A Love for Romance

by Kahlen Aymes

  We sat there staring at each other. This was it. I needed to either lean in and kiss her or walk away. I had to make a choice. And fast before this moment was lost forever. I reached my hand over to her and caressed the side of her face. She closed her eyes and leaned into me.

  This was my chance it was now or never and I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers hoping that she wouldn’t pull back and slap me across the face. I paused my lips slightly pulled away from hers when I felt her hands cup my face pulling me back to her. The kiss was so much better then I had imagined. My imaginations couldn’t even compare the real thing.

  She pulled away and rested her forehead against mine. “Inside.” She whispered. I nodded yes. Wondering if this was it; is she going to change her mind by the time we made it inside or was this really going to happen? I opened my door and got out of the car she did the same. I looked at her, the car in between us. Even though she was right there it wasn’t close enough. I walked around the car not once taking my eyes off of her. She met me half way and wrapped her arms around my neck and standing on her tiptoes as she pulled me into another kiss.

  I lifted her into my arms, her legs wrapping around my waist. I carried her to the door, only pulling away from the kiss to unlock the door. When we got inside I sat her down on the counter her arms still wrapped around my neck our foreheads touching.

  “This is your chance to tell me to stop.” I whispered only loud enough for her to hear.

  “I don’t want you to stop.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I have never been more sure.” She leaned back and pulled her shirt over her head. “Does this look like I want you to stop?”

  Chapter Four

  Taylor

  I stared at the ceiling. Gabe’s arms wrapped around me. As he laid next to me in bed. He was asleep. Here I was questioning everything that just happened. What did we just do? He is my best friend. We weren’t supposed to sleep together. And I let it happen no I encouraged it. Now what? What if this didn’t work? What if he just wanted to be best friends or best friends that occasionally had sex? Where did that leave us now?

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked. I turned so that I could see him.

  “Nothing.”

  “Don’t lie to me Taylor you were just staring at the ceiling for the past five minutes. What is it? Do you regret what happened between us?”

  “I don’t know.” I wouldn’t lie to him, although watching his expressions change on his face just told me that I hurt his feelings.

  “I don’t regret it Taylor. Not a single second of it.”

  “What’s this mean for us Gabe?”

  “What do you want it to mean?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know if I was just caught in the moment or what.”

  “Taylor, do you think that what we did was a mistake? Do you regret it?”

  “I don’t know.” I looked over at him. His eyes were closed.

  “I don’t think It was a mistake and I don’t regret it Taylor. I Have loved you since the day I met you. Standing there in your jean shorts and blue tank top. Staring at me with your hand on your hips as you tore into me for accidently bumping into you and knocking your books on the ground. There hasn’t been a day that goes by that I wish I could tell you what I really want. It has always been you Taylor. It’s you that I compare every woman to and why I can’t start relationships with anyone else. It’s because they aren’t you.”

  I rolled out of bed. What the hell was he saying? I couldn’t hear this right now. I started pacing back and forth in front of his bed until I realized I was still naked. I glanced around the room looking for something to cover myself up with. Slipping Gabe’s shirt over my head before turning back to him. He was now sitting up in bed his back to me as he stood up. I froze as I watched the muscles in his back flex as he walked to his dresser pulling out a pair of sweat pants and pulled them on. I clenched my legs together as my body was responding in a completely different way then the scared girl that I was.

  “I can read your body language Taylor. I know you regret what we did. I’m going to leave for a little bit. I need to clear my head.”

  “No, this is your apartment. I’ll leave.”

  “Don’t worry about it Taylor.” He pulled a shirt on over his head and walked out of the room leaving me standing in his bedroom, wearing only his shirt. It was times like this that I needed my best friend but he just walked out the door. All because I slept with him then instantly regretted it. But it wasn’t that I regretted it the way he thinks. I regretted it because I was in such a messed up place in my own head. I wasn’t mad that it happened; it was just the timing of it all. Yet I just hurt him. Because I was scared to tell him how I was really feeling. I have tried to deny it for years but I knew I was in love with him. I always had been. I just didn’t think he felt the same way. I thought to him I was just his best friend. I guess I was wrong. I should have told him how I really felt a long time ago. I just didn’t want to loose him as a friend.

  Gabe

  I drove around aimlessly. Nowhere to go. Just thinking. Wondering if I just made a huge mistake and lost her for good. Either way I was tired of driving around.I needed to get back to my apartment to tell her what I wanted from her. It was now or never. I drove back to my apartment ready to tell her exactly what I wanted and that I would wait if she needed time. I couldn’t loose her.

  Chapter Five

  Taylor

  My phone beeped from somewhere in the living room. I searched everywhere until I found it sitting on the counter next to the coffee pot where I had left it before the cops showed up and arrested me. I had five missed calls. Justin. I was just about to put my phone on silent when he called again. I debated sending him to voicemail. Curiosity won the best of me.

  “Hello.” I answered.

  “Baby I’m so sorry. Can we talk about this?”

  “Seriously Justin. You had me arrested. You cheated on me. We were supposed to be getting married. You can’t expect me to just forgive you for what you did.”

