by Cee, DW
“Ready?” She nodded yes. “Goody-bye,” we called out and left to hash out the last ten years.
Chloe: Amorous History
“Talk to me, Chlo-No.”
Copious thoughts ran through my head. Where should I begin? “What do you want me to say? Why don’t you tell me what you want to say, first? Then I’ll answer and add.”
“You’ll answer every question truthfully?”
Did I have a choice? “Yes.”
“Why did you start crying when I asked to hire you for a wedding? You begged and pleaded not to plan this wedding. Why?” I didn’t want to answer. “Chlo-No. You promised.”
Once again, there was no choice. “I thought you were asking me to plan yours and Victoria’s wedding. As terrible as this sounds, considering we’ve been friends for thirty-five years, I can’t plan your wedding.”
“Why not?”
Why not? Who knew? Well, I knew, but I didn’t want Michael to know. “I don’t know, Michael. I just can’t. There are no explanations.”
“We may not have had a heart-to-heart in almost a decade, but I know you well enough to know those tears were sincere.” Michael sounded pissed. “Don’t lie to me, Chlo-No.” Now he sounded sweet and sad.
“God! You’re going to think I’m such a loser!”
He wasn’t going to be deterred. “Try me.”
Here it went—everything out in the open. “It’ll be no surprise to you when I confess that I was in love with you when we were younger. We only dated that one year, but you were the one for me. I wanted to be your duchess, have your babies—live the happily ever after. When you left me at Heathrow for Laney, I was crushed. Even then, I loved you and thought we had a chance at forever.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this a decade ago?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Between you being infatuated with Laney and Brendan showing up in my life, I figured you and I weren’t meant to be. Many times you told me Laney was your one true love.”
“That was then. You couldn’t have believed that after she got married and had kids, I’d still think she was my one true love. Come on, Chloe! Give me a little credit.”
“You pined for her long after you broke up. You forgot my birthday and went to her wedding because you couldn’t let go.”
Michael appeared annoyed. “Keep going. What does your feelings from a decade ago have to do with not planning my wedding?”
I frowned. How embarrassing to have to confess my heart to him. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but something inside me can’t quite let go of those feelings from when I was seventeen. I know we’re only friends, but my heart would break watching you marry Victoria, and I sure as hell won’t be the one to plan your nuptials.”
For some insane reason, Michael—who was sitting in an armchair while I was pacing the large living room—rushed me and plopped his lips smack on top of mine. What! The! Hell?! One second I was spewing out my deepest, most embarrassing confession. The next second, Michael had his thumbs on my cheeks, hands pulling back my hair, curled around my neck, and his lips devoured mine. His lips did not say, “Hello! Remember me?” before getting reacquainted with my lips. Almost two decades later, they remembered each other fondly.
“What the hell are we doing?” I sputtered during a brief respite.
“What we should have done ten years ago.”
He literally swept me off my feet, walked me to his palatial bedroom, kicked opened the door, and threw me on the gigantic bed.
Michael wasn’t kidding about being up all night to hash out the last decade. If he was planning on doing this with our bodies, it would take more than one night to satiate my frustration. The hot kiss was a good start.
Michael: Hoping (To Repeat) History
As I was pulling apart Chloe’s dress and she was ripping open my shirt, I did wonder the sanity of what we were doing.
Yes, she admitted she loved me. No, she did not say she loved me now—as in today.
Yes, she told me she didn’t want to see me married to anyone else. No, she didn’t say she wanted to see herself married to me.
Yes, she was single. No, she did not know that I was single.
“Wait!” I hoped this was a quick wait because I’d burst real soon if it wasn’t. “What about your fiancée?” Chlo-No and I always had this telepathic thing going on.
“We called off the engagement a month ago. We’re no longer together.” I took a long look at the almost-naked woman in front of me, and she was as gorgeous as I remembered her to be. “When did you start wearing lingerie? This pink babydoll you have under your dress is sexy as hell.” I tried to take that off, but she stopped me.
“You’re not engaged anymore?”
“No.” I unwrapped the bows on top of each shoulder hoping to expose her generous breasts, but she slapped my hand away. “What?” I asked. “You’re kinda killing the mood here, Chlo-No.”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were no longer engaged? What happened? Why didn’t any Bennington tell me this?”
If she wasn’t going to allow me to get under this babydoll, I was going to throw a fit. “Can we discuss this later? I’ll tell you everything you want to know—after!”
She thought about what I’d said and saw the light. While I pulled down her negligee, she unbuckled my belt and pulled off my pants.
It had been too long since I’d done this with Chloe or any other woman for that matter. Victoria and I died a slow and ugly death. More on Victoria after Chloe…
“Wait!” Damn woman stopped us again. She was naked, except for a sliver of a thing she called underwear. I was down to my boxer briefs. What the hell was the matter now?
