I made my choice and I am to be married on Saturday, it’s getting a lot easier to accept. I have so many people counting on me to walk down that aisle, my thoughts are starting to fade I have to get some sleep, I had a great day today I am thankful and I am so blessed, I just gotta learn to be happy with my choices.
Chapter 34
Mystery
June 27, 2012
We are sitting at the conference table on the twenty third floor of Terminal Tower, the proprietor meeting is getting heated, the venders are going at it with the shop owners and I could really care less. We try to organize the Thanksgiving Brunch that is legendary, all the restaurants get together and do a massive buffet for Thanksgiving, it’s, like eating at Versailles long tables filled with food from all over the area.
A slew of wonderful entertainment from singers and magicians, the whole event is simply magnificent, people come from all around, for all the cuisine from all the local restaurants here at Tower Centre and the greater Cleveland area.
Oh yes then there is the talk of the Holiday Season, the theme is Believe, so it’s the whole POLAR EXPRESS, with a train and magic area for the kids, should be a blast and I have to lock down a date for my Jingle Holiday Cocktail Party for all my customers. I have to say that most of the men in this very room are very good customers so I try not to conflict dates and do mine on a Thursday.
We get through the whole meeting in about two hours, I am walking away from the table as I am pulled aside by Mark Pinter, the manager of Tiffany and Company, he and I go way back, we worked together in sales years ago with Tristan.
“Aria hey how’s it going?”
“Good thank you, how about yourself?”
“Good, things are picking up again you know wedding season and all”
“Me it’s getting down to the wire, you know how it is.”
“Yeah um I didn’t know if you knew this or not, do you remember Tristan Bach?” He is now tugging on his ear as if he is about to say something uncomfortable. My heart just skipped a beat at the mention of his name.
“Yes why do you ask?” I shrug it off.
“Well, I didn’t want to say anything to you at the fashion show because you were with Ian but um Tristan he is finally settling down and getting married” I am utterly shocked, and I go pale as a ghost, when the hell, who the fuck is... I try to calm myself.
“What makes you say that?” Now I am curious as to how Mark knows all this, I mean do they both still hang out I wonder?
“He came in last week and bought a ring” he did what
“Really, well good for him, seems the whole world is in love”
“Well as I recall Aria he was with you”
“Well that was a long time ago” I try to hide my jealously, my interest and I try to act as if it is no big deal, but inside I am fuming, my heart is breaking and my first thought is he is with that slut-bag-ugly-whore again?
“Do you still see Tristan Aria, I know he had it bad for you” I look down at my hands as I hold my agenda close to me, even he remembers how crazy we were about one another.
“Well I had a lot of bad habits that I kicked, he was one of them” I am so mean I know, but he is pissing me off.
“Aria, I don’t mean to upset you” I am getting flustered as I walk over to the brass and glass elevators, Mark follows me.
“It’s just that I um…that is no longer my life, I am getting married on Saturday and that’s that” I push the down button and look up at the numbers lighting up as the elevator
“PINGS” and opens before us. He motions for me to get in ahead of him.
“So you know about Tristan’s restaurant? And about his winery?”
“Yes, I um yes, I think it’s great” I am standing in the elevator and he is making me think of Tristan and I don’t want to I am going to cry.
The door shuts and we are alone.
“Look Aria I don’t know what is going on with you but as a matter a fact when you told me you were engaged I thought it was to Tristan”
I look up at him and I am like why am I getting all this from all these people, what is all this leading up to, doubt? A warning? Are these signs? The elevator door opens and we walk back down the main concourse to our stores.
“Mark well I am marrying someone else and apparently so is he, so I gotta a lot of work to do I will see you” he kisses my cheek and I hug him.
“You and he are so stubborn” I smile as I look up into his blue eyes, he is a blond God with a killer smile, we have known one another for years, at one time he wanted more but I was always hooked on Tristan.
“I can say the same of a lot of people Mark, gotta go, see ya Saturday”
I walk into my store and Oliver is there on the phone I throw my agenda down on the counter and startle him, he finishes up his phone call and turns to see me as I am beginning to fume.
“Aria what is troubling you today?”
“I just saw Mark the manager of Tiffany’s he said that Tristan bought an engagement ring, the fucker is getting married!” I am so mad and pacing the floor, I am wearing my khaki and cream notch collar suit with matching heels from DKNY and I look good but mad as hell, I am fuming and enraged.
“Aria I don’t understand, you mean you and he were just together last week and now he is getting married? To whom?”
“Probably, the slut-bag-ugly-whore who abused him! I don’t know? I didn’t stick around to ask, I am so glad that I broke it off with him and that Ian has forgiven me. Could you imagine the fiasco my life would have been in if I had ran away with the fool” I try to calm myself but I am getting even more madder by the second.
“Aria sweetheart why are you so mad, I mean it’s none of your business what that man does or who he does for that matter” I look at Oliver and he knows, he knows how I loved that man.
