The Art of Seduction

by Kayla C. Oliver

  We lay like that, looking up at the stars, silently feeling the pull between us for quite a while. Every once in a while, a shooting star would race across the sky and we just stared up at the Milky Way in its magical presence. It was one of the most beautiful nights of the season, and though it was cool outside by this point, the warmth of our bodies and the blanket kept us both comfortable. It was nice just lying there with someone, experiencing the beauty of nature, finding the joy in the small things around us. I hadn’t ever had that with anyone before.

  I could feel the butterflies whirling through my body and was overcome by emotion, so much so that I had to almost hold back a tear. I didn’t know what to do or what to say that could top what he had just done. I had learned to hold back my feelings, to suppress them, to keep myself on track. Now I was in a situation where I didn’t know whether to continue to do that or to just release them, give them to the universe, and finally show just how I felt about Rob.

  I lay there for quite some time, battling my own mind against my own heart. In the end, though, I decided that the best course of action was just to give in to all of the feelings that I had been holding back and tell him exactly how I felt. If I didn’t, I knew that I would regret it; there was no question about that. That was one thing I never wanted in my head; I never wanted to look back and think, what if?

  He hadn’t held back; he had told me exactly how he felt from the moment I got there. He’d told me that he loved me, that he supported my dreams and wanted to be a part of them. He wasn’t afraid to pull me into his life, and he wasn’t afraid of being pulled. He’d showed a courage that I was trying my best to find, and I envied that in him. I had to do it. I just had to take a deep breath and say it before the moment passed me by.

  “Rob,” I said, sitting up and holding the blanket to my chest. “I want to tell you something.”

  “All right,” he said, sitting up with me. “You can tell me anything.”

  “I wrote you that letter, against everything that my heart was telling me, because I thought that being with you would make it hard for me to follow my dreams,” I said. “I thought because of your wealth and career that you would want a woman that stayed in New York, lived that lifestyle, a lifestyle that I could never live. I was wrong, though. I want to tell you that I’m so sorry for misjudging you. I’m sorry for not just telling you how I felt and giving you the chance to set me straight. This time apart could have been avoided if I hadn’t acted like such a coward about the entire thing. This, though, this whole night, this surprise, it’s truly the best surprise that anyone has ever given me. Even when I was nine and my parents gave me a bunny named Mr. Tibbens.”

  “Mr. Tibbens,” he laughed. “That’s great.”

  “It was a close second, though,” I said, turning my head toward him and smiling.

  “I can imagine,” he said. “I hate competing against such a fine opponent for your love.”

  He smiled and leaned in, kissing my lips gently. When he pulled away, he trailed his lips up to my nose and kissed it too. He pulled me close to him, looking out over the dark, starry night.

  “I would do anything in the world for you,” he said. “I would move mountains if I could. I want nothing more than for you to be happy, and I want to be part of that happiness.”

  I smiled and let out a deep breath, leaning my head on his shoulder. That was it. I was truly in love with this man, and it was everything I’d ever wanted it to be. I picked my head back up and looked at him, turning his chin toward me.

  “I love you, too,” I said. “As crazy as all of this is, I would love nothing more than to have you by my side when I move forward with my plans. Now that I think about it, I can’t imagine having it any other way. You are who I want to share this with.”

  “Well, then,” he said. “Why don’t we just go ahead and make those dreams come true? I can afford it, and what’s mine is yours. I would love to get out of the city.”

  I looked at him with tears in my eyes, so happy I couldn’t even get out the words, so I just nodded my head and leaned forward, pressing my lips to his. He chuckled into the kiss and I pulled back, sinking into his body. This was my happily ever after, something I thought I might never see, but there it was. It was unexpected, sudden, and strong, but there was nothing more I wanted in my life than him.

  Epilogue

  Two Years Later

  Rob

  I sat in my home office, just staring out the window at the beautiful spring morning outside. I couldn’t believe that it had been two years since I told Tiffany that I loved her for the first time. That was also the day we’d decided to spend our lives making both of our dreams come true. Still, I loved her more and more every single day that went by. It was crazy how much you could love a person without breaking.

  After that day at the lake, we had gone back to the city, completely in a lover’s haze. We dated, spending most of our time together. I would wait at Happy Hour every night for her to get off work, and either go back to her place or mine. She loved my house so much that when her lease ran out a month later, I asked her to just move in. On our six-month anniversary, I surprised her with keys to a cottage in the mountains upstate. It took about two months to get everything squared away, but as soon as we walked into the place, we knew we were home.

  I could still remember moving in there, standing in the empty front room, holding a roller of paint and kissing her excited lips. Immediately, we went to work, making plans for a huge garden, for her business, and for our future together. We had so many wild ideas, and the best part about it was the fact that we could really do anything that we wanted. The world was at our fingertips. The decision to buy that cabin and make the leap was the best decision I ever made.

