A Wedding Affair (The Wedding Affair) (65 page)

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Ian is out like a light, me I am in the tub looking at the credit card that has Luis Miguel’s photo on it, all the concert dates where he is going to be next is printed on the back, wow a different city every night, he is all over the globe, it was the best time tonight, Ian was jealous of a man who is so out of my league, he was so cute though. I am keeping this card forever.

There is still the matter of Ian’s comments that are bothering me and I don’t know how to deal with them, I even thought that maybe I am bothered because he
wants to watch over me because he doesn’t trust me? Well I have given him every reason not to trust me, and I have to admit I don’t like answering to anyone, I don’t want to hurt Ian and I don’t want to be put on a shelf or guarded either and I hate being watched over like a bid in a gilded cage

I get out of the tub and dry off
, I reach for my cellphone and check my emails as I walk over to the bed, Ian is sound asleep I slip in next to him and sit up as he is out. My poor professor, I kiss his forehead he is so cute when he sleeps.

I go through my emails on my phone and come across an interesting
one; it’s from Tower Centre we have a proprietor meeting tomorrow at nine am. Wonder what that is all about, can’t wait to see the bitch slapping that goes on there as the managers and owners get together it is always interesting to see.

I have to say
Ian was great tonight he went with the flow because this was something I wanted and I love him for it. I have fun with Ian, we have always enjoyed each-others company and now that we share a bed he is so open and vulnerable to me in so many ways I am so afraid of hurting him as he has put himself out there, open to me as here take me I’m yours.

Gosh with my hours, his schedule
, we are both running on overtime, trying to make time for one another is going to be challenging. I do love how he makes the effort, I love how he cares for me and sometimes I hate how he is so over protective and I remind myself that it all comes from a good place.

Alone in my solitude I still h
ave my deep seeded desire on the back burner, the one thing that really makes me stir and that is Tristan. I can never get enough of him, even when I was with him, it just frightened me how I wanted him to be my everything. I don’t think I will get over him. I think I will just have to bury all these feeling away again and just stop thinking about him, it is wrong to have one man in my bed and lust after another.

I made my choice and I am
to be married on Saturday, it’s getting a lot easier to accept. I have so many people counting on me to walk down that aisle, my thoughts are starting to fade I have to get some sleep, I had a great day today I am thankful and I am so blessed, I just gotta learn to be happy with my choices.

Chapter 34

Mystery

June 27, 2012

We are sitting at the conference table on the twenty third floor of
Terminal Tower, the proprietor meeting is getting heated, the venders are going at it with the shop owners and I could really care less. We try to organize the Thanksgiving Brunch that is legendary, all the restaurants get together and do a massive buffet for Thanksgiving, it’s, like eating at Versailles long tables filled with food from all over the area.

A slew of
wonderful entertainment from singers and magicians, the whole event is simply magnificent, people come from all around, for all the cuisine from all the local restaurants here at Tower Centre and the greater Cleveland area.

Oh yes then there is the
talk of the Holiday Season, the theme is Believe, so it’s the whole POLAR EXPRESS, with a train and magic area for the kids, should be a blast and I have to lock down a date for my Jingle Holiday Cocktail Party for all my customers. I have to say that most of the men in this very room are very good customers so I try not to conflict dates and do mine on a Thursday.

We get
through the whole meeting in about two hours, I am walking away from the table as I am pulled aside by Mark Pinter, the manager of Tiffany and Company, he and I go way back, we worked together in sales years ago with Tristan.

“Aria hey how’s it going?”

“Good thank you, how about yourself?”

“Good
, things are picking up again you know wedding season and all”

“Me it’s getting down to the wire, you know how it is.”

“Yeah um I didn’t know if you knew this or not, do you remember Tristan Bach?” He is now tugging on his ear as if he is about to say something uncomfortable. My heart just skipped a beat at the mention of his name.

“Yes why do you ask?” I shrug it off.

“Well, I didn’t want to say anything to you at the fashion show because you were with Ian but um Tristan he is finally settling down and getting married” I am utterly shocked, and I go pale as a ghost, when the hell, who the fuck is... I try to calm myself.

“
What makes you say that?” Now I am curious as to how Mark knows all this, I mean do they both still hang out I wonder?

“He came in last week and bought a ring”
he did what

“
Really, well good for him, seems the whole world is in love”

“Well as I recall Aria he was with you”

“Well that was a long time ago” I try to hide my jealously, my interest and I try to act as if it is no big deal, but inside I am fuming, my heart is breaking and my first thought is he is with that slut-bag-ugly-whore again?

“Do you still see Tristan Aria, I know he had it bad for you” I look down at my hands as I hold my agenda close to me, even he remembers how crazy we were about one another.

“Well I had a lot of bad habits that I kicked, he was one of them” I am so mean I know, but he is pissing me off.

“Aria, I don’t mean to upset you” I am getting flustered as I walk over to the
brass and glass elevators, Mark follows me.

“
It’s just that I um…that is no longer my life, I am getting married on Saturday and that’s that” I push the down button and look up at the numbers lighting up as the elevator

“PINGS” 
and opens before us. He motions for me to get in ahead of him.

“So you know about Tristan’s restaurant? And about his winery?”

“Yes, I um yes, I think it’s great” I am standing in the elevator and he is making me think of Tristan and I don’t want to I am going to cry.

The door shuts and we are alone.

