A Designed Affair

by Cheryl Barton

  He paused as he carefully thought of his next words. They were words he hoped Loren was listening very closely to.

  “I love you Loren. I know I’ve said it to you before and I know you know that I mean it every single time. Today I need you to understand exactly what my love for you means. It means that since the moment I first kissed you, there was never going to be another woman for me. You are my everything. I never, ever want to be without you. I want to marry you and make you my wife. I’m not saying this because of the baby. I had decided this days before any of this happened. I was planning to propose to you the same night that all of this happened, but things didn’t quite turn out like I planned. Shelly was there only because she would have made a scene in the lobby and I needed to talk to her to get her to understand that things were completely over between she and I. I had no idea she was naked under that coat until she walked into the condo. I think I pushed her over the edge by my speech of how much in love with you I was and that there was no hope for she and I, ever. I hit her with it pretty hard because I was angry that she wouldn’t just go away. I was meaner to her than I needed to be and I’m sorry for that because, yes it led to this.”

  He pointed to her leg as an example of what he was speaking of.

  “In the beginning when we first started our affair, I was willing to go along with keeping it a secret as long as we could continue to see each other. I didn’t want to let you go then and I’m not willing to go on without you and that would be the situation with or without the baby. I want to wake up each morning with you beside me and go to bed every night with you snuggled up in my arms the way you like to do when we spend the night together. I want to not only have this baby with you, but as many more as you would like to give me. You are the air that I breathe. I wake up each day and all is well with the world because you are a part of it with me. I know who I used to be and I don’t want to be that lost soul anymore, going from woman to woman trying to find happiness without commitment. I’m ready to commit my everything to you and I hope you are willing to do the same thing because I would be miserable without you in my life permanently.”

  Loren didn’t say a word because she was overwhelmed by the love she felt for him. This moment couldn’t be more perfect. She knew that she had no plans of ever being without him again because she felt just as he did. Baby or no baby, they were meant to be together. She could feel the tears as they started to stream down her face at the thought of how much Mike really loved her and the feeling was mutual. She watched as he struggled to get something out of his pocket and her breath caught in her throat when he retrieved a blue velvet ring box from his pocket. As much as she wanted to say something, the words would not come. She thought that if she opened her mouth, she would really start bawling so she remained quiet and looked from the ring box he was now holding in his hand up to his eyes which were piercing her soul.

  “Loren, baby, I love you more than anything in this world. Would you do me the honor of saying yes to being my wife and make me the luckiest man in the world? I promise to always honor you and our life together. I promise to always put you and our kids before anything else and I will devote my life to being the best husband, father, lover and friend you could ever ask for. You just have to say yes and I guarantee you will never regret that you did. I’m asking you today, will you be mine?”

  He waited for what seemed an eternity while Loren took in the entire scene as he opened the ring box and showed her the marquee cute, platinum diamond engagement ring. He could see the glitter from the ring as it sparked in her eyes, full with tears. He was going to wait as long as she needed to gather her thoughts and words together.

  Loren saw the ring and saw how absolutely beautiful it was. It wasn’t the ring that drew her in. It was the look on the face of the man who stole her heart years ago and who was here today finally giving his to her and she wanted it without a doubt.

  “Mike, I love you so much. Yes, I will be your wife today and every day. I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together. I never, once, doubted your devotion to me.”

  She wanted to be sure he understood what she was about to say, so she reached out and placed her hands on both sides of his face and pulled his face right up to hers so that all of her words were very clear.

  “I want you to know something so that we never have to talk about this again. You are not responsible for the reaction Shelly had to your conversation. You can’t take the blame for her deciding to snap and hurt people by using her car as a weapon. She had a choice and she didn’t choose right. I want to get this out in the open so that it does not continue to haunt our life together. I want you to let it go. Let the authorities do what they do and they will make sure Shelly gets the help she needs. You are a kind man with a big heart and you did not set out to hurt her. She couldn’t handle letting you go because she knows you are a wonderful man, just as I know. I’m thankful that you chose me and I love you for that. We are going to have a wonderful life together as husband and wife. We will continue to pray for good health for Shelly, but we are moving on with our life and leaving all of this behind. Agreed?”

  Mike nodded and took the opportunity afforded him at the moment, being close to her mouth, he took her lips mouth in a hot, searing kiss that sent his heart on a rapid run. He kissed her with all that was in him, putting every promise and hope for the future into the kiss so that she knew to never, ever have any doubt that she was his one and only, now and forever.

  They were concentrating on each other and the hot kiss that they didn’t realize someone had joined them in the room.

  “Mr. Bailey, I’m sorry, but visiting hours are over,” the nurse attending to Loren said.

  He broke the kiss off long enough to place the ring on her finger. He kissed her one last time then got up to leave, not wanting to give the nurse any problems by trying to overstay.

  “Thank you nurse Kelly, I’m leaving now.”

