by Ford, Mia
Ted looked over at me. I was lying on top of him on the couch, a blanket draped over our naked bodies. He had a soft, natural expression on his face as if he wasn’t at all surprised that I’d said that to him.
“Really?” Ted asked. “Do you mean that?”
I smiled and kissed him. “With all my heart. As a matter of fact, I think I’ve been waiting for you all of my life.”
Ted smiled and kissed my forehead. “I love you, too.”
Hearing those words come from his lips was the sweetest music to my ears. I’d always dreamt of finding my prince this way, of having that whirlwind romance that you saw in Hollywood movies. Why did that stuff only happen in the movies? I didn’t think it was out of reach to want that in your own life.
I’d finally found it and I was embracing it. No matter what, I wasn’t going to let anyone tell me that I was wrong for falling in love so quickly.
It was real; I could feel it.
Chapter Six
Ted
The water covered my head drowning out the sound of the roaring world around me. I loved it there. The peace, the total serenity, and the limited range of senses that the human body was able to feel—all of it reset my mind and my body to get them working together again in perfect harmony.
Swimming had been a part of my daily routine for several years. It was a perfect way to exercise the body in a stress free, impact free environment, and it involved all of the muscles of the body in one continuous, fluid motion. While I was moving from side to side in the large, Olympic sized swimming pool my gym offered, I was able to let my mind go free. It was almost a Zen-like meditation on my part, like Tai Chi underwater. That’s how I liked to think of it. Swimming kept me grounded, focused, and charged up for the day ahead. It brought everything in my life together and I owed a lot to the consistency of the practice.
Afterwards I always felt refreshed and ready to take on the world.
As I swam that morning my head was filled with a few things of note. I was reminded constantly of how much pain my back was not in, and I kept thinking about how fantastic the sex had been with Leia the other night. She was incredible. I’d rarely been with a woman that enthusiastic. And she felt so tight, so wet… I’d been craving her ever since then. I hoped to sleep with her again that night if possible.
But most interesting, even better than the sex (if there was such a thing) was the fact that she had said those three magic words—I love you. She’d actually said it. I couldn’t believe that she went there so soon. This was all working better than I thought it was going to. The gift of charm has always been with me. It was true--I did have charm out the ying-yang-- but even for me this was a bit of a record. Other women had said they loved me before, but I could not remember any in recent memory that claimed it so soon. I was even a little skeptical, thinking it might have just been due to the world altering sex we’d just had. But the next morning it was still the same vibe. She really meant it.
I wrestled with it in my mind, debating about whether or not I should say it right back. Ultimately, I was aware of how uncomfortable it can be for the other person to not hear those words said back to them after pouring their heart out to you. So I said it. And I tried hard to keep the same emotion that she had.
I really did like Leia, but I didn’t know if I was close to love with her. Of course, I imagined if we were together long enough that might come into play. It was just nature taking its course.
But from what I could tell she was ready to move on things much more quickly. And I was just fine with that.
I got out of the pool, took a quick shower, and then got dressed. It was a gorgeous Monday in southern California and I was ready for some fun in the sun. I was going to have so much more free time now that I wasn’t practicing motocross as much. I still loved riding, but for now I needed to let it chill a bit. Being ready for pro competition had turned riding into a job and when something you love becomes your job, it is all too easy to begin to lose passion for it. I was there with riding. I had too much else occupying my plate lately.
I pulled up to the Farrum Batting Cages about ten minutes later. I was right on time to meet my good friend Bruce. We were both thinking about joining a baseball league that was starting up in a few weeks and we decided that honing our batting skills in the cages would be a great way to get caught back up to speed. It had been a while since I’d swung a bat. Going into the season rusty would just result in spending too much time on the bench. And I wasn’t wasting time with that.
“Hey, man!” I said as Bruce drove up a few minutes later. We high fived each other and grabbed our bats and helmets from the trunks of our cars. Then we walked to a cage on the far side. The cages were empty and quiet today, as they usually were early Monday morning.
Although I did see some cute girls getting ready to enter the cages a few down from ours. I couldn’t help my gaze from checking them out, and the blonde (the hottest one) looked over at me. She noticed me looking and then smiled back.
Well, that was interesting. Always fun. I wasn’t about to jeopardize what I had going on with Leia, but it was still nice to know I had the goods and flirting never went out of style.
Bruce noticed and shook his head. “Way to go Casanova. I think she wants you.”
I grabbed a bat, put my helmet on, and stepped into the cage. “Ah, but it is not to be. My heart belongs to another.”
“What? Say it ain’t so,” Bruce teased. “When did this happen?”
“Recently actually,” I said. “I have met the most amazing girl. I think this might actually be the real thing.”
Bruce laughed. “Wow, man. I never thought I’d see the day.”
I put a few coins in the machine and got into place. “Well, people change.”
