Escape to Paris With Love (16 page)

The hard kick in the teeth and the swift kick in the ass that Prissy delivered to EJ that day gave her the incentive to paint on a brave face and pull her act together for the sake of her daughters. Although her heart and her koochie ached for Armani she painted on a pretty face and a beautiful smile and ventured across the street to have dinne
r at Prissy’s.

The girls were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. Their list for Santa was as long and wide as the Mississippi
River and between their grandparents, Aunt Prissy and Uncle Teddy it was filled to the letter. Usually EJ would discourage Prissy and Teddy from spoiling the girls so lavishly, but she felt guilty about almost sleeping through Christmas. So, against her better judgment, this year she allowed it. Prissy even had the audacity to contract a Santa to visit them after dinner.

Dinner could not be over quick enough as far as Paris and Parisa were concern. They gobbled their food down as quickly as possible in anticipation of their after dinner surprise.
The clock struck eight o’clock and the doorbell magically rang. As if on cue, Austin opened the door announced that Paris and Parisa had a visitor. The twins raised to the front door discover a giant of a man dressed like Santa Claus and a host of elves carrying a mountain of gifts.

“Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!” Santa greeted them. “Who do we have here? Don’t tell me you must be Parisa and you must be Paris.” Santa said as he swooped the girls up, one in each arm.

Paris giggled. “No Santa! I’m Paris and she’s Parisa!”

“
We twins but we don’t always look alike.” Parisa chimed in.

“Santa knows… He was just kidding around. Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas. If you aren’t the two prettiest girls Santa has ever seen.”

“Say thank you girls. Santa just paid you a compliment.” EJ reminded them as the humungous Santa took a seat holding one girl on his knee.

“Thank you Santa.” The twins sheepishly chimed in unison.

“Santa did you bring us a gift?” Paris asked.

“Paris that’s rude.” Parisa scolded.

Santa chuckled. “It’s okay Parisa. I don’t mind. Yes! In fact all these gifts are for you girls. Santa checked his list twice and found that you two have been surprisingly nice.”

The girls giggled as they gave each other a high five. “But Santa… What about our other gift?” Paris asked and Parisa cosigned.

“
I’m afraid Santa is getting old and forgetful. Whisper in Santa’s ear and tell Santa what you want and Santa will make sure you get it before Christmas ends tomorrow. Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas.”

Parisa looked at Paris and then reluctantly whispered something in Santa’s ear. Santa bit his bottom lip and nodded his head slowly as the girls took turns whispering in his ear. No one knew what they asked for but EJ could tell by the way Santa kept looking in her direction that it had something to do with her. Santa’s expression quickly changed and the jolly Santa was now sad.

“Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! Let me talk to mommy for a second and Santa will see what he can do.”

EJ looked at Prissy who was wiping tears from her eyes. She instantly knew that the girls had asked for Santa to bring their dad home to visit. Tears flooded her eyes as well as she backed into the dining room so that the girls wouldn’t see her crying. Santa followed.

“Look, I already know what they asked you. What you don’t know is that their father died seven years ago.” EJ explained with her back turned to Santa, never bothering to turn around to look at him.

“I know, Prissy told me. So, get them a new one!” Santa’s sultry, sexy voice replied as he touched EJ on her shoulders and turned her to face him.

Santa’s voice cut through the very marrow of EJ’s soul. It was Armani. “Armani?” She whispered as she took a closer look at the professionally stuffed and costumed Santa. “Is that you?”

Armani pulled his long, silver beard down so that EJ could see his handsome face
and his sexy smile. “Yeah… It’s me.”

“What are you doing here?” She whispered so the girls couldn’t hear her form the other room.

“Prissy invited me to come, but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I love you, EJ. This past week without you has been the worst week in my life. EJ I’m so sorry that I lied to you, but I had to. I didn’t know what else to do. You left before I could explain. I would have told you the truth but I didn’t want you to think that I was crazy. I swear before God that’s the only reason I didn’t tell you the truth earlier.”

“So tell me the truth now. Why did you have me under investigation? Did you think I wanted you for your money? What?  Did you think I was cheating on you? Huh?”

“Damn this is a lot harder than Santa anticipated it would be.” Armani nervously chuckled.

“I hope Santa didn’t think showing up with some gifts for my kids was going to smooth everything over.”

