MR. H.

by Samantha Hart

  “Friday morning, and no, my agent is coming with me. I don’t want you there to see me crumble when they tell me they don’t like it.” I didn’t want to get my hopes up, as much as my agent was positive, and Mr. H seemed to like it, I just couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that it could be a success. I needed to believe it wasn’t going to be published in order to protect myself if that was actually the case. I couldn’t get my hopes up just for them to come crashing back down.

  “I’m sure they’ll love it.” Mr. H said, “And we can celebrate together at Dad’s birthday later that night.”

  “Or commiserate.” I added, “I don’t want you to get too excited, this may not happen, it’s not a sure thing.”

  Chapter Fourteen.

  Waking up on Friday morning, I was a bundle of nerves. Possibly more nervous than I had ever been before. My agent had sent in my manuscript and now the publishers wanted to meet with me.

  Mr. H had dropped in the night before with a brand new power outfit, his way of feeling like he’s helping I suppose. A pair of navy blue fitted dress pants, a white three quarter sleeve blouse with tiny black polka dots and a pair of black open toe pumps. Somewhat business-esque and somewhat casual.

  I pulled my hair back in to a sleek low bun, and applied liberal amounts of mascara to accentuate my long lashes. As I was adding the finishing touches to my makeup, my doorbell rang.

  “Flower Delivery.” The man exclaimed, as I opened the door. Smiling gratuitously I grabbed the bunch from his hands before closing the door. Reading the card, a huge cheek-straining grin appeared across my face.

  ‘Hannah, all the best for today my love. I will be thinking of you, call me as soon as you can. Love, Mr. H. x’ He always knew the right thing to do, the gentlemanly thing to do. I took a big whiff of the gorgeous mixture of different coloured roses and felt some of my anxiety drift away.

  Checking the time, I was ready early but I wanted to get there early, so I threw a few unimportant items into my new red Gucci handbag and flitted out the door. It was as if it were a dream, I couldn’t believe I was going to meet with publishers in attempt to publish my first ever novel. My first ever book. My book about my deviant sexual relationship with my boss and lover. What would they think of me? What would they think of my story? The nerves bounced around inside me like a game of pinball.

  “Miss James, Mr Bernard will see you now.” The peppy receptionist said, before ushering us to his office, his office which seemed awfully far away, it felt like the longest walk in history. “Mr Bernard, I have Miss James here for you.” She said, walking us through his office door.

  “Excellent, thank you Stacey. Miss James, such a pleasure to meet you.” Mr Bernard said, reaching out a hand to meet with mine.

  “You too Mr Bernard.” I said, shaking his hand, hoping he couldn’t feel how badly my hand was shaking in a whole other way.

  “First of all Miss James, let me ease your nerves, when I began reading your manuscript I found that I couldn’t put it down, it was addictive. Probably the most interested I have ever been in a manuscript of this kind. I’m not usually a big fan of romance but this – this is a whole new ball game.”

  Was he for real? I couldn’t believe what my ears were hearing. “You liked it?” I squeaked. “Really?” I was glad I had my agent with me because I have no idea what happened next, my mind went blank, my ears weren’t listening. Lost in a world of amazement, they liked my book.

  “Congratulations Hannah.” My agent said as we stepped out on to the sidewalk, “I’ve never seen a publisher so eager to get a deal signed. This is going to be one hell of a roller coaster ride for you, this is all going to happen very quickly now Hannah, you’re going to need to be prepared for all the hard work leading up to the book release.”

  Oh my god, this was really happening. I had a book deal. My book was being published. We even had a release date.

  “One month.” I said down the phone to Mr. H, “My book is being released in one month! I think I’m in shock. Meet me at my apartment?” I asked, I needed to hug somebody, urgently, and the somebody I wanted to wrap my arms around was most definitely Mr. H.

  As I rounded the corner on to my street I could see Mr. H was already there, standing leant against his car, bottle of champers in one hand, a garment bag in the other. “Two new outfits in one day Mr. H, I must be one expensive girl to keep.” I joked.

