Save Me (The Lucky Family Book 1)

by Eden Rose

  I took my black dress off the hanger and examined it. I love this dress. It has a plunge u back and then the front is spaghetti straps with a light plunge in the front. Anne must have been talking to someone because I hear her voice but she isn't loud enough for me to think she is talking to me. Just as I'm going to my dresser to pull out my sexy undergarments, my new phone chirped.

  Your Man: So what if I took care of your tab?

  He didn't mention anything about Anne's hair. Just as the thought passed through my head the phone chirped again.

  Your Man: Don't worry about a thing baby doll. It is my pleasure.

  He still didn't say anything about Anne.

  Me: You didn't have to do that. I can take care of myself.

  Was this guy for real?

  The home phone rang as I received the next text.

  Your Man: You can say thank you. It won't kill you.

  I thought about what to say next... I thought about saying: what if it does.

  I could hear the answering machine turn on to record this message. "Dammit Savannah!" I already knew it is Joel. I ignored the rest of the message. I knew whatever he had to say will put me in a bad mood.

  Anne appeared at my door while I'm texting Vincent back to say thanks. She is already dressed and probably came into my room to make sure that I'm almost ready. I'm so happy that she works at my real estate company. We decided to partner up about two years ago and we doubled our business since then.

  "Are you going to be much longer? I would like to be on time to this event." Ever the tardy one, she knew I'm slacking.

  "Anne, I need help zipping the back up." Good thing I put on my undergarments before she came in. Nothing worse than getting a full view of me naked, well... its not as if that would have been the first time or anything. I put on my diamond tennis bracelet that I got for my high school graduation, and then put my diamond necklace and dangle diamond earrings. I love to wear jewelry. "Here it is." I said to her as I stepped into the dress. I loved my curves and my rather busty self and this dress helped showcase them.

  "Damn Vans! You are going all out! Are you expecting to go home with a man? Because I want to!" I smiled and she zipped me into my dress. I loved the drop waist and flowy bottom.

  Of course, the new phone chirped.

  Your Man: I hope you feel as beautiful as you are to me tonight.

  Seriously, men like this exist?

  We walked out of my room and I gracefully tried to put on my Gucci sling backs as we walked down the hall stairs to the living room.

  The stupid house phone rang again. I'm getting damn annoyed because only one person would call on that phone. Joel.

  "I could have sworn that by going through a divorce that I wouldn't have to talk to him anymore, didn't you think so too?" I said to Anne. "I think its funny that he calls me more now that we are a month from being done."

  "Why does he keep calling?" She asked me the question as the voice-mail started to turn on.

  "Fuck Sav-annah! I know you are home! Why did you leave with Vin-." Anne shut the machine off. Joel always broke my name into sections, that were highly unnecessary, when he is angry with me. To this day, I hate when people break apart my name almost as if they were trying to sing it or something.

  "So now he is following you? What the hell is his deal? He is the one that requested the divorce not you." Anne always had a way of making me feel better.

  "Let's get out of here. I think I heard the limo."

  The limo is beautiful black and stretch. I'm surprised that my firm sprung for this! We scooched in and again the phone chirped.

  Your Man: Thinking of you.

  I thought that one night stands were supposed to be... Well, I don't know. A one night stand! What is with him? And, uh, what's wrong with me? There must be something chemically unbalanced in my brain because I really liked it.

  Me: Why?

  "Let's pop the champagne! I'm sure there is going to be a lot of traffic to get over the bridge," I said to Anne.

  Your Man: Because you are a beautiful woman.

  I texted him and said thanks. I really need to figure out how to change his name in my phone because that is confusing me even more than it should.

  We popped the bottle and got really giggly as the champagne flowed down our throats.

  "I hope that Ronnie shows up. He is so hot. I would love to have him on my arm. Did you tell Vincent where you were going tonight?" Oh, great. Anne is the romantic out of the two of us and I'm the cynical one. I guarantee she will have my wedding with Vincent planned by the end of the night.

  Probably a Cinderella themed wedding. Horse-drawn carriage and all the works.

  "Why would I tell him? Seriously, I only wanted a one night thing. I'm surprised that he wanted me to stay the night. Granted, I'm new to this whole thing, but I thought I'm supposed to be the needy one." Yeah, I'm so not giving her am mo in planning this wedding that she is concocting.

  Not one to give up, she kept pressing the matter and if I didn't love her more than my own life, I would stab her in the throat. Maybe not literally, but something drastic. "Why can't you admit that you liked him?"

  "I don't like him... Well, not too much. He is a good lay." I told her while I gulped my second glass of champagne. The car kept on driving down the street and we kept girl chatting about last night and wondered who paid for her spa day. I thought it is Ronnie. This seems like something he would do with Vincent. Obviously, I couldn't tell Anne about my suspicion because I wasn't even sure it is a possibility on his account.

