Fallin' for You: The Echo of Love series

by Anna T. Pope

  “You are right. I won’t give her another thought.” Aria promised; she just needed to keep it.

  ~

  After parting ways with Ethan, Aria walked down to her new car, a gift from Will for her birthday. She wasn’t alone, of course, her two bodyguards shadowing her, like always which Aria didn’t mind like Will did since the burly men made her feel safer.

  She went home to get changed since she was still in her nurse scrubs and she wanted to surprise Will, who had to work late that night, at his office.

  She showered and then picked up the shiny bag from her closet and got dressed. She then looked up at her reflection, feeling satisfied with the image she made.

  She had on black, lace panties that left little to the imagination and bra, with matching garter belt and stockings. She remembered Will confessing to her once, how sexy lingerie always turned him on. Aria felt the desire to try it out for Will, and even though she thought that she would feel uncomfortable since she wasn’t really a girly girl, all Aria felt at that moment, as she looked at herself, was beautiful.

  The black complemented Aria’s skin tone perfectly, her pale smooth skin looking almost translucent and her ass looked amazing. She smiled and started getting her jeans on before she changed her mind and just threw a French coat, that Nura had left behind, on. If she was going to play out this little fantasy of Will’s, she was going to do it right.

  Aria parked her car across the street, and after calming her nerves, quickly got out and walked up to the building.

  “Good evening, Aria!” the security guard said to her and Aria waved a hand in greeting, not sure if she would be able to say anything without it coming out as a squeak, so she quickly got into the elevator and pressed the button for the last floor. Once it stopped and the doors opened, she was met with complete silence. The floor that was usually bustling from the activity was deserted since it was 8 p.m.

  Will worked too hard; Aria thought while exiting the elevator and walking in the direction of the man’s office. She didn’t bother with knocking, too excited to see Will’s reaction to her little surprise, and just burst through the door.

  She stopped in her tracks, feeling confused at first at the sight that greeted her, even thinking for just a moment that she was in the wrong office before her mind finally caught up with the reality.

  Will was currently standing in the middle of the room, but he was not alone. Antonia was also there, her hands wrapped around Will’s neck tightly while she kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

  Aria watched entranced as the sight of Will’s betrayal kept her glued to the spot. She knew that she should move and get out of there but she couldn’t.

  She felt a tear slide down her cheek before it was followed with more as the two of them separated after a second and Will began to say something, before he saw her.

  “Aria.”

  That one word was enough to wake her from her trance.

  “How could you?” Aria asked, her voice barely above a whisper, as she stared through the wet clouds in her eyes.

  “No baby! I can explain.” he said, coming over to where Aria was standing feeling like her heart was in pieces.

  “No! Do not touch me! Don’t you dare touch me ever again!” Aria shouted, tears now streaming freely down her face. “You promised me! You promised never to hurt me, Will!” she continued, her fists now connecting with the man’s chest repeatedly as she sobbed.

  “I know baby and I am so sorry. But you have to give me a chance to explain. It is not what you think, I swear!”

  “Stop! I don’t want to hear it. I may be in love with you, but I am not stupid. I let one man treat me like shit before and I will never let it happen again! Go to hell, Will! I never want to see you again!” she said and turned around.

  “I hope you have a happy life together since you definitely deserve each other.” was the last thing she said before slamming the door on her way out.

  6 years ago

  “Please tell me you landed?” Will asked his sister as soon as she picked up the phone.

  “Yes, finally. Only you would throw a wedding at the exact weekend of the biggest storm to hit New York in a decade. I managed to get the last flight before they closed down the airport until further notice.” he heard Meg’s wry voice over the line and sighed out in relief.

  He had been on edge the entire day, worrying if his younger sister and Best Woman would be able to get to LA in time for his wedding and hearing that she was finally there made him extremely happy.

  “I am sorry I couldn’t come to pick you up, but I have sent a driver; he should be there already.” Will said while pulling up to his driveway and shutting down the car. He could see that the light was on in the kitchen and smiled at the thought of the beautiful woman inside.

  “So how was your flight?” he asked and listened to her complaints of another passenger as he made his way into the house.

  He wasn’t supposed to be there today, since Antonia insisted on them going the traditional way and spending the night before the wedding separately, but in his haste to get to work that morning, after spending a bit too much time in bed with the said woman, he had forgotten to bring his suit with him.

  As soon as he entered the house, he got a strange feeling in his stomach, like something was off, which further grew when he noticed an unfamiliar jacket hanging by the door. He frowned and slowly made his way toward the kitchen, every step harder for him to take, as even Meg’s excited chatter couldn’t mask the sounds coming from the room in front of him.

  He opened the door slowly, careful to not make a sound and as soon as his eyes fell on the persons in the room, the phone dropped out of his hand, the sound of it falling to the ground echoing throughout the house like thunder.

  “Will!” Antonia said as soon as she saw him, her hands flying toward her discarded shirt in an attempt to cover herself while Bradley just stood there as if petrified at the sight of his best friend.

