by Yvette Hines
Stopping, Yasmine glanced at her friend. “You know, Leigh, one day I’m going to get on with the rest of my life.”
“Move at your own pace. Well, you have a lot to think about and I have a patient who should be walking in any minute.” Getting up, Leigh strutted to the door. When she passed by Yasmine she hugged her. “Yassi, everything will work out. Just do what feels right. This is your life and you have full control, remember that.”
“I will. Thanks.”
Yasmine sat down at her desk and began to do some client paperwork. She wanted to do something to keep her thoughts occupied and not think about anything important for a little while. She even went as far as finding her Robin Thicke and Sam Smith mix on her MP3 to block everything out.
Yasmine had the habit that when she was worried about something she would get into the music she was listening to so deeply that she would become oblivious to everything else around her.
So, when Mr. Newton, the postman, came in to deliver their mail he scared her and she jumped, dropping all of the files in her hands.
“Sorry, Yasmine. Didn’t mean to scare you.” The older man beamed a warm smile at her.
Yasmine stood with one hand on her desk and the other over her heart trying to calm herself down. “It’s okay, Mr. Newtown, I just wasn’t expecting anyone at this time.”
“I saw you nodding your head and enjoying your music and I hated to disturb you, but Leigh’s door was closed.” He handed the stack of mail to her.
Yasmine took the mail saying, “No problem. How are you doing?”
Mr. Newton had been their postman for all the years they had rented the office space.
“Everything is going very well. I start teaching karate self defense classes at a women’s center tonight.”
“That’s great. You decided to put all of those black belt trophies to use, aye?”
The older gentleman actually blushed. “I was pretty good in my day.”
“Too bad I missed it.”
“Well, I’m off to the rest of my route. Sorry the mail was late. There was a traffic jam on 64 West and it bled onto the main street.”
“There’s always a traffic jam in the summertime.”
“All those tourists. See ya later.” He exited.
“Bye.” Yasmine called to his retreating form.
Yasmine continued to hum in tune with the music as she picked through the mail and began to separate her own from Leigh’s.
After she finished, she picked up her stack and began to flip through it. She was excited when she came across a letter addressed to her. It didn’t have a return address, but that didn’t stop the excitement from bubbling up inside.
Yasmine tore open the letter and anxious to read it.
She began to read and her heart stopped as she could almost hear the menacing voice coming from the words on the paper. It read:
Yas-mine,
You have been in my every thought. Why did you leave me? You know you ruined everything, our dreams and our future. You killed our child with your selfishness. You will never be happy without me. No one will ever fulfill you like I did. You’ll have no life without me. Yasmine, you are mine, I will never let you go.
Yasmine shredded the venomous words and dropped them into the trash where their poison belonged. Blake had destroyed enough of her life while she had stayed with him, she couldn’t allow him to continue his vile intimidation.
Opening her bottom desk drawer, Yasmine grabbed her purse and headed out the door.
“Yassi, where are you going?” Leigh called out to her as she passed her now open office.
Without pausing in her stride or missing a beat, she announced. “To do what I should have done a while ago.” Yasmine pushed the front door open and rushed out of the building.
Ten
“Yasmine...” Her name came out in a soft whisper, when a soft knocking at his door drew his attention.
“Your secretary wasn’t at her desk and I saw your door was open.” Yasmine stood in his doorway looking nervous as one hand fidgeted with the hem of her shirt.
Rising from his seat, he walked over to her. “Please come in.”
She entered the office and sat on the chair in front of his desk crossing her legs.
Today she wore her normal work ensemble of khakis and polo style shirt. There was nothing alluring about what she was wearing, but for some reason the neat hug of her pants to her hips and the form fit of her top did a job of turning him on as quickly as if she were dressed in a negligee.
Jason closed the door and walked back to his desk, as he wondered why she had come to see him. She made it clear the last time they had talked that she wanted nothing do with him, or any man for that matter.
He balanced on the front corner of his desk. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure? I assumed after our last meeting...I wouldn’t see you again.”
“Trust me, that’s what I thought also.” She kept her gaze down toward her lap.
“So, what changed your mind?”
Raising her head, she looked at him, unwavering. “I’m here to find out if your offer is still on the table.”
Jason just looked at her for a moment. She was giving him one of her intense looks.
“The marriage offer?”
She nodded her head in response.
“Are you here to reject it again?” Jason asked. He didn’t take Yasmine to be the type of girl to have a twisted sense of humor, but he had to admit to himself—he didn’t really know her. “If you are, you can save it. One rejection a month is all I allow myself and I’m already past my quota.” Jason attempted to add a little humor into the atmosphere, she seemed so tense, and she had lost her usual vibrant glow.
“No, Jason I’m not.”
Jason lifted a brow.
Then he watched her chest rise as she took a deep breath.
“If your offer is still on the table, I’m saying yes.”
His face relaxed. “Why?”
