The Honeymoon
By Phoenix Cinders
The Honeymoon
1st Edition
Copyright © 2020 by EIB Entertainment
https://phoenixcindersthehoneymoon.gr8.com/
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
EIB Entertainment
Prometheus LLC
Detroit, Mi
Table of Contents
The Honeymoon
Chapter 1: Charlie Sheppard
Chapter 2: Alessandra Curry
Chapter 3: Charlie Sheppard
Chapter 4: Alessandra Curry
Chapter 5: Charlie Sheppard
Chapter 6: Alessandra Curry
Chapter 7: Charlie Sheppard
Chapter 8: Alessandra Curry
Chapter 9: Charlie Sheppard
Chapter 10: Alessandra Curry
Chapter 11: Charlie Sheppard
Chapter 12: Alessandra Curry
Epilogue: Alessandra Curry
Chapter 1: Charlie Sheppard
The office hums with excitement. We’re only months away from the release of the new expansion for our popular and best selling game, Aratheon. As I sit at my desk, working furiously to make sure everything runs as planned, I can’t help but get distracted by another big event going on in my life. In a few days, I’m about to get married to the woman with whom I’m deeply in love with. She’s drop-dead gorgeous, spunky, and full of life. She’s the type of woman that every man desires. She’s adventurous and I am beyond lucky to have her.
To be honest, the younger version of myself never would’ve believed I’m going to marry a supermodel, let alone run a multi-million dollar media company that I started with my friends. I get up and look at myself in the reflection in the mirror on the wall. God who would’ve thought that fat nerdy teenager everyone picked on in high school would become the guy I see before me. I don’t even recognize myself. That red hair that used to be the root of most of my insults including but not limited to ginger, red-headed stepchild, soulless, daywalker, I could go on and on for days, but that red hair is now one of my best features. It has a silky wave to it now.
Of course, the man in the mirror isn’t that fat little boy anymore. You can tell he’s hit the gym. Defined jaw with no second chin. A body chiseled with hours of hard work. I’ve got a light beard that makes my face look like a man and not that boy who was a pushover. Life couldn’t be better.
A knock at the door pulls me out of my trance. “Come in.”
“Charlie, what are you still doing here?” Marion asks, my assistant who’s going to retire soon. She’s been like a mother to me. Especially after my own mother passed away from cancer. She’s definitely old enough to be my mother, but she hasn’t lost any of her beauty with age even though she let her hair go white. She was there for me through thick and thin and deserves the best retirement possible.
“You know I can’t leave with the upcoming release,” I say.
“Come on Charlie, we’ve got the best programmers on it. Even Roy’s been working with the writers to double-check for plot holes in the story. Go spend time with your soon to be wife,” she says.
“I suppose maybe I can take an afternoon off,” I say.
“Yes, go. Don’t make me get security to escort you out,” she says, pulling a laugh from my lips.
“God, I don’t know what I’m going to do without you. Are you sure you want to retire?” I ask.
“For heaven's sake, as much as I hate to admit it, I’m getting too old for this. I love it here and I’ll continue to visit, but I need a beach, a good book, and some strong wine,” she says.
“Well, you’ve earned it,” I say.
She smiles. “Now leave! Go spend time with your fiance.”
I know she’s really trying hard to put on a good face. She’s never really approved of my fiance. She thinks she’s a golddigger. She doesn’t know her as I do.
I finally relent and head out. It’s going to be so hard to find someone to fill her shoes. I’m really going to miss her.
“Yo, bro!” I hear my younger brother Cody shout as he rushes up to me. “I was thinking, why haven’t we made a game based on the Solaris Night’s Forest of Horrors series? It’d be fucking epic to play a survival game in that setting.”
“Yeah, sounds like a great idea. Talk to Korbin and work out some of the details. We’ll see what we can make of it,” I say. It is a good idea, he gets a few of them every now and then.
“Right on. Hey, you better be ready for the bachelor party. I’ve been planning this for weeks,” he says.
“When have you ever planned anything weeks in advance?” I ask, laughing.
“Hey, I’ve spent a few hours here and there last week. And like an hour the week before,” he says. Cody is my brother, but we are complete opposites. Where I’m organized and efficient, he’s carefree and eccentric. But, it works out. He’s very creative. I’ll give him that. He’s also my best friend. “Well, I’m off to see the future Mrs.”
“Give her a good slap on the ass for me,” he says with a wink.
“Alright,” I say with a laugh. “Later little bro.”
God, I feel so happy right now. Only days away from our big day. I quickly stop and get her some flowers, white roses, her favorite. It’s not long before I’m pulling into my driveway. Hmm. Kyle’s over… Her best friend. I don’t really care for him much. He’s too handsy and I’ll admit he’s got the body of an olympian. I’m not jealous. But he is also kind of a jerk.
I put it in park and head inside. Music is playing off in the distance. They’re not in the living room or kitchen like I was expecting. I thought for sure she’d be busy with last-minute preparations for the wedding. I follow the sound of the music upstairs and I start to feel a little anxious. Everything feels wrong.