  “It’s not what it looks like!” Antonia immediately started to say while running over to where Will was still standing in shock. “I can explain baby, I swear.” she continued, her hands wrapping around Will.

  As soon as Antonia touched him, he shook his head, as if coming out of a trance, and pushed her away harshly.

  “It’s not what it looks like!? Really? Because to me, it looks like my fiancé and my best friend were about to screw behind my back!” he growled as he stepped toward her and gripped Antonia’s shoulders before pinning her to the wall.

  Will’s whole body was shaking, one of his hands was on Antonia’s neck which he squeezed and watched the woman he was planning to marry the next day cough and try to free herself; her beautiful hazel eyes wide and full of fear.

  “Please… pleas…” Antonia managed to gasp out and Will’s eyes widened when he realized what he was doing and he immediately let go, his hands shaking and his eyes filling with tears.

  He could hear Antonia coughing and crying in the distance while Bradley shushed her, as the buzzing in his ears began to intensify and he felt the need to get out of there as soon as possible before he ended up killing the both of them.

  “When I get back, you better be gone, or a little breath-play would be the least of your worries.” Will said, his voice deadly quiet and the promise in it truer than anything he had ever said, before he turned around and left, the doors banging so loud behind him that they almost flew off their hinges.

  ~

  Present

  Will felt numb as he looked at the spare key that was supposed to be Aria’s while listening to Meg.

  “She called me yesterday and said that she was alright and not to worry about her. She has a new job.”

  “Did she…” Will started to ask if Aria had mentioned where she was but Meg just shook her head no, crushing the last of his hopes in the process. It had been almost two months since he last saw Aria and Will was slowly but surely dying inside.

  After the scene in his office, Aria
had completely disappeared. She had quit her job at the ‘Echo’ and moved out of her apartment. The only person who knew where she was, was Nura, but the girl wasn’t saying anything.

  Will had even tried to track Aria down at her school but the brunette had transferred to somewhere else and they wouldn’t tell him where.

  The whole situation was such a mess, a stupid misunderstanding, and if Aria had just let him explain, none of this would be happening.

  But Will understood why Aria had reacted the way she did. She was hurt and betrayed; the one thing Will had promised never to do to her.

  He kept going back to that day, angry with himself and Antonia. He had been working late when Antonia came in, saying that she needed to talk to him. Will had immediately told her to get out and that there was nothing to be said, but the woman wouldn’t listen.

  He had grabbed Antonia’s arm to throw her out and that’s when she kissed him.

  It was sudden and it had taken Will by surprise, so in his shock, he didn’t react as quickly as he should have. And, Will hated to admit, it felt good, as all those memories of them came back and Will found himself kissing Antonia back for just a second. But then Aria’s face broke through the haze in his mind and he stepped away intent on telling her off, but it was already too late.

  Aria had already seen them and the look on her face and the pain reflected in her eyes broke Will’s heart because he had done that to her and he had never hated himself more than in that moment.

  “Please Meg, if you find out anything...” Will said to his sister, not even trying to hide how desperate he was.

  “I will Will, I promise you that I will.” she said while looking at him sadly.

  Meg had been furious with him when she heard about what happened, so much so that she had even broken Will’s nose before Will had managed to explain to her what had actually happened. After that, Meg had calmed down and has been trying to help him ever since.

  Will went home a few hours later, not knowing what else to do. He had searched everywhere for Aria and came out with nothing. It was like Aria had never existed and Will had dreamed the whole thing up.

  Looking around his apartment he felt lost. It was too quiet and Will hated it. Once upon a time he had enjoyed it and loved being alone, but that was before Aria came into his life. His baby had swooped in and made that place a home in such a short period of time, that now when the woman was no longer there, Will didn’t know how to cope.

  He slid down to the floor, wrapping his hands around his knees and wept. He had ruined the one good thing he had had in his life, and he didn’t know how to fix it.

  ~

  “How did the first week go?” Nura asked her, while they unpacked the last of Aria’s boxes. She had been staying in Nura’s old place for the last month but now, she had finally found this little studio.

  It had been hard finding a reasonably priced place in New York and it took Aria over a month before she managed to find something that didn’t make her want to curl up and die. The fact that she hated that she had to move out of her old place since she loved that apartment very much, wasn’t helping either, but that was the first place Will would have come to look for her so Aria begrudgingly decided to move out.

  “It was great. I didn’t have to start from the beginning since I had already finished the first year back when I was 18. I was nervous of course, thinking that I had forgotten everything but it all eventually came back to me.” Aria said with a relieved smile on her face.

  After the Will thing happened, she had decided to take her life into her own hands, so the first thing that Aria did was to apply for a transfer to Med school where she was now training to be a doctor.

  She had made a decision that she wasn’t going to rely on somebody else to guide her through life. It was going to be hard for a while, she was sure of that, but she was going to make it happen.