  “What are you talking about I didn’t tell the cops who did it. I swear Taylor I wouldn’t do that. Just please can we talk about this.”

  “Justin.” I paused, “I loved you so much. You have no idea, I still love you.” I paused as I tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill.

  “Please Taylor can you come over so we can talk about this?”

  “Fine. I will be over in a little bit.”

  “Thank you Baby.” He whispered. I hung up with out responding to him. When I turned around Gabe was standing by the front door.

  “Your back.” I smiled at him.

  “Did you mean what you said just now that you still love Justin?”

  “Yes.”

  “Taylor I think we need to talk.”

  “We do.” I dropped down in a kitchen chair and waited for him.

  “I need to know exactly how you feel about what happened between us. Be honest with me Taylor. I need to hear the truth right now.”

  “Gabe. I don’t regret having sex with you. Not one bit. I was just scared because I didn’t know what it meant.”

  “Taylor. I have always been in love with you.”

  “I know that now Gabe. I am in love with you too. I just wouldn’t admit it to myself. I was scared that if I did admit it, that things between us would get weird and what if you didn’t feel the same. I couldn’t loose you. You are too important to me.”

  “So all this time we kept our feelings to ourselves because we were worried that the other didn’t feel the same.”

  “Gabe. Everything is so confusing right now. I can’t move forward until I talk to Justin. I owe him that at least. Let him explain what happened last night.”

  “You’re going back to him?” He looked at me as if I was growing another head. I nodded at him. I didn’t want to hurt Gabe but I needed to hear Justin out. I needed to know that things with him and I were really over.

 
“I wont always be here to pick up the pieces Taylor. Eventually I have to move on.”

  “I’ll be back I promise.” I smiled at him and made my way over to him and sat down on his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. Looking him straight in his eyes before I pressed my lips to his. His arms wrapping around my waist as he deepened the kiss.

  “Why do I feel like this is goodbye then?” He whispered in my ear when he ended the kiss.

  “It’s not. I promise.” I answered him.

  Gabe

  The thing was I didn’t believe her. I watched her walk out the door and deep in my soul I felt it. She wasn’t coming back. She would go and talk to Justin and he would worm his way back into her heart. Tell her what she wanted to hear and she would be putty in his hands. The ring on her finger would help cement the fact that she was his. I should have thought this through. She never once removed his ring from her finger. I should have noticed it before. It was just a ring but yet it meant that she wasn’t mine.

  I grabbed a bottle of beer from the refrigerator and sat down on the couch. I tried to distract myself but I couldn’t help but stare at the clock on the wall instead. I continued to drink my beer and watch the clock. I gave up and threw my beer across the room missing the clock entirely. I couldn’t just sit here and wait. I wouldn’t wait for her anymore. I wouldn’t put my life on hold for someone who was in love with someone else.

  I quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and left my apartment. I needed a distraction and sitting here wasn’t going to help.

  I headed to the closest bar.

  Chapter Six

  Taylor

  I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into Justin’s apartment. I knew I had to hear what he had to say but after what happened between Gabe and I; I was confused. I realized that my feelings for Gabe were far from platonic. There was so much more that it scared me. It scared me to think that no matter what happens I will be loosing someone who I love.

  I stood outside his apartment door. I took a deep breath and placed my hand on the door knob releasing the breath as I twisted the knob open.

  “Hello?” I looked around the empty living room expecting to see Justin waiting for me but he wasn’t the room was empty except for the trail of white rose petals that were leading to our no his room. White roses were my favorite. I followed the trail of petals and walked cautiously into the bedroom.

  Kneeling in the middle of the floor was Justin. A bouquet of white and red roses in his hands.

  “Taylor I’m so sorry. I love you with every piece of my soul. Please let me explain. Hear me out and give me a chance to make it up to you. I promise it wasn’t what it looked like. I should have told you beforehand I should have told you everything but I didn’t want you to worry.”

  “Justin. You need to explain. I wont give you another chance or even think about giving you another chance until you tell me everything. And I mean everything. Now start talking.”

  “Christy, the girl from Lakeview; we have been trying to get her to tell us what she knows. Since I’m still new at the firm I was the only one that she wouldn’t suspect. No one knows who I am. She had information that we needed to prove our clients innocents. Thursday was the last day. I had everything we needed. And then you know the rest. I love you baby and I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you what was going on.”

  “So you mean to tell me that this was all for the firm. You did this because of work?” I screamed at him.

  “Baby you know that I want to make partner. I had to do it because in the long run I did it for us.”

  “Wow. For us? You basically seduced this girl for us? You kept up a fake relationship with this girl for us.”

  “Yes baby. It was for us.”

  “I don’t know what to even say about this.”

  Gabe

  Beer after beer and I still couldn’t get her out of my head. Every time I closed my eyes I could see her. The way she looked underneath me. After years of imagining what it would be like to be with her and now that I had the need to be with her again was overwhelming. I couldn’t get her out of my head. And where was she. She was with another guy. Probably listening to him apologize and falling for his bullshit. And she would fall for his lies. Then when he fucked up again she would come crawling back to me to pick up the pieces but I wouldn’t be there. Not anymore.