The music is coming from our bedroom. What the…
I open the door and the flowers fall from my hands. I walk in to find Kyle pounding my fiance’s ass. Neither seems to notice me as they go at it doggy style on the bed. “Music off.”
The sound of this asshole pounding my future ex-fiance quickly comes to an end as they both turn to find me red-faced filled with rage. “Jesus Christ, Charlie, I didn’t think you’d be home so soon.”
“What the fuck?”
“I can explain,” she says.
“Yeah, I’d love to hear you try to get out of this.” I’ve never been so angry and hurt in my entire life. I thought she loved me.
“You… I… It just happened. I didn’t,” she stutters as she tries to untangle herself from Kyle, that fucking asshole.
“You know what, save it. Marion was right. You’re nothing but a gold-digging whore. The wedding is off. And fuck you if you think you’re getting the honeymoon tickets. They’re in my name. Fucking bitch,” I say as I storm out of my own house. I get back in my car and speed away. What was I thinking? That fucking stupid cunt. I’m just as stupid for believing her lies. Was she really only after my money?
Chapter 2: Alessandra Curry
My house no longer feels like home. My body never felt like home. I tried so hard to make the shell that my soul is wrapped in to represent the soul within, but no matter how hard I try, it doesn’t feel like me.
My father is the first one to point out how silly I look. He uses other words. I’m a boy in a dress. Or a mentally ill person. Again, I’m filtering his words. I’ll never be the son he wanted. I don’t understand why he can’t accept the daughter h
e has?
Sometimes I feel like God or whoever’s in control of everything hates me. I know I’ve made a few bad decisions here and there, but why does it feel like I’m being punished by the forces that be? Did they put me in the wrong gender on purpose? Like some kind of sick joke. Maybe it’s all just a terrible coincidence. Just a roll of the dice. Like clicking the random appearance generator on the Aratheon character creator and coming up with a creature created in a laboratory. I feel like Frankenstein’s monster. That’s definitely how most people treat me. At least the people that know that I’m trans.
Even though I see a freak when I look in the mirror, I’ll admit I have the luxury of passing to most people. I know everyone sees their own flaws better than anyone else. I just wish I didn’t have so many.
My hair is far too short. Why did I get it cut? I don’t even like the color of it. The light brown hair just makes me look boyish, especially with it so short. I don’t like my freckles or my pasty pale skin. I’m too skinny and I have a flat chest.
God, I wish I could afford a breast augmentation. The little nubs that have grown since I’ve started HRT look like mosquito bites and could hardly be recognized as real breasts. For god’s sake, I look like a feminine boy, especially without makeup. The only good thing is that I never started growing facial or body hair. I can’t really afford laser hair removal. So I got lucky there.
The mirror doesn’t fully represent who I know I am. I am a woman, I’ve known it for my entire life. I just wish my dad and my brother would see me as such. My dad would sooner disown me if it weren’t for my mother. God bless her soul, she’s been the only one who has supported me through my transition. If it weren’t for her, I don’t know if I’d survive. I can’t even fight the tears. Why does life have to be so fucking hard?
All I want to do is just live my life the way it was supposed to be, as a woman, because that’s what I feel when I close my eyes. I know who I am, I just wish everyone else would see me the way I see myself.
I pull myself away from the mirror. Nothing good ever comes from staring into it. Just thoughts I’d rather avoid.
“Hey, honey. Dinner’s ready,” my mother shouts from down the hall.
“Okay, I’ll be right there,” I say. Time to put my brave face on. I wipe away the tears and take a breath to gain my composure before I head down to face my family.
They’re already sitting at the table with plates full. My brother is stuffing his face as fast as he can. I grab a plate and fill up before sitting down across from him. Neither he nor my dad acknowledges my existence. I can take my father’s disappointment and even his anger, but my brother’s ostracism hurts the worst. We used to be so close. We’re only a year apart. We’d tell each other everything and now he’s embarrassed to have me as a sibling. Both he and my dad refuse to see me as a woman or even a human being for that matter.
His girlfriend hates my guts. She never liked me to begin with, but ever since I first came out as gay in high school, she made it her mission to make my life a living hell. Now that I came out as trans, she loves to tell me how I will never be a real woman. She’d always spread rumors about me. I just can’t understand what my brother sees in her. She may be the most popular girl in school, but she’s got a heart of cold steel. His friends aren’t any better. Most of them are quick to point out what a freak I am. They’d push me around and make fun of me behind Pat’s back. Although, not all of them. There was one of his friends who was nice to me. His best friend Liam took my virginity when I only identified as a gay boy. Although, he made me keep it all a secret. I never told anyone and I never will. Sadly, he wants nothing to do with me now that I’m trans, which really hurts. I shed a lot of tears because of him.
“Dylan, will you pass the pepper,” my father asks as he looks up at me. God, it feels like a punch in the kidney every time I hear that name. He never stops using my deadname and it hurts. It feels like my feelings mean nothing to him. It's as if he doesn’t care what I think or feel. I swear he’d rather have no child at all than to have a freak that he sees me as.
“Ed, seriously? Why do you persist in calling her by that name?” my mother asks.