“Yes?”
“Why are we doing this? Are you still in love with Victoria? Am I a rebound for you? Is this like revenge sex? Shit! Does Victoria know you’ve broken up or is this all a made-up scenario in your mind?”
Was this woman serious? “Chloe, I’m about to combust all over my boxers like some unskilled teenager. If you don’t let me continue, I’m done for the night. Either let me explain everything later, or let me go finish on my own.” There! That was threat enough.
Damn woman thought about what I’d said. She wasn’t frightened, threatened, or obviously horny as I was.
“OK. Go ahead.” My body did a one-eighty on hers, excited to finish the deed. “No, I meant, go ahead and finish on your own.”
FUCK! That was not a good word to mutter under my breath since I wasn’t doing any of that. I wanted to beg. I wanted to plead. I wanted to make her beg and plead. But, my pride wouldn’t allow it. If she didn’t want me, I wasn’t going to want her back—no matter how childish it sounded.
“Why the hell did you lead me on?” I yelled in frustration.
“I did nothing of the sort. You kissed me. Then, like some barbarian, you picked me up and threw me on your bed.”
“So I became this state all by myself?” I pointed to the obvious erection. “Did you ask me not to take off your clothes? And by the way, what the fuck are you doing wearing such risqué clothing under your dress? You call that underwear? Who is this for, Chlo-No?” I flailed my arms trying to point to her negligee.
“Your kiss made me lose my head. It’s been a while.” She was almost apologetic until she realized she was naked but for a piece of dental floss she called underwear. She quickly scrambled off the bed and picked up her dress.
“NO!” I wanted to beg. Leave your perfect breasts uncovered. Though you won’t let me touch, I can salivate. Of course, she never, ever followed my wishes. She pulled the dress over her body. It was almost worse to see her perky nipples poking through the cotton dress.
I had no choice but to follow her lead. I walked over to the dresser and pulled out a t-shirt.
Once my heart beat at a normal rhythm and my blue balls weren’t as blue, I asked, “What is it you want to know, Chloe? I’ll answer all your questions.”
/> She was still seated on my bed, but staring off into space. “What happened with Victoria and why did you kiss me?”
“I kissed you because I wanted to and that’s what I thought you wanted. As for Victoria, I called off the engagement because when I thought about your question, it wasn’t Victoria I envisioned.”
“What question?”
“That last time we had a conversation. I’m not talking about the casual hellos, good-to-see-you talks we’ve had the past ten years. I’m talking about when you asked me at grandfather’s house about being eighty and yearning to recapture that first love. You also asked me if my life would have stopped had you moved, and would I have come after you?”
Her eyes became almost teary. “You remembered my questions.”
“I remember every last word, Chlo-No. What I also remember is you never giving me a chance to answer those questions. I’ve carried these answers with me for a very long time. If I could just sit you down for a conversation...”
“I’m here, seated on your bed.” Was she mocking me?
“It was insensitive of me to say Laney was my only true love. If there ever was a true love, it would be you, Chlo-No. I loved you as an eighteen-year-old, and to a great degree, that love stayed with me until now. You’re the only woman who’s been a constant on my mind.”
“Really?” she whispered.
“Really.” I answered. “One fateful day, when I thought about your question again, I couldn’t see Victoria sitting next to me in bed when I was eighty.” I moved myself and sat next to my friend. “There were many times in the past decade when I yearned for us as friends, and as lovers. I tried a few times to go after you, but either you or I was too damn busy.”
“But you’ve been engaged twice in the past ten years. How can you tell me all these words of love when you’ve been in love with other women?”
I was hoping she wouldn’t bring up Alexandra. Would it kill someone to cut me a little slack? Wasn’t it bad enough that I had a taste of the good stuff and it was pulled out from under me?—literally.
Chloe impatiently waited for me to explain my two ex-fiancées.
Shit!
Chloe: Explaining History
Did this guy seriously think I’d believe his grandiose verbiage about me being his “true love” and him seeing me next to him in bed at age eighty? Did he think I just fell off the turnip truck? Did I have a “NAÏVE LOSER” sign stamped across my forehead? His mouth clamped shut the second I brought up his second fiancée—or better said, his first fiancée. First, there was Alexandra whom he thought would be his duchess, and then there was Victoria. Both times, I stayed as far away from the Benningtons as possible. I didn’t want to celebrate with them, and there was no way I could lie if Grandfather questioned me about my feelings toward the happy couple.
Did I seriously almost have sex with Michael??? What the hell was I thinking? It felt so damn good to be held by him, kissed by him. His body atop mine felt more familiar than brushing my teeth every morning and night. I loved the feel of his weight on me. Why had I told him to go finish on his own? About now, had I kept my mouth shut, we’d be basking in the afterglow.