  The bar was calling for last call and I knew it was time to head home, to my empty apartment because she wouldn’t be there.

  Chapter Seven

  Taylor

  No matter what I knew that I was making the right decision. I understood why Justin did what he did. I knew that making partner in his firm was what he had always wanted. I just wish he would have filled me in on everything.

  I opened the door to Gabe’s apartment to find it empty. He wasn’t here. I sat down on the couch to wait for him. I had to tell him what decision I made. It wasn’t something I could do over the phone. I flipped on the television as I waited for him to get home. Hoping it wouldn’t be long. I curled up under a blanket as I flipped through the channels. Finally settling on a movie I had seen over a hundred times.

  Gabe still wasn’t home when the movie was over. I glanced at the clock on the wall. It was two in the morning. I picked up my phone to see if I had any missed calls or texts from him but nothing. I was starting to get worried when the door opened.

  “Hey.” I smiled as he stopped dead in his tracks when his eyes caught mine.

  “Taylor. I didn’t think you were coming back.” He walked in and dropped down next to me.

  “I heard him out. And I forgave him.”

  “Taylor.” He leaned forward his hands rubbing his face. “Why are you here then? If you forgave him why are you here?”

  “I said I forgave him. Not that I could forget. The thing is Gabe. He put work before me and he always will. That won’t stop. All he had to do was explain things before they happened but he didn’t. And it will only happen again and again. I can’t be with someone like that. And the thing is Gabe is that I can’t be with him when I’m in love with someone else.” He looked up from his hands.

  “Your not going back to him?” he asked almost as though he was in shock.

  “No Gabe. I’m not.” I smiled at him as realization sunk in.

  “Taylor, once I get you back to my bed I’m not letting you go. So I need to know. Are you one hundred percent sure you want to go down this road with me?”

  “Hell yeah I do. I love you Gabe, now take me to bed.”

  About the Author

  Elizabeth Hayes lives in the Midwest with her crazy family and house full of pets. She enjoys the peace and quiet of living in the middle of nowhere. When Elizabeth isn’t writing you can find her reading a book, gardening or cuddling with one of her four dogs.

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  To read other titles by Elizabeth Hayes and to learn about upcoming releases, please visit her Facebook page.

  Falling For Lindy

  by Ashlee Taylor

  Chapter One

  Clinton

  “Hey guys, I have the proof copy of the yearbook. Mrs. Anderson gave me it to look over if you want to check it out before I approve it.” Shelly said, plopping the book on the table.

  My arm stretched out and grabbed it before anyone could even make a move, I flipped through the freshman, sophomores, and juniors and when I got to the senior's section, I stopped to inspect them. I chuckled at the surprised faces some of them made in this very important school photo. My best friend Jared had joined me now, pointing and chuckling as I flipped the page again.

  Jared was complaining they used the wrong photo for the yearbook, he yelled at Shelly for doing it on purpose. That was when I saw her, well her picture, Rosalind Flannery? Who is that? This had to be an error, a girl that stunning did not go to this school because I would know her. Hell, I would date her. I would have asked her to marry me, well mayb
e not that dramatic but you get where I'm coming from.

  “Shelly, I think I found a real error in your book,” I said calling her over.

  “An error, where?”

  “Here,” I pointed. “Someone slipped someone into this book, she doesn’t go here.”

  “Yes she does, that’s Lindy.”

  “Who’s Lindy?”

  “Lindy’s been going here since sophomore year, I guess if they don’t wear tight clothes and short skirts you don’t know who they are.”

  “That’s not true, I notice everyone.”

  “Well then, smart ass. Lindy’s in this room how about you find her.”

  She was in this room? I stood up and scanned the entire cafeteria. Some of the girls at neighboring tables took this as I was looking at them they waved while calling my name. I waved my hand and shook my head.

  “She’s not in this room Shelly, you’re lying.”

  “Yes, she is.” She said in a teasing voice.

  “Bullshit,” I said in response as I sat back down.

  Shelly was standing next to me and laughed. “Hey, Lindy.” She called out while I focused on the book.

  “Hi, Shelly.” A sweet voice said in response to her, I jumped out of my chair to look at the girl I didn’t think existed and wound up scaring Shelly and a girl.

  Sure enough, next to Shelly stood the girl whose picture I had been staring at. She had a thick head full of hair she seemed to hide behind but those eyes, those unmistakable eyes stared up at me.

  “Hello, Lindy is it? I’m Clinton Delaney.”

  I watched as her eyes widened, her mouth open and close with nothing coming out.

  “Hello.” She said before she turned and walked out of the cafeteria.

  Shelly stood beside me laughing. “You frightened the poor girl and made her run off. You’re batting a thousand today, Delaney.”

  “Shut up,” I said, unable to comprehend why she ran off.

  “Word of advice, a girl like Lindy wouldn’t fall for a guy like you.”