it problem avoidance – at least for a little while. Getting some distance so you can think and breathe without having to worry about him breaking down the door will be a good thing.”

  I think about it for a minute then look at her again, “Just leave?”

  “Why the hell not? You won that trip didn’t you? It’s all in your name plus a guest. You’re already packed and ready to go.” She shrugs like it’s the simplest thing in the world, “And since I know you’d prefer to have someone with you for a little while, I will volunteer.” She laughs and shrugs, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “You would do that? For me?”

  She rolls her eyes, “What kind of question is that? Will I be there for my best friend and go on a vacation to Cabo San Lucas where we can get drunk, get tans, and reintroduce you to the single world? But most importantly, where you can find a little peace and heal in the process. Please, where do I sign up?”

  “You can get the time off work without issue?” I ask, not quite ready to believe her yet.

  “I already took a few days off for your wedding, and you know Sally will give me a couple days more considering the circumstances,” she says talking about her boss at the insurance claims office that she’s worked at for the last few years. Her boss is a doll and loves her to pieces. “I’ll call her in a few minutes to make sure. Let’s check the airline first and make sure there are seats open on the same flight you’re taking.”

  “My vacation is two weeks, but I guess I don’t have to stay for that long,” I say thinking out loud.

  “You don’t have to, but you may want to. We can start off spending time together and then we can play it by ear from there. You may not be ready to leave after a few days, maybe you would like some time to yourself as well.”

  “True,” I tell her, my mind turning with possibilities. Looking at her with a smile, I stand and head to the stairs leading up to our rooms.

  “Where are you going?” she asks.

  Stopping I turn to her with a smile, “Do you want help packing or what?”

  She smiles and we run up the stairs. While I pull out her leopard print suitcase and start getting clothes for her, she grabs her laptop to book a flight and calls her boss. As I grab a few of her favorite bikinis, I picture us lying by the pool, margaritas in our hands, laughing, relaxing and most importantly forgetting. Sounds like the perfect medicine.

  “Katie sounds like she’s a wonderful friend to you,” Faye comments with sincerity.

  “She is. We’ve been best friends since we were eight. I can’t imagine my life without her. I hope I never have to.”

  Her eyes turn serious a line appearing between her brows, “We should all be so lucky to have friends like that. I hope you cherish her.”

  “I do,” I reply honestly with a nod of my head for emphasis. “I have no doubt that she knows how much I love her.”

  She smiles, “That’s good.”

  I find myself smiling back and something inside of my chest eases. She has a soothing quality about her and the pain in my heart seems to ease a bit while talking to her. I’m not sure what it is about her that’s so calming, but I’m thankful for it.

  “We had a great time together,” I tell her with a small laugh thinking about our week together in Cabo. When Katie returned home after a week, I did elect to stay for the second week after all. It was a week that was so amazing that thinking about it makes a gamut of emotions wash over me. Happiness, excitement, fondness, passion and sadness all in a rush so fast it makes my head spin.

  “She’s not with you now, so I assume you did end up staying longer?”

  “Yes, you’re right. I didn’t intend to before we left. Part of me thought that time alone would be too hard emotionally and I didn’t want to end up crying in my margaritas over my life. The funny thing is, I didn’t do a whole lot or mourning over my combusted relationship with Jeremy. At the beginning I had a few things to work through, but then, it was like I was able to let go. There’s nothing I can do about what happened; dwelling on it wasn’t going to change a thing. Maybe I should feel guilty about how easy it was to move on, but I think it’s a sign of just how wrong being with Jeremy was.” I shrug not really having any other words to explain what I feel. I mean, how much should a person mourn a relationship they weren’t completely happy in and never should have let go on as long as they did in the first place? I don’t think there’s a manual about that.

  “And you realized that being alone while on vacation wasn’t so bad after all?”

  My cheeks flush and I look down, absently scratching my nose, “Um, well, not exactly.” Glancing at Faye, I see amusement in her eyes.

  “Oh?” she asks raising a brow.

  “Well, I didn’t exactly spend that week alone.” I wait for her face to reflect judgment or disgust when she realizes exactly what I’m getting at. My breath stalls and I look at her worryingly, partly confused as to why I care what she thinks, and partly wondering why the hell I’m telling her any of this to begin with.

  “Well honey, I didn’t think so. A woman doesn’t board a plane from a beautiful place like Cabo San Lucas crying for any reason other than a man. So, get on with it. Do tell me more. Starting with when you and Katie arrived, of course.”