  We arrived at the event hall and were greeted by candles that lit the walk way. Truly, it is beautiful. Anne and I locked arms and then walked through the candle lit walk way into the hall where there were more candles cascading throughout the hall and Christmas lights that dangled like icicles. We greeted our coworkers and made small talk with our partners. There is forty or so tables that is in a gigantic circle. All of the tables had a beautiful centerpiece made of flowers. My company liked to go all out during these events that happen once a year.

  Anne and I found our table that is located in the middle of the room. They put beautiful name cards in front of all the chairs at the tables. Oddly enough, next to my name card said V. Moretti and next to Anne's card it said R. Rossi. I gave her a confused smile and sat down waiting for the cocktail waitress to come bring me more champagne. Trying to keep my buzz going over here.

  On my third glass of champagne, I'm feeling pretty feisty and wished I would have invited Vincent. Maybe we could sneak away and continue what happened yesterday. My memories of last night are currently weighing on my subconscious due to my vicious rug burn that spreads across my back as a remembrance.

  Also, our neighbors haven't arrived yet. Secretly I'm dying to know who they are because I didn't recognize those names. Maybe they are some big wigs or something along the likes of one.

  Before I could conduct other possibilities, I now had a brunette talking very adamantly in my ear. "Let's go shake our booties on the floor! We got to find us a man!" Anne is hilarious, leave it to her go from talking about Ronnie to getting a new guy. But I know the truth, she really likes Ronnie and she is trying to play the aloof role.

  "You're most definitely on! Let's show these girls how to dance!" We then grabbed hands and started to head to the middle of the hall to start dancing.

  We were the only two girls that were dancing together but we didn't care. This is a running joke through the office that Anne and I are lovers and we totally play with it. The deejay is playing classical music and some Frank Sinatra type of music which wrapped my body in sultry ribbons.

  "Too bad we are the only ones out here, would be nice to dance with everyone at our firm!" I yelled to Anne. Once I'm done with my sentence, I felt someone grab my elbow. Since I'm pretty buzzed, I spun around and am hit with that cologne.

  *Chapter 5*

  That cologne belonged to none other than my future ex-husband. I gave him an evil look. Here Ann
e and I were at our job's party and he had the audacity to show up to no doubt create problems. The music kept playing and Anne stopped dancing to look at our exchange. Why is he here?

  The man that I once loved stood above six feet and is very in shape. Truthfully, I'm more attracted to him when he was younger. This man, right in front of me, looked old and full of hate. Once upon a time ago, he looked at me with loving eyes and now his eyes spit daggers at me.

  "Savannah, you are not answering any of my phone calls. I need to talk to you." His tone and words were even but his eyes looked desperate.

  "What more is there to say? You asked for this and I gave it to you." I spat at him with a look of hatred. His eyes started to glaze over as I started to back away from him and head back to my table. Joel grabbed my wrist and pulled me in front of him. That hurt since he grabbed onto my bracelet and now it is digging into my wrist.

  "I want to go somewhere and talk to you. You are still my wife. Why are you leaving bars with another man?" Even though he spoke quietly, the tone of his voice still made me want to pee my pants.

  "You are following me?" I stopped trying to be tactful since I'm at work and started to speak louder and louder as my anger grew.

  Joel grabbed my elbow and tried moving me toward the exit where the foyer is. I put up my best defense since I'm wearing high heels. I stumbled trying to not make a scene. Crap! This is all I need is for my coworkers to see me struggling to control this situation.

  "Joel, please be a grown up! This is where we work!" Anne screamed at him as she followed us down the hall. Having witnessed several our past fights, Anne did the smart thing and that is to shut her mouth because she will just get Joel even more angry. And trust me, we don't want to see him get even angrier.

  "Damn it, Anne! This has nothing to do with you. This is between my wife and I."

  He is pulling my elbow really hard and as I'm being tugged into the foyer my heel broke. This pissed me off more than anything. Not my shoes!

  "Okay, okay! Joel we can talk. Just stop pulling me! You are hurting my arm." At this point we were in the foyer and I'm trying not to cry because of how embarrassing this all is.

  With my arm still in a lock jaw of a hold, he got really close to my face. As he is leaning down to get into my face, I slipped and fell against the wall. He just started to yell at me.

  "Do you know who Vincent is? Do you even know anything about him? How dare you go home with him. We aren't even divorced yet and you are running around like a- like a- whore!" Joel is spitting words like they were bile at me. So close to my face that I could smell he had been drinking.

  When we lived together, it is only when he is intoxicated that he is mean to me. One night, he got so drunk that he punched a hole in the wall about three inches away from my head. The embarrassing part was that his brother was there and tried hard to get Joel to calm down.

  Anne tried to help me get up, but Joel blocked her way. I could tell she is getting upset because she is digging through my evening bag trying to find my phone to call the police. Oh, shit! She is going to come across the phone Vincent gave me. I knew she is going through my text messages because she had a sly grin once she had it in her hand and started to tap on the screen.