“Look Aria I don’t know what is going on with you but as a matter a fact when you told me you were engaged I thought it was to Tristan”

I look up at him and I am like why am I getting all this from all these people, what is all this leading up to, doubt?
A warning? Are these signs? The elevator door opens and we walk back down the main concourse to our stores.

“Mark we
ll I am marrying someone else and apparently so is he, so I gotta a lot of work to do I will see you” he kisses my cheek and I hug him.

“
You and he are so stubborn” I smile as I look up into his blue eyes, he is a blond God with a killer smile, we have known one another for years, at one time he wanted more but I was always hooked on Tristan.

“I can say the same of a lot of people Mark, gotta go
, see ya Saturday”

I walk into my store and Oliver is there on the phone I throw my agenda down on the counter an
d startle him, he finishes up his phone call and turns to see me as I am beginning to fume.

“Aria what is
troubling you today?”

“I just saw Mark the manager of Tiffany’s he said that Tristan bought an engagement ring, the fucker is getting married!” I am s
o mad and pacing the floor, I am wearing my khaki and cream notch collar suit with matching heels from DKNY and I look good but mad as hell, I am fuming and enraged.

“Aria I don’t understand
, you mean you and he were just together last week and now he is getting married? To whom?”

“Probably, the slut-bag-ugly-whore who abused him! I don’t know
? I didn’t stick around to ask, I am so glad that I broke it off with him and that Ian has forgiven me. Could you imagine the fiasco my life would have been in if I had ran away with the fool” I try to calm myself but I am getting even more madder by the second.

“Aria sweetheart why are you so mad, I mean it’s none of your business what that man does or who he does for that matter” I look at Oliver and he knows, he kn
ows how I loved that man.

“Oliver to think how
he has gone on and on and on how he and I belong together and to find out his is bedded another and is getting married…I am fucking infuriated”

“Aria calm down, you
’re getting all bent out of shape because he is marrying someone else…I hate to be the one to break this to you sweetie but aren’t you too my dear?” as he looks at me and presses his pencil at my forehead.

“Oliver it is just infuriating that he tells me how he waited for me and now a week later he i
s engaged to someone else” I am still pacing and trying to get Oliver to see my point of view.

“Aria this information is none of your business” those words stop me in my tracks.

“You know what Oliver you are right, I am just shocked that’s all” I guess I now know, that I have made the right decision to marry Ian, my best friend, and on Saturday he will be my husband.

I grab my agenda and head for my office I have so much to do and I throw myself into my work, I have three fittings and Oliver is doing the me
nding on the serge machine. I just need to keep busy and here it is always Business as Usual.

After tending and mending
I finally get to sit down at my desk it’s the first time I had to myself all day, I don’t hold back as tears just prick my eyes I am so sad and hurt, by what Mark has told me today, I feel like I was nothing to Tristan, he wanted to fuck me, so he told me what he needed to, just to get me into bed. Wow the reality of that hurts. I cheated on my fiancé with Tristan, I nearly threw everything away for sex with an ex. And then as I ponder even more of this, Tristan’s words haunt me too, he was so sincere, he poured his heart out to me, how could he marry another, did I mean so little to him? I put my head down on my desk and I begin to sob and then cry uncontrollably.

I am so unhappy and alone, and I know I don’t deserve to be consoled for what I have done, I have hurt Ian so many times, I have let Tristan use and abuse me
even more than before and here I am two years later making the same mistakes I always have. I get myself together and close up shop. I decide to head home and try to put this all behind me. I take a bath and relax when I get out of the tub I am in my white fluffy robe.

I am feeling much better
when I see Ian, he kisses me and holds me without asking why my eyes are puffy. He is preoccupied himself he has enough time for a quick shower the guys are taking him out for his last night on the town with the guys. I get his clothes ready for him.

I slip on a pair of jeans and a black t shirt and my flats my hair is in a ponytail and I have no makeup on.

Ian is getting dressed as I sit on the bed and watch him, I hand him his clothes that I laid out for him, a sharp grey suit and black shirt no tie.

“So what are you going to do this evening Aria?”

“I am going to the store to finish Sabrina’s dress for the wedding and then I will meet you back here at home”

“Sounds
like a plan”

“Aria dressed like that you look so young like in hig
h school” I smile at him my hair is in a ponytail and I have on no makeup or jewelry.

I kneel up on the bed as he stands in front of me and I put a black pocket square in his breast pocket of his jacket

“There now you look perfect”

“Where are they taking y
ou tonight?”

“I have no idea it’s all
Christopher’s doing” I raised one eyebrow at him

“Well ten bucks says you wind up at a strip-club” Ian takes me in his arms and holds me

“Hundred bucks says we wind up at the casino like you all did” he kisses me and I hold him tight to my lips

“I’ll see your hundred bucks and raise you a fifty if you stay home with me?”

“My instable fiancée what am I going to do with you?”

“Whatever you want” I kiss him back and we are interrupted by

BEEEEEP BEEEEEP

“Shit that’s the
guys I gotta go”

“Ok have a nice time out at the nudie bar” he laug
hs at my comment, I jump off the bed and walk down stairs with him.

Jeez the guys look like they are going to Vegas or something all dressed up and the cologne is heavy tonight.

I kiss Ian goodbye as they heckle him.

“You got the rest of your life for that come on Ian your night awaits”