“Oliver to think how he has gone on and on and on how he and I belong together and to find out his is bedded another and is getting married…I am fucking infuriated”
“Aria calm down, you’re getting all bent out of shape because he is marrying someone else…I hate to be the one to break this to you sweetie but aren’t you too my dear?” as he looks at me and presses his pencil at my forehead.
“Oliver it is just infuriating that he tells me how he waited for me and now a week later he is engaged to someone else” I am still pacing and trying to get Oliver to see my point of view.
“Aria this information is none of your business” those words stop me in my tracks.
“You know what Oliver you are right, I am just shocked that’s all” I guess I now know, that I have made the right decision to marry Ian, my best friend, and on Saturday he will be my husband.
I grab my agenda and head for my office I have so much to do and I throw myself into my work, I have three fittings and Oliver is doing the mending on the serge machine. I just need to keep busy and here it is always Business as Usual.
After tending and mending I finally get to sit down at my desk it’s the first time I had to myself all day, I don’t hold back as tears just prick my eyes I am so sad and hurt, by what Mark has told me today, I feel like I was nothing to Tristan, he wanted to fuck me, so he told me what he needed to, just to get me into bed. Wow the reality of that hurts. I cheated on my fiancé with Tristan, I nearly threw everything away for sex with an ex. And then as I ponder even more of this, Tristan’s words haunt me too, he was so sincere, he poured his heart out to me, how could he marry another, did I mean so little to him? I put my head down on my desk and I begin to sob and then cry uncontrollably.
I am so unhappy and alone, and I know I don’t deserve to be consoled for what I have done, I have hurt Ian so many times, I have let Tristan use and abuse me even more than before and here I am two years later making the same mistakes I always have. I get myself together and close up shop. I decide to head home and try to put this all behind me. I take a bath and relax when I get out of the tub I am in my white fluffy robe.
I am feelin
g much better when I see Ian, he kisses me and holds me without asking why my eyes are puffy. He is preoccupied himself he has enough time for a quick shower the guys are taking him out for his last night on the town with the guys. I get his clothes ready for him.
I slip on a pair of jeans and a black t shirt and my flats my hair is in a ponytail and I have no makeup on.
Ian is getting dressed as I sit on the bed and watch him, I hand him his clothes that I laid out for him, a sharp grey suit and black shirt no tie.
“So what are you going to do this evening Aria?”
“I am going to the store to finish Sabrina’s dress for the wedding and then I will meet you back here at home”
“Sounds like a plan”
“Aria dressed like that you look so young like in high school” I smile at him my hair is in a ponytail and I have on no makeup or jewelry.
I kneel up on the bed as he stands in front of me and I put a black pocket square in his breast pocket of his jacket
“There now you look perfect”
“Where are they taking you tonight?”
“I have no idea it’s all Christopher’s doing” I raised one eyebrow at him
“Well ten bucks says you wind up at a strip-club” Ian takes me in his arms and holds me
“Hundred bucks says we wind up at the casino like you all did” he kisses me and I hold him tight to my lips
“I’ll see your hundred bucks and raise you a fifty if you stay home with me?”
“My instable fiancée what am I going to do with you?”
“Whatever you want” I kiss him back and we are interrupted by
BEEEEEP BEEEEEP
“Shit that’s the guys I gotta go”
“Ok have a nice time out at the nudie bar” he laughs at my comment, I jump off the bed and walk down stairs with him.
Jeez the guys look like they are going to Vegas or something all dressed up and the cologne is heavy tonight.
I kiss Ian goodbye as they heckle him.
“You got the rest of your life for that come on Ian your night awaits”
“Hey bring him back in one piece”
“Aria trust us”
“Christopher you are the biggest culprit of sin and little redemption”
“Oh you know me too well see ya Aria”
“Have fun Ian” he gets into Christopher’s black jaguar and they take off, five guys on a mission, hell what am I saying they are all pushing forty they will be home by ten eleven tops.
I grab my purse and head down to the store to finish up Sabrina’s dress.
-------<>-------
Tonight is Ian’s bachelor party I am back at the store and working on my dress it will keep my mind off things.
I get busy sewing and stitching and putting on the hem,
RING A DING DING
“Hello sorry we are closed” I look up from my the dress and Samantha Winter is here, shit what the hell does she want.
“Oh hello there Miss Winter I thought you were a customer”
“Hello there Miss Macy I have been meaning to come and speak to you and well we never get the chance to be alone and look I was on my way home for the evening and here you are to my surprise”
“Yeah um my fiancé is out with the guys tonight so I came in to finish up the dresses”
“I can see that, when’s the big day?”
“Saturday so I have to get busy is there something I can help you with?”
Yes there is you see Miss Macy” just then my phone rings
BATMAN, BATMAN, BATMAN
“Will you excuse me please?”
I walk over to the counter and grab my cell and check the number it is Ian
“Hey Ian what’s up?” I look at Miss Winter and she is fumbling with her watch as I am on the phone, she looks around my store and then storms out in a hurry as her chicken legs pad on my hard wood floors she is so rude.
