“Yes, then I lost track of you after graduation, I moved on with my life, but I kept a piece of you locked away. I thought of you often.” He squeezed my hand gently and looked at me with softness in his beautiful green eyes. Then miraculously, you walked back into my life at the gym. I could not believe that it was you it took me some time to get my nerve up to come talk to you.”
I never knew. How could I not have known?”
don’t know. I told everybody that we worked with. I thought surely somebody would have told you.”
“Funny how they all gossiped about absolutely everything else, but this one thing that I would have liked to know, they kept secret.”
“Yeah, no joke
“Well, I am glad you told me. Better late than never, right?”
You have no idea how hard it was for me to tell you. I wanted to do it over Facebook. It is easier to say ce face to face”
certain things via messages as opposed to
was once in love with me. I was the one that got away We all have one and I was his. That is extremely
This man, that I am incredibly captivated by, w flattering
We continued talking, mostly about the people we worked with and what they were doing nowadays. We talked about the fun times we had working together at McDonald’s, water fights after closing, playing hockey with a piece of meat, a broom and two dust pans. Our manager would buy us alcohol if we promised not to drink and drive and we would go up to the roof and sit there all hours of the night drinking and talking about anything and everything.
He told me that several times after a long Friday night, he would have to open on Saturday and he would get his work done and then hide up on the storage shelves and sleep until someone caught him and made him get back to work. Sometimes I wish I could go back and do it all again. Now that ! know how he felt, I would pay more attention, maybe ask him out since he obviously did not have the cojones to ask me out,
Way too quickly, in my opinion, we were pulling up to Angelique’s house. I would have been happy if we drove for another two hours. I wanted to spend time with him. I wanted to know everything about when we were teenagers Was I snobby to him? What did he like so much about me? It is onc to me, when I was that age, I felt undesirable to guys: I rarely got asked out. Now, I find out that someone liked me so much that he was afraid to ask me out. Had I known that, it may have given me some much needed self–confidence.
When we pulled up to the house, neither of us made a move to get out of the truck, I did not want to leave him. I had a great night and wanted it to last much longer. We talked for a few more minutes and then he jumped out of the truck and came around to open my door. He held out his hand for me to hold onto while I climbed down out of the truck.
He walked me to the door. “Aubrey, I had a great night. Can I take you out again sometime?”
Most definitely. I had a blast.” This time I was the aggressor, I grabbed hold of the lapel of his coat and pulled him down to me. I planted a kiss right on those sweet lips of his. This kiss was even better than the first two. I did not realize that there was room for improvement.
“Wow. You surprise me every day, Aubrey
“Hopefully, you will see many more surprises.”
“Oh, I cannot wait. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Kyle.” I turned to grab the door knob and the cold metal spun in my hand. The door opened and out walked Angelique’s boy toy, Brandon.
“Hello, Brandon, We are going to have to stop meeting like this,” I joked.
“Uh, yeah. Goodnight.”
“Night.” I walked into the house feeling the warmth envelop me. I had not realized how cold I was standing outside. To be honest, I don’t think there is much I would have noticed other than Kyle
Angelique was in the kitchen pouring herself a glass of wine. I walked in and sat at the bar stool that was in front of the counter she was standing at. She immediately reached for another wine glass and filled it for me. I didn’t object.
“Looks like you had another good night, Ang”
“Yeah, I think I really like him. He has potential”
st be very
I was surprised she had taken such a liking to him. Angelique had not given any guy much of a chance since her divorce. Brandon must special
“He is smart and kind. He’s a little chy, which I like, definitely not the egomaniac that Sean was
“That is a plus.” I picked up the glass she had handed me and took a drink of the deep rose–colored liquid. After the beer that I had earlier in the night, the wine was particularly sweet on my lips
“How was your night with Kyle?” She looked at me over the top
op of her glass
Inquisitively.
“Great,” I said and a smile appeared on my face that I could not control. I filled her in on the whole night from the moment he knocked on the door
until the last kiss at her doorstep
Tam so glad for you, Aubrey. You deserve to be happy.”
“And so do you, Ang.”