The mechanical arms got set, and turned over throwing the ball down the cage at me. I swung hard connecting solidly and driving it back. It felt good to hit again. When I was a kid, baseball had been my obsession until I decided I might be better at motocross. At the time I was not big into team sports. I was much better seeking all of the glory alone. Out there on the track it was me against them. That’s the way I liked it.
“So, what’s this girl’s name?” Bruce asked.
“Are you implying she might be fake?” I asked.
Bruce laughed. “No; I am just curious. How long ago did you meet her?”
I shrugged. “Three weeks… a month. Around there.”
After another solid hit, I quickly paused and told him exactly how I met Leia.
By the time I finished he was practically rolling on the ground laughing his head off. “Wow, that is some insane stuff. That’s crazy enough that it might be love. I feel like we are in some TV movie or something.”
I laughed as I swung on another pitch and connected, this time getting too much of the top and driving the ball hard to the ground. That might have been a run-it-out single if I turned on the speed in a real game.
“Yeah, but she is amazing. She is beautiful, smart, funny, and we have a lot of the same interests.”
“Wow, I am happy for you. Maybe one day I’ll find the right girl for me.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “Mr. Perfectionist? I don’t think so.”
“What is that supposed to mean? Are you implying that I am too picky?”
I looked at him backing away from the plate. “You broke up with your last girlfriend because she didn’t like peanut butter.”
“Because that’s weird. I eat peanut butter on everything. I can’t have that. And I’ll have you know that she isn’t allergic to peanut butter. No, she just doesn’t like the taste. What kind of nonsense is that? Who doesn’t like peanut butter? That’s idiotic. It kind of got me thinking, what other weird things there might be about her.”
I missed the last ball because I was now laughing too hard. Bruce was hilarious. He reminded me so much of the George character from the sitcom Seinfeld. He was paranoid as could be about everything.
“Dude,
that is crazy. So what if she doesn’t like peanut butter? You hear how nuts that sounds, right?”
Bruce shook his head as he tried to comprehend what I was telling him. Finally, he said, “No. That isn’t nuts at all.”
“Well, if you stop being so picky you might find a great woman in your life one day and I do wish you the best of luck there.”
“Thanks, man,” Bruce said.
I stepped out of the cage. Bruce was wearing his helmet and holding a bat. He now stepped inside and popped some coins into the slot.
“So, when do the rest of us get to meet this girl?” Bruce asked.
“Soon, I would think,” I said. “The relationship is very new. I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on it just yet.”
“Are you saying that we are pressure? Like you don’t think we will be nice to her or something?”
“No. I’m not saying that. I just think that during a new relationship you should really be heavy into it before you start joining each other’s larger social group.”
Bruce swung and missed his first pitch. “Shit!” Then he turned to me. “You are overthinking this.”
“It’s a science,” I said. “I’m sure of it. I’ve done massive amounts of reading and I’ve forced myself to watch daytime talk shows about it. I think I’ve got it figured out.”
I couldn’t keep from laughing. Sometimes I got on a roll and came up with some funny lines.
We continued about five rounds of batting practice each before calling it a day. As we started leaving I noticed the blonde girl checking me out again. Before I could even stop the words, I was flirting with her. “So, what did you think of my form?”
The girl giggled. I was now standing just behind the cage she and her sexy looking friend were using. Bruce was trying to occupy the other girl, doing his best to flirt with her (which he’d always been as clever as a caveman with) while I talked to the blonde girl. I knew it was stupid and it wasn’t something I even wanted to waste much time with. When there was no possibility of follow through I didn’t really see a lot of point to it. I was just going to make a comment and keep walking, but then the girl engaged me, leaning seductively against the cage.
“I thought you looked just fine,” she said. Her eyes dropped as she looked down towards my legs and then back up. Was she checking out my crotch? I wasn’t sure, but then again I was wearing my tight, athletic shorts. The beauty about Southern California—it was always shorts weather.
“I’m Ted,” I said.
“Sophie.”
“It’s very nice to meet you Sophie,” I said.
Then I began walking away somehow dragging myself towards my car. It was time to end this before it got too out of hand and I did something I really shouldn’t have. I had become a bit paranoid about doing anything to upset Leia or give her the wrong idea. Right now the relationship was new; it was fragile. It was far too unstable to upset this early. I had to keep playing the right cards in the right order and stay in the game.
“What?” Bruce asked as I opened the trunk of my car and loaded my clubs into it. He shook his head and followed me over. “What are you doing? Those girls seemed interested.”
“Yeah, I know. But remember, I have a girlfriend.”
“Wow, things are about to change,” Bruce said. “I can’t say I envy you.”
“Yes, you can,” I replied with a smile.
He nodded. Yeah, he knew I was right.
When I got home I sat down in my favorite chair and picked up a book I’d been reading off the side table. I’d really gotten into western novels recently. I loved the way those old cowboy heroes acted, the way they always got the girl, and I envied their ability to get in gunfight after gunfight without ever paying any consequences. Those were such simpler times.
My phone rang as I was just getting back into it. It was Leia.