“I’m a woman, don’t I have a right to change my mind?”
Jason’s eyes were drawn down to the nervous smile that graced her lips. That was a mistake. Jason thought her lips always looked luscious, as if they were waiting to be kissed.
Slowly he lifted his gaze back to hers. “What has changed?”
Yasmine took a long pause, for a moment, Jason had doubts whether she was going to answer.
“I went to see the children yesterday. There was another adoption fair and they didn’t get adopted, once again. The only difference is that they were extremely upset about it this time.”
“What happened different this time that made them and you obviously so upset?”
“A couple wanted to adopt Jessica only.”
“Yikes, they’re not just brother and sister. Didn’t you tell me that they were twins?”
“Yeah.” Yasmine confirmed.
Shaking his head at the audacity of some people Jason continued with his questions, “So, you decided after that to marry me?”
“We both have our reasons, right?” Her voice was flat, giving no hint to her emotions.
“That we do.”
“So, are you still willing to do this?”
He had to give her credit, she might have been nervous about coming to see him and having to make the decision to marry him, but she hadn’t wavered from looking him directly in the eyes with confidence.
“Yes,” he assured her.
That one word seemed to relieve some of her tension, because he could see her relax a little.
“There are a few things I would like us to discuss about this...arrangement.” She appeared to struggle with the right word to describe what they would have between them.
“I’m listening.” He leaned forward on his raised knee supported underneath by the desk.
“Jason, I don’t want you to misunderstand what I’m agreeing to here.”
“I thought I had it pretty clear. You’re agreeing to marry me for the twins and I’m marrying you f
or a solid footing in the vice-presidency seat. What’s there to discuss, Yasmine?”
She stood, leaving her purse in the chair and walked around behind it, holding on to the back of the seat facing him.
“It’ll be in name only.”
One of his eyebrows shot toward the ceiling. “Explain.”
“Look, I’m sacrificing a lot here, Jason.”
He could see the tension beginning to return to her body.
“And you think I’m not?” Jason hated to argue and he was hoping that this wasn’t going to be their first. “If I had it my way, it would have been years from now before I ever decided to get married.”
“I’m going to be up front with you, Jason, so you can understand where I’m coming from.”
Jason lifted his hand and signaled for her to continue.
Letting go of the chair she crossed her arms under her breast. “I was married before.”
He remained silent, not wanting to say anything that would interrupt her.
“We met in college. He pretty much entangled himself so deeply into my life that I forgot which way was out.” She gave him her profile then started to pace his office. “I thought I was in love with him, even though everything inside of me screamed no.” She fell silent and her feet stopped moving.
“So, what happened?”
“A nightmare. He had always been controlling and overbearing, but in some ways that was part of his charm. What I thought at the time I had fallen in love with.”
“Why’d you divorce?”
“It got physical.”
Jason couldn’t say anything. He could never understand how some men and women felt the need to lash out at someone they were supposed to love.
“I tolerated it for too long. In some ways it hadn’t cost me enough.”
“How did it end?”
“One day he came home in a jealous rage because he found out I had gone to lunch with a male co-worker. I tried to reassure him, he was way beyond the point of reason.” A mocking little laugh came out of her; “He had probably passed that point before he talked to me. Things turned physical really quick.”
“So how did you get away?”
“The ambulance. One of the neighbors had mercifully called the police. They heard the fighting, then they said the house went quiet and it scared them. They thought he had finally killed me.”
“Well, he didn’t.” Jason sighed, trying to relieve the tension surrounding his heart. “Thanks to them you’re alive and well.”
“Alive yes, well...that still remains to be seen.” She turned toward him. “The sad thing is that I probably would have gone back to him when I left the hospital.”
“Why? What would have made you go back to someone who was tearing you down emotionally?” Jason was concerned, wanting to understand the woman who would soon be his wife.
“It was what I’d always done. Over the years, I had learned how to convince myself to stay, but this time I was pregnant and I lost something that was more valuable to me than my own life.”
Full understanding dawned on Jason. “I see.”
“If I would have allowed myself to stay with him, I was agreeing to let any child that happened to survive the stress to live in the environment and possibly have all the abuse happen to them. I couldn’t do that.” She turned and faced him head on.
With Yasmine telling him this, he comprehend why he had felt so drawn to her when she had been talking about her want for the twins. He would never consider himself anyone’s knight in shining armor, but since he had met Yasmine, everything he knew about himself seemed to be changing.
“I’ve seen enough shows about women feeling empty inside after they lose a child. Is that why you want to adopt?”
“That’s a big chunk of it. I’ve always wanted children and when I was pregnant and lost the baby it totally consumed me. I haven’t felt complete since then.”
Jason yearned to embrace her. The desire to erase the sadness that seemed to surround her was strong. Rising, he walked around his desk and sat down behind it. If this was going to be a “formal” arrangement, he would do better not to allow himself any type of emotional attachment.
