Winding Roads (BWWM)

Chapter One

I, unlike many, have had the amazing opportunity to meet the love of my life very early on in life. Very much like the many, I let that love go. Maybe I pushed him away, the verdict is still out on that one. If you ask my best friends, they'd say I pushed. If you asked our mothers, they'd say neither of us pushed enough. If you ask our fathers, they'd say we were young fools in love and young fools eventually grow wise. Whatever that's supposed to mean. Whatever the reason, I never expected to have run away from everything and everyone that I know and love. I also never expected to be faced with it once I ran away. Maybe at some point I did but honestly, after managing to stay away from home up to the third year of college, I truly believed the worst was behind me.

Look at me now, sitting across from him at his sister's wedding—who is also my best friend. I'm the maid of honor, and because she married one of our best friends, he is the best man. I mean, really, who gets married at twenty-three anymore? Hasn't she heard of graduate school? Or a job? Ugh, I'm totally being a bitter and horrible best friend. "You're hating this aren't you?" my ex-smirks from across the table. This causes some of the focus at the table to shift from the newlyweds sharing their first dance, to me.

"Oh, no. Of course, not. They're magnificent dancers" I play it off, gently sweeping a loose springy curl back behind my ear. Just seeing him makes my heart ache unbelievably. The song ends and Genevieve, the bride, walks over to the table and asks me to dance. I join her, almost too hurriedly. "Have I told you that you are no longer my best friend?" I huff.

"Only a million times" she giggles, her amber eyes set a flame against her golden complexion and dark hair. "We have a large friend group and are bound to run into each other at some point, though. Wouldn't that be awkward?"

"More awkward than walking down the aisle with my ex? Only because I love you more" I admit laughing at myself along with her. "Honestly, am I pathetic Gen? We broke up five years ago and I'm still..." I sigh and trail off not sure how to explain what I'm feeling.

"No. Mon amour, you never healed. There was no closure, we left for college together and you told him you had to break up. No one knows why, not him. Not even me, and you love me most of all" she laughs again, a deep and rich throaty laugh.

"No puedo creer lo que ven mis ojos! I just can't believe my eyes! My two best friends in the entire world, sharing a wedding dance without me. What happened to the three amigas, que? I knew someone would always be left behind" our best friend Catalina exclaims behind us.

Now, before this gets confusing, we have a very large friend group. It stems from my family—the Jamesons—and my ex's family—the Barretts. Our fathers own a very successful advertising company, which has global representation. Needless to say, we travel as families a lot and have global connections. Catalina's mother is Argentinian and her father is Spaniard—we met them during a business trip to Spain when we were thirteen. That's the age my father believed it was alright for my mother, sister and I to join him on the trips. Of course, if my father brought his family along, then Mr. Barrett had no excuse not to bring his.

However, it was that same year that Mr. Barrett's greatest secret was revealed. He had another family. In France. Genevieve is the secret daughter of Mr. Barrett and his mistress. In that same year, Genevieve's mother died from cancer. It was written in her will that Genevieve was to live with her father and his family in America.

Mrs. Barrett, flipped! She hasn't been the same since, although she's still a kind mother and best friend to my mom. People who've known her for years can see the difference in her personality. I, on the other hand, was not so shocked by the news. I'd been on a few trips with my dad by myself. My sister, Brooklyn, was nine at the time and still considered too young—along with our brothers and the twins who were only a year old—to travel abroad while my father handled business affairs. My mother was in the thick of running her very successful chain of hotel restaurants and couldn't accompany us on the trips. I was the only kid there—Mr. Barrett did not bring my ex, his eldest son, along for obvious reasons. I met Genevieve before anyone back home.