Those 365 Letters

by Ford, Mia

  “I really loved Alaska,” I said.

  “Alaska?” Miley repeated with a questioning tone.

  “Yes, I went on an Alaskan cruise a few years ago during the middle of the summer. It’s very pleasant up there that time of year. And the wild life and the beauty of the wilderness up there is astounding. It’s pretty breathtaking. Of course I wouldn’t want to go exploring the Alaskan wilderness during late fall or winter. I’ve never been much for the snow.”

  “So, I take it you don’t ski? Skiing is awesome!” Kirby yelled way louder than he needed to. “Man, the last time I went rockin’ the slopes I tripped over something and my ski went flying. I did like a half-gainer hallway down this embankment. I thought I was totally going to die.”

  “Well, that’s too bad for us…” Miley teased.

  Kirby laughed and then realized the joke was at his expense. “Hey!” And then laughed again.

  I really hoped that kid was not driving anywhere anytime soon.

  “Maybe you will take Cora up in that private jet of yours. Try that Alaska trip sometime,” Miley continued. “Cora, didn’t you say that you’ve always dreamt of doing the Alaskan cruise thing?”

  Cora’s eyes went wide. She realized that everyone’s focus was suddenly on her and she shrugged with just the most adorable amount of shyness.

  “It would be nice,” she said.

  I could tell that the question made her uncomfortable so I decided not to comment on it at all. I just nodded and smiled in agreement. I wondered if Cora had some reservations deep down about being with me because I had money. Did she think I might feel she was only interested in that? I was fairly certain that she wasn’t that type of woman, but I did have the means to go and do whatever I wanted almost whenever I wanted to and with her being a part of my life I wanted to share that with her. But at the same time, I knew I was dancing a fine line with her feelings and I didn’t want to appear pushy or as if I was trying to use my status to win her over or control her feelings in some way.

  So, for now I decided to just go slow and let things happen gradually.

  “So, what’s it like growing up with everything you want?” Kirby asked. “I mean, that has to be so cool.”

  Again, I wasn’t quite sure how to answer this and I wished we’d just get back to playing the game. I hoped to meet Cora’s friends again sometime when they were all sober.

  “Guys!” Cora exclaimed. “Can you quit asking Landon about money? Please. It’s kind of annoying.”

  The group looked at Cora and then at me for confirmation. I didn’t want to appear rude, but I think Cora had just brought this to their attention and it might be sinking in.

  “So, you going to pick someone’s card, or not?” I asked Kirby.

  He was stunned momentarily by my question, still waiting on me to comment on Cora’s outburst.

  “What? Oh,” Kirby said. He scooped up the cards. “Alright, let’s see here.” He looked up at me and then back down at the card with a confused look on his face. “What the hell is pegging?”

  Everyone just glanced around at each other.

  Awkward…

  * * *

  “Well, that was a blast. Your friends are fun,” I said when Cora and I were in the car driving back to her parents’ house.

  She’d been a bit quiet since we left, but I thought it was time to break the ice and see if I could find out what was on her mind and what was really bothering her.

  “Yeah, they are,” Cora said. She smiled. “I’m sorry about all those stupid questions they were asking. They aren’t that used to talking with very wealthy people.”

  “It’s ok,” I said. “I’m used to it. It was fine.”

  “Thanks,” Cora replied. We drove on in silence for a few moments. Then Cora spoke again. “Landon? What do you think about us?”

  I waited a moment before answering. I wasn’t expecting this question right then, but I’d thought about how to handle it when we eventually did have this type of discussion. I wanted to be totally open and honest with Cora.

  “Well, I think this is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me by far, and I don’t ever see life getting better than this.”

  Cora smiled and her eyes moistened as if she might cry any second. “You really mean that? You aren’t just saying what I want to hear?”

  I looked at her sharply and then back to the road. “Cora, I would never lie to you about my feelings, for any reason. I know we haven’t known each other that long, but I feel that you and I are meant to last. I see this being it for me. I’ll understand if you don’t feel the same way, and to be honest, I’m a bit nervous to tell you this, but since you asked me flat out I feel obligated to tell you exactly how I feel.”

  “Wow,” Cora said. “I’m almost speechless…” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I feel the same way. I’ve been going crazy wondering where you were at with it and asking myself how I can feel like this when we’ve only been together for such a short time.”

  I reached over and grabbed her soft, hand gently. “Me too. Look, I can’t predict the future, but to me this all feels pretty amazing. I see it continuing that way.”

  “I’m so glad to hear you say that,” Cora said. Tears were in her eyes again, but a huge smile was now spreading across her face. “I’ve been thinking a bit about the future. I’ve always dreamt of a nice house in the country with a picket fence surrounding the property, with plenty of space for kids to play one day.

  “All that sounds fantastic,” I said. “I’ve always wanted a family. I had no idea when it would happen, but I always felt in my heart that when the time was right I would know it and I would not question things too much. Sometimes you just have to follow your heart and see where you end up.”

  “Right,” Cora said. “That’s the way I’m determined to live my life.”

  “Well, if I can do anything in the world to give you what will bring happiness into your life, then that is fine with me.”