~ML~
Yasmine was impressed. She had told the story of what had happened between her and Blake and hadn’t broken down in tears, even though she had felt her heart constrict when she talked about the baby. That was something she didn’t think would ever go away.
“So, what are the ROE’s?” His voice broke into her thoughts.
Yasmine watched as Jason leaned back in his chair with one of his nonchalant postures. The one with his elbow on the arm of his chair and his hand on the side of his face, she remembered it from one of the ones he had given her at his hotel.
“Rules of engagement, that’s cute.” Yasmine returned to the seat she had vacated.
“Sorry, with my father being military, sometimes I find myself using their terms. But you have to admit—it fits.”
“I guess it does.”
“So when do you want this to happen?”
“In two weeks.” She didn’t bat an eyelash.
“Wow, you’re not playing around are you?”
“I don’t see any reason a long engagement would suit either of us.”
“You’re right, it won’t. I’m taking it that since it’s name only, it’s not going to be a permanent ‘til death us do part’ kind of thing.”
“No. I only need it to last up until the adoption goes through—after that I can handle the rest on my own. How about you?” she questioned.
“Just until this fall. Mr. Coleman will make his decision then.”
“So after both issues have been resolved then we end it.”
“It’s over.”
He kept a poker face, and it was hard for Yasmine to read his expression, but she had no reason to suspect he wouldn’t be okay with it.
“We still can live separately. I don’t see any need for either of us to move.”
“You don’t think that will be kind of odd for the children? What if they ask where I am?”
“I’ll just tell them you’re at the office. You’re a workaholic, remember, so it won’t be far from the truth.”
“If we want this to look good, then I at least need to spend some time with the children. So it appears we’re developing a balanced life for them.”
She pondered that for a moment. “How about we make Wednesday nights family night and Sundays after church.”
Jason chuckled. “I can’t tell you the last time I went to church.”
“Don’t worry, that’s not part of the stipulation.” Yasmine wouldn’t put that kind of pressure on anyone. She believed church was something people had to decide to do on their own.
“Well, it probably wouldn’t hurt me to attend every once in a while. It would make my mother happy.”
“Do you plan to tell your family?”
“Yes, don’t you?”
Yasmine hadn’t thought about it. She had assumed that it would be done and over with so fast there wouldn’t be a need for anyone to know.
“I didn’t think about it. I don’t see a need to tell anyone.”
“Well who’s going to be sitting on your side of the church?”
Yasmine could see the curiosity written on his face.
“Church? I don’t want a church wedding.” This wasn’t real. She would remind herself of that every day.
“You want to go to the justice of peace.” His face held a look of disgust.
The looked shocked her; she hadn’t expected him to react in this fashion. “I mean, I would like for my pastor to marry us, but I figured it could be taken care of in his office, with two witnesses.”
“Okay, that’s fine with me. But, we have to have a reception.” He was determined.
“Why?”
“Because, remember my boss and the people I work with need to see this wedding as the real thing. I can explain that we wanted a private ceremony, but I need them to
see us as a happy couple.”
“Okay, happy couple. You got it, but we’ll keep it small. Anything else?”
“I agree to be there for any meetings involving the children and I’d like you to come to the occasional dinner party.”
“Agreed.” Yasmine rose. She was pretty satisfied—this meeting had gone a lot better than she had expected.
“Before you go, Yasmine. I have a question about the name only rules.” His hands were bridged over his midsection.
“What’s that?” She hesitated, balancing her body on the edge of her seat.
“Does that mean that we’re both free to seek comfort with other people or are we both taking a vow of celibacy?”
Yasmine had known he would ask that question, she had assumed it would have come earlier in the discussion. Since it hadn’t, she had felt safe there wasn’t a need to bring it up.
“I don’t plan on needing to seek comfort as you put it, and I can’t make that decision for you.” Yasmine’s heart began to pick up beats.
Jason once again got up from his seat and perched on the corner of his desk, then leaned in toward her. “So you wouldn’t have any problem with me being with someone else in that way?”
Yasmine could smell his cologne; it was spicy and male, almost intoxicating, and with a subtle hint of honey. “Who am I to tell you no?” Yasmine hoped she sounded blasé about it.
“You’d be my wife.”
His voice was smooth and thick, like hot fudge it warmed her. Her palms started to sweat, but she refused to analyze why her body was responding the way it did to him. “Only in name.”
Yasmine could have sworn his voice lowered an octave. “I just wanted to make sure what my restrictions were if I had needs that couldn’t get fulfilled in my marriage bed.”
“So are you clear?” Yasmine asked.
“Pretty much.”
“Okay, I’ll be going. I’ll call you with any further information.” Yasmine felt like running out the door, but she made herself take each step calmly.
She was almost at the closed door when she heard, “About the honeymoon...”
Yasmine turned around quickly.
“I thought we already discussed that.”