  She had been stupid enough to fall for the same love crap twice, but that all ended two months ago. She hated Will for hurting her like that, but Aria also still loved him, and she knew that if she saw him again, she would go back because she was too weak; hence, moving away.

  Aria would be lying if she said that there wasn’t a sliver of doubt in her, especially since her last conversation with Meg when the woman told her that it was all a misunderstanding and begged Aria to give Will a chance to explain himself.

  But Aria kept repeating to herself that Will was Meg’s brother and that it was natural for her friend to believe in anything her older brother would say. So, Aria told her to give up or she would cut all contact with her.

  “Aria?” Nura called pulling Aria out of her thoughts.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you completely sure about this? I mean, I know that you feel hurt and betrayed, but we’ve known Will for over a year and he just doesn’t seem like a guy who would do this kind of thing.”

  “I don’t want to talk about this.” Aria immediately said, as just a mention of Will’s name made a slicing pain shot through her chest.

  “I know Ari, and I am sorry for bringing it up again. But you seem so sad and I hate seeing you like this. And I also saw Will last week and he looked even worse than you do. I almost gave in and told him where you were, but I couldn’t do that to you.”

  Aria refused to look at Nura as her eyes started to water and her hands to shake so badly that she had to put down the box that she had been holding.

  “I just... don’t you think that if he had cheated on you, he wouldn’t have spent so much time trying to find you? If he wanted to be with his ex, he would’ve already done so. I don’t know, I guess I just want you to be happy.”

  “I know, I know that you do. But I have made my choice and all I’m asking for is for you to respect it.” she said and walked down to her bedroom before she ended up breaking down in front of her.

  Aria knew that Nura wanted the best for her and that she was just trying to help, but all she ended up doing was hurt her by constantly reminding her of everything she was desperate to forget.

  A Date

  “Hey, Aria!”

  She was at the counter in the coffee shop she recently started to work at when she heard a familiar voice greet her. Looking up from the latte she was preparing, she saw Jonathan, the guy from her anatomy class, smiling widely at her.

  “Hey, John! Want some coffee?” she asked him even though judging by the way the guy was almost falling asleep on his feet he was in more of a need of bed than anything else.

  “Sure, just pack it up to go. I have like a ton of studying to do and I am afraid I’ll pass out if I don’t get some caffeine in my system.” he said and laughed as Aria nodded, joining in.

  “I wanted to ask you something.” Jonathan said, suddenly looking wide awake and nervous, as he looked down to his feet.

  “Sure, ask away.” Aria said, intrigued by what John had on his mind.

  “I was wondering if you would like to go out with me?” the guy asked her in a rush, the words coming out all jumbled but Aria understood him and froze, staring at him in shock.

  “I… um... I...” she started to stutter and immediately saw John visibly starting to shrink in front of her.

  “It’s okay if you don’t want to.” John said and started to back up, “I... I am just going to go. Sorry for...” he blabbed, his cheeks in flames and his eyes wide.

  Aria looked at him closely for the first time since she met him. The guy was cute, tall, with red hair, hazel eyes, and freckles. John was also pretty shy and quiet, which meant a complete opposite of Aria’s usual type.

  Aria sighed, remembering where her usual type had led her to and how they’ve hurt her so she made a split-moment decision and called out for John, who was already half-way through the door.

  “Okay! Yes, yes, I would love to go out with you.” she all but yelled, attracting a few looks and snickers from the people in the café as John looked up at her in surprise, before he smiled widely.

  “Um, great! T
hat’s great. Tomorrow, around 6? We could maybe have dinner and then catch a movie? I mean if you want to?” he said and Aria chuckled at the boy’s nervousness and nodded.

  “Sure. See you tomorrow.”

  John smiled, yet again, and waved his hand awkwardly before running out of the café without his coffee. Aria shook her head and giggled at the guy’s antics before getting back to work.

  She hoped that she had made the right decision. It had been three months since the break-up, but at times it still felt like it had all happened the previous day. Aria couldn’t deny that she was still very much in love with Will, and she knew that it will be near impossible to get over him, but she had to at least try.

  And John was a good, normal guy, exactly what Aria needed right now, so she will try.

  ~

  It was a minute before John was supposed to pick her up for their date when there was a knock on the door. Aria smiled at the boy’s punctuality and went to let him in.

  “You are right on time. I like…” she said while opening the door but as soon as her eyes fell on the person standing in front of them her heart stopped.

  “... that.” she finished quietly.

  “Hi, baby.”

  Will.

  Will was standing in front of her, looking exactly like he did the last time Aria saw him and she almost fainted as she stared at him speechless.

  “I found you.” the man whispered after a few moments and Aria finally came to her senses.

  “What do you want? I think that I had made it quite clear that I don’t want to see you ever again.” she said while glaring at the man.

  “Baby please.” Will started to say, but Aria quickly cut him off.

  “I am not your baby!”

  “Fine! Aria, please, just talk to me. Let me explain.”