  “I told you I would buy you a dress for tonight Hannah, and I cannot wait to see you in this. But for now come here!” He said, wrapping his full arms around me, planting a huge kiss on my lips, “I knew they would love it! I’m so proud of you!”

  Mr. H popped the champagne open as soon as we stepped foot in to my apartment. “It’ll have to be in regular wine glasses I’m afraid, I’m not fancy enough to own champagne flutes.” I said as I pulled my only two glasses down from the shelf.

  “Cheers to my very talented Girlfriend, now Author, Hannah James.” Mr. H said, raising his wine glass in attempt to toast my achievement. “And cheers to me for having a leading role in a novel!” He joked, before taking a sip of bubbly heaven in a glass.

  Still in shock over my success, I smiled, humbly.

  “Now, I can’t stay long Hannah, I’ll just have this one glass before I shoot off to organise a few things for tonight. Actually speaking of tonight, it’s going to take about ninety minutes to drive out to my parents’ place for the party, so, I’ll pick you up at 5pm.”

  I moved over and nuzzled in to his chest, getting smacked with the scent of his delicious cologne. If he was only here for a little moment, I sure as hell was going to make the most of it, I ran my hand down his chest, over his abs and stopped at his belt buckle, tugging slightly on it as to suggest my intentions. I looked up in to his eyes and bit my bottom lip. “I’d love to suck your cock right now…But you have to leave.” I said, with a wink.

  “Hannah James, you giant cock tease. Look at it, how am I supposed to not get seen on the way out with a huge bulge in my pants! You will pay for this later tonight, I assure you.” Mr. H said as he kissed my forehead, picked up his keys and headed for the door. “I hope you like the dress, wear those gold heels I bought you a little while back.” And with that parting instruction he was gone.

  As I glanced over toward the garment bag hanging on the back of my closet door, I wondered what kind of dress Mr. H would have chosen for me to meet his parents, he’d chosen a simple tea dress for me to wear to introduce him to my parents, so that brought me to the conclusion that there would be something equally as modest hiding within the bag.

  As I tugged down the zipper on the garment bag, the first thing I noticed was that the dress was black, pulling the zipper further down revealed it was a full length dress, and that it was made of a delicate, soft silk satin type fabric, it felt so luscious beneath my fingers. Removing the dress from the bag I noticed the deep plunging neck line and figure hugging shape of the dress – far from modest, holy shit.

  I heard my phone beep over on the kitchen bench; ‘Hi Hanny, you still on for a late lunch? I’ll stop by Formaggios and pick us up a pizza.’

  ‘Absolutely yes to lunch, pregnancy craving? Haha, sounds perfect. See you soon!’ I shot back, laughing aloud to myself, since when has Jade eaten pizza? Funny what growing a baby will do to a person.

  The dress was the first thing that Jade noticed after setting the pizza down on the kitchen counter. “This is the dress he chose for you to meet his parents?” Her bulging eyes giving away exactly what she truly meant. I have to say, I was a little shocked myself, it was very daring, very sexy, not really a meet the parents kind of vibe dress, but I figured Mr. H knew the kind of event we were attending, I had to trust that he knew what was right for the occasion.

  Jade wasn’t only here for lunch, I needed her makeup expertise, I couldn’t trust myself to do my own for such a formal event, especially not an event where I was also meeting my very rich, very high class, potential future in laws. The nervous jitter
s alone would’ve lead to a makeup disaster of epic proportions. I needed a classy, elegant, understated look that I most definitely could not produce on my own, it was bad enough that I decided to style my own hair, just soft simple waves, nothing that could go too wrong – or so I hoped. By the time we had demolished our food and added the finishing touches to the whole look it was getting late, and it was time to slip in to the sleek clingy evening gown. I had never been more relieved that I had been taking extra time to exercise lately, as this dress was going to highlight every single curve.

  Stepping out from my bedroom, I heard Jade’s gasp, “Hannah, wow! You look – wow.” Lost for words, I figured that had to be a good sign, especially from the beauty queen herself. “Callan is going to be blown away, I sure am, and Jesus if I were into girls you would be first on my hit list girl!” I had to laugh, she sure had an interesting way of expressing herself, but I think I understood her point. I was just hoping it wasn’t too revealing for a family event.