Book 1: Chapter 12
Several nude had flown by as time has a tendency to do when you are enjoying yourself. Kyle and I went out on numerous dates and it seemed chose was better than the last I never tired of being near him. I could not get enough. I finally took him to meet my sister and her family as well. Katie really liked him and sat she saw something in my eyes that had been missing for a long while.
As for Carter, I had put him on the back burner He had not tried to contact me much and with a little inquiring. I found out why. He was still seeing Hosa and she was practically living in my home. I felt that it was time to go pack up the rest of my things that were still in that house
Would you like ine to go with you?” Kyle had asked me
“No, this is something that I need to do on my own”
Call my hockey buddies come over there and we can have that place emp
emptied out in minutes”
1 appreciate the thought, but Lam only going to take my personal items. He can have the rest.”
I knew he meant well, but I really needed to do this alone and I did not need to bring any more drama to it than necessary. Carter would not think too Kindly of me bringing over the man I had been dating even if he himself was having Rosa sleep in my bed.
I had arranged for a moving truck to arrive late in the day and they would load everything up for me. I just had to pack everything and I wanted to take (my time in doing so I did not need anyone there rushing me. I had a few errands to run first and then I would head on over to the house to begin. It would
be an all day process.
As I pulled into the driveway, all the cars were gone. It looked as if Carter might actually keep his promise to stay away from the home all day so that di take care of my things without interruption. I was not quite sure where to begin. There was a lot to be packed.
The moving company had come to the house the day before and left me a large supply of boxes and bubble wrap in the garage. After setting my coat and purse down in the kitchen, I went to the garage to get some boxes. I found a note taped to the pile of boxes
Aubrey, it’s not too late. We can still work this out. Please do not give up on us.
Gee, I wonder where his girlfriend was when he was writing that. I crumpled up the letter and tossed it in the trash can that was to my left. Too much had happened to go back. It was not even an option for me.
I grabbed a large box that was made for hanging up clothes in and went up to my bedroom, which was as good a starting point as any. I opened my closet, surprised that my clothes had not been replaced with Rosa’s, and began placing them in the box. It took me several trips back down to the garage to retrieve more of these boxes to hang my clothes in, I made a mental note to go through all these clothes and donate any that I had not worn within the last year, I had entirely too many. You never really notice how many until you have to move
I next plucked all the pictures off the wall excluding ones of his family. I also left any of him and i together. I had no use for them; they only infuriated me with the memory of betrayal.
I continued in a methodical order trying to remember each and every thing that I wanted to take with me. I did not want to take much. I wanted a few of the kitchen things that I thought I could not live without, my make-up vanity and my golden Queen Anne chairs that were given to me by my mother. I remember sitting in those chairs when I was just a child. There was no way I was leaving them for Carter.
I searched every room, closet and pantry for anything that I might want to take. I definitely did not want to return to this house again to retrieve something and I did not want to have to ask Carter for anything either.
I left the hardest room for last, Matthew’s. I slowly opened the door, took a deep breath and walked in. Everything was as I had left it. I packed all of his clothes fest. Surprisingly, it took several boxes. I do not know how I thought one kid could wear so many clothes before he grew out of them. He
would have had a new outfit for every day until he needed a bigger size. I seemed to have gotten carried away with the baby shopping.
I packed up all the toys, diapers, wipes and formula. I would have to find somewhere to donate the formula to. I did not know when I was going to have another baby and I didn’t think the formula would last that long. I did not want it to go to waste. Perhaps a woman’s shelter somewhere could use it.
The final thing that I packed up was his bubble letter name that was on the wall above his crib. I placed each letter carefully into the box and that is when the tears began to flow. I wanted this chuld more than anything in this world. I had so many dreams for him. And now it all ended with me packing away his things Thad hated God for doing this to me. Was our God a vengeful god? Was I such a bad person that I needed to be punished by him?
I wiped away my tears and pushed passed the anger and finished packing. I left one teddy bear on the window seat that Ken and Diane had bought the baby All that was left was the big furniture and the movers would pack those in the truck for me.
I walked to the door and with great sadness, took a final look around and closed it behind me. I would never enter that room again.
I made one final pass through my room for anything that I might have missed, I walked into the master bath and saw that Rosa had indeed made herself at home Her make–up covered the entire countertop next to the double sinks. From the amount of items there, she definitely was not a natural
