A Bride Worth Billions

by Morgan, Tiffany

  “NO... I mean, yes... I mean. Shit I am nervous!”

  “So am I!”

  “Are you, but why?”

  “For the same reason as you!”

  “Why am I nervous?”

  “You’re such a tease!”

  “Nobody has ever called me that before. I suppose this is a first.”

  “Oh Boy! The first is always so special. Shit, that came out wrong. I mean I didn’t hint anything else.”

  “I won’t mind if you would”

  “Are you flirting with me?”

  “I guess, I am.”

  “Why?”

  “Maybe, I like you?”

  “Hmm.. maybe I like you too”

  “Like for real?”

  “So, are you seeing someone?”

  “Nopes. I am not the guy to sail on two boats. I have not been in a relationship for ages now.”

  “Okay”

  “That’s it. Just an okay?”

  “Have you read The Fault In Our Stars by John Green?”

  “Would it be a chic lit novel?”

  “Not really!”

  “Well, then I haven’t.”

  “Why? You’re into chic lit novels.”

  “I don’t really know but right now, I am very much into you!”

  There! He had said it and it had shocked the hell out of him too. He did understand that there was a level of attraction and chemistry between the two, but the moment he said the words out loud, he knew this was a girl, he will find very hard to resist.

  She looked at him with those predatory eyes and before he had time to process, they were suddenly kissing softly and then very fiercely and passionately. She met him for every stroke and for a moment, he forgot that the girl was barely 18 perhaps!

  “Holy shit!” he murmured. “That could have set the room to fire. I am sorry but I really need to ask this, how old are you?”

  “Can I lie?”

  “Oh babe, is it that bad?”

  “I am 25”

  “Tell me. You’re killing me now.”

  “Okay I am turning 20 in three months. I am not a kid. You are not the first guy I have kissed and it is totally alright for us to behave the way we did. Can we now cut the crap and taste the tongues again?”

  ‘Taste the tongues’! Heck only a teenager could come up with a phrase like that but as he was sure that he was headed to doom with the PSTD, he decided why not to have a little wild fun!

  Without giving her a chance to say something, he grabbed her and soon they were busy ‘tasting the tongues’ with a passion that could put nuclear reactors to shame. Since when did he get so fired up? Being so close with a girl made him realize that his body had missed the company of a woman. She threw herself over him and he was more than delighted to devour parts of her. They had no clue of the time as they spent a long time exploring the terrains of each other’s body.

  No doubt, his body relaxed a great deal and he could swear that he hadn’t felt so good ever since the day he had left the battlefield. Finally, when they had spent a great deal of time snuggling and touching and kissing, they finally decided to get their attention back to music, at least for some time.

  He asked her to sing the bird song which had stirred feelings inside him at the very start.

  She sang in her voice and as he looked at her fluttering her eye lashes and smiling at his face, it occurred to him that she was not just a one day fling. Strange as it may sound, sometimes love doesn’t happens after numerous dates. Sometimes, all it takes for you to fall in love is one look at the perfect face, one kiss with a fiery teen, one afternoon with a passionate girl and you know that your heart will never be yours again.

  Before he could come up with a logical way of explaining, he found himself singing

  “Oh you little girl

  I’ve seen you become

  The queen of the land

  Where I shall rule and be the king.

  Come to my arms

  And let me kiss.

  The kind of kiss

  That will leave

  The marks of eternity.

  I promise to love

  From dawn to dusk

  And from dusk again

  Till the sun rises to shine.”

  And then skipping the beats because it was no longer a poem, he said, “I LOVE YOU” and with a dramatic pause added Elsie.

  Elsie didn’t know how to react. One second. He was singing and in the next he had proposed of his love. Was this high school musical or was she dreaming or was all of this really happening? She knew she was meant to say something, but what could she say.

  Standing in front of her was the guy she had been stealing glances at, ever since he had first entered her home. She had intentionally sung the song hoping that he would notice because she had heard his footsteps in the room.

  She had pretended she didn’t remember his name the other day when she knew exactly every detail about him. She had thought it was nothing but a wild crush, but her heart had been beating a bit too wild for him. Piano was one instrument she was rarely interested in but she had secretly seen her dad’s file about him and known that he was a piano pro and had urged him to teach so that she could spend time.

  “I don’t really know how long the love lasts and what happens in love, but all I know is at the moment, I think I love you. Is that enough Aaron?”

  “More than enough! However, I don’t want you to stay in the dark. I have my issues Elsie. I am not your regular guy. I wake up in the middle of the night and cry like a baby. I have scars and too many of them. I am still haunted by the ghost of my brother whom I failed to help when he needed me the most. I faint in broad day light and sometimes; I go on for days without talking to anyone. Do you think you could deal with all this shit? Do you think we could figure this out together? You’re young and naive and it’s okay, if this is too much on your plate.”

  He let out a long breath because it had taken every single ounce of strength to tell the words out loud. Perhaps, the first real step in overcoming PSTD is to accept that you are suffering from it. It had drained him. Keeping his feelings locked inside had been eating into him.