  My breath com
es out in a rush and I laugh softly reveling at how much I adore Faye already considering I’ve just met her. “Yes, ma’am.”

  When our plan lands we begin a crazy experience at the airport going through customs and retrieving our luggage. Before we reach the destination given to me by the resort to obtain our shuttle, we have to weave our way through a maze of people offering god knows what. It’s confusing and rather intimidating as some people are pretty aggressive, but we find the driver of our shuttle and settle in for a ride that reveals the countryside and non-touristy part of the city. The drive passes quickly. I feel the tightness in my shoulders begin to give way on the ride, but the minute our shuttle pulls through the security gates of our resort in beautiful Cabo San Lucas, I feel my entire being start to relax.

  Passing security where they ask my name and make sure we are on the list of check-in’s, our shuttle comes to a huge resort entrance. To my surprise, instead of pulling in, we continue past. Looking out the window, I see huge homes set in semi-circular patterns high up in the mountains and a large number of southwest-looking brightly colored buildings below. Lodging spreads out over what looks like many acres. Continuing, we capture sight of lush flower gardens, welcoming pools, a large fountain, and golf carts moving all throughout the property, driven by hatted men dressed in light khaki colored clothes, clearly transporting guests to and fro.

  As our shuttle continues down a long road, I see ahead of us, at ocean level, another large resort. It sits alone at the bottom of the mountain and it’s easy to tell even from this distance how amazing it’s going to be. Cabanas garnish the ocean’s edge where blue ocean water laps the sandy shore. Excitement builds and my foot starts tapping in my impatience to arrive.

  From the moment we walk through the glass doors of the lobby to check into our room, our mouths are agape in wonder. The pictures I’d seen of the resort definitely did not do justice. The lavish, yet tastefully adorned lobby is shaped in a circle, with an opening between eleven and one o’clock that reveals a breathing taking view of the ocean – its beauty as far as the eye can see. The white caps of the water keep winking in and out of view, and the smell of sea and salt is potent in the air. The lobby emits an appeasing aroma of lavender and something else I can’t place. The combination is divine and I can’t help but take a deep breath, close my eyes, and imagine the stress of the previous day rolling off of me in waves and evaporating into thin air.

  I feel a small twinge of sadness when I overhear the cute couple clearly in love checking into their room before us say they are here on their honeymoon. Knowing I’m supposed to be here on mine as well makes my eyes sting with unshed tears. I sniff and clear my throat hoping the action brushes the impulse away. As if she knows my thoughts, Katie catches my eye and smiles widely. The wonder and excitement of the few days we have together clear on her face. I can’t help but smile back, feeling thankful for the distraction. Looking forward to spending some time in an amazing place with my favorite person, makes the sadness fade away.

  As soon as we get to our room we make a joke about the huge king size bed. Unfortunately, they were unable to switch us to a double, but it’s okay, the bed is massive and we will easily be swallowed up into it with plenty of room on either side of us. I still tease Katie that I’d like to be the small spoon and she the big one.

  After we finish checking out the room, oohing and aahing at our ocean view, the towels folded into perfect fish, the plush robes in our closet and the multitude of toiletries available for our use, we immediately dig our swimsuits out of our luggage. Not even taking time to unpack anything else, we excitedly change, grab magazines, our kindles and sunblock, and get our booties to the pool.

  A couple hours later, I’m lounging next to Katie, sucking down my third, or maybe it’s my fourth, margarita. Happily feeling the buzz of alcohol, especially since I’m drinking on an empty stomach, we are enjoying the view. The pool sits at ocean level and the only thing that separates us from the beach is plexiglas that has been perfectly placed at the outer edge. It helps mute the sound of the wind and ocean, and likely would protect the pool from any gusts of dust if the wind would pick up, but does nothing to obstruct the gorgeous view.

  Our resort is adult’s only, so the pool while hopping, doesn’t include excited screaming children running around. Waiters and waitresses constantly move around chairs either taking food and drink orders or delivering orders to guests. Katie and I just ordered fish tacos– because yum.

  “It’s like a Mariah Carey video,” Katie says at my side. She’s on her tummy, feet kicking in the air behind her, rocking her fuchsia and orange bikini. Her shades are on the top of her head and she’s looking out toward the ocean.

  “What is?” I ask, adjusting the top of my royal blue and white bikini wondering if I should put on more sunblock.

  “Those beds on the ocean.”