“Okay! I was in an accident a few years ago. Since that time I’ve been having a reoccurring dream about a woman that looked exactly like you. I told my brother about her and he hired an investigation service to try to see if the woman existed. They found you and I immediately recognized you as the woman in my dreams. EJ there’s no secret that I fell in love with you during the short time that we were together. I wasn’t lying to you when I told you that night that I was in love with you. You believe that right?”

EJ searched his eyes, there was no doubt in her mind that Armani was genuinely in love with her. “Yes… I believe that.”

Armani sighed deeply. “What you don’t know is that I fell in love with you in my dreams years before I met you. It’s crazy but I was in love with you before I even knew you existed. I have no idea how it is possible, but it’s the truth.”

“So you had me followed?” EJ asked confused.

“Yes, I had to. I couldn’t just come up to you and announce that I was in love with you and that I wanted to marry you. Hell, you could have already been married as far as I knew. I just had the investigators follow you so that I could find a way to meet you. I swear, that’s the honest truth.”

“You want to marry me?” EJ asked stunned.

“Yes, and if that was a proposal then my answer is hell yes!” Armani breathed as he swept the beautiful EJ up into his arms and leaned in for a kiss.

EJ eyes leaked with tears as she realized that for all practical purposes Santa had just proposed to her. “Sorry Santa, but I’m an old fashioned girl. If you really want to marry me you have to ask me. After all, you are the man in this relationship.”

A sexy grin slid quickly across Armani’s face as the handsome young prince got his answer. Gathering her in his arms quickly, he smothered her mouth with his and gave her a five alarm whorehouse in blaze kiss.

Quickly pulling off his Santa hat and wig Armani tossed them to the side and dropped to his knees before EJ. His eyes never once left her as he pulled a
blood red, velvet ring box from the jacket pocket of his Santa suit. EJ’s right hand flew to her mouth as Armani opened the ring box and produced a flawless, twenty karat, emerald cut diamond engagement ring.

“Escape Jones, will do me the honor of being my wife
and one day my queen?” Armani proposed as he took her left hand in his and waited for her answer.

“Oh my God!” EJ murmured as she stared at the handsome prince and then the ring and then back at the prince again. “Is that real?”

Armani chuckled. “Yes! Yes! It is very real and so is my proposal. Marry me Escape Jones and be my wife and my queen.”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” I will marry you! Yes!” EJ screamed in glee.

The girls heard the commotion and ran to see what the excitement was all about. Nothing on the planet could had prepared them for what they were about to see. The skeptic Parisa recognized him first.

“Daddy! Paris it’s Daddy!
Santa Claus is Daddy!” She screamed as she raced over to Armani.

Paris was on her heels screaming, “Daddy is that you! Parisa it is Daddy! I told you Daddy would come this year.
I told you!”

Armani did not hesitat
e snatching the girls up in his arms and loving them as if they were his own flesh and blood. The girls hugged and kissed him and cried tears of joy as EJ and Prissy sobbed like newborns that had just been slapped on their ass. The whole lot of them, including Prince Armani, were a sobbing mess. Hell Austin and the elves had to choke back a few tears.

When they finally settled down a little, Armani made his big announcement. “Guess what girls?”

“What? What? What?” They chimed in unison as they waited with bated breath.

“Mommy and Daddy are going to have a
big fairytale wedding and we are all going to live in a giant castle!”

“A castle
just like Princess Jasmine or Princess Tiana live in?” Parisa asked confused.

“Yes, But much, much bigger.” Armani responded.

“OMG Paris! We are going to be princesses!” Parisa squealed.

“Are we going to be princesses Daddy?
” Paris asked excited.

“You most certainly are.” Armani chuckled as he kissed his girls.
“You will be Princess Paris and you will be Princess Parisa. The girls gushed before smothering Armani with about a hundred kisses each.

EJ looked at Prissy. “He has a castle?”

“You’re the one that spent the night with him. You should know! You tell me!” Prissy teased.

“Shhh! Before my daughters hear you! FYI, that was on his yacht! I’ve never been to his home!” She playfully shoved her.

“Whatever! I told you to Google him like I did, but you were too busy goggling him. And FYI, yes he has a big old castle. Tell me something, could he be compensating for other shortcomings?” Prissy continued to tease her.

