Authors: Sharlay
“Gin and Tonic please,” I ask. Jessica feeds my order back to Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome, and he tells the bar tender. It takes just a couple of minutes before the bartender hands us our drinks. I’m surprised at the speed. I watch the guy that Jessica was talking to and wonder why he hasn’t yet paid or why the bar tender hasn’t gone in search of her money. Jessica must see the confused look on my face and leans in to my ear.
“He’s the owner.”
“Oh,” I say holding my glass up to him and mouthing a thank you. He winks, which makes him look rather sexy and then Jessica is dragging me onto the dance floor.
“No one’s really dancing,” I say to her, embarrassed.
She gives me a chastising look and shouts, “you only live once, remember. Pretend that it’s the last time you’ll ever get to dance,” she laughs, swaying her hips and shaking her head. I watch her in amusement for a couple of minutes before giving in and rocking to the beat with her. Within ten minutes, both of our drinks are empty and the dance floor is full. Jessica seems to draw in people everywhere. It’s like they’re drawn to her bubbly personality and everyone seems to be dancing around her. I just enjoy the atmosphere and get lost in the music. I close my eyes and feel the beat buzzing through my entire body. I haven’t felt this relaxed in a long time. Everything’s been so intense lately that I forgot how to just have fun.
Before I know it, my hands are in the air and I’m waving them all over the place. My eyes meet with Jessica’s every so often and she sings a few lyrics to me from each song. I sing them back and we laugh before continuing to dance. I catch a glimpse of the owner leaning against the bar just watching Jessica. He seems entranced. I catch her attention and subtly look his way. I see her go red. She rolls her eyes and continues dancing. I laugh to myself.
I’m in the middle of shaking my hips and singing along to the words when I feel a pair of hands slip around my hips. I turn to face the culprit and find a tall guy with dark blonde hair smiling down at me. I gently remove his hands and give him a warning look. He holds his hands up in the air in front of me, feigning innocence and just laughs. I shake my head in amusement and continue dancing. He keeps a healthy distance but keeps dancing with me.
At least half an hour passes. I’m sweating but having a great time. I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn to see Jessica staring at me.
“Bathroom break?” She asks.
“Yeah,” I agree, following behind her.
We don’t speak again until we reach the restroom because the music is quieter in there.
“You seem like you’re having fun tonight,” she says.
“Yeah, it’s nice in here. Are you?”
“Yeah, it’s great. It’s good to see you smiling,” she beams before heading into one of the cubicles.
“It is, yeah,” I whisper to myself, looking in the mirror. I take my tube of lip gloss out of my purse and put some on. “What do you think of Mr. Hunky Owner, then?” I ask when she emerges from the cubicle.
“He’s ok,” she says, washing her hands next to me.
“You looked like you thought he was more than ok,” I tease.
“I don’t know, I’m just not looking to get into anything right now with anyone. He seems nice but I guess everyone does at first,” she tries to laugh as she says it but it’s the first time that I’ve ever seen her smile falter.
“Your ex boyfriend...he hurt you?”
She looks at me for a long minute before answering.
“He slept with my sister,” she says casually.
“I’m really sorry.”
“Don’t be, I’m over it,” she says, putting her smile back on. It’s the first time that I realize that her smile is fake. She smiles to hide the pain. I want to ask more but decide not to push it.
“Let’s dance our problems away, what do you say?” I chuckle.
“Now you’re speaking my language,” she says.
And that’s exactly what we do for the rest of the night. Dance our sorrows away, both past and present and it feels good. It feels so good that I almost forget about everything...almost....
That’s why my whole world is thrown into turmoil when the taxi drops me outside of my house at three in the morning and I see him standing there....
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
PAIGE’S STORY
H
e is stood next to my car and I wonder if I am dreaming. I’m not, he’s real. I ignore him and take out the keys to my apartment.
“Paige.”
I glance at his face. He looks like he hasn’t shaved in weeks. The bags under his eyes tell me that he is getting as little sleep as I am, and my heart churns in my chest. I still love him and I hate myself for it. I go to walk past him but he grabs my wrist softly, halting my movement.
“Paige,” he repeats.
“What, Taylor? Trying to kill me wasn’t enough? Now you’re stalking me, too?”
“No.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“No,” I say firmly.
“Please, just give me a minute.”
“You had your minute two weeks ago. You chose not to take it.”
“Paige, I am begging you. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t get you out of my head, and believe me, I’ve tried. I know that I messed up. I was being a coward and I’m sorry. Just give me five minutes, if you never want to see me again after that, then fine. I will never bother you again.”
I don’t look at him. “Fine, but I don’t want you in my apartment. We can talk in the car. You have five minutes,” I say before pulling my arm free of his hold.
I unlock the car door and we both step inside in complete silence. It’s awkward. It’s dark out and all that lights the road is the street lamps. I hear him take a deep breath as though he is contemplating telling me whatever it is. I let my head sink against the headrest and then I wait. Our breathing is the only sound that fills the car until he speaks again.
“I know that you hate me.” I want to argue and say that I don’t but I stay silent. “And you have every reason to. I didn’t lie but I kept secrets which is just as bad. I shouldn’t have. I did know that it was you from the moment that I saw your face in the gallery. I was just going to leave and pretend that I had never seen you but then you started speaking about how you had dreamed of me. As you kept talking I realized that somehow you knew me but didn’t know how and that for some strange reason, your mind had suppressed me to just your dreams. I should have walked away at that point, that would have been the right thing to do. But when you fainted in the gallery and I saw you lying there, I felt like I needed to protect you, to be close to you. Some sick part of me wondered if this was fate’s way of giving me a second chance. A chance to make things right.