  Elsie walked the steps that separated them and then held his hands and said

  “I have seen Dad attend a lot of PSTD patients and I know about every ghost you wake up to. I am not scared of your scars. I promise to stand right beside you and will help you when you feel like the world is crashing apart. I don’t promise that there will be no nightmares, but I promise you, a lot of sweet nights packed with so much love that the ghosts would be scared of entering your mind. I promise to give you love, so raw and fierce that you will wake up with a smile. I don’t know what forever is or how long it lasts, but in this moment, I love you more than I have ever loved anyone and that for me is strong enough to drive away all those devil thoughts and haunted memories of the past.”

  He looked at her and he didn’t see a young teenage girl, but he saw the girl who he would love for the rest of his life. Sure, there will be demons and nightmares and may be a lot of bad nights but as long as he had Elsie, he would fight because this is what Alastair really meant. He had felt the same for the first girl he had fallen in love with. No matter, what tomorrow bought for him, he was happy that his today had something beautiful.

  “I love you Elsie”, he said again.

  “I love you too, Aaron”.

  He might not be a teenager but he felt the same in that instant. He picked her up in his big strong arms and planted a full length kiss on her lips as he slowly took her up the stairs to the room to show her what love felt like.

  As he was teasing her lips, she said, “what about Dad? Didn’t he threaten you not to mess with me?”

  “You’re such a stalker, aren’t you?”

  “Yes I am, but what will you tell him. He is mostly sweet. I can handle him. I am an adult anyways. He would respect my decision.”

  Aaron figured he needed to come up with some really smart Pot
ter jokes to win over the guy but that was a problem for another time. The guy was off for 10 days and right now, he had a beautiful woman and a really long night.

  The nightmares shall soon bid a goodbye!

  THE END

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  EARTHBOUND

  They say when you die you get a flashback of your entire life right in front of your eyes. It is like watching a movie, with your eyes wide open, a movie featuring you as a lead protagonist. But it didn't really happen in that exact sense with me.

  Between crushed pieces of alloy and shattered crumbles of glass, I could see his face. The face that made me think that heaven and earth can collide in your lover’s eyes. The face that made me think that the sun and the moon doesn't hold the world together. It’s him. It had always been him. But I couldn't reach to my world anymore. His amethyst blue eyes were still and a thick stream of blood was oozing out from his throat. I tried to unbound myself, but my arms were blocked under the airbag and I couldn't unbuckle my belt. I wanted to scream out loud for help. I wanted to let him know that I was with him and that I will always be with him. But not even silence was coming out of my mouth. I closed my eyes and found an enigmatic solace in the darkness. And finally, it all started coming like a movie, like a perfect flashback.

  I could see it all – the first time when I laid my eyes on him and knew, just knew that he would be the one for me, the prom date and the slow motion dance, the first kiss in the rain, the separation, the longing for each other’s touch while we were caught in a long distance relationship, the reunion, the proposal, the engagement, the wedding, the bells, the car. I could remember the moment I looked at my parents and my friends while sitting with him in our new car, decorated with flowers, ribbons and empty cans, and a big sign of “Just married” at the back. They looked happy, unworried and calm. Little did they know that the calmness would soon subside because of the storm that was about to hit us in a while. We drove towards the fields, away from the city and somewhere far from the crowd. We wanted to go to a place where we could get lost in each other, isolated but never alone. And then it happened - the fall that tore us apart, an eighteen wheeled truck, the deadly highway and the broken tail lights of our car. It was all darkness afterward, and so the darkness I became.

  I opened my eyes with a pungent smell of antiseptics. I was in a hospital and the blonde nurse who was staring me with her plum face and brown eyes made it even more prominent.

  “Where is he?” I asked about the well-being of my recently wedded husband, which was the first thought that crossed my mind.

  “Let the doctor come. He will let you know about your husband. I have examined you and cleaned all the bruises. We will run a head CT to make sure you have no brain injuries. After that, you would be good to go!” She said in an almost mechanical way, closing the blue bottle of the antiseptics.

  “Where is Dan? I have to meet him NOW!” I laid emphasis on the last word and tried to get up from the bed.

  “You should take some rest, Annie. We are still not sure about any internal bleedings,” the doctor said while indicating the nurse to sedate me.

  “Where is he?” I tried to get up. I wanted to be with Dan. I wanted to know if he was fine or not, but I couldn’t even keep my eyes open after a while. The nurse sedated me and I crossed the bridge to unconsciousness.

  I was constantly fighting for the next couple of hours between the states of consciousness and dreaming. I had to think a couple of times before I finally opened my eyes and found the same doctor waiting for me.

  “I know you have a lot of questions, Annie. I have all the time for you. But first, I would like to know about your well being. Please follow the light for me,” he said and turned on the torch. I did what I was told and followed the light with my eyes. He conducted a nominal exam for the next couple of hours and I did everything I was told without uttering a word in disapproval.

  “I’m done now. You have got a couple of bruises and a stitch on the forehead. Your CT is clear and I don’t see any other reason to keep you a hostage here. Do you have any question for me?” He sat down in front of me, as he knew it was going to be a long conversation.

  “Where is Dan?” I asked and saw the look on his face. He knew that it was coming. He didn’t have to say anything. His silence said it all.