After waiting for too long, Michael opened his mouth. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding me?”
“What?” Where was his explanation? I thought this was his confessional time.
“You thought I was engaged to Victoria and that I might ask you to plan our wedding. That’s why all the avoidance?” I nodded and he sat next to me, thinking a little more. “Around the time I was engaged to Alexandra—that’s why you were in Asia for months, planning a wedding a weekend? Another reason for you to stay away and not attend our engagement party?” I nodded again.
“What happened with Alexandra? You dated her for three years.”
“We got on well, but she kept forcing my hand. She wanted marriage and I didn’t at the time. I was thirty when we broke it off, too young to marry anyone. I was also heavily involved with our coffee enterprise, and she had issues with me working so much. She wanted to be the duchess of the 1800s where all she did was shop, have parties, and attend parties. She was ready to settle down the moment we began dating. Three years later, she took me to her church and told me we were there to book a date for our wedding. That’s when I knew we were done.”
“But you weren’t done. You got engaged instead.”
“Stupid me, I did.”
“Why? Why would you commit yourself to someone you knew wasn’t the right one for you?”
“Alexandra was young and incredibly spoilt. My parents adored her like their third child, though the duke wasn’t fond of her. Her parents were close to mine and after three years, it seemed the thing to do.”
“Idiot.” I uttered that word too loudly. Michael chuckled. “So what broke the camel’s back?”
“It was when I overheard her complaining about Grandfather. She and the duke never got along. Alexandra told her sister that once she was married, we’d take over the duke’s home in Belgravia and she’d force Grandfather to live in the summerhouse. She said, ‘If I never see that man again, it’ll be too soon.’ That was when I knew I had to break off the engagement.”
“You’re both idiots. You deserved one another.”
Michael grinned. He had no defense. “That could have been really ugly had I not stopped the wedding.”
“You think?” I was angry about Michael’s decision, but I was angrier for the duke. How dare that bitch think she could push Grandfather out of his home and out of Michael’s life? Bitch! “Victoria?”
“On my thirty-fifth birthday, Grandfather introduced me to Victoria and told me he’d like to see me married before he died. The duke was approaching ninety-five and I knew every day was a gift. I wanted to heed his words, get married, and hand him a great-grandchild before he passed away.”
This was when I started crying. I remembered what His Grace said to me when he told me about her. I was incredibly hurt. “Sorry. Go on.”
“No. You talk now. I think I’ve said enough to satisfy you. I’d like some answers.”
“Finish your story and I’ll answer your questions.”
He sighed, but complied. “Victoria was thirty, beautiful, part of my circle, and accomplished. We enjoyed each other’s company, had many like interests, and the sex was good—better than good.”
Now it was my turn to sigh. I didn’t need to know about his damn sex life since mine had been dry for too many years to count. “So what broke you two up if everything, including sex, was terrific?” I asked a little too sarcastically.
Michael’s continued grin pissed me off. Instead of apologizing for his know-it-all smile, he leaned in and stole a kiss from me. It was too quick for me to protest or prolong. I wished his lips had stayed on mine.
“There were two issues, and both problems had you as the common denominator.”
“How’s that?”
“As I told you earlier, when I thought about the woman in bed with me at age eighty, it wasn’t Victoria. The person who stayed on my mind and in my heart was you. Also, though my family all liked Victoria, the person they wanted to see as my duchess was you. There was no doubt who they were rooting for—I just couldn’t get on the same page as them.”
“But the duke pulled me into his office and extolled the virtues of your then girlfriend.” I cried a little more. “You don’t know how hurt I was when he told me how he couldn’t wait for Victoria to become his granddaughter. His Grace said I was free to forget him because Victoria promised to take care of him. He all but let me go. I was no longer his assistant.” Michael pulled me into his body when I started crying harder.
“Is that why you stayed away from all of us, Chlo-No?”
My chin hit his shoulder while I nodded yes. “My heart broke, Michael. Grandfather told me he no longer needed me. Your fiancée threw Ruby a baby shower when I thought I would be the one to have the honor. And you appeared so happy wh
en I saw you at Christmas. You didn’t even come over and wish me a happy birthday,” I wailed. “Victoria showed up and I was completely forgotten.”
Michael held me closer and rubbed my back. “It wasn’t like that, Chlo-No. You misunderstood.”
“How could I misunderstand? I heard Grandpa Harry clearly.”
“I can’t speak for my grandfather, but I know he, too, was heartbroken when you stopped coming around. He asked for you often. We all tried to get a hold of you as he worried about you. Your parents were the ones who reassured us that you were well, but busy. I wish you wouldn’t have stayed away for such a long time. Grandfather missed you as we all did.”