I didn’t expect anything at first. I just wanted to get to know you a little and see if your life had turned out ok, you know, after the accident. But I couldn’t shake this weird connection that I felt that I had with you. I promised myself that I would stay away from you but I couldn’t. I couldn’t get you out of my head. I spent a year feeling sick over your death and seeing you alive was...it was crazy. Knowing you were alive after all the time that I spent believing you were dead...I wanted to be around you. I couldn’t help it. Then I started to spend more time with you. I should have walked away the moment that I realized what I was feeling, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave you no matter how hard I tried. And I kept justifying it in my own twisted way, telling myself that maybe fate was giving me a second chance. But it was selfish. I really didn’t expect to fall in love with you, Paige.” My breath catches at his words but I try to look unaffected.
“Rick was right. I did leave you for dead that night. Granted, I knew that he was with you but it was besides the point. I should have stayed and fixed what I had done but I panicked. I ran and that was wrong. Your face haunted my dreams almost every night. I just kept remembering how beautiful you were. I thought that you were dead. I kept expecting a knock on my door from the police, but it never came. I still suffered. Every single day from the night of the crash, I suffered. I hated myself for what I had done. I’m so sorry that I did that to you, Paige.”
“Then why?” I ask. Taylor is not a bad guy, I know that. So why did he make that decision?
“I was scared. But since I walked out the door of your apartment that night, I realized that the only thing that I was scared of losing was you. A life without you was harder than a life with a secret.” He looks over at me, a painful smile on his face.
“Rick said that he told you to stay away from me, is that true?”
He nods. “I did stay away. I didn’t ever think that I would see you. My mistake was that I should have continued to stay away once I did. He asked that much of me and I should have honored that.”
“Why?” I ask.
“The only way that you’ll understand is if I tell you everything.”
“And will you…tell me everything?”
“Yes, no more secrets.” He takes a deep breath. “The story that I’m about to tell you, I’ve never told anyone, but you deserve to hear it, Paige. I know that now.”
“Ok,” I nod.
He turns to me with sad eyes. “Before I tell you this, I just want you to know that I love you. Despite the fact that I didn’t choose you then, I love you
now
. The night that I knocked you over, I had been out...”
Taylor’s POV
1 YEAR AGO
“Are you seriously bailing on us?” Jay asks, holding up a bottle of beer to tempt me.
“Yes, I’m a family man now,” I say proudly with a smile on my face.
“Oh, come on T, the baby hasn’t even arrived yet. You do know that once it’s here you’ll hardly ever get to go out, and you'll end up grey and shriveled. You might as well enjoy life while you still have a few days left,” he continues. I laugh.
“I actually have three months left. And I like it. The whole family thing. You’ll get it one day,” I chuckle as he rolls his eyes.
“Suit yourself, we’ll tell you all about our antics,” he says eyeing up a barely dressed blonde as she walks past, “in the morning.”
“You do that. Laters,” I salute the guys and then head out the bar. It doesn’t take long to flag down a cab. I tell him my address and relax for the ride.
“Been anywhere nice tonight?” His deep, Indian accent fills the car and I nod.
“Just for a few drinks with some friends.”
“Good night?”
“Not bad.”
“You’re leaving early,” he gestures toward the clock on the dashboard.
“Yeah, something better is waiting at home,” I laugh.
“Oh, no competition then!” His laugh fills the entire car and I almost block my ears.
“Yeah,” I chuckle.
Once I’m sure that our conversation is over I pull out my phone and text Marie.
Hey baby, I’m on my way home. Be there in ten. X
I rest my head against the leather chair, and close my eyes. I still can’t believe that I’m about to become a dad in three months. It still doesn’t seem real. We didn’t plan it but it doesn’t even matter anymore. I’m going to have a daughter! We found out last week. It’s something that you secretly want to run down the streets screaming, but don’t for fear of being arrested or looking crazy. We want this more than anything. We settled on a name a few days ago.
Stacey Marie Black
It’s beautiful, just like she will be. It scares me to think that someday she’s going to be beautiful...like
really
beautiful. There’s going to be guys that I’m going to need to keep an eye on and scare off. Now I know how Marie’s father must have felt with me hanging around, even if he did know my parents. She was still his little girl.
“Here we go,” the driver’s voice breaks through my thoughts and I realize that I’m home.
“Thanks,” I say, handing him a twenty. “Keep the change.”
“Thank you,” I hear before I jump out.
I make my way up to our two-storey apartment building with a smile on my face. I unlock the door and the heat hits me instantly. It feels good.
“Babe, I’m home,” I call out, as I walk toward the living room. She’s not in there. I smile as I dip my head into the kitchen. I figure that she must be in our bedroom sleeping, so I decide to stop shouting.
As I reach the stairs, I freeze. I look up and see food covering every single individual step. My heart stops for a minute. I follow it from the top to the bottom. A fork laying on one step, a knife on the other, a smashed plate and Marie. She is lying at the foot of the stairs, clutching her belly and crying. I move toward her quickly.
“Marie, baby, what happened?”
“I fell,” she cries.
She looks like she is in a lot of pain, and I can see blood on her nightdress.
“Damn, baby, I’m going to call an ambulance,” I panic instantly.
“No, it’s too long. You need to drive me to the hospital,” she whispers.
“I’ve had two beers-”
“Taylor, the baby,” the tears are streaming down her face and it is taking everything that she has to speak.