  “We tried our best, but I’m sorry for your loss. He is no more with us.” He said those disastrous words and I felt as if my entire world collapsed. I couldn’t keep my heart beating, I couldn’t keep my lungs running, I couldn’t think straight. Going on and living my life without him seemed like an impossible thing, but I was alive. My heart was still pumping, my lungs were still working and my brain was still able to think in black and white. I was still alive, without him. I didn’t know what to do or how to react without him by my side. I wanted to cry, but I also knew if I would cry, nothing in the whole wide world would make me stop. I never thought that I would end up losing him, never thought that I would be so alone. Losing him was my biggest nightmare and it was time to stop being a dreamer, and to face the reality.

  It is easier said than done. The more I tried, the harder I failed. My dad had driven me back because, of course, I wasn’t in a state to drive. The news of my husband’s shock had shattered me. Isn’t it strange as to how we take so many things for granted? Right when Dan had given me a full length kiss when we exchanged our wedding vows, none of us knew that it would be our last kiss.

  I ran my bandaged fingers over my engagement ring. The ring was a promise of our love. The ring stayed, but the man didn’t. The tears kept flowing, thick and fast and I cursed God for giving me this fate. What had I done to deserve this? I had barely lived the life of a wife and here I was; a widow, grieving the loss of my best friend, my husband, the soul mate who had the whole of my heart.

  My dad tried to console me, but what could he say. He knew my loss was too big for words. Dan and I had known each other for too long and it was weird to think that the next time, I had news to share, he won’t be beside me. I wanted to break something, to hit hard so that the pain inside would feel a little less than what the external injuries would. But perhaps I knew, no matter how much I bleed, it is the heart that will refuse to heal.

  I didn’t want to get over his loss. My dad asked me, if I would like to stay with him for some time because he knew staying at Dan’s place would be very painful. Every single room in his home was full of memories. I remember the time we first made out in his room, oblivious to the rest of the world. I remember how he had whispered in my ears those little dirty things which we would be doing after our honeymoon. He had always been a man with too many plans. He had vividly told me every single thing about how he intended to make love to every part of me and the memories kept coming.

  I knew no matter where I stayed, the memories were mine and it was foolish to even try and lock them. Heck, I didn’t even want to do so. If Dan was no longer with me, I was not going to part with his memories. I asked dad to drive me to Dan’s place because this is where I belonged. This is where my Dan belonged.

  My mother and even my friends asked if I wanted company and I didn’t even bother to text back anyone. I told my dad to ask others not to disturb because I wanted some time to myself. He looked at me with concern and tears filled his eyes and for a moment I felt like a jerk for being so cold. However, when you have just lost the guy who meant the world to you, you really cannot do much but grieve.

  I knew he would understand and I promised to take care of myself and locked the gate and steered inside. As soon as I heard the sound of the car marching by, I howled and shrieked and cried so loudly that I felt the insides of my heart will rip apart from the impact which the noise had. Of course, the heart still kicked strongly.

  “Dan, I need you. I love you. Come back, babe!”

  I kept screaming these words to no one in particular, perhaps hoping that God would change their mind and send back the husband who was supposed to be k
issing me by this time. We would have been in France now. I have always loved the Eiffel tower and Dan had promised me to take there and he had said; he had some really dirty plans. He never broke his promise; then why was I sitting and crying when I should be holding hands with Dan at the Eiffel tower and sealing the bond with the endless kisses of love.

  I had no clue of how much time passed. I hadn’t fainted, but I didn’t know what consciousness felt like. I was sitting on the floor barefoot and hugging an old frame where Dan was licking chocolate off my fingers.

  Pictures.

  The room was filled with pictures. We both had known all along that we were meant to be together. Dan had promised that when we would return back to our home after the honeymoon, he would paint our room with daisies and pictures of the two of us. I slowly gathered courage to get up from the floor and climbed the stairs that took me to the room.

  Daisies! Who would paint them now, not that I cared about those flowers anymore. As I unlocked the room and opened the gate, I was stunned and shocked to silence.

  The room was painted and there were too many daisies and pictures from our prom night. There was a picture of me climbing up his shoulder and there was a picture of Dan proposing me to marry. This couldn’t happen! When had Dan planned all of this? He had been staying with me for the last week. I couldn’t understand how all of it was possible and then wondered at the beauty of the man I had lost. I would never get my answers because the one person who always surprised me was no longer there to solve the puzzles that eluded me.

  I sauntered in the room to lay on the bed. I swear that I could feel as if Dan was right there beside me, hugging me and caressing my hair and brushing away the tears that kept falling. Perhaps, I really needed to sleep. The medicines were messing with my mind, but oh God, why couldn’t the damn medicines bring Dan to life! I believe that was the most tragic thing.

  I woke up the next day with an empty side of the bed. His absence was haunting me to the core. I couldn’t bring myself to the conclusion that he was gone. I traced my fingers on the traces of the empty bed sheet where he lay the last time. I danced my fingertips on his pillow and felt the curl of his hair, filling the gaps between my fingers. I swear, at that moment, I could feel him beside me.