  Cora rubbed my hand with hers, reaching overtop of mine. Her touch was soft, sweet, and so comforting.

  “Thank you,” Cora said. “I do believe I’m falling in love with you Landon Glatt.”

  “I know I’m falling in love with you Cora Blair,” I said.

  I pulled up in front of her house a few moments later. Cora leaned over and kissed me softly, but passionately, lovingly.

  “Bye sweetie,” Cora whispered as she stepped out of the car and walked towards her house.

  I watched her go up to her door where she turned around, smiled, and blew me another kiss.

  A few more seconds I watched her.

  “I’m going to marry that woman,” I said.

  And I truly meant it.

  Chapter 11

  Cora

  I leaned back against the front door as it closed behind me and I let out a long, deep, relaxing breath. I was replaying the car ride home from the party. I’d never intended for things to go that deeply, but there it was. I somehow mustered up the courage to ask Landon how he felt about us and he’d answered honestly and openly, far more than I ever imagined he would.

  The past few weeks had been a whirlwind of amazement. Every time we were together I just wanted to make it last as long as I could. My every thought was related to Landon in some way or another lately. I’d never been so happy before. I was almost not even worried about my future anymore; as long as I had Landon I knew that everything else would fall into place and work itself out. And he believed in my dreams; he was not the kind of man who would ever be intimidated by my ambition or my determination. In fact, I believed he would even celebrate it.

  I started walking up the stairs when I heard my mother calling me. She was usually in bed by this time, even on weekends.

  I sauntered down the hallway and entered the kitchen where I saw my mother and my father both sitting at the kitchen table playing Gin Rummy. They often did this in the evenings after dinner, but were both usually fast asleep by ten. It wa
s a little past midnight.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” I asked.

  “Would you have a seat sweetie?” My father said in a pleasant tone of voice.

  “Sure.”

  I sat down beside them. This was a bit strange. The last time they’d both sat me down to talk to me like this they’d told me that my dog Rory had congestive heart failure and would soon have to be put to sleep. I hoped this was a lot less serious.

  “What is going on?” I asked again. They were both being strange as they sipped their decaf coffee and cradled their mugs to shield them from the cool air conditioning.

  “We know who you are dating,” my mother said.

  I let the words hang there. Was this supposed to be some kind of a big secret? I waited a few seconds to see if there was a follow up, but they both seemed to be waiting for me to react.

  “Um…so…?” I asked slowly. This was awkward.

  “Honey, do you think this is a good idea?” Dad asked me. He was leaning towards me warmly. His eyes squinted the way they did when he had something really hard to tell me, or he wanted me to realize the seriousness of what he was trying to get across. What the hell was wrong with him?

  “What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t it be a good idea? Landon’s a great guy,” I said.

  “Honey, he is twenty-four.”

  “Ok, and?”

  “Well, that is a big difference at your age. It might not be if you were twenty-five and he was thirty-one, but trust me young lady—there is a lot of growing up that happens between late teens and mid-twenties.”

  I rolled my eyes and laughed a bit more sarcastically than I had intended to, but I was a bit pissed. This was a ludicrous conversation I was suddenly in. I felt very protective of Landon and I knew I was letting myself get way too emotional and defensive. But I felt the fire burning in my guts.

  “Mom, this isn’t your business who I date. I’m a grown woman, teenager or not. I can still decide who I want in my life and who I don’t.”

  “Watch your tone,” My father said.

  I wanted to yell at him, but I didn’t. I kept my cool. I wasn’t going to let them get me riled up into acting like a child. That would only serve to prove their point.

  “Look,” I said calmly. “I didn’t intend to meet anyone this summer. Romance was the last thing in the world on my mind. It just sort of happened. And we click. Landon and I click together perfectly and he is an amazing guy. We have something great. I know we’ve only just started seeing each other but it already feels really… right… And you can think what you want about it, and I do appreciate your concern about the age difference, but it’s my life and I’m going to continue to date him.”

  There. I’d said my piece. I stood up and started to leave the room.

  “Cora, please wait,” My father said. “We’d like to discuss this further.”

  I stood there staring at him. I wanted to leave, but he was at least being polite and respectful, not demanding and parental like I was a child.

  I sat back down with a sigh knowing I was going to regret this. Sometimes I hated being such a polite, dutiful daughter. But I was trying to put myself in their shoes. I’d been their little girl for so long and now that I was a woman, it was going to be hard for them to let go and there were going to be some battles. I was prepared for them; I just wasn’t sure about my parents.

  “It’s not just the age difference that concerns us,” my mother said.

  “Ok,” I replied a little flippant. “What else?”

  “You know who he is. He is very wealthy. The world he grew up in, the world he lives in now—it’s a few worlds apart from where we are.”

  What was I hearing? This didn’t even make any sense.

  “What does his money have to do with anything? Are you accusing me of being a gold digger? God, I see the looks from other people, including my best friends, but they at least try to be a bit discreet about it. You just come right out and accuse me of being after Landon’s money.”

  “Honey, that is not what we are saying,” dad said.