EJ eyed her handsome fiancé. “
Not by a long shot…That ain’t the only thing he has that’s big!” She snickered beneath her breath, although Prissy heard her.

“TMI, TMI!” Prissy responded as she pretended to cover her ears.
“Happy for you, but TMI!”

EJ grabbed her, and hugged her tight before kissing her cheek. “Thank you
Prissy! You’re the best friend and sister in the entire world. Thank you for everything and thank you for bringing Armani back to me.”

Prissy held her close. “It was
nothing Your High Ass… I mean Your Highness!” Prissy teased.

“Kiss my High Ass! Don’t even start
calling me that bullshit!” EJ giggled as she gave her best friend in the world a big bear hug.

They watched in amazement as the girls recapped the past events of the last few years of their life. They were happier than they’d ever been and EJ knew she had only one person to thank for this miracle, God!
  

Armani wa
s determined to be married and move his family into the castle with him immediately. He couldn’t fathom spending another night without EJ’s legs wrapped around his body. Still, he refused to disrespect his daughters by sleeping with their unmarried mother with them in the house. Actually, it really was a moot point since the girls were convinced that Armani was their dad, still Armani was not comfortable with it.

So, Armani and EJ
made arrangement to be secretly married by EJ’s pastor in his study just before sunrise service on Christmas morning. Fabian and Prissy were in attendance as witnesses. Fabian stood up for Armani as his Best Man and Prissy stood up for EJ as her Maid of Honor, while the girls made Christmas waffles at home with Austin.

Now, Armani had promised the girls a fairytale wedding and that was exactly what they were going to have. Although EJ had never really dreamed of getting married once Paul passed
, by some odd twist of fate she found herself a princess bride at thirty years old. There was so much to do and so little time to get it done. So, Armani hired three wedding planners each assigned with varying aspects of the big day. One was in charge of the wedding, one was in charge of the reception and one was in charge of the honeymoon and they all were paid an insane amount of money. EJ tried to protest, but her groom would not hear it. He exercised his authority as her new husband and prince to overrule her. Armani refused to have his wife stressed out over mundane wedding details.

In retrospect EJ was glad he did. There was absolutely no way one wedding planner could have pulled off a wedding of this magnitude in
ninety days. In the end, everyone handled their part of the elaborate wedding puzzle brilliantly and earned every cent of the money Armani paid them. The big day was finally here and everything was done to perfection and EJ didn’t have to make one single phone call.

EJ took one final look in the mirror as her hairstylist fussed with her diamond tiara and the dress designer
fussed with her veil and Prissy played with her phone. EJ felt and looked like a million dollar bill. Rightfully so, she wore well over a million dollars- worth of jewelry alone and that didn’t even include the absolutely obscene amount of money her engagement ring that she aimlessly fiddled with cost.

“Prissy, please tell me that I’m doing the right thing.” She nervously begged for Prissy’s support.

“EJ, you’re doing the right thing.” Prissy robotically repeated as she continued to text back and forth on her phone.

“Tell Bear I said hello and tell Bear that you have to go. My wedding is about to start any minute now and I need you.”

Prissy rolled her eyes as she quickly sent Teddy a text that read, “This Bitch is tripping. I got to go. Talk soon.”

Walking to the door
, Prissy opened it and cleared the room. “Okay everybody out. Princess EJ needs a few minutes alone to clear her thoughts.”

Everyone quickly hustled towards the door except EJ’s personal bodyguard, Thomas a big mountain of muscles with a stoic, but handsome face. He squared his shoulders and positioned himself at the interior entrance of the door. Prissy stared at him as if he
was a unicorn with a dick sprouting through his forehead, where his horn should be.

“You too Thomas!” She insisted.

“My job is to protect the princess at all times. I’m staying, so carry on.”

“Okay… How can I say this? Oh! I have it! Thomas, get the fuck out of here before I strip naked and start playing with my clit!” Prissy screamed.

Thomas turned beet red and scurried through the door as quickly as possible. “I guess I can watch her from out here. Carry on.”

EJ burst into laughter. “Why did you do that to that man? You know he’s shy around women.”

Prissy snickered. “That’s why I did it. How else was I going to get him to leave?”