“That’s the name we gave him!” he snaps back, using that tainted word.
“You are so thick in the head. Why can’t you understand that she is no longer your son? It’s easy for me to see that she never was,” she says. Her words make me swell with so many mixed emotions. I am so proud to have her as a mother and yet I feel so sad. I feel like I’m the reason they fight all the time.
“I’m not the one who’s mental,” he says, throwing a glare at me. The dam finally breaks and the tears fall out in a flood.
“Wow… Just when I thought you couldn’t sink any lower, Ed. You disgust me,” my mother says as she throws her down her fork.
“I disgust you? Are you out of your mind? I just can’t understand how you can not only accept this behavior from our son, but you are promoting it. You’re confirming our son’s delusions,” he says, slamming his hand on the table. I suck in a sharp breath. It feels like the air is filled with ice. My father’s words hit hard like a blow to the gut. Tears fall down like rain. I get up and rush to my room.
I bury myself in my bed and cry until there are no tears left. And they wonder why I spend so much time in a fictional world. No reality could be worse than the reality of my life. I hate it being alive. Why was I created this way? I feel like a mistake.
Chapter 3: Charlie Sheppard
The next couple of days were miserable. Had to let everyone know the wedding was off. Had to kick that gold-digging whore out of my house. Spent a few nights in tears, drunk off my ass. She didn’t even seem all that phased. She was more worried about getting the deposit back than she was about apologizing.
None of my family seemed upset, nor did all my friends at work. It’s like they all expected it to happen. I feel like I was left out of an inside joke or the butt of it. I’m embarrassed to show my face out in public. I was humiliated by this woman and I was ready to devote my entire life to her.
Even at work, I can feel all their pitying glances and I can hear the whispers go around. I can only imagine what they’re saying about me. I can’t even concentrate. I feel like the laughing stock of the town. I’m sure word got out to that asshole that’s the “boss” of our competition who’s always trying to get our secrets so he can rip off our content and games. Jay Reynolds… God, I hate that dickhead. I bet he’s having himself a real good laugh. Hell, he probably set this all up. Piece of shit.
As soon as I get to my office, I pour myself a long stiff drink in my hidden supply and pop an edible in. It’s that kind of fucking day.
Marion knocks on the door but walks in without giving me a chance to speak. “Jesus, you look like shit.”
“Well… You were right. Are you going to tell me I told you so?” I ask as I slam down the drink.
“No. That’s the last thing I want to do. I care about you and I think you should probably take some time off and get your head on straight. Maybe go on that honeymoon you were planning. Please tell me you got the tickets,” she says.
“Yeah, I kept them. There was no way I was going to let that bitch get her cheating hands on them.”
“Well, then it’s settled. You’re going,” she says. “And you’re taking Cody with you. He’s been spending way too much time hitting on that intern he was so persistent in hiring. That’s only going to end badly.”
I sigh. “I don’t know. What’s the point? Besides, it’s a pivotal time in our company and to leave now would be a bad move. That expansion is only a few months away.”
“You were going to take a week off when the wedding was still on. What’s the difference? Besides, isn’t your niece going to be there on her senior spring break? If your sister finds out that you’re backing out she’ll be furious,” she says. She does make a good point. But then again, when’s the last time I cared what my sister thought?
>
“I’ll think about it,” I sigh as my head slams down on my desk. I don’t even feel pain anymore.
“You better! It’s not like you’re any good to anyone in this state,” she says before walking out. It’s not long before Cody walks in.
“Shit, Charlie, you really do look like shit. Marian said you were two shades to the wind already. It’s fucking 8 in the morning, man. I know you’ve been put through the wringer, but someone’s got to steer the ship and you know if I’m behind the helm we’re going to sink,” he says as he plops down across from me. I just don’t feel like moving. “You know, she’s not wrong, you really should go on that honeymoon and I should definitely go with you. Besides if Kate finds out that you’re not going on the Honeymoon, she won’t let Ariana go on her senior year trip. Then Ariana will murder you in your sleep. Although, you’d probably want that, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t want anything anymore,” I sigh.
“That’s it, we’re going. I’m going to get you laid, bro. We’ll get some hookers and blow. I’m sure that’s easy to find in Mexico. It’ll be like old times when we used to sneak out and get all stoned,” he says. I don’t even answer. The phone rings and Cody answers it. His eyes go wide. He holds the speaker's end. “It’s Kate.”
He hands me the phone. “Hey, Charlie… How are you feeling?”
“How do you think I’m feeling?” I groan.
“You don’t have to get nasty with me. I’m just checking up on you. We’re all worried about you,” she says.
“I’m fine,” I spit out.
“You don’t sound fine,” she says. “I told you that woman was nothing but trouble.”
Here we go. I knew one of them was going to say this. “Is this why you called? To say I told you so.”
“Oh come on Charlie. I’m your big sister. I know you well enough. You’re drunk, aren’t you?”
“No… Not yet, but I’m getting there,” I say as I fill my drink up and down it all. “If you’re just calling to chastise me then I’m going to hang up.”
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