  I could feel the stress of the city immediately vanish as I drove up the long, winding road that lead to our new home. There was no traffic, no loud cars, no busy sidewalks. There was just us, our home, our garden, and the beauty of nature all around us. I was pretty sure I could go the rest of my life and never live in a city full-time again. This place was so beautiful, with mountains in the distance, snow fall all winter, beautiful summers, and greenery like nothing I had ever seen before.

  There were bears, bobcats, and all kinds of wild animals right outside of our back door. That might sound scary to some, but for us it was amazing; we really felt like we were part of something so much bigger than ourselves. We had an immense amount of respect for the animals outside. We were really close to the inn and had dinner with Mary on a regular basis. In fact, when Troy and Melinda got back from their honeymoon, we rented out the inn to throw them a welcome back party.

  I’d stepped back a bit on my duties at the company, feeling like now that Troy was back and had a handle on the business, I could lead my life how I wanted. I still worked for them, so I changed one of the rooms in the cottage to a home office, with comfortable furniture and a dress code a bit less stringent then the big leagues.

  I didn’t mind continuing to do work for the company; I had helped build it from the ground up, after all. It was still something that I was extremely proud to have been a part of. Working from home, though, made it all that much easier, with a view of the mountains in the distance. I had to admit, on clear sunny days, it was a bit of a distraction, and I could feel the outdoors calling to me on a daily basis. That was also why it was good that I made my own hours.

  To me, this office was better than any corner office in some skyrise building, better than any view of the city you could have, and better than any valet parking or amenity offered. I had the freedom to be my own person, no longer shackled by the stresses of city living and having to talk with socialites and investors. I let the guys handle that part of it. I never had to find a parking spot or run into the building when it was raining. I just got up and walked into my office. I wondered to myself all the time what had taken me so long to do it.

  I ended up keeping my house in the city for when I had to travel there for meetings or
other important company functions. Sometimes Tiffany went with me to visit her best friend, but usually she stayed behind in the peace and quiet and I didn’t blame her. I hired a gardening company to keep up with my backyard garden in the city, giving the food to the needy every season. It was the best use of my garden that I could think of, and every season I went back to be the one to hand out those fresh vegetables and herbs. It was my favorite time of year.

  When I looked around me and saw the beautiful life that Tiffany and I had built, I couldn’t help but be completely ecstatic with how things had turned out. I had everything I ever wanted in life and more, and there was nothing that I wouldn’t do to give Tiffany that same exact feeling about our life as well. I was pretty sure, though, that she felt exactly the same way. She had immediately set up her company when we moved out of the city. In fact, I was incredibly impressed with the business plan she had been holding onto and the exact steps she knew she needed to take to get where she wanted to be.

  The clients came rolling in almost immediately with the help of Mary’s inn and several other hotels and hostels in the area. Tiffany was now a regular stop on the tour for travelers through the area, and her business was booming faster than she could sometimes keep up. She spent her days taking people hiking, kayaking, and incorporating my climbing abilities into her business as well. I loved it when I got to be part of her work, helping people learn how to climb. It felt really amazing to work beside her, to do something that could make a real difference in someone’s life. There was a need for my company, of course, and it also had worth, but this … this hands on engagement and interaction with people. I could see the difference immediately.

  What I really loved about Tiffany was that she had taken this dream that she had worked day and night to achieve and made it ours. She’d embraced our life together and wanted it to be something that was all inclusive. She’d gone out of her way to make me feel like I was an essential part of her life, her company, and everything that she did on a regular basis. I had never had someone that cared about me like that, not since my parents were alive. I knew that if they were here, they would have loved everything about Tiffany. They would have been proud of her. And me.

  All of the money that she had saved up to this point was just sitting there, since I insisted on paying for the entire start up of the business. There was no brick and mortar location, so her overhead was very minimal. It was pretty much just upkeep on equipment, and the insurance she needed to take people out. It was incredibly lucrative. So she took her money and put it into a savings account. She told me that one day she wanted to open that brick and mortar shop, but she wanted to do it on her own, with her own hard work. I didn’t argue with her; she never took no for an answer from me anyway.

  I loved that about her though, the fact that she was so motivated, and so independent. She could literally do anything that she put her mind to, and there was no question in my mind that one day soon we would be cutting the ribbon to her very first store. She wanted to sell gear and have an official place for the tourists to come to book their outings.

  I sighed, thinking about all of the wonderful things that had gone on over the last two years, and it was only the beginning. I looked over at the computer and jumped a bit, realizing that time was just slipping on by. I got up from the desk and pulled on my shoes and a light fleece before jumping in the Jeep and heading out to where Tiffany was teaching a kayaking course. She would still be giving the safety lessons at this point, but I wanted to get there before they headed out on the lake. This was important; too important to miss.

  When I got there, I parked the car and jogged down the beach to the same clearing that we had been at two years before. It gave me chills up my spine thinking about how that was the place that we had told each other that we wanted to have a life together. As I approached, she looked up from the paddles that she was talking about.

  “Hey,” she said, surprised. “Everyone, this is my boyfriend Rob. Rob, this is everyone.”