“You could have just asked me to tell him to wait outside.”

“What fun would that have been? Besides you looked like you could use a good laugh.” Prissy said as she fixed a loose curl that had fallen out of place. You look beautiful EJ. Absolutely beautiful!”

“So you’re sure I’m not making a mistake?

“What mistake. You’re already married to the man and raising two daughters. How could you even think about that now? EJ this is all just a formality. The real marriage started Christmas day. That’s when your fears and doubts should have surfaced not now.”

“It’s just that Paul is your brother and the girls are convinced Armani is their dad, and…”

“That’s because he is their dad! Paul Crown is gone… Okay! Armani’s their dad and don’t you dare tell them otherwise! Do you understand me? Don’t you see… God gave Paul back to us! So stop all this craziness and enjoy the fairytale wedding that every little girl dreams of, God knows you deserve it. I’m the one who should be second guessing their wedding plans.”

EJ looked at Prissy. She knew that face. Prissy missed Teddy. He couldn’t attend the wedding because his new reality TV show aired their live plot episode that night. It didn’t take an MIT Rocket Scientist to figure out that Prissy was still in love with him. EJ just chose not to address it.

“Wipe that sad puppy dog look off your face. Austin deserves better than that. So don’t even start.”

“EJ he’s going to meet someone on this show and get married. I can feel it.” Prissy pouted.

“Maybe, maybe not… But I thought that’s what you two agreed upon when you decided to marry Austin. Right?”

“Look, EJ… Austin is a great man… A wonderful, kind, loving and generous man… But he’s just not my Prince Charming… Bear is.” Prissy sadly confessed.

“Oh Prissy… Please don’t mess up your future by living in the past.” EJ said as she hugged her best friend just as there was a knock on the door. “That’s our cue… are you ready?”

Prissy quickly pulled herself together, remembering that it was EJ’s day. “The question is, are you ready Your High Ass, I mean Your Highness?” She teased.

“You’d better stop calling me that. Besides your ass is a hell of a lot higher than mine.” EJ laughed before hugging Prissy tight. “I love you Parisa Crown! I couldn’t imagine life without you.”

“I love you too! Now, get off of me. You know I don’t get down like that!
And stop acting like one of us is about to die.” Prissy teased as she squeezed EJ tight enough to break her. “I love you Escape Jones. You are the sister that I prayed for. Now, let’s go... Your prince awaits.”

EJ snickered. “God I’ve always wanted to hear someone say that.”

“I know, I remember you use to say it all the time when we were little girls. Paul was your prince and Teddy was mine. Life’s funny, huh?”

EJ wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and nodded in agreement. “Life sure is. Now let’s go! I have a Crown Prince waiting for me!”

~*~*~

EJ and Pr
ince Armani Fabre′ were married that day in one of the most lavish wedding ceremonies France had ever witnessed. EJ was stunning in her custom original, Christos wedding gown. She truly looked like a princess and her prince openly wept as her father presented her to him. The newly married couple honeymooned as a family with their two beautiful daughters on a private estate on a secluded island in Hawaii.

Lying on their private beach
watching their daughters play in the pink sand EJ looked at her handsome husband. “I have everything that I’ve ever dreamed of except one thing.”

The handsome billionaire peered over his dark sunglasses at his beautiful bikini clad wife. “Except what? Tell me
… Just name it and I’ll make sure you get it.”

A devious
smile tugged at the corners of EJ’s mouth. “I have everything I’ve ever wanted except a son.”

Armani instantly got excited. “Are you pregnant?”

“No but I plan to be before we leave Hawaii!” She snickered as she kissed her handsome prince to seal the deal.

“God, I love you.” Armani breathed as he smothered his wife with a breath snatching kiss.  “You are
truly the woman of my dreams.”

This is certainly not the end but the beginning of a
fairytale love!

~*~*~

Who could have ever imagined that Escape Jones’ escape to Paris would end on such a happy note? Somehow she managed to overcome a heartbreaking loss only to find and marry her one and only true love. Prince Armani Fabre′ was the love of her life. Just like any other fairytale ending, EJ and Armani lived a long, full, happy life. They raised two beautiful daughters and two handsome sons and they lived to see them all marry and raise children of their own. The couple were inseparable and only God had the strength to succeed at pulling them apart.