A Wedding Affair (The Wedding Affair) (49 page)

“You had to?”

“Aria I wanted you, I have always wanted you, even though you were with that worthless piece of shit, honestly I don’t know what you ever saw in him anyway, everything was fine up until a few days ago when I was informed about your indiscretion and your extracurricular activities over the past week.”

Ian
’s words are harsh and sharp he is now pacing past me like he is afraid I am going to leave, he is cautiously watching me, gauging my reaction to what he has just told me, he knows I hate being manhandled and worst of all surprised.

My furry is building, not only have I lost the love
of my life tonight, I am now totally and completely outraged and appalled that the man I am engaged to
had me followed for six months
who does this, see what happens when I try and have a life…utter and total chaos!

“Ian how dare you
, what gave you the right?”

“
Because I love you, I have always loved you Aria, we spent so much time together growing up didn’t you think we would wind up together?” ok things he has never said to me before today.

“I don’t know
, you never seemed interested”

“Interested are you fucking kidding me
, I have been in love with you since we were fucking sixteen years old, how the hell do you not know this?” ok yeah I am clueless at times but wait one second professor.

“Because you left, we never really went down this road before” I yell at him and he
is back with more for me.

“When I came back here two years ago to make you mine
,, what I saw was not my Aria, you were a shell of your former self, your whole life was in disorder, commotion and pandemonium, all because of the unruliness and madness of Tristan Bach” oh wow where is this all coming from.

“Ian you were not helpful either trying to sleep with me
when you came back”

“Aria I’m not proud of my actions, my only excuse is I love you I have always loved you”
and that is exactly why I said yes to him. shit shit shit.

“You never told me, I never knew”

“That is because you were preoccupied with being used by that fucker Bach, and you didn’t even care what he was doing to you, you still don’t see what he is doing to your life just look at yourself he has pawed you and clawed at you taking what he wants and tossing you aside” Ian is so guile, and raw, calculating even, he is scaring me and demonizing Tristan he doesn’t even know the man! He speaks again and pulls me from my thoughts.

“Aria am I what you want?”

“Ian I said yes to you”

“Yes you did and I want to know ARIA
DO YOU LOVE ME?” he is looking at me with dark intent, he is furious. I’m scared and in shock, his dark eyes are scolding and cold, the question throws me for a loop and I utter

“Y
es” almost a knee jerk reaction.

“Good because
we are getting married next Saturday as scheduled!” he spits this out at me

Whoa!
I’m afraid of his tone and yet I’m mad that he spied on me but wait…

“So that’s it?”
he pushes back his tousled hair and looks at me

“Aria life is about choices and living with the consequences,
after you kicked him out from your store what else am I to say he is gone right?”

“Yes”

“You know if you didn’t get rid of him I was going to leave you at the altar!” He is frightening in his tone and cautious in his words, and he has wicked intent who does he think he is?

“You would have
done that?” now I am cocky and arrogant

“I will not be m
ade a fool of by you and that piece of shit Aria! You had your little tryst or whatever the hell it was, it’s over and we can now move on with our life”

I’m shaking from fear, but really I don’t know
how I feel about any of this. I am frightened by his tone, I don’t think he will hit me but I move back from him anyway it’s been a crazy night and getting even more out of hand by the minute.

“Aria this will soon be the past, we will marry next week
as scheduled and build a life together! I am not happy with what you did, but I have a feeling you are probably not too happy with me right now either? And what I did by having you followed for the past six months. The only solace I found in all of this is you were tempted Aria, enticed by the past, you did not sought him out to cheat on me, you were seduced by that deceptive piece of shit” He seems to simmer down and calm a bit although his words are still dripping with fury.

“Ian why did you wait so long to co
ntact me? I mean you knew where I was, Tristan didn’t until Friday” I am not yelling and I am trying to understand all of this he sighs and walks over to me and I step back. I’m frightened and I never really pushed Ian before and I don’t know how hard he can push back. He stops and there is an edgy quality to his frustrated face, his anger is still apparent but I sense it is dwindling. He closes his eyes to collect his thoughts, count to ten? I don’t know but with a strong grip on my arms he looks down at me as I am looking up into his dark eyes.

“I had to finish spring quarter”
he says in a consolatory manor.

“So we didn’t meet at The West side Market by coincidence?”

“Yes we did, I had no idea you were there that day, just like I had no idea that you would sleep with another man after saying yes to me?” consolatory or not he is still mad.

“Are you going to hit me?” I feel like a child who’s going to be punished for my actions.

“No Aria I love you, but you test my will, I thought you were over him and moved past him, and to find out what has been going on yes if I were here I would …” and he puts his arms around me, pulling me to him, holding me close, hugging me, I reach up and I feel him trembling as I put my arms around him.

A chill runs through me, he rea
lly can be quite scary, I’ve never seen this side of Ian Bollinger before he is usually so calm, cool and collected this crazy mad man is another side of him entirely but sadly I have to admit it is me who has brought him to this angry state, my actions, my words and what I have done. We hold each other and calm down in each other’s arms he is hurt I am hurt and we start to relax as his grip on me lessens he looks down at me and puts his forehead to mine.

“Please don’t leave us Aria
, I love you, I know I don’t deserve you but I want to make you happy” I don’t know what to say I don’t know what to feel.

