Forever Yours [Complete]

“Hi,” I began shyly, pushing out another smile. My social awkwardness was kicking in. “My name is Maureen. Are you my new driver?” Idiot. Why else would he be standing by your limo, dressed in a tux? 

He cleared his throat before answering. “Yes, ma’am. My name is Ryan Adams. Your father’s employment agency assigned me to you as your driver,” he said, a smile playing on his lips. I swallowed. When the word sexy was created…it was in an attempt to pay homage to the beauty of this guy.

“Oh… right. Of course. Well… you don’t have to, um, call me that… call me ma’am. I’m not- I mean, it doesn’t… you don’t have to-” I blushed furiously as I realized that I was rambling like an idiot. His piercing blue eyes were wreaking havoc on my thinking process. I couldn’t even remember my point. “I mean, you can just call me Maureen- if you want. I don’t want to… Well, I mean… that’s not what I meant, I guess…” I trailed off, heat pulsing in my face as I averted my eyes from his amused gaze. Lifting a hand to my lips, I began to bite at my nails before suddenly realizing that they were manicured and the taste of acetone was now imbedded in my taste buds. I grimaced and dropped my hand back down to my side.

The guy- Ryan- hadn’t said anything for a few moments and I hazarded to lift my eyes once again. He was gazing at me quietly, as if trying to work out some sort of math formulation in his head; suddenly, a warm, genuine smile spread across his face. I swallowed again.

“I’ll call you Maureen if you want me to. I was told to refer to you as Ma’am, or Miss, but if that’s not what you want, I am obliged to comply with any of your wishes.”

“Just call me Maureen. Ma’am… it makes me a feel a little weird,” I admitted.

“As you like. Are you ready to go now?”

“Yes.” I went to open the door, but his arm suddenly reached around me and I froze at how close his body was to mine.

“Here you are,” he pulled the door open. “Would you like a hand in?” My gaze fluttered- actually, fluttered- up to meet his and I was taken aback by the smirk playing on his lips.

“No,” I stuttered. “No, thank you.” I could feel the heat prickle in my face as I quickly ducked down into the limo. He shut the door behind me- but not before I saw the smile spread across his face as he turned away.

I settled back into the seat as the limo began moving. The blush staining my cheeks refused to go away.

But even as thoughts of my newly hired (and insanely attractive) limo driver buzzed around in my head, I couldn’t help feeling completely stupid. I didn’t understand why Dad couldn’t just let me drive my own car. I own a limo, and I now have my own personal chauffeur. Since when had I become someone so high-maintenance? My hands balled into fists in my lap.

It wasn’t always like this; my family had always been poor. Dad got fired from his job as a distributor for natural products when I was ten years old and was never able to get another job again. For almost six years, we (barely) existed on welfare and the donations of charitable friends and family. All thirteen of us… I had ten brothers and sisters. My parents had always wanted a big family but they hadn’t planned on having a dozen children. But my mother kept getting pregnant, and my father’s response? “If God keeps sending them, I’ll keep taking them.” But we were happy. Even poor, we had each other so we got by. I never gave up hope that Dad would find another job though. And when I turned fifteen, that hope became reality when my father was offered the chance to create a plan for a marketing company. He accepted the offer, but was later turned down after he had created the marketing plan. The hotshots who had made the offer didn’t see my father’s vision; they retracted the funding and we were right back to where we started. But my father was inspired, and not one to be deterred, he managed to find his own investors to back him in the creation of what would later be known internationally as BFN, a marketing company designed to deliver natural herbs and supplements to the nations. Similar to Herbalife, but nearly ten times the market value, BFN had become an international hit; its current gross revenue was 60 billion dollars.