  Jade cleared out with about half an hour to spare before Mr. H was due to arrive, just enough time to down another glass or two of leftover champagne, I had a feeling I was going to need all the liquid courage I could get. It had been a seriously long time since I had been introduced to anyone’s parents and I had an hour and a half to sit in the car and dwell over my anxious thoughts on the way there.

  I heard Mr. H’s car pull up outside so I locked up and headed down to meet him. He was getting out of the car as I walked out of my complex’s doors, and as he looked up in my direction he almost staggered when he laid his eyes on me.

  “Miss James, every time I see you I swear you’ve gotten even more beautiful than the last. How is that even possible?” He said as he opened the car door for me, grabbing a handful of ass and pulling me in for one of the most intense kisses I think we’d ever shared, I almost felt my knees weaken and I had to compose myself for a split second before climbing down in to the car seat.

  “My parents are going to love you Hannah, they’re so excited to meet you.”

  “I hope so Sir, I really do. I’ve been wondering what I refer to you as around your family though? Do I just call you Callan?”

  “Yes. Callan will be fine. I think you’ve well and truly earnt the right to use my name. I still prefer Sir or Mr. H though – especially during playtimes.” He smiled, that delicious devilish smile. God only knows what devious plan he’s concocted for tonight, he had no hesitation to fuck me around my family, who knows how confident he would get around his.

  “Oh and by the way – I thought you could use this.” He said, handing me a half full hip flask of whiskey, “Mom will be well and truly sloshed by the time we arrive, you may need this to get through all the hugging.”

  I laughed, nervously. Was he serious? It was hard to tell sometimes.

  The drive went a lot quicker than expected with the whiskey on board, I’d never been out to The Hamptons before, I knew there were lavish houses out here – but I never expected the extremity of ‘The Hart Homestead’ of Southampton. Even the driveway was supersized, with one of those cliché water fountains smack bang in the middle. I couldn’t believe that my boyfriend’s parents’ house was larger than my entire apartment complex. The property, including all of the beautiful landscaped gardens had to be larger than a football field. It was actually ridiculous.

  Mr. H firmly held my hand as he led me through the hordes of people, searching for Mr and Mrs Hart. We finally found them out the back near the Olympic length swimming pool. “Mom, Dad. We’re here. Happy Birthday Old Man!” Mr. H announced.

  “Thanks Son.” Mr Hart said, wrapping his arms around Mr. H before heading for me. “You must be Hannah. We’ve heard so much about you, haven’t we dear?” He asked his wife, Mr. H’s Mom, who at a good sixty odd years old looked not a single day over forty. I could see now why Mr. H had no hesitation of exposing my bare skin around his parents, his Mom’s dress was stunning, risqué, but stunning – it was silver in colour, and a deep v neckline meant her well enhanced bosoms were spilling out, with a slit running nearly the entire way up and exposing the majority of her left leg.

  “Oh yes, yes we have Hannah. Callan said you were gorgeous, but he never said just how much so! Oh boy, I don’t know Cal, I’m not sure I can approve of a woman who upstages your own mother.” Mrs Hart joked, or at least I hoped she joked. “I believe congratulations are in order Hannah? Your book deal went well today we hear.”

  “Yes it did, Thank you! It’s so nice to finally meet you both, and happy birthday Mr Hart.” I said, trying to remain as polite as the champagne and whiskey combination would allow. “Your home is fucking spectacular!” I gasped, quickly bring my hand up over my mouth, darting my eyes toward Mr. H, “I am so sorry! I can’t believe I just said that.”

  Mr and Mrs Hart both looked at each other, before bursting out in laughter.

  “No need to apologise darling, we can already see now that you will fit in just fine around here! Don’t feel like you need to hold your tongue around us, we’re as potty mouthed as a pair of drunken sailors.”

  “That’s a one hundred percent accurate statement.” Mr. H added.

  I couldn’t help but join in the laughter, this wasn’t so bad after all.

  “I can’t believe I was nervous about coming here.” I joked as Mr. H led me away to find us some drinks, like I really needed more, I’d already cussed at his parents once, what other carnage could I possibly cause? Now that I knew I had no need to be anxious, it was celebrate book deal time!