“Well you were right they all headed to the nudie bar and I had them drop me home how long are you going to be?”
“I am out of here right now see you in a few?
“Ok sounds good , please call security and have them walk you to valet be careful driving home”
“Yes Ian see you in a few”
I hang up and I call security to walk me to the valet, Ian worries too much but if he ask me I want to say yes I did as he asked.
I clean up my sewing and put the dresses back in my office I lock up and Lawrence is at my door to take me to my car he pulled it from the garage I hand him a fifty he didn’t have to come for me anyone could have, but he is a doll.
Chapter 35
Sex On Fire
I’m home in seven minutes, I walk into the kitchen and Ian looks delectable I mean what women wouldn’t want a tall dark and handsome in her kitchen making his famous mini burgers for her? The smell of those heavenly morsels do wicked things to me, I am starved in more ways than one as they entice my senses.
My sensational appetite has made me hungry for two things in my kitchen this evening. Our eyes meet and he smiles at me, his whole face lights up and I just got butterflies in my stomach. He took off his jacket but he is still in his black shirt no tie and his trousers hang on him perfectly, leaving me wanting more.
“Hey Ian wow you read my mind I am famished” I walk over to him and he leans down and kisses me soundly while his hands are busy at the stove.
“Thought you might be” I hug his waist and lean into his warm back as I kiss him ever so slightly, he feels so good and he smells delicious.
“Come here I have missed you” he shuts off the stove and whips his hands and he envelopes me in his warm and caring arms. I don’t know what just happened but I am moist between my legs and don’t think I have to pee. Ian brings my chin up to his full lips and he kisses me. I throw my arms around his neck and my hands find their way into his hair and I pull and tug on him, he pushes his tongue into my mouth, past my teeth and all of a sudden my clit is pounding a throbbing exaltation that she has never shown for him. He pulls away breathless as he whispers at my lips
“Miss me did you”
“When I saw you in this suit tonight you were all I had on my mind all night”
“So the clothes do it for you?”
“It’s the icing on the cake Ian and you know how I love cake” he raises one eye brow at me as he hugs me to his warm chest I start to unbutton the next button on his shirt and I kiss a smidge of chest hair that peeks through.
“Are you looking for lipstick stains?” I look up at him, he is playful tonight and I love it.
“There better not be lipstick stains on you other than mine”
“Jealous are we?”
“Yes I have witnessed the way women ogle you and it’s both a sense of pride that you are mine and hey ladies he’s taken” he smiles at me and kisses me.
“Come let’s eat” he walks me over to the table as he picks up the mini burgers.
“So it’s after ten-thirty where did you all wind up tonight?”
“Dinner at the terrace club, we saw the Indian’s pound the Yankee’s, we stayed and drank there and then the guys were on their way to the nudie bar and I was like enough I am going home and make burgers for my fiancée” his words warm my heart.
“Have I told you that I love you?”
“Have I told you I love you?” we busy with fixings, passing the ketchup and mustard and I prefer relish on mine.
“Yes by making sure I call for security to take me to my car”
“And did you?” he stops in midair as he shakes the mustard down the bottle
“Yes because you love me and want me safe” I say in a condescending manor.
“Aria I hurried them up after the game let out I wanted to come home to you”
“I have to say Ian every chance you get you show me how much you love me” I kiss him and I can taste the liquor on his breath.
“Do you want a drink?” he is up for some Thursday night adult play I see…hmm
“Now you’re talking professor name your pleasure?”
“Well I hope you might be my pleasure this evening?”
“Really now, hmm I’ll be right back” I walk out of the kitchen to the living room and grab a bottle of tequila, a deck of cards from under the bar and head back to the kitchen.
Ian hands me a napkins and he laughs as I enter the kitchen.
“You wanna play Ian?”
“What’s your game Aria?” he is coy but funny.
“I walk over to him and put down the bottle of tequila, a deck of playing cards and grab two shot glasses from the cabinet.
“What did we always use to play at Tony’s parties but with peach schnapps?”
“Strip-Black Jack!” Ian’s face lights up.
“You got it” Ian starts to laugh as I move over to the table and set them up, I pour us a shot of tequila.
“Give me your hand please sir” he more than happily obliges as unbutton his cuff and push up his sleeve, I lick his wrist and pour salt on it
He takes my wrist and licks it and pours salt on mine.
“You game?” I hold up the shot glass for him.
“Oh yeah deal me in”
LICK, DRINK, SUCK
“Again” he says as my eyes are now dancing with excitement.
LICK, DRINK, SUCK
“Oh shit is that good”
“Well Ian that’s better than cheers in my book”
We take a seat across from one another and I am like a sex crazed deity, my girly parts are tingling with desire and my mischievous glares don’t go unnoticed by my wayward fiancé as he undoes his buttons at his other sleeve and rolls them up quite deviously as he gauges my reaction.
“In honor of this being your bachelor party I’m gonna let you deal Ian” I hand him the deck of cards as I take down my hair and I hear the air hiss between his teeth.
A Wedding Affair (The Wedding Affair) Page 45