The Sea God's One-Night-Stand *Tides of Fate*

12)

"Nitesky" by Robert Koch & John LaMonica

A/N What are we thinking of the rewritten First Person POV?!

***

I lost all and any chance of speech as I sat opening and closing my mouth a few times out of shock. On the scale of what's-the-worst-that-could-happen, this was a record-breaking monumental number of what bad could possibly occur. I felt as though Ajax ripping my heart out while laughing would have been a lot kinder of a thing to do. Instead, he imploded the bomb reveal that he was the son of the wretched Aimee Waters and fiancé of the silent girl. The last few weeks we had been getting to know one another, Ajax was brought in of how saddened and betrayed I felt after Tate cheated. What he did now strangely felt like such a worse betrayal.

The lovely old bracelet Ajax gifted me the day before felt incredibly heavy on my wrist as it lay hidden under my shawl. My eyes glinted with tears as I looked ahead at the glass table seated beneath my hands. Aimee was oblivious to my expression as she began to scold her son for his late arrival and lack of care towards planning. Soon enough, she was back to going on about how she really enjoyed the Florida weather although she wasn't particularly fond of this venue. Portia was too swept up in simpering over every little thing Aimee said to pay attention to much else. If I were on my A-game I would have offered a very lovely destination I knew resided on the coast of Florida. But no words could leave my mouth as utter agony ripped throughout my body in colossal amounts. I was a fool for not seeing this coming.

Ajax's bourbon-colored gaze bore onto me, almost as if he was desperately trying to get me to look at him. I couldn't. A strong part of me wanted to burst into tears right then and there, but I had my job to consider. I would be fired immediately if Portia knew the horrible truth. This was the ultimate taboo of wedding planning. Never get involved with a member of the wedding party was obvious; but not getting involved with the groom was the unspoken rule that everyone knew not to break. Right now, I was seated at a table with my pseudo boyfriend's mother and fiancé. Just a few short weeks ago, I slept with poor Aura's groom!
Now I was also frightened I was pregnant with his baby...
I abruptly stood and accidently scattered a miscellaneous number of papers all over the ground. I dropped pages that held destination hot spots, hotel room costs, flower costs, and bridal shops to purchase gowns and tuxedos for the rest of the wedding party. I mumbled a hasty apology as I went to pick up the papers, accidentally getting my grey shawl snagged on the corner of the table. The lovely bracelet Ajax had gifted me was now in fully view of Aimee and Aura.
Never would I have ever thought the normally regal Aimee would suddenly lose her cool by doing something as unattractive as stare at someone with a dropped open mouth. Her well-manicured hand fluttered to hold her hairline as she gaped. It was then I realized she recognized the bracelet. I picked up the papers quickly and stuffed them back into the file. As Portia excitedly gushed about a lovely destination off the New Jersey coast, I politely excused myself by walking out of the door as calmly as I could. I could hear Portia sweetly explaining that I had severe food poisoning plaguing me. But little did Portia know that food poisoning was a result of most likely being knocked up with Aimee Waters grandchild...

It wasn't until I was safely in the hallway and a nice distance away from the conference room that I decided to run for it. I didn't care who saw me, I just knew I needed to get away from the entire situation to catch my breath. I had two-inch sandals on my feet but that didn't mean anything. I ran as fast as I could, hoping placing a severe amount of distance behind me would suddenly mean I could outrun this horrible situation.
"Mia, please wait!" hissed Ajax, trying hard to catch up to me. Before I could even wonder how he caught up with me during the fast run, he immediately hauled me into a nearby bathroom before locking the door behind us. I was stunned he caught me. No one else was in the two-stall room with us. Ajax's lovely eyes were wide as he spun me around. He started putting his hands up. "It's not what it looks like-"
It was plenty obvious he was not anticipating the almighty slap that came from my right palm. His bronze head even swiveled as his eyes went wide. I did not stop at one hit. I roughly slapped him again only before shoving him as he tried to approach me. "You liar..." I whispered hoarsely, my eyes welling with fresh tears. I felt so fearful of getting hurt I never realized I was setting myself up for the perfect heartbreak.
Ajax shook his head. "I didn't lie."

"Screw you!" I snarled vehemently, appalled he could watch me with sorrow-filled eyes. I had never said such cruel words to someone. Right now, I found the situation warranted dirty language. "Did you think you were funny? Clever, even? Nah, I'm not dating, and I'm not married Mia...I'm just leaving out that I'm engaged!" I laughed coldly even though there was nothing funny about any of this. "Wow! What, did you have a good laugh over how pathetic I was in wanting reassurance you weren't involved with someone!"
"No! Please, allow me to explain," Ajax pleaded, trying to grab my arm only for me to thwart his attempt.

"Don't you dare touch me, you disgusting piece of..." I said, trying and failing at stopping my tears from falling. I didn't have a word bad enough for him. "I t-trusted you even when I had every reason n-not to!"
Ajax's eyes were wide and hollow, his expression broken. To my vast dismay, he seemed to want to console me. "Technically I may be engaged, but-"
"But!? How dare you try and turn this around as if your own mother and fiancé aren't sitting in that room..." I trailed off with wide eyes. The horrid realization that I was planning his own wedding suddenly started to soak in. "Did you know?" I asked, a lump rising in my throat. "D-did you know I was planning y-your wedding and so you thought it would be funny to sleep with me-"
"NO!" said Ajax loudly, looking crestfallen. His voice echoed in the bathroom "I never saw you previous than when I came to your rescue-"
"Came to m-my rescue...Like you were some valiant knight with nothing but crystal clear intentions," I breathed, sickened. "I bet you got a good laugh waking up that morning that you slept with the stupid wedding planner after she got wasted, right? You got to go right back to your fiancé and mentally laugh at how stupid the both of us were that we had no idea the other existed? Was it a bonus laugh when we met, and it was realized I was planning the wedding...?"
Ajax looked crestfallen as he shook his head rapidly. "I know you haven't any reason to hold any faith in me, but please, hear me out-"
"Drop dead," I replied icily, wiping my fallen tears before pushing past him