An Unexpected Bride

by Shadonna Richards

  He had travelled to enough cities as part of his job to know. He’d been there, done that.

  e

  The aroma of bacon and eggs in the café dominated the environment. The taste of sausage in his mouth was juicy. He felt the coolness of the café, oddly the air conditioner was probably on.

  He saw out the window to the terminal gates passengers wheeling their hand luggage behind them, some carrying children. Travellers dressed in casual wear lugging bags and cameras and their boarding passes, hurrying to meet their flights. He loved the whole travelling gig. It made him feel like he was going places.

  He remembered when he was young, his family didn’t have much money to travel. He used to look up at the sky at night and see what he first thought was a travelling star but as he closely observed the strobe-light flashes, he realised it was an aircraft going to where—he didn’t know. He wished he could travel often.

  Something about being up in the air.

  Travelling. Going far. Going places. New. Exciting. Different.

  Then his eyes peeled back on the vision of loveliness before him. Sweet Emma Wiggins. She was something, wasn’t she?

  Talk about travelling to new, exciting places. He really wanted to explore this beautiful territory called Emma. What was she really about? Up until now, he really hadn’t given it much thought. But there was just something so striking about her. Her charm, charisma, wit, delicate manners, inner-strength. He loved it all.

  Especially the way she cared.

  About her work.

  About people.

  About doing the right thing.

  And about him.

  She really went the extra mile and he appreciated it. He also was taken aback but at the same time, impressed by her willingness to make the last days her grandfather had on this Earth as memorable as possible by granting his last wish—however strange that may be. Of course, it was a complicated wish, since it involved someone else. He cringed at the whole marriage bit though. He knew it still wasn’t for him, but he was willing to fake it to make her grandfather happy—heck, who was he kidding? He was doing it for her. Plain and simple.

  “So, you have everything in place for our pending nuptials?” He grinned in her direction.

  He watched as she spooned another bite of breakfast between her lips. With an edge of embarrassment, again his private domain jumped. What was it with her? Those lips. So full. So defined. He couldn’t get those out of his mind.

  He wondered what it would be like to get close to those soft lips of hers.

  Why haven't I made a move on her before?

  Oh, yeah, right! I'm her boss.

  There were policies against stuff like that. Besides, she was clearly professional and he had to respect that. Not like she was the flirting type. Not like some of the other secretaries or previous receptionists who would throw themselves at his feet, dress inappropriately for the office, and flirt openly with him and such.

  No, Emma was very sweet, kind, professional. He respected her efficiency and her high level of professionalism. Besides, he knew of an acquaintance who made out with an employee, and when that went sour as sometimes these things do, boy, did it bite him in the butt. He got slapped with a heavy sexual harassment suit. That really did in his career. Not to mention his reputation. Something Evan cared a lot about. He dated a lot of women, but few of them he worked with. He really didn’t want to travel down that path.

  He noticed Emma hesitate at first. “The arrangements are in place. Gramps, I mean, my grandfather had spoken to the chaplain at the hospital and she said she’d be more than happy to perform the ceremony. She’s fully licensed.” Emma sighed and paused.

  “Everything okay?” Evan dropped his fork on his plate and leaned closer to Emma.

  Emma exhaled sharply. She counted to three, dropped her fork on her plate then spoke. “Evan, there’s been something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

  His sexy dark, cinnamon-colored eyes gazed directly into her eyes, waiting. This didn’t help with her nerves, of course. She felt her belly flutter inside. Heat rose high in her chest to her throat. She felt her throat would soon constrict under the pressure. But she sucked in another deep breath.

  “It’s regarding my grandfather. You know, he really wanted to see me walk down the aisle. It meant the world to him, so—"

  “Can I have your attention, please?” The overhead pager came on loud, both instinctively froze and narrowed their eyes to listen for their gate number.

  “Flight 98 is ready to board at gate six. Will passengers please report to gate six?”

  They both finished their meals and grabbed their bags to head over to the gate. Luckily, the café was a few steps from the boarding gate.

  Emma’s heart thumped. Maybe it was for a good reason she was interrupted from telling Evan he was about to be a real groom next week, not a fake.

  Maybe she should just wait until they’ve met with the client and sorted out the ad shoot, and maybe catch a bit of the New York scene before heading back to Texas. Everything happened for a reason. She remembered her grandmother telling her when she was little.

  In fact, Grandma would always drum that and Ecclesiastics "to everything there is a season" in her head while growing up so that she wouldn’t feel too depressed or be too hard on herself with all the disappointments and heartbreaks she’d endured when she was younger. Stuff like her parents' divorce, changing schools as often as she changed her mood, her father’s death…and now…?

