second chance Archives - Vignettes for the Romantic Soul

Emma

“You’re engaged?” The familiar tenor that still haunted her daydreams broke through the quiet of the bookstore, startling Emma as she had been pulling out a book. Hand over her heart she fought to slow her pounding heart. She turned to face the man who had been hers once.

“Kyle.” It came out in a whisper. She backed into the bookcase to steady herself. There he stood, only a few feet away. He was near enough to touch. She’d heard he’d come back to town but didn’t think he would come looking for her. “What are you doing here?”

“You’re really engaged? Did your father never tell you what he did?” Kyle took a slow step back, shoving his hands deep into his pockets.

“Told me what?” Emma fingered the fake engagement ring she had slipped on as she’d driven into town earlier that morning after visiting her parents. She knew it wouldn’t be long before she ran into Kyle and she needed some sort of physical protection for her still-battered heart. She watched, confused as he shook his head. After three years she still it hadn’t stopped thinking about him. Just the sight of him now made her want to pull off the ring and admit the truth. Instead she blatantly stared up into his kind eyes, longing to erase the pain she could see lurking there.

He took one step forward and stopped, an unspoken question written across his face that she couldn’t decipher. After a moment’s hesitation of her own she took a step toward him. She had missed him. A part of her was screaming at her not to open herself up to more rejection from this man whom she once thought was her whole world.

In one earth shattering heartbeat Kyle gathered her up close in his arms. Her body melted into the pulsing powerful calm emanating from his muscular frame, his lips barely an inch from taking hers. He whispered, “You know I’m not one to prevail on someone who is taken. You should know how much I want to kiss you right now.” His breath tickled every nerve ending it brushed; her lips, her cheek, her neck. She flushed and he continued, gazing straight into her eyes. “But I won’t. I respect you too much to kiss you when you’re engaged to someone else.”

Abruptly Emma stepped back into the wall of books behind her. She shook her head fiercely. “You’re the one who left me Kyle.”

Agony wracked his face as he shook his head slowly, sadly. “I didn’t choose to leave you, Emma. I wasn’t given a choice.”

“Kyle, I called you so many times that first year I left for college. I thought we were going to wait for each other. That you would wait for me.” His pained grimace gave her pause; a long enough pause for her to divulge her secret. “I came to see you once, when I couldn’t stand not hearing from you.”

Startled, his piercing gaze snapped up to hers. “When?” He asked desperately.

“I walked in on you kissing Marci. Obviously you were too distracted to even notice my interruption. You looked very occupied.”

“Marci?” He thought for a second. “You were there? How long?”

“Long enough.” She shouted in a furious whisper. “How long should I have watched my supposed boyfriend kiss someone else?”

“You saw the cops come and everything?” He asked slowly, not understanding why she was bringing Marci up. That made her stop.

“Cops? No.” Emma admitted.

He sighed. “Apparently Marci had it in her head that once you left that I would notice her and fall in love with her. When I didn’t, she cornered me and zip tied me to a post at gunpoint before she started kissing me. Luckily someone had seen her with a gun earlier and had reported it. But that’s not the point.”

Emma chuckled, half in shock. “That’s not the point? I went straight back to school and almost failed out of college because of that and I still never heard from you.”

“I’m so sorry Emma.” Kyle held out his arms. “I didn’t cheat on you.”

She shook her head, trying to make sense of it all. “So if you didn’t cheat on me why didn’t you call?”

“Your dad really never told you?”

“What does he have to do with this?” She stomped her foot, hands fisted at her side.

Tyler looked suddenly anxious and pulled her further down the row of books. “I went to see your dad about a week after you left.”

“What?”

“I asked for his permission to date you with marriage in mind once you finished college.” His blush made her blush.

“You did?” Surprise flashed through her and quickly made her freeze up.

Tyler continued, his head tilted towards the floor. “Your father broke my phone, changed your number, and threatened to have me arrested for harassment. He told me that he would never allow me to date you again. That you were going places and I was a money grubber.”

“My dad…” She trailed off, lost in the thoughts of what her father had done to her and her relationship with the love of her life.

Standing there silently, watching her process it all, Tyler waited for her to look at him.

“I remember getting my new number. You were the first person I called.” She mumbled more to herself than to him. “Of course if your phone was broken you wouldn’t have known and never would have gotten my new number. And I never came home after I saw you with Marci and made my parents come see me. My dad…my dad.” Her anger rose. Her eyes flicked up to Kyle’s. Practically throwing herself at him she kissed him, giving in to the temptation to wrap her arms around him. Seconds later she was striding out the bookstore’s door and calling back to a very stunned Kyle. “I’ll be right back. I have a father to kill.”

The front store clerk gave a chuckle as Kyle raced out after her.

