Authors: Cassandra Cole
“You know why”
“I don’t know why Tracy enlighten me”
“I need to know why I left Ted for him”, she answered “I need to know why I felt drawn to him to make such a move for him”
Samantha chose not to answer her but kept her gaze locked straight ahead on the road.
“Why doesn’t anyone like him? What is wrong with him?” Tracy asked curiously.
“It’s not like we don’t like him”
“Cut the carp Samantha and be honest with me, did anyone tell him I was out of the hospital?”
“But you told Ted”
“Well he is the one you remembered and we figured he is the perfect match for you”
“The safe bet”, Tracy mouthed and remembered her mother’s story.
“Well if that is how you want to put it”, Samantha said “Samuel is bad news”
“And yet I somehow ran away with him even after I am sure the whole bunch of you told me not to” Tracy pointed out “I need to know please Sam”
“Why the hell didn’t you ambush Lisa and tell her to take you there instead”
“Have you met Lisa?”
They both let out a hearty laugh after that comment and knew Lisa would not be caught dead taking her to see Samuel.
“Ok, I will take you”
“Do you know where he lives?”
“No”, Samantha answered and started her car “But I know where he works”
“Where?”
“Its best you see this for yourself”, she said and got the car on the road.
Tracy could not help the unsettling feeling in her stomach as she wondered how Samuel looked like. She placed a hand over her belly and felt the excitement seer through her.
“Are you feeling ok?” Samantha asked out of concern when she saw her run a hand over her stomach
“I am fine”, she simply replied and watched the road ahead. She noticed Samantha take a familiar turn and drove up to the very popular mall.
“What are we doing at the mall?” Tracy asked curiously.
“Meeting the love of your life”, Samantha answered sarcastically “Remind me again what Ted does for a living?”
“He is a banker, has been for the last seven years”, Tracy said and wondered why her sister would ask a question she already knew the answer to.
“Please have that in mind before we go in”,
“Why?”
Samantha did not answer her question and from the look on her face was not going to answer it. She luckily got a parking spot in the very busy place and looked at Tracy.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes I am”
“Please do not go back into a coma after seeing him”, Samantha said “Mum and Lisa will never forgive me”
“I promise I will not”
They both got out of the car and started walking towards the mall, Samantha with a reluctant look and Tracy with an expectant and hopeful look. Her excitement grew with every step and she started imagining a handsome looking man, tall and athletic just like Ted was. They walked on through a sea of wild teenagers as Samantha led her to a stall at the end of the hall.
Tracy followed suit but stopped in her tracks when Samantha stood and turned around to face her.
“Why are we stopping?”
“I want this to go down in history”
“What to go down on history?”
“The simple fact that I stopped you from seeing him and asked you to change your mind”, Samantha replied “You have a god thing going for you Tracy, please don’t ruin it, take the safe bet”
Samantha waited for her sister to respond but she instead gave him a cold hard stare.
“Are you done?” Tracy asked.
‘Yes”
“Take me to him”
“Ok”, Samantha said “But I warned you”
They walked on with Samantha leading the way. She got to the front of a tattoo parlor and stood in front of it.
“You know you can still change your mind”, she said to Tracy and waited for her response but Tracy seemed to be distracted by something. Through the glass window from the other side of the tattoo parlor, she saw him the man in her dreams who had turned into a wolf.
The man was busy crafting a lovely tattoo pattern on a young lady but looked up. It was like he had sensed her presence and they locked their gazes instantly. He then placed his apparatus aside and got to his feet and started making short quick strides towards her. He hastened his pace when he got to the door and flew it open. He then walked past Samantha and without warning locked Tracy in a passionate hug.
As much as Tracy was caught unaware, she liked the attention she had drawn from him and felt her cheeks go a scarlet red.
“Tracy my love”, he said before hugging her again and lifting her from her feet.
“Careful big guy”, Samantha interrupted “You might hurt the baby”
“Baby?”
“I am four months pregnant”, Tracy announced and was not sure whether to sound happy or scared about it.
“That is amazing”, he said and placed his hands on her belly.
“Do not be so glad”, Samantha interrupted obviously not hiding her dislike for him “It might not be yours”
“Samantha”
“He needs to know”, Samantha protested and gave her sister a warning look.
“Would you mind coming in?”
“But you are working I wouldn’t want to be a bother at your place of work”
“You never have”, he answered “And never will be”
“Still the silver tongued bustard I see”
Samuel looked at Samantha before contemplating her answer and returned her gaze back to Tracy.
“Please come in”, he said.
Tracy for the first time took a glance at him; he was tall and quite skinny. He had a tattoo of a daisy on his right arm and a left ear piercing. She could already see the few signs that led to his family disliking him.
“Don’t mind if I do”, Tracy answered.
“But we are not staying for long”, Samantha said as she followed Tracy into the tattoo parlor reluctantly “We have things to do”
Tracy looked around the tattoo parlor once she was in and her gaze fell on a painting hung up on the wall. It automatically called out to her and she walked over to it. It was a panting of the wolf he had seen in her dreams, everything happening was quite strange to her but she was not afraid. There was a settling feeling that overwhelmed her and she locked her gaze with Samuel.