“Hey, sweetie,” I said.
“Hey, hon,” Leia replied. “How’s the back?”
I almost laughed thinking about all the activities I’d done that day. “It’s ok. You know, it has good days and bad days.”
“Listen, I have something I want to show you. Can we get together tomorrow evening?”
“Tomorrow? Um… yeah. That’s fine. What’s going on?”
Leia sighed into the phone. “There is just something really important I have to show you. I’ve got to run back to work now, but I’ll pick you up tomorrow at five. Does that sound good?”
I almost made a joke about clearing my wide open schedule, but I answered seriously. “Sure, honey. That’s fine.”
When the call ended I grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat back down with my book, flopping my heavy feet up on the coffee table.
“Hmmm, I wonder if she is going to tell me that she’s a billionaire.”
Saying that out loud made me laugh so hard that I almost choked.
Chapter Seven
Leia
I was so nervous. I’d been thinking about this twenty-four/seven for days but I knew it was the right time. I had to tell Ted the truth.
I could have kept the ruse going longer of course, but keeping this from him was killing me, especially after I’d realized that our love was real. I loved him and he loved me. When you love someone you don’t keep these kinds of secrets from them. I wanted Ted to know why I did it and I hoped he would be as kind and understanding as I knew him to be. But the terror of it all felt so heavy in my chest, like I was having multiple little heart attacks every twenty seconds. I wasn’t sure that Ted could tell how scared I was. He was acting like his typical, sweet self.
“So, what is it you want to show me?” Ted asked. “The suspense is really killing me.”
I smiled and continued to drive. “That’s part of the fun.”
Mostly I was just trying to delay the inevitable. I was driving the speed limit, stopping properly for all of the traffic lights (usually I would barrel through an intersection to beat the red light) and I was coming to a complete stop on all of my stop signs. Not to mention I was going ten miles under the speed limit. Ted must have thought I was driving like his grandmother, but he said nothing.
“Ok, if you say so,” Ted replied. “So, how was your day? Busy?”
“Oh, not too bad,” I replied. “Most of the busy work I had to do was yesterday. I like to get the heavy lifting, so to speak, out of the way early in the week just in case something goes wrong or something comes up and I can’t devote as much time to things as I need to; then I’ve already got a strong hold on it. If that makes sense.”
He nodded. “Sure, I can see that.”
About ten minutes later we finally pulled up to the gates out front.
“What’s this place?” Ted asked. “Wow, this is intense!”
I rolled the window down and punched in my code saying hello to Norman, the security guard. He waved with his usual scowl that told the world what a miserable grouch he was.
Ted looked back at him as we drove along the long, winding driveway, most likely perplexed that I was on such friendly terms with Norman.
Ted’s eyes were wide in his head as we pulled up to the mansion my father had helped design and had built nearly forty years before. I loved this house so much. It was a part of my family and therefore it was a part of me.
I hoped that Ted loved it nearly as much.
“Wow. This is incredible,” he said stepping out of the car.
“You really think so?”
I joined him standing in front of the house, looking up at its gigantic pillars and beautiful front steps.
“Who lives here?” Ted asked.
I took a deep breath. It was time to come clean.
“Ted, I live here.”
His eyes dropped from looking up at the house to over at me. A few beats went by and then he started laughing. “Nice trick.”
I laughed. Wow, he didn’t believe me. This was going to be harder than I thought.
“Ted, this is my house. My last name is Daniels, as in Daniels
Cosmetics.”
He stopped and turned towards me. I believed he was coming around now. “You mean…the multi-billion dollar global cosmetics empire? That Daniels? No… no way…”
I took his arm. “Come. It will make more sense once we are inside.”
“Unbelievable…”
* * *
“Look, I get it. I understand.”
I took Ted’s hand and stared into his eyes hoping that he would see just how sorry I was about everything. “Do you? Really?”
He kissed my knuckles softly and leaned in. “Yes. I do. I can understand how a woman in your position has to be heavily guarded against weasels trying to take advantage of you. Trying to put myself in your shoes, I can see how that would make someone pretty paranoid.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Thank you for being so understanding.”
We’d just finished the tour of the whole house and I had also shown Ted pictures of myself and family in the house and a few valuable family heirlooms. Then we visited the tennis courts, swimming pool, billiard room, and Movie Theater.
He was in awe of all of it, as most people were the first time they laid eyes on it. I’d lived in the house my whole life and nearly every day I discovered things about it that wowed me.
“So, the apartment and all that…did you just do that to fool me? Or is that just a place you hang out that’s closer to work stuff?” Ted asked.
“It was mainly to fool you, but now that you mention it, that place is very convenient.”
“So, why are you showing this to me now?” Ted asked. “What was preventing you from keeping this thing going? I never would have known the difference.”
“Well, me I guess. I hated doing it and I know it isn’t right. I felt bad. I care about you. I really have fallen in love with you and I want to be open and honest about everything as our relationship moves forward.”