  “Why, hello everyone,” I smiled. “I’m sorry for interrupting. I wanted to come down here and tell you something.”

  “Oh,” Tiffany said, walking forward.

  “They can hear too,” I smiled. “I wanted to tell you just how amazing you really are. You changed my life, from the first moment that I stepped out onto that trail with you so many eons ago. I had been lost, feeling like there was no hope, like the city was swallowing me whole. I went away trying to find what was missing and there you were, in your pink hiking shorts and tight ponytail. That was when I realized that you were the one thing missing from my heart. Tiffany, two years ago today we stood on this very beach, right over there, and told each other that we loved each other. From that moment on, I have had the best days of my life.”

  I pulled a box from my pocket and got down on one knee. Tiffany looked back at the others and then to me, covering her mouth in shock. There was a collective holding of breaths after I said the next thing.

  “I cannot imagine that there is anything better than our life together,” I said. “You have given me meaning, a reason to smile, a reason to get out of bed every single day. Tiffany, will you make me the happiest man on earth and be my wife?”

  “Oh, my God,” she whispered. “Yes. Yes! Of course I will.”

  Everyone in the background cheered, raising their kayaking paddles high in the air. I laughed, pulling the raw diamond and copper ring she had fallen in love with months before from the box and sliding it onto her finger. She pulled me up to my feet and pressed her lips against mine hard before pulling back and cupping my face in her hands.

  “I love you,” she said happily.

  “I love you too,” I said. “Forever.”

  I had finally found my happily ever after.

  The End

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  Chapter One

  Heidi

  These ten-minute breaks were the only times in the day when I could breathe a little. Not that I didn’t constantly feel blessed that I could run my own café in the heart of the tourist district. I was indeed lucky and every day I counted my blessings. My parents couldn’t afford cooking school and for the four years that I apprenticed with Chef Dunphy in Los Angeles, I could only dream of one day running my own place.

  But I got lucky. I’d never heard of Brunswick before, and even if I had, Georgia was never a state I had visited in my life. In fact, I wouldn’t ever have thought of visiting this town hadn’t it been for my ex-boyfriend, Jake. His grandmother used to live here, and he brought me one summer to introduce us. Now Jake was gone, getting married, last I heard and I was left behind, madly in love with this town and the proud owner of my very own café.

  At twenty-eight and the proprietor of a café, I managed to turn over a profit within the first year of opening shop. I was proud of myself, but none of this would have been possible without hard work or all the years I had put into working as a baker’s apprentice. All the money, the very little that I had saved, I put into this business but I didn’t regret a second of it. Brunswick was my home now, and this was where I was going to make my life.

  It wasn’t exactly a sleepy town, especially not during the summer months when its unique location for being a busy harbor town as well as its beautiful surroundings attracted a lot of tourists. This was prime time for my business to bloom. So, the ten hours a day when I wasn’t slogging away at the café, I was at home trying out new recipes or working on marketing campaigns.

  Other than myself, I was able to afford two other staff, one of whom waited on the tables and the other helped me with the baking. So these ten minute breaks when I stood at the back of the café, gulping down a shot of espresso and munching on a mini muffin were ext
remely precious to me. I savored these moments, staring at the gently swaying boats and yachts anchored in the harbor in the distance, breathing in the fresh summer scent in the air, just thankful for life and the world’s bounty. Only when my mind wandered on occasion, did I allow myself to think about Jake and what he was doing. How could he have moved on so quickly from our relationship? He was engaged to be married within four months of our breakup. I still couldn’t wrap my brain around it.

  This move to Brunswick had been good for me. I couldn’t continue to live in LA after we broke up. We were in a relationship for two years; I thought we were going to settle down. He had brought me here to meet his grandmother! But things spiraled out of control when we went back. This was when Chef Dunphy promoted me to assistant baker, over Jake who had his fancy baking school degree while I had risen from nothing.

  When we broke up, I knew I couldn’t go back home to Wisconsin. I couldn’t return to my hometown feeling defeated and worn out. What would my family think of me? And neither could I remain in LA. That was weak of me. I was letting Jake win, but I couldn’t find the courage to stay there and cross paths with him on a daily basis.

  I kept an eye out on Brunswick properties. The town had left its mark on me. It was peaceful, slow paced and didn’t have many cafés, even though it had quite the influx of tourists. When this commercial site came up, I looked through my accounts and discovered that I could actually afford it. I took the plunge, made my own business plan, procured the required licenses and equipment and within three months “Bread & Beans” was a fully functional café in the heart of Brunswick’s town center.

  A smile flickered on my face now. I couldn’t stop replaying the past year over and over in my head. I was a successful businesswoman, and all thanks to my own hard work.

  A crash of plates from inside the café snapped me out of my thoughts. With my brows crossed I whipped around to look in. I could see Lucia, standing with her mouth covered with both hands. She looked upset and wasn’t making a move to clear up the broken plates on the floor in front of her.