Knight in Shining Suit (19 page)

“
I might as well lose it
once you enter the picture!” she said crossly.

“
Don’t worry, Nic. As soon
as I get this going and business picks up, I’ll hire you.” I smiled
at her.

“
Why not hire me
now?”

I laughed. “Hey, stay put.
We’ll get there. I can’t afford your salary yet.”

She raised a brow at me.
“You have to have more faith in yourself, Ash. Why can’t you do
this? This is your life, your soul. In fact, you were my company’s
soul! All we do now is recycle your ideas! It’s getting old. I miss
working with you! New ideas, new concepts. I don’t mind taking a
pay cut!”

I laughed. “No way, Nic!
Give me a few months and I’ll offer you the job. Right now, I just
need my first five projects so I will have a portfolio.”

“
Hmmm… can’t you use the
old ones you used to work on with Fiona?”

“
Do I want a law suit as
early as now?” I asked matter-of-factly.

“
Well, you’re probably
right. I’ll bet Fiona will be so threatened by you that those
pictures would not get past her,” Nicole agreed.

“
Guys, if you know anyone
who’s getting married, let me know. I don’t care if I don’t make
money. I just need to build up my portfolio first,” I
said.

“
Sure, sure. Are you
willing to do gay weddings?” Dannie asked sarcastically.

I raised a brow at him.
“Of course.”

John wrinkled his nose.
“Don’t expect anything from me, Ash. I love you and all that, but
I’m staying clear of friends who are settling down. Honestly, it
gives me the creeps.”

Now all of us raised a
brow at John.

“
What? I love being a
bachelor!” he said. “Weddings are…” He shivered. “Excuse me, why is
it a lucrative business again?”

“
Because there are still
guys in the world who aren't like you and thank God for that!”
Nicole said crossly.

“
Well, if you find that
guy for yourself, let me know.” John raised his brow at
her.

Dannie and I exchanged
knowing looks. Nicole and John didn’t usually get along with each
other well. However, sometimes, we both felt that it’s not because
they did not like each other at all, but maybe because it’s more of
the opposite. I’d like to do
that
wedding
!

We all left the bar around
midnight. John was going to take me home. Nicole was catching a
ride with Dannie.

“
I’ll refer some clients
to you, Ash,” Nicole promised.

“
Your boss won’t like
that!” I scolded her.

“
Then let her fire me! All
the more reason for you to hire me then!” She winked and then she
got into Dannie’s car.

As we waited for John’s
car to arrive with the valet, I noticed a familiar car parked in
front of the bar. My breath caught in my throat and my heart
pounded inside my chest.

It looked like the car
that Ryder rented. Same make… an SLR McLaren. Same color. Again, it
made me wonder how he got that car for that day. It must have been
very expensive to rent it. Unless he knew some rich friends who
owned a car like that and they let him take it for a spin for
free.

I sighed. I remembered the
day that I was with him in that car. It was my first step to
recovery. And I was okay. Because of Ryder… I was okay.

“
Do you miss the car?”
John asked in a teasing tone.

I shook my head. There was
a pinch in my heart. “No. Just the guy who drove it.”

10.

ARRHAE:
Wedding coins.

Given by the groom to the
bride to signify his trustworthiness, that he is symbolically
giving his material possessions or earthly wealth to the care of
his bride.

N
icole referred some of her clients to me. She said that
apparently, they were under budget constraints and the revised
professional fees that Fiona had been charging made them lose
interest.

They were very happy to
meet with me. More so when I told them that since they were my
first clients, I would waive all the professional fees. They just
need to pay for the expenses for the wedding. But of course,
nothing would happen without their approval first. I told them that
I was building up my portfolio and thus, I didn’t mind doing this
for free.

“
Are you sure?” the bride,
Angela, asked.

I nodded.
“Positive!”

The groom looked a little
suspicious. I smiled at him.

“
This is not my first time
doing this. I used to work for Fiona. In fact, I was one of their
pioneers,” I assured them.

“
Really? Why’d you
leave?”

I sighed. “Long story.
But… to cut it short, let’s just say that my own engagement went
down the drain and for a while, I was… socially dead. Now, I’m
resurrected. What can I say? No heartbreak can make me stay away
from making ‘ever afters’ come true.”

The bride bit her lip and
then she smiled at me. “I admire your courage! My sister-in-law
just got dumped too. Maybe you have advice for her on how to get
better. You don’t look heartbroken at all!”

I shook my head. “I’m not!
Not anymore!”

Her glance drifted off to
my ring and her eyes widened.

“
Oh my God!” she
breathed.

“
What?”

“
A… are you still wearing
your engagement ring?” she asked.

I looked at my ring and
then I laughed. “No, no. This wasn’t my engagement ring. This is…”
I sighed, smiling at the thought of Ryder again. “This is some sort
of a promise ring. I made some guy a promise and he… gave me this
so I won’t forget it.”

“
Sounds like a very
expensive promise,” Jacob, the groom to be, said.

“
Oh no. I don’t think
so.”

“
We wanted that ring,”
Angela said, still looking longingly at my ring.

“
I told you, you could
have it,” Jacob told her.

“
No! Twenty-five grand?
Are you out of your mind?” she said. “I’d rather we spend that
money on our honeymoon,” she said smiling at her fiancé. She
glanced at my ring again. “You must admit, Harry Winston did great
on that ring!”

“
This… this isn’t… a Harry
Winston,” I said.

Angela laughed. “Right.”
She rolled her eyes.