  Mike turned back to Loren, gave her one last long, hot kiss before turning to leave.

  “I love you baby. Get some sleep, don’t give the staff any issues tonight and I promise to bring you more chocolate in the morning.”

  She smiled when he winked before finally leaving. Once he was gone, she snuggled deeper in the covers and marveled at the big, gorgeous ring he had just placed on her finger. She couldn’t wait to show her family her new jewelry. She slid down in her bed, still looking at her ring and nodded off to sleep thinking of the life she would soon have with the man of her dreams.

  Chapter 21

  Mike arrived at the hospital to see Loren with two dozen white roses, a box of chocolates to ease Loren’s craving for it and the biggest teddy bear he could find at the toy store for the baby. When he reached her room, he could tell she must have a lot of visitors because there was a lot of chatter. When he entered the room, all eyes turned to him and before he could even speak, Loren’s mother came toward him and grabbed him tight.

  “Loren’s ring is beautiful Michael. I love it and I look forward to you finally, officially being a part of this family. Thank you for loving my daughter.”

  “Thank you for accepting me. You will never have to worry about Loren. I will always take very good care of her.”

  In the room along with Ms. Barbara, Mike also noticed Duron and Taija who were both congratulating Loren on the engagement. Duron then came toward him and they embraced in a brotherly hug. They would soon be brothers, well brothers-in-law, but brothers just the same.

  “Welcome to the family Mike. I couldn’t ask for a better brother.”

  “Thanks man. That means a lot coming from you.”

  As Duron stepped away, Taija also gave him a welcome to the family hug and kiss on the cheek.

  “A wedding and a baby for you two. I’m very excited for you both,” Taija said happily.

  “Have you two set a date yet?” Ms. Barbara asked.

  Loren responded first.

  “No, we haven’t set a date yet.”

>   Mike then chimed in.

  “I’d like the wedding to take place before the baby gets here. I want all parties involved to have my last name before my son or daughter gets here.”

  “As soon as I am able to walk, I am ready to walk down the aisle to become Mrs. Michael Bailey.”

  “It’s going to be exciting helping you get everything together. I’m going to pick up some bridal magazines and bring them with me tomorrow so that you can get some ideas of what you want,” her mother said.

  “Whatever Loren wants is exactly what it will be,” Mike said as he moved closer to Loren and gave her, her daily good morning kiss.

  “In the meantime, Duron, we have to talk about the west coast office. With all of this, the accident, the baby and wedding and everything, I can’t take responsibility for the west coast office. I need to be here with Loren and the baby. It was fine when it was just me, but I have a family to consider now and my life is here with them.”

  Loren was shocked to hear Mike pass on running the west coast branch of their company. She knew how much he was looking forward to moving and being closer to the family he had there. She couldn’t let him give up the dream of doing that.

  “Mike why would you give that up?”

  He looked at her as he responded.

  “I would give up everything for you. I know how close you are to your family and I know you love being close to them. I can stay here and continue to work in the Atlanta office here and Duron, Tyrone and I can work out what we’ll do about the west coast office. It will work out baby, so don’t worry.”

  “Wait. Do I have a say in this?” she asked. “Yes, I love my family very much, but my life is with you wherever that may be. I know you had your heart set on opening and running the west coast office and I want you to be able to do that.”

  “What about your company? You have your own business here in Atlanta as well,” he said.

  “I can run an interior design business from anywhere. Now that I’m also pregnant, I plan to limit the number of new projects I take on and I will let my assistants take over more of the day to day operations. I’m going to want to spend as much time as possible with the baby.”

  “Our life is wherever you want to make it and I say it’s the west coast. We’ll have the wedding here in Atlanta amongst all of our family and friends and then as soon as the baby is free to fly, we are moving to California where we will build our life. My parents can come out often to visit and so can the rest of the family. We can also visit them here in Atlanta whenever we want to. Don’t give up your dream or even put it on hold. You can have it all and I’ll be here to help you with whatever your dreams are.”

  Mike leaned down to kiss her to show her just how much more he loved her.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too,” Loren said.

  Duron interrupted the loving moment.

  “Well now that you’ve cleared that up. Here is what we’ll do. For now, Tyrone is going to fly out to the west coast to finalize everything so that you can be here with Loren as she recuperates. I knew you wouldn’t want to leave her.”

  Everyone turned as Loren’s dad came in the room. Duron continued sharing the business plans with everyone.

  “Tyrone also still plans to attend the conference in Dallas, Texas in a few months that you were both going to. Don’t worry about going with him. He said he can take care of it. For now, you only need to worry about taking care of my sister and making sure my niece or nephew is born healthy.”

  Mike was grateful for the great family he was about to become a part of by marriage.

  Loren’s dad, who had entered the room, asked if someone would bring him up to date on what everyone was talking about. Ms. Barbara spoke up.