  “Two whiskey on the rocks.” I heard Mr. H say to the bar staff. Yup that’ll help the celebrations, now that I knew I didn’t have to be on my very best behaviour I could let loose a little. Who am I kidding? I wanted to let loose, a lot.

  A gorgeous, thin, brunette with legs as long as I was tall was walking in our direction, she was honestly perfection personified, the closer she got to us the more perfect she looked, even her teeth couldn’t possibly be any whiter, her breasts were completely proportionate, and I was sure once I caught a glimpse of her ass that it too would be flawless. I heard Mr. H mutter some kind of profanities under his breath as she closed in.

  “Callan, Hi, so lovely to finally see you again.” The supermodel lookalike said.

  “Kristen.” Mr. H nodded, as if dealing with a business associate or something, it seemed very cold on his behalf.

  “Are you not going to introduce me to your little date here.” Oh. Great. It wasn’t hard to pick up on her passive aggressive tone, your little date, ugh.

  “Hannah, this is Kristen, My ex.”

  Noooooooooooo. No. No. I could not compete with her. My anxiety assured me in this moment that – if she wanted Mr. H back, he would most definitely choose her.

  “Oh, right, Hi Kirsten, I’ve heard so much about you.” I lied. Even in my half drunken state, I couldn’t allow her to think she had the upper hand.

  She shot an aggressive annoyed look toward Mr. H before disappearing off into the crowd of people. Hah, job done, I thought.

  Mr. H took this opportunity to fill me in on the details of their messy breakup, and her shocking behaviour, she had apparently attempted to purposely fall pregnant by him in order to secure her own financial future. Which had broken his heart, he thought Kristen was ‘the one’ leading up to that point. Funnily enough, he had planned to propose shortly after the incident occurred, her financial future was already going to be secured. Not that she knew.

  I wondered what she could possibly be doing here, at Mr. H senior’s birthday party, but when I scanned the outdoor area, I found her wrapped around the arm of a much older, much wealthier looking man. Of course.

  Mr. H left me with his parents while he went off to the bathroom, he didn’t want to leave me to fend for myself, which was thoughtful, as he must’ve known being left alone would’ve been an anxiety fuelled nightmare for me.

  His Mom, Debra, had clearly downed a few more beverages since we met, like, ten minutes prior. She
was all over me, smelling like a brewery, telling me how happy Cal seemed these days, and how thankful she was for me. Mr. H senior had to practically pry her off of me when he saw the look of desperation on my face.

  While still standing with the parents, I looked across toward the house, searching for any sign of Mr. H’s return, but when I did finally lay my eyes on him, what I saw completely threw me. He was standing in a secluded dark corner, with her, Kristen, and they looked very cosy. Her hand roaming up and down his arm as they spoke.

  Mr. H senior, Stephen, caught on to what I was seeing,

  “Don’t worry about her, yes she’s beautiful, but our Callan is no dummy, Kristen is no more than a money sucking snake.”

  By the time he’d finished speaking and I looked back over to the direction of where they were standing, they were gone, instantly I was filled with worry, with concern, what if they’d gone away somewhere even more private, what if she’d already won him back and I had no idea I’d been dumped yet.

  “Thanks Stephen.” I said, as I turned to walk away, but I didn’t get far, I walked straight in to Mr. H. Oh, he wasn’t even with her.

  “I saw you watching me Hannah, but what you didn’t see or hear, was me telling her to fuck off when she tried slithering her way back in.”

  “Told you.” Stephen said, with a smug knowing grin.

  Mr. H and I walked off to go find somewhere to sit, it was such a lovely warm night, and hearing the background noise of the ocean reminded me of home, except, this place was a little more exuberant.

  My phone vibrated in my clutch as we sat, I considered ignoring it but I had made the mistake of ignoring important messages before, so I grabbed my phone out for a quick look, and huh, unknown number –

  ‘I believe I owe you a rather large congratulations – I’ve just heard about your book, I wish I could’ve been part of this, I know how much you’ve dreamt of this moment, I hope you’re celebrating appropriately. Love always, Jason.’