  "I asked you a question, Savannah. Do you know who he is?" He is so close to my face that I thought he is going to hit me. I tucked my head into my chest to try to protect my head and slid to the ground. "You go home with a man that you don't even know, how disrespectful can you possibly be? It took you months before you did that with me, but it took you a matter of two minutes to do that with him? I will ask you one last time," he put his face really close to my head, "do you know who he is?"

  Before the voice interrupted my ability to say anything, Joel moved away from me but it is when I looked up, I noticed he is pushed. "Who am I, Joel? You seem to know everything about me!" Vincent is here, how did he know where I am? As I untucked myself from my protective ball, I seen another man that came up. By Anne's squeal I knew who it could be. Vincent and Joel stood in a show down stance and I waited to see who would break the eye contact.

  I have mixed feelings on having Vincent here. He came to my rescue... and despite not knowing him for too long, I'm beginning to develop some feelings for him. I don't want to have feelings for him.

  Joel looks as if the Devil himself has taken ownership of his body. I'm truly frightened over what he is going to do. "Does this concern you? I'm talking to my wife right now!"

  I yelled at Joel: "We are getting divorced! Stop calling me your wife!" I screamed as both Anne and Ronnie pulled me up off of the floor.

  Vincent is staring down Joel with eyes that could set something on fire.

  The look in Vincent's face is frightening and I decided to come to Joel's rescue even though he didn't deserve it. "Come on! This is ridiculous. Joel, why can't you just leave me alone? You were the one that cheated, you were the one that said we should get a divorce! I just filed the paperwork. We never should have been together this long as it is. You spent a majority of our marriage with your stupid friends and that whore. You got to keep our penthouse! Please, just go!" I spit these words out and tried to hide my hurt because my pride didn't want him to know how much he truly hurt me.

  As I'm finished with my tirade, both Ronnie and Anne pulled me further away from Joel since he is making a fist with his hands. Luckily, my coworkers haven't witnessed all of this. That would be super embarrassing.

  With words that were detached from any emotional connection, Vincent spoke clear and precisely. "Ronnie, its time for you and the girls to relocate for a minute. I need to speak to our little friend Joel." As Ronnie tried to pull me back from that part of the foyer, I still wanted to put up a fight. Who asked them to get involved?

  This is so embarrassing! Kill me. End my misery. Just bury my body.

  All of the emotions from the last six months since we signed the papers, came flooding to my eyes. I caved and fell into Anne. She held me while I cried and wished a horrible death for Joel out loud. Poor Ronnie, he just stood there not sure what to do about Anne and my embrace.

  I heard Vincent say a few things to Joel. It is mostly to stay away from me. One sentence really snapped me back to reality; "You better have made up a will if you ever talk to Savannah like that again!" I looked up and seen a fist being thrown and then by the grunt, I found out that Vincent is the one to throw the punch.

  Vincent backed away from my estranged husband as he pulled himself up into a standing position. Joel countered back: "She deserves to know who you and that man over there are!"

  I started to cry even more. This is supposed to be a good night. My night officially ended at eight o'clock at night. Anne grabbed my face and tried to wipe away my smeared makeup in order to help clean me up. I could imagine the mess on my face.

  "I love you, Anne. You are my family." She nodded and gave me a little kiss on my lips. Vincent is speaking really low to Joel with venom laced words and a serene smile on his face. As the conversation got more heated, Ronnie finally spoke.

  "Anne, please take Savannah into the bathroom to freshen up. We have some business to attend to." And with that, he turned away from us and walked toward Vincent.

  During the three feet walk from where we standing, we stumbled into the bathroom. Thank goodness that it is empty, I'm more than embarrassed already. My dress is torn a little on the side from when I slipped, my makeup is smeared. I fixed my dress as much as I could and cleaned up my smeared makeup. Anne's makeup is still perfect.

  Bitch.

  I looked in the mirror, at my eyes in particular, and started to laugh! For some reason something is very funny. Maybe it is the champagne or the embarrassing altercation with Joel. Anne looked at me as if I had two heads. She caught on eventually and started to laugh. We held each others gaze in the mirror and started to point at one another as if a joke had been made. She slapped her hand on the sink to catch her breath while I walked to the sitting room area to collapse on
the couch. Both still laughing. Tears started to prick my eyes since I'm laughed so much.

  Anne came and sat next me and everything I'm thinking started to flood out. "Who does Joel think he is? Why would he come here? This is my work party. He had no right to show up! What the hell did he mean when he asked about Vincent? It is a one night thing. Its not as if he is my boyfriend or anything." I almost choked when I said "boyfriend".

  "Call it what you want, but from the looks of it, you and Vincent have a different opinion about what happened last night." Anne is always the voice of reason which made my living in denial an impossibility a majority of the time. At this point we stopped laughing because we heard the chime to come to dinner.

  "I can't like him because this is just a one night stand. That is it. Nothing more. No more sex. Time to get some rechargeable batteries," she laughed at me and I knew she knew that I'm trying hard to not admit that I could like Vincent. Or did like him already.