  “Then enlighten me because I am clueless here. What is this about?”

  “We are trying to keep you from getting hurt,” my mother continued. “You don’t understand what a flimsy grip on reality people in that upper echelon live in. They can’t possibly relate to us. We make a good living, but we are positively broke compared to someone like that.”

  “This is crazy. I don’t even know how to respond to that,” I said.

  “You don’t belong with him. You belong with our kind of people. The super-rich run in their own circles and for good reason. Haven’t you ever wondered why movie stars marry other movies stars? Because they live in the same world. They are superstars. They can relate to each other. When they marry a commoner, it hardly ever works out.”

  “I don’t believe this,” I said. “I’m done hearing it. I’m going to be with Landon if I want to. That is my choice. If you can’t deal with it then I don’t know what to tell you.”

  I got up from the table ignoring my parents’ protests and stormed out of the room. I didn’t even stop when I slammed my bedroom door shut behind me.

  Who did my parents think they were? What did they care who I was with or how much money they had? Were they jealous? Or just concerned that they might not know how to relate to me if I ended up marrying Landon and was suddenly part of a wealthy family. That was it. I’d always heard that when people were very successful, or they happened into a lot of money that everyone around them suddenly changed. I was beginning to see what they meant.

  But I wasn’t going to change. And I didn’t give a damn about Landon’s money. I loved him. I would have loved him just as much if he was poor. Money had never meant much to me.

  But now I saw just how much it meant to my parents.

  Chapter 12

  Landon

  Two Weeks Later

  “So, what’s on your mind?” I asked.

  I wrapped my arm around Cora’s soft shoulders and pulled her a little bit closer to me. It felt nice. I was peaceful and almost a little sleepy. We’d just finished off a large pizza and some wings between the two of us. For whatever reason we both agreed that it would be a good idea to stay in tonight and just relax together and watch a movie. So we ordered a pizza and loaded up some great things on my favorite streaming channel queue. I found a few romantic movies that still had some substance and weren’t all a bunch of fluff. I have always despised cookie cutter romance films, but when you see one that is truly dramatic and has a really strong emotional pull, then that is something that strikes a chord in me and I’ll get into it.

  But I still prefer action and horror; I always have.

  “What makes you think something is wrong?” Cora asked.

  She was giving me just enough of the twinkle in her eye to make me wonder and to be flirtatious, but I kept getting a vibe from her that she was a little bit out of sorts. But she was still so sweet to me. I hoped I never did anything to make her really angry. But then again, anger on her might have been a very sexy look. I was probably going to have to try it out at least once. Make up sex was always the best, right?

  “I just have an idea,” I said. “You’ve been quiet all night. Is it because I’m going to Los Angeles tomorrow? I’ll only be gone for two weeks.”

  I had to fly to Los Angeles on business for two weeks. I was not looking forward to it at all. Mostly, I wasn’t looking forward to spending two weeks without Cora in my arms. I hated not being with her.

  “Ok,” I said. “Don’t tell me; that’s fine. You can have your little secrets.”

  I leaned closer and kissed Cora softly on the lips.

  “I like my little secrets,” Cora said. “They keep things interesting.”

  As she finished the last word she leaned closer and began kissing me hard on the mouth, her tongue darting between my lips, lingering there and sliding around before pouncing on my tongue and awakening it from its slumber.

/>   I was already getting hard in my pants, my dick thickening, and curling up into a large, thick wad in my tight jeans, wound up like a large hose being filled up with water.

  And almost as if by reading the very thoughts in my mind, Cora’s hand was on my crotch massaging this wad and forcing it to grow harder and thicker. It was almost getting painful now, but I enjoyed the pain as Cora pressed down on my dick, kind of flattening it out and then waiting for it to fill in again before giving it another pressing stroke with her thumb.

  With her thumb busy pushing and releasing, her fingers reached below and curled around the rest of my wad and began to give it little pump squeezes, just teasing and massaging me to pleasure. I wanted to moan, but Cora was being so forceful, pushing her sweet, tongue down my throat as far as it would go.

  And I let her. I gave up trying to be dominant in this exchange. I was enjoying all of this just way too much. Her grip felt so good around my thick cock. I wanted to reach down and free it, pull my prick loose from its denim cage, but I didn’t dare. No, I was going to let Cora continue to have her fun. Yeah… she loved to see me squirm and I was happy to squirm for her until her heart’s content.

  I knew soon I was going to have my thick, cock buried so far up inside of her tight, wet pussy. The thought of it drove me wild. My body started to perspire. Sweat was beginning to bead on my forehead.

  Cora was getting so wet. I could practically smell her delicious scent wafting up from under the skirt she was wearing. I wanted to taste it. I needed to feel her sweet, delectable juices cascading over my tongue where I could savor them. That was all I wanted. I desired it. I craved it every minute of every single hour of every day and I had since the moment I’d first tasted it three weeks ago.

  “You want to let it go?” Cora asked softly.

  She kissed me hard before I could answer, sucking my tongue deeply into her mouth and then continuing to pull back harder on it, as if she were trying to swallow me whole.