  “I’ll fill you in when we get home later. For now, we are all going to just bask in the glow of the new baby, new son-in-law and a healthy daughter. I’m looking forward to two more grandchildren to add to the two I already have. I’ll have to soon be baking more than one pack of cookies with all of these new babies coming.”

  Duron and Taija looked at each other curiously. When Taija nodded the okay to Duron, he interrupted his mother by telling everyone the added news about the baby they were having.

  “Actually you will have three new grandchildren,” Duron said.

  “Three?” his mother asked.

  “Yeah, mom. Taija is having twins. We just found out this week.”

  Ms. Barbara gave a squeal and gave Taija a tight hug. “I’m so happy for you.”

  “Thank you. We are very excited. We were a little scared at the news wondering what were we going to do with two babies at once, but that scare was quickly replaced with joy. We don’t know the sex of the babies yet, but we both want to know.”

  “Okay everyone,” Mr. Earl said. “Let’s give Loren and Mike some breathing room.”

  Everyone gave Loren and Mike hugs and left the room, leaving them to bask in the news that not only were they having a baby and getting married, but that they were both looking forward to the move to the west coast to begin their life together.

  “We’re going to be very happy in California. I already know it,” Loren said.

  “Yes we are. Speaking of California, I need to talk to Tyrone about a few things before he heads that way. I also have a few things I need to go over with him about the Texas conference. I’m going to give him a call to see if he can meet up for dinner tonight to go over things.”

  Mike leaned down to give his wife the kind of kiss he really wanted to give her if the room had not been crowded. “I love you, the soon to be Mrs. Bailey.

  Epilogue

  Loren and Mike were taking a walk to continue to strengthen Loren’s leg that had been broken. Now that the cast was off and Loren was up and about, it was important to continue exercising the leg to get it back to its regular strength. It had been a long recuperation, but here they were three months later and she was almost as good as new. The baby was growing well also. At four months, it was quite obvious that Loren was pregnant and she glowed. She was also happy that she and Mike had decided to get married before the baby was born. They decided against a very big wedding, but instead opted for a small gathering with close family and friends. In one more month, they would be husband and wife and Loren couldn’t be happier.

  They planned the wedding so that Loren would still be able to fly and make the move to California all before the baby was born instead of after. The west coast office was up and running and Mike needed to get back to work. He had flown out a few times over the past three months, making sure he wasn’t gone too long from her. He was still worried about her recovery, but he still had a job to do. The successfulness of the new branch was dependent upon them moving forward. Loren was proud of Mike and she couldn’t love him any more if she tried. He was her world. In the middle of them walking, Loren stopped suddenly, startling Mike.

  “Loren, baby, what’s wrong? Are you alright?”

  Loren noticed the worried look on Mike’s face.

  “Yes I’m fine. Your son or daughter decided to give me a kick and it surprised me. This is the first time I have felt more than just a flutter in my stomach.”

  Mike reached down to caress her stomach and to speak to the baby.

  “Alright now. No kicking mommy. Be nice in there and when you come out, I’ll take you for some ice cream.”

  They laughed at his silliness.

  Loren swatted his hand away and continued on with their walk. In the midst of preparing for the wedding, they were also waiting the birth of Duron and Taija’s twin boys due in a few short months.

  ~~~

  Mike had just finished packing up the office in Loren’s condo to have more of her things shipped to California when his phone rang. He looked at the screen and saw that it was Tyrone calling. Mike assumed Tyrone was calling about the conference he was attending to represent their business.

  “Hey Ty. What’s up man?”

  “Not much. The conferen
ce is going well. I was asked to present tomorrow about modern structures. I’m looking forward to that. Say listen, a quick question. Do you remember the name of Taija’s friend that came from Boston to be in her wedding?”

  Mike had to think for a minute.

  “I don’t know. Let me ask Loren.”

  Tyrone waited as Mike checked with Loren.

  “Her name is Victoria Alston. Why what’s up?”

  “I think I saw her at the conference today. At least I think it was her or it was someone who looked just like her. I’ll say hello later if I run into her again and see if it’s her. If so, she looks good. I remember how fine she was when she was in town for the wedding. I may have tried to hook up with her if that girl I brought to the wedding didn’t act like a second skin. I got rid of her right after that. I should have known better than to take a date to a wedding. What was I thinking?”

  Mike laughed at his friend. He remembered those days. He happily gave them up for the current love of his life and wouldn’t change a thing.

  “Go for it man. Hope that works out for you. Don’t forget Taija’s baby shower is in two weeks and then my wedding next month. Don’t bring any unwanted, clingy guests.”

  “Yeah, I hear you man. One day I’ll learn. Until then, I’ll hold down the single brother’s club since you and Duron bailed on me. I guess it’s just me against a world of beautiful, willing women and I certainly don’t want to disappoint them. Give Loren a kiss for me and I’ll see guys when I get back.”