“
Oh, she stares at that
ring in a magazine every day. She knows,” Jacob told me.

“
I do not!” Angela punched
him playfully in the arm.

I still didn’t know what
they were talking about, but I didn’t want to talk about my ring
anymore. First, because they’d already mistaken it to be a real
Harry Winston and also because I didn’t want them to start arguing
over a ring that she was never going to have.

“
Well, you were right to
spend the money on your honeymoon,” I told them cheerfully. “Have
you already made plans with your travel agent?”

It took me half a day to
finish my meeting with Angela and Jacob. When they left my office,
they were much more excited about their wedding than they were
before they met me. I was extremely pleased with myself.

As I sat on the deck
outside my office, sipping a glass of pineapple juice, I smiled. I
tried imagining where I would be had I married Bryan.

I’d probably be still with
Fiona, answering to her every whim, watching her take all the
credit and all the money for my brilliant and unique wedding ideas,
and getting paid almost minimum wage for all the hard work that I
put in. Then I’d come home, cook, and wait for Bryan to come back
from work. We’d talk about our day, like good friends. He’d
probably be too tired to make love to me, and since I never knew
wanton desire at all, I wouldn’t mind. I’d contentedly read a
romance novel until I fall asleep.

And what would have
happened if Ryder and I continued seeing each other after the
wedding? I’d still be here, cooking a special meal for him
probably, hoping to seduce him so he would stay the night with me.
We’d probably have made love in every corner of this office
already.

I bit my lip at the
thought.
Damn!
How could the mere thought of Ryder arouse… unknown feelings
in me? How could the memory of that night make me want to relive it
over and over again?

Bryan never made me feel
sexual. Ryder brought all my nerves to life and turned my world
upside down.

Ryder asked me to come and
find him again. When I am ready. Right now… I’m halfway there. I
want my next relationship to last forever. I don’t think I can
stand to go over another heartbreak ever again. That is why I had
to be careful. God knows I needed to see Ryder again. I could tell
that he was a good man. He awakened my senses. But I need more
time.

I stared at my ring again
and smiled.
Harry Winston!
Well, it does look like one, but it can’t be.
Though, this ring is a hundred times more beautiful than the ring
that I actually got from Bryan. Ryder has great taste! I wonder
where he found this. Maybe when I see him again, I can ask him to
show me.

I kept myself busy for the
next few weeks. Angela and Jacob were going to have a beach wedding
and I had to handle all the arrangements for them. They were going
to say their vows along the shore and the reception was going to be
themed paradise on the beach. I had it all figured out. I drew
concepts for them to look at, so they could picture the idea that I
had in mind. When Angela saw my storyboard, she almost cried. She
was so ecstatic about the whole thing.

It took me more than a
month to finish the concept, find the right materials, book the
venue, photographers, videographers and make all the other
necessary arrangements.

One week before the
wedding, I was able to rest although not completely because I still
had so much pressure before the show. This was the first wedding on
my own. And this was going to be the start of things for my new
company and I wanted it to be perfect.

Dannie asked me to go
shopping with him. There’s a new Technodiamond watch that he was
itching to buy and we went around from store to store, trying to
find a good deal.

I was looking at the
diamond watches with lust in my eyes. I sighed. Someday. My time
will come. I will be able to afford these.

The fourth store that we
went to was the store that brought me so many memories. Except now,
I no longer felt the pain when I thought about that fake ring—only
embarrassment and anger. And then I remembered that this is
actually where I first met Ryder and I cried in his
arms.

Ryder
. I smiled at the thought of him. I miss him! It’s a wonder
how I can miss him so much over these months when I’d only been
with him for a day.

I wanted to see him again.
So I could remember once more that he was real. That I didn’t just
invent him. He really existed. And for one night, he was
mine.

“
Oh my God, Ash! That
looks exactly like your ring!” Dannie said breaking into my
thoughts, pointing at the poster of a beautiful Harry Winston
advertisement.

There was no mistake. It
did look exactly like the ring Ryder gave me. The stone in the
middle, the cut… the similarity was unmistakable.

“
I know! But we both know
this ring is a fake!” I whispered to him.

“
Good morning, Ma’am, Sir,
how can I help you?” the guy at the counter asked us. He was the
same guy who had examined my engagement ring.

“
Well, I’m actually
waiting for the other sales guy to come back to me with the
availability of the watch I asked for,” Dannie said.

The guy nodded politely.
“And you, Ma’am?” His eyes drifted off to my finger. I immediately
took my hand off the counter.

He stared at me with a
weird look on his face, as if he was trying to remember
something.

I laughed. “You must
probably be wondering where you met me, right? Actually, I came
here before, I asked you to look at my engagement ring, and you
told me it was a fake.”

He nodded. “Oh, yes,” he
smiled sheepishly. “I remember. Well, I can see your fiancé was
quick to make amends.” He looked at my ring.

“
Oh, no. No.” I shook my
head. “We… didn’t get back together.” I showed him my ring. “This…
came from somebody else.”

He smiled. “Then I suggest
you marry this one before he gets away!” Something about his voice
told me that he was gay. I could see Dannie staring at him with
interest now.

“
Well, thanks, sweetie,” I
smiled at him. “Actually, I dumped my fiancé before I even found
out that the ring was fake! At least this new guy didn’t
pass
this
ring
off as a diamond.”

He stared at me with
narrowed eyes. “But that
is
a diamond. And it’s a Harry Winston.” He said
pointing at the Harry Winston poster of the ring that looks like
mine, only it was in gold. Mine was in silver.