“I have missed you”, he said and started moving closer to her. He took her hands in his and all of Tracy’s fears seemed to sublime in thin air. A new fear of the unknown overwhelmed her and she took a few steps from him. She did not stop at that and turned on her heel, she started walking very fast towards the car and could hear Samantha call after her.
She walked faster and slowly broke into a run; her focus was on nothing in particular. She was however grabbed by her wrist by Samantha and had to stop moving.
“Tracy, Tracy”, she called “Are you ok?”
Tracy did not answer her, simply because she did not have a definite answer for the question asked. She did not know if she was ok and struggled to take in short and steady breathes.
“Tracy”, she called a second time
“Take me home”
“Ok my dear”, Samantha replied and held her by her arm. They had started attracting attention and Tracy knew that was the last thing she wanted her way. She tried to regain her composure as she slowly walked towards the car; her mind was still reeling from seeing Samuel and the painting on his wall. She held onto Samantha and listened to her bickering about Samuel being bad for her but deep down inside, Tracy felt differently.
*****
Tracy turned to her side and let out a loud moan, she wanted him, and her body wanted him. His scent filled the room and she longed for nothing else but his touch. He moved closer to her but Tracy wanted him to walk faster, needed him to walk faster. She stretched out her hand to him for him to feel the urgency and loved how he responded by walking faster and getting to where she was. She sat up in bed and placed her hands on his bare chest. The feel of his body was breath taking, nothing else mattered to her at that time and she circled her hands around her waist.
Tracy all of a sudden felt the need to know who her lover was, she looked up into his eyes and Samuel stared back at him. He had a longing look in his eyes and she could tell he wanted her too. He however took a few steps from her and turned into a wolf right before her very eyes. The wolf then made her way to her and placed his head in her laps. She stroked him just as she had done before in all her dreams but this time the wolf looked at her belly and for the first time since she was informed of her pregnancy, Tracy felt her baby kick from inside.
“Tracy”, someone called but she chose to ignore it.
“Tracy”, the same voice called again”
She reluctantly flickered her eyes open and sat up in her bed. Lisa was standing next to her bed with her arms placed firmly on her waist. From the look on her face, she could tell she was not so happy.
“There should be a rule about waking pregnant women”, she complained and threw her elder sister a dirty look.
“I only woke you up because I thought you were having a sex dream”
“What is wrong with that? It felt good”
“I am sure it did but who is going to help you take care of all those sexual feelings once you wake up. I was only helping you not to go down on a road down depression highway”
“Waking up from a sex dream to your elder sister’s lecture is depression highway”, Tracy answered and wished Lisa would get to the reason that brought her to her room very early that morning.
“Anyway,” Lisa said and comfortably sat down opposite her small sister “I did not come here to talk about your sex dreams”
“I was hoping not”
“Samantha told me what happened to you”, Lisa said in a more serious tone.
“Of course she did”
“I do not know what you were thinking entrusting Samantha with a secret”, Lisa said and let out a slight chuckle “That girl would sing like a cannery with the promise of a designer bag”
“Is that all it took to sell me out? A designer bag?” Tracy asked disgustedly.
“Yes sadly”
“Samantha is a designer slut”
They let out a slight giggle before Lisa returned her serious look and Tracy knew it was about to get more serious.
“Sweetie why did you go see him?”
“Curiosity”
“Did it maybe help you jog your memory or something?”
“It all felt familiar”, Tracy answered before shrugging slightly “I felt like I had known him from somewhere”
Lisa looked up at the ceiling before fixing her gaze back at Tracy and letting out a slight heave.
“Go ahead, I am ready for it”, Tracy said “Tell me what a bad decision I made and how I belong with Ted”
“On the contrary, I will not tell you any of that”
“Really now?”
“No, I won’t”, Lisa said “I will advise you to follow your heart. You are at an advantage with the amnesia”
“How so?” Tracy asked with a confused look.
“You can see both men for who they really are, you do not have the spectacles of love to hide behind instead you have a clear and unbiased look on things”
“So what are you asking me to do?”
“I think you should spend time with both and choose”
“I wish it was that simple”
“Make it that simple”, Lisa said “You know I am right”
“Yes Lisa, you really are right”, Tracy answered sincerely.
“Did you hear that?”
“What?”
Tracy looked around the room and thought her mother would walk in and ask her to get something to eat.
“The sound of hell freezing over, you have actually agreed with me for the first time in your life”, Lisa answered.
She placed a warm kiss on her forehead and walked out of the room.
“I have to get to court”, were her last words.
Tracy sat alone in the room and went over Lisa’s words in her mind. They somehow made sense to her and she picked up her phone, Ted was the first of the two men she called and she listened to the beeping of the phone as she waited on it to connect.
“Look who finally returned my calls”, were the first words Ted said as soon as he picked her call.
“I needed space Ted”
“How are you doing?”
“Fine thank you”, Tracy answered and decided to get right to the point before Ted went on to ask irrelevant questions “Are you free for lunch today?”
“Yes I actually am”
“Can we meet?”
“Sure”, Ted answered “I will send you a car at around noon”
“Ok, I will see you then”, she said and hung up the phone.
She scrolled through it and finally got the number Samuel had been trying to reach her with.
“Hi, this is a surprise”, he said
“Is this a bad time?”