Her Captor

by Roxy Sinclaire

  “Yeah. But when I heard that you’d returned, I wanted to come visit you. See how you were. After all, you went through a tough ordeal…” Ken said, bending down.

  “Oh, about that…” I trailed off. I wasn’t counting on telling Ken anything.

  “You don’t have to talk about anything, Amanda. I just wanted to come and take you to lunch.” Ken stood back up and held his hand out to me.

  Wow, if this had been before the kidnapping thing that I planned, I’d have taken him up on the offer. His invite was gentle and kind. But even though I’d had a crush on him, it was just the foolhardy crush of a girl who swooned over the first guy to show her attention.

  I couldn’t lead him on like this anymore.

  “Um, Ken?”

  Ken noticed I didn’t grab his hand and pulled it back to his side. I got up on my own and cleaned my hands off on my smock. I didn’t want to hurt him. So, it was best to say this now so that he was free.

  “This doesn’t sound good.” Ken frowned.

  “I’m so sorry, Ken. I actually have a boyfriend now.”

  His face dropped, and his eyes nearly exploded. “Since when?”

  I had to be careful on those details. So, I downplayed it. “For a while. I think you’re a good guy. But I don’t want to lead you on or anything. I’m flattered that you’d even ask me out to anything.”

  Ken’s face healed back into a small grin. “It’s okay. As long as you’re happy, Amanda. I’m glad you found someone.”

  “Thanks, Ken,” I said, looking down and pulling at my smock.

  “Well, I’ll be getting back to that vacation. You be careful, Amanda. If you need anything you know the whole studio has your back.”

  “Thanks!”

  Ken waved and walked off.

  I gathered the towels and the floor looked clean again. Just a smear here and there. My phone buzzed on the table.

  I picked up the phone, recognized the number, and answered the call.

  “Hey, Jason! How’re you doing, honey?” My entire body lit up like the sun.

  “Mandy, where are you? I’m waiting for you outside. Remember, I wanted to take you somewhere special.”

  “Oh, darn, is it time already?” I pulled the phone away from my cheek and looked at the clock. “I’m coming down right now!”

  I quickly cleaned my brushes and ran down the stairs. Jason’s rehabilitation treatment went well, and now he had gotten better enough to drive.

  “Hey, Mandy. You look sexy in that smock.”

  I blushed streetlight red and shot a look at myself. Shit, I was still wearing the messy smock.

  “Come as you are, babe. You’re still gorgeous.”

  He came around the car and opened the door. He had a slight limp, but the doctors said that he’d be okay in a few more weeks.

  “So, where are we off to in such a rush?” I asked. I slipped into the car and Jason got on the other side.

  “A special place.”

  “And where’s that?” I laughed, trying to ease more info out of him.

  “You’ll see.”

  * * *

  After a few minutes of driving, Jason stopped at a quaint park that had a medium-sized lake. There was a small boat parked by the pavement with flowers and a bottle of wine.

  “Is this for us?” I asked. It was a medium-sized rowboat. Simple, yet very cute. What was Jason planning?

  “Yes.” Jason carefully got into the boat and held his hand out for me to follow suit. One thing I didn’t like were small boats. Big ones like yachts? Yeah, I could handle that. But this? I was afraid the moment that I touched the boat it’d turn over and throw both of us in the water.

  This wasn’t fresh sea water either. It had algae and God knew what else. Not that it wasn’t pretty. It just wasn’t swimming water.

  I didn’t want to put a damper on what Jason had done though, so I took his hand and braced myself. Luckily, I got on without flipping things over.

  Jason smiled and began to row the boat.

  “Wow.” The trees billowed from the gentle push of wind as Jason rowed the boat. It was peaceful. He stopped after a while and opened up the champagne.

  “Amanda, there’s something I need to ask you.” Jason took a final sip of his champagne and sat the glass down on the bottom of the boat. I couldn’t help but expect it to fall.

  “What is it?”

  “Would you mind marrying me?” he asked, digging in his pocket. He took out a black box and opened it to show a huge ass diamond ring. My heart fainted, and I wanted to too, but I was far too worried about flipping over the boat to do that.

  “Oh, my God! Yes, Jason, yes!” I cried, holding out my hand.

  Jason slid the ring on my finger and I was now a future bride. Mom and Dad were going to be ecstatic.

  “You know, I’d totally jump you and kiss you, but if I did that I’d knock us both over into the water,” I chuckled.

  “Don’t worry. There’s more than enough time for jumping my bones,” he said with a devilish smirk. “Especially now that I’m more healed.”

  “You’re such a dog. You know that?” I took another sip of my drink and lifted my hand into the sun to take another look at my wedding ring. It sent off powerful bands of rainbow hues under the light, making my body shiver.

  Who knew that he would get something out of this too?

  And it was more than money; it was a husband, and down the road, it’d be a family too. One thing I learned was to make sure he never became a Michael Coventry.

  And with me by his side? He never would.

  The End

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