Alexandra

“Attention.” The tall woman in front of them stood up. Alexandra didn’t want to go anywhere near her, but as the rest of the girls moved forward, she was jostled forward with them. On the other side of the room the group of boys did the same. The woman continued, “As you know, this is the day when you are informed of who your life-mate will be. This is a courtesy as well as a ceremonial initiation into your training. After tonight you will not see your life-mate again until you turn 20, roughly 5 years from now, to perform the official life-mating ceremony.” She pulled out her list of names.

Alexandra stared over at the boys. She was going to be stuck with one of them for the rest of her life because their names were listed next to each other on a paper. True love in the making. Ha.

“Alexandra Royen. Brandon Sauer.” With a brief pause to allow the two of them to step forward and move across from each other, the woman continued on.

Alexandra stared over at the pudgy boy to whom she was now stuck. She was going to have to be top of her class in order to make up for whatever deficits this boy brought to the table.

With great reluctance she extended her hand, her mother’s sharp tone echoing around her head. ‘Manners matter most.’

The boy hesitated before taking her hand in a surprisingly firm grip. “You are beautiful.” His gaze was direct and he didn’t smile at her like he was teasing. Surprised, she gaped at him for several seconds.

Glancing down the newly formed line, Alexandra realized that most of the other boys and girls were talking to each other. One couple was already kissing.

Looking back at her future life-mate she laughed. “Thank you. It is a pleasure to meet you.” The boy blushed. She hastily corrected herself mentally; his name was Brandon, not boy. Belatedly she added, “Brandon.”

“Alexandra, I’ll make you proud of me next time you see me.” He stood taller and smiled with a confidence she wasn’t feeling.

After only a few minutes, they were separated once again and led off into different buildings where they would be spending the next 5 years learning, near but apart. Someone higher up had decided years ago that by separating the boys and the girls as they entered their young adult years would allow society to help mold them into what was needed in the community.

For years Alexandra had heard her parents talk about their own life-mate ceremony with fondness. She had always been skeptical. Now, having met her own future life-mate she was even more skeptical. They said that each young person had been assiduously observed so that the pairings would be successfully matched, but how did that make Alexandra, who couldn’t stand being still for long, the suitable life-mate of a boy who looked as though he didn’t move from his couch most days.

For Alexandra, those five years of training held little meaning, mindless academia that required little effort on her part. She excelled in most every subject and was top of her class. Early on her advisors informed her that she had an aptitude for finance, so her training started immediately.

However they weren’t allowed to leave the designated outdoor recreational area, so she couldn’t go hiking as she had always done with her family. The treadmill in the small indoor gym became her escape from the stress. In her spare moments she would bring to mind that pudgy boy whom she had spoken to so briefly and wonder how they were ever going to get along. She studied and worked hard instead of dwelling on it. She tried to ignore the other girls when they would start to fantasize with each other about their futures. Alexandra was determined to make her own future.

When the day came for the life-mating ceremony Alexandra shivered in the cool breeze. Headmistress Crent had insisted that each of the girls appear in dresses. Alexandra only had one dress and it was not suited for the cooler air breezing about. Miffed and irritated, she fought to keep her bad mood from showing. She didn’t want the boy, Brandon, to think she was mad at him. That wouldn’t be a great way to start anything.

From where she stood on the cool grass she watched as men strode out of the other building to greet them. Her mind had to completely switch gears. These were no longer young, untried boys. In fact, some of them were very attractive men. She didn’t hold onto any hope that one of the attractive ones would be hers, after all, she had seen him all those years ago. And exercise was not a requirement of their studies.

Watching impartially as the other girls found their life-mates once again, Alexandra tried to not stare. Looking over the group she didn’t see anyone that looked like the boy she’d met so briefly all those years before. When no one stepped up to her and all the other pairings were complete Alexandra began to panic. What would happen if he wasn’t there? Was she destined to a life alone?

One of the other men with his arm around his life-mate, Karen, stepped closer and whispered, “He’s coming. You have yourself a very ambitious man, always something to prove.”

She had just enough time to breathe a sigh of relief when the door to the men’s building burst open with a bang and a tall athletic mountain of a man came running out. His brisk jog over to the group made sure everyone saw his entrance. He didn’t seem to care, his eyes locked firmly on Alexandra.

This wasn’t the out-of-shape boy she had met years ago. This man was seriously physically fit, and gorgeous. Alexandra had to focus on her breathing.

When he was less than a foot away from her he slowed just enough to scoop her up and twirl her around, happily laughing.

“Alexandra!” His new bass voice rumbled as he gripped her close.

“Brandon?” She still hesitated, not able to bring together this man with her memory of him. All thoughts disappeared as he kissed her, allowing the momentum of their spin to slow as she melted into him.

With a sigh, she no longer wondered if she would be physically compatible with her life-mate. There was no doubt she would. And now, the idea of getting the time and chance to discover the rest of the man in front of her seemed intriguing. What had made them compatible?