  Evan didn’t seem too bothered with what she was about to say. Maybe he thought she was just tossing in a little small talk after answering his question to eat up a chunk of time before they boarded so their meal conversation wouldn’t be too quiet between them. Evan pulled out his wallet to pay the bill that the waitress had left on the table. He left the amount of their breakfasts including a generous tip, Emma noticed. She also noted that he didn’t take a copy of the receipt to expense it for their business trip. After all, they would bill the client since it was her idea to get the ad agency out to New York to supervise the first major ad shoot.

  “Oh, you left the receipt.” Emma scurried back over to the table but her hand was stopped from reaching for the piece of paper on the table by Evan’s. He touched her hand so gently, butterflies definitely let loose in her belly just then. His skin was smooth, delicate, soft, yet well toned. She felt moisture on her own hand. Why did he have that kind of effect on her?

  “It’s okay. I’ve got it.” His silky voice was deep, sexy. His smile was dimpled and seductive as he peered deeply into her eyes. He sure was making a lot of serious eye-contact with her lately, she noticed. But she didn’t feel uncomfortable.

  Not at all. Just nervous. Good nervous.

  Was he flirting with her? Maybe that was her imagination, too! She smiled back and said, “Thanks for a yummy breakfast.” It certainly was ultra delicious and by far the most expensive breakfast she’d had in her life to that point.

  They hurried over to the passenger boarding lounge, and since they were travelling first class, they had the luxury of boarding first.

  “I’m surprised you booked us on business class,” she commented, smiling sheepishly when they arrived at their seats Aisle 3, Seats A and B. She’d never travelled first class, executive class, or business class before. The plush blue seats were cushioned amply. They appeared more like oversized recliner chairs that you see in infomercials. And the leg space. God, there was a whole lot of leg room. Looked more like a living area lounge than a seating area on an aircraft, especially a domestic flight. She noticed the power ports located between the large space between the passenger seats (or sofas, she mused to herself). She loved the newness of the cabin design. She assessed there was plenty of room for working. Lights were mounted on the seat backs to illuminate the work table in addition to the overhead light. She noticed the ten inch touch-screen tilting monitors. Each passenger had his own. When she got situated, she looked at the interlocking tray tables.
She was impressed with the innovative design. She had two tables. One that dropped down from the seat back of the passenger in front of her and the other lifted from the center console.

  Unbelievable.

  She was used to being crammed into coach class where you barely had room to breathe much less move your feet. The passenger seat in front seemed to be so in-your-face compared to this. And when the passenger in front, God forbid, leaned back, well, there goes your personal space. You just had no choice but to lean back too. But this? This was nice. She loved the privacy and comfort of the upper class cabin on the plane.

  So this is what if feels like to be well off.

  Only the super rich, affluent, or successful business people could afford to travel like this all the time.

  “It’s your first client trip. Wanted it to be special for you. Enjoy it while you can.” He smiled and cocked his eyebrow to her.

  “Aw. Thanks, Evan. That’s so…sweet of you.” She could not believe he took great thought into the fact that this would be her first client trip, heck, her first official company expensed business trip. She was really soaring in life—she smiled at the pun.

  He lugged her hand luggage to the overhead compartment before stowing his own. He ensured the bags were tucked in properly before slamming the compartment door shut above her head. His biceps flexed well, Emma noted, when he lifted the bags.

  God, she loved his physique. She also noticed when he had lifted up his arms to place the bags above her that he had rock hard abs through his t-shirt.

  She felt herself get hot again. She loosened her cardigan. She had to stop admiring the man, or she wasn’t going to be able to think straight or do anything right. Just to think, they’d be taking vows next week—though he didn't believe it would be for real. Okay, she had to really get back to reality.

  She stared out the window and saw other Boeings docked at their gate bay. All domestic flights. Then she looked around the nice cabin area again. The flight attendants seemed extra courteous, treating her more like a celeb than a common passenger. They called her Ms. Wiggins. She guessed they knew everybody by name in first class or business class. These seats certainly come with something. They didn’t come cheap at all. She’d probably have to put away a month’s salary to cover the cost of a one-way business class or first class ticket.

  “The seats are ergonomically advanced, by the way,” Evan commented, noticing her gaze in awe.

  “Nice.” She nodded, a tinge of embarrassment evident on her face. She really didn’t want him to think that she’d totally never clued into this type of stuff before. She had a decent upbringing. Maybe not exposed to the lifestyle of the rich and famous, but she was not doing too bad. You would think she wasn’t raised with indoor plumbing or electricity the way he acted. Not that it would be a disgrace. Her grandparents were so poor they hadn’t seen that type of life before they immigrated as children to America with their parents.

  “The seats can also recline completely flat,” he continued.

  Okay, now I’m really impressed.

  She nodded thoughtfully, as if what he was saying was nice, but not that impressive.