  “Oh, they are so romantic,” I sigh happily looking out to the cabanas she’s referring to. There are four of them and they are large four-poster beds literally sitting on the beach halfway between the pool and the ocean. They are gorgeous. Dressed with white linens and teal and tan pillows, they are adorned with gauzy white drapes that can be pulled – along with the darker shade- for privacy. The drapes billow in the wind creating a pretty picture and longing fills my stomach making it burn. “I bet Jeremy and I would have rented one of them.”

  “No you wouldn’t have because you were never going to go on a honeymoon with Jeremy,” Katie states her sunglasses lowered on her nose so she can glare at me.

  “True. I just can’t help but think about it I guess.” Looking toward the beds again, I let out another sigh. “I just can’t help but think about sex while looking at those things. Hot, clawing the sheets, sweaty, screaming orgasms kind of sex.”

  Katie laughs, “You mean the kind of sex you didn’t have with Jeremy?”

  I gasp, “Hey!” I tell her a little miffed she would use what I’ve told her against me at the moment.

  “Just sayin’. You know it’s true.”

  “Too true.” The admission makes me think of something and I cringe knowing exactly what Katie will say when I confess. “Katie,” I whisper, “I need to tell you something,” I swear that sounded like I slurred it.

  “What?” she says too loudly back.

  “Shh!” I tell her, flailing my hand in a shut up gesture.

  “Why are we having to ‘shh’?” she asks eyes wide repeating the same flailing gesture I just made.

  “Because I need to tell you something personal.”

  “Okay,” she whispers back hesitantly, and I laugh when she blindly uses her lips to find her straw and keeps missing. “Shut up,” she says with a roll of her eyes knowing I’m making fun of her.

  “I almost…” I pause reconsidering this topic of conversation.

  “Almost what?”

  “I almost gave up my butt for Jeremy.”

  Katie immediately lets out a shriek and sits up straight almost spilling her drink. Her sunglasses fall from the top of her head into her lap and she looks at me with her jaw wide open, “No!” she gasps in horror.

  “Yes,” I nod solemnly.

  “No!” she repeats herself.

  “Yes!” I nod again emphatically and take some large swallows of my margarita as if it will drown the shame.

  “Why?” She asks, “Why would you do that? I just don’t understand! We’ve talked about this. We should make a no butt sex pact or something. I think it’s another commandment. Best friends shall not let each other succumb to butt sex.”

  “You have a commandment for everything.”

  “For good reason! Look what you almost did! Again I ask you, why?”

  “Well,” I shrug, “I told you that our sex life was lacking. He kept bringing it up and I guess I thought maybe it would help.”

  “Butt sex is never the answer,” she says louder than comfortable.

  “God, Katie! Keep your voice down!” She giggles and signals our attrac
tive waiter from across the pool. He nods at her with a wide smile and heads on over. “Hi Juan, may we have two more margaritas as soon as possible, please? It’s a margarita emergency. An emergarita,” she says with a laugh and I can’t help it, I giggle. I think maybe we should consider quitting the margaritas actually.

  He smiles and laughs, “Uh-oh, sounds serious.” He walks away to place our order and her eyes track him lingering on his firm ass.

  “Looks to me like you’re thinking about doing something with his ass,” I say watching her head tilt to the side and wondering what the hell she’s thinking.

  “Oh, please. I can appreciate a nice ass, maybe even want to give it a nice bite, but that doesn’t mean I would ever consider giving up my butt. That’s completely two different things.”

  “Never?” I ask.

  Her eyes narrow slightly and she slides her sunglasses down her nose to make eye contact with me, “No!” She slams down her empty margarita glass on her thigh for emphasis, “What were you thinking? It’s exit only, Ella!” She makes a gagging sound which makes me laugh out loud. “So gross.”

  “Do you think everyone has your opinion?” I ask.

  “You mean our opinion? No, of course not.” Her eyes rove around the pool and settle on a couple. “Look at them,” she gestures casually. A man and woman lie side by sound in their loungers. The woman is lying on her stomach, her cheek resting on her arms as she looks at the man next to her. He is talking to his companion while his fingers trail down her back, over the curves of her ass and back up again. They are completely lost in each other. “I bet you they partake – probably have a bondage set and everything. I bet you he was more experienced and he’s been teaching her all kinds of things – maybe in his very own red room. They only have eyes for each other and will probably pack up and leave here soon so that they can go fuck like bunnies,” she tells me.