Ian folds me into his arms and he
walks me over to the couch, we sit down and he holds my hands and looks me in the eyes and he sighs.

“Aria, do you know how
hard it was to watch what Tristan did to you?”

“Yes I know I was all over the place back then”

“
Aria sweetheart I had no rights to stick my nose in any of it, you were out of control, reckless and I was powerless, you didn’t listen, you didn’t care and we were so worried for your sanity as well as your safety”

“Ian I always appreciat
ed that you cared enough to catch me when I stumbled and comfort me when I was heading off the deep end”

“Yes but Aria what we all worried about was what would happ
en if we weren’t around and he went too far with you” he holds my chin in his hand and makes me look at him and I see his authoritative side where he scolds me and comforts me like the friend I have known forever.

“Ian I know you worry about me
, my mom and my brothers and my friends and the girls, I love you all for it, but I have to make my own mistakes or I will never learn”

“Aria the mistakes you were heading for could have been life altering and very devastating
over the course of you just knowing Bach, your life has been in danger and he had you so fooled it scared us all”

“Ian you and all my
friends have been the best and I thank God for all of you really…”

“Aria sweetheart but what you failed to see what I failed to admit to you is
I fell in love with you, I have been in love with you and when I came back to get you and saw what he did to my sweet little Aria I saw red, I still see red” I hug him and sigh a sigh of relief, I try to console him.

“Red is not your color Ian, I love you and I am grateful f
or always having you in my life”

He looks at me and runs his finger down my cheek as he whips my lips as if he is whipping him off of me

“Ian I never meant to hurt you?” we look at each other

“Aria by hurting yourself, you hurt
me, back then there was no getting through to you. The women I see now, the Aria right here today is the one I have always known, you are a vibrant, smart, witty, young women with a hint of the girl I fell for in high school, when you were with Bach you were just a mess, out of control, a train wreck, no one was getting through to you”

“
Ian, I have always been fond of you, I sometimes wish we would have gotten together after high school and then none of this would have happened”

“So you are blaming me for your
involvement with Tristan Bach?” He is trying to hide his smile

“Well frankly yes
! If you would have manned up let’s see, we’d have children by now that would be in their twenties, we’d have a life together and a lifetime of memories”

“Aria it took me a
long time to get here with you” he is sincere and honest and I love him for that.

“It’s taken me a long time to get the courage to even be something to someone else” he pulls me into his arms as
we sit cuddled up on the sofa and talk.

Ian goes on to
tell me how he would be in an airport and he saw the ad for my store, he would try and forget about me but Business as Usual always showed up reminding him of me.

“I
would talk to Christopher and of course Erika told me the store was yours, so now I am in Brussels and there is a huge poster of handmade suits shipped to you overnight” I smile as I hear him recall his encounter with the many ads we had splattered all over.

“And one time while g
oing to get my luggage. I am in Spain, and oh look you are making custom ties, and it got to be that everything reminded me of you, airports, lobbies, there were posters even in bathrooms one of my students has a tie you made him with splatters of paint, he’s in some band or something”

“W
ell it’s nice to know that all those advertising dollars brought you to me!” he smiles at me and touches my chin

“I am in
awe at what you have manifested for yourself Aria it is quite an accomplishment what you achieved, you are so talented Aria”

“
Business as Usual”

“You really are a s
uccess Aria you went from the top of the corporate world to starting all over with something so profound you have taken the world by storm”

“
All in a day’s work”

He laughs
at my nonchalant manor and we relax on the couch, me in his arms and he seems to calm as he holds me as I throw my legs over his lap. I sit and listen, wow I did not realize that I abused Ian the way Tristan abused me, that saddens me that I was that foolish to hurt someone and not even know it. I immediately think of Tristan and I know I hurt him tonight too.

Ian continues,
with a memory of us in high school and how he was crazy about me even back then, but my family is strict catholic so he didn’t dare try to date me. When he got the nerve to tell me after all these years, he found me caught up in Tristan, and just walked away because I was out of control.

I just listened, he calmed and the Ian I know returned, I think
we got to a better place this evening, a new place to build from.

Funny thing is I didn’t have any guilt
about what I did. Gotta ask Erika about that. I mean usually the guilt eats you up that is why people cave, come clean, confess to these things, me I really do believe that if Tristan was game I would marry Ian and keep Tristan on the side. Jeez I need to smack myself for my attitude and my thoughts.

I look at Ian
and sum up tonight’s events. Said fiancé has stalked me for six months! That hurts that he did that. Then he didn’t show up till a month ago? But the killer of this evening’s confession is because of how bad he behaved, I’m forgiven for my
wedding affair
with Tristan!

I’m not sure how I feel about all of this, on one hand I feel t
his whips the slate clean and he’ll
LET ME TRY AGAIN
,
so we can start our marriage on an even keel.

On the other hand Tristan’s words haunt me

I’m his consolidation prize
,
he shows up moves in on me, he can sleep while his fiancée is out all night, I’m 38 when will we have children? Will he be a good father? Husband? The worst was Tristan knows he gets me hot and bothered not Ian…shit shit shit it is so in Tristan’s kiss oh God the man came just kissing me I will take that to my grave.