  “There’s also, I believe, a choice of thirty-five feature movies and up to eighteen hours of pre-loaded television shows, fifty music CDs, fifteen games and fourteen audio channels. You can pretty much view what ever you like.” He demonstrated to her as he showed her the equipment.

  “That’s…wow! Awesome.” She smiled as she fidgeted with her new gadget.

  She was oblivious to the sound of chatter and murmurs from the other passengers boarding the plane and making their ways to their own seats. Her eyes drank in the view of the beautiful landscape of the runway in the distance. Her ears took in the sound of the airplane engine. That piercing, airy sound.

  Endless personalised entertainment? Cosy space? Now this was a good way to travel.

  After take-off, Emma got comfy into her recliner. She really wanted to snuggle into something—or with someone else. And he was sitting right beside her. Good thing God designed mortals so their thoughts would be private. Inside their own heads.

  Evan flipped open his laptop and powered it on when it was safe to do so, right after the captain of the plane announced passengers may proceed with their equipment.

  He opened up the Weddings R Us folder in his client folder and proceeded with one of the client files.

  “What’s that?” Emma turned to him after pulling down the shade of her oval window to block out the bright sun. They were already at the altitude above the clouds. She could almost feel the warmth of the sun beaming through the window, if that were at all possible.

  “Just working on some last minute details.” He seemed focused on the file he opened. His eyebrows furrowed. He placed his hand on his chin in thought.

  “Something wrong?” Emma leaned over to see his screen. Guess there were advantages and disadvantages to being in business class. She had to lean over very far to get a glimpse of his computer screen since the seats were spaced out farther than in coach class.

  “Just- Not sure if I wanna go along with this image.” His attention was still transfixed on the laptop screen.

  She took a good look. “You know, we could always change it up a little.” She noticed the woman in the mock ad. “We could use a variety of nationalities, cultures. Give it a universal appeal.”

  He nodded. “True.” They knew they had to work along with the client and give her what she wanted, but it was also their own judgment call to present enticing suggestions.

  “I thought we could even go along a few backdrops. In fact...” Emma’s voice octave increased. He could tell she was getting excited. “We could include an image of a Greek wedding, African wedding, American wedding…”

  “I see your point.” He gestured and flipped over to another screen and typed something.

  “We could get different models from different backgrounds. Weddings R Us is about universality. The U can be emphasized like that.” He could tell Emma’s excitement grew. “We could merge the U in the ad into Universality and have the cultures merge into one.”

  “Sort of like that Michael Jackson video, Black or White.”

  He smiled. “Yep. Sort of like that. Within a more reasonable budget, of course.”

  He loved the way they bounced ideas off each other. It was as if she could read his mind and turn up on the same page as his direction of thought. He loved her for it. Heck, he was loving more things about her every day. But he wasn’t going to go there. He didn’t want to confuse professionalism and commendable work ethics with anything more.

  He couldn’t wait to land in New York and get this show off the ground.

  The flight was surprisingly smooth and flew by, so to speak. Emma peeked out of her window to see the beautiful city of dreams.

  New York!

  The city that hardly ever slept. Ever. The pilot had welcomed them to New York and announced the weather was partly cloudy, high of 74 degrees Fahrenheit with a slight chance of rain. Wind speed of three miles per hour.

  LaGuardia airport was close to Manhattan central which made it one of the more popular airports. The airport was located on the beautiful waterfront of Flushing Bay and Bowery Bay.

  The view of the waters was calming. There was something about being near a body of water that soothed her. Though it was an overcast, she saw some sun peek through the clouds to illuminate the beauty of the still water below as they prepared for landing.

  Emma was just a child when she first visited. She didn’t remember any of it from then. Now she recalled it was named after a very popular, former mayor of New York.

  In fact, the ninety-ninth New York City mayor. An Italian by the name of Fiorello Henry La Guardia. Emma remembered reading somewhere that La Guardia Airport was actually voted the "greatest airport in the world" by the worldwide aviation community in the early 1960s.

  They sped through baggage claims with no trouble and headed out to one of New York�
�s famous yellow taxi stands. Their intended destination was recorded by the cheery dispatcher on site and they headed to the hotel drinking in a good view of the Big Apple on their way to lower Manhattan.

  A far cry from the plains of small town Mercy Springs, Texas. She was definitely in urban surroundings. There were so much distinction with the older, characteristic buildings in New York. Emma noticed a lot of construction sites over buildings as they drove through to the hotel. A lot of architectural facelifts were underway.

  She loved the mixture of new designs to the buildings erected in the last century, the early 1930s and so on. It was an awesome blend to see the different grey, brown-coloured fixtures. She really couldn’t wait to soak in some of the tourist attractions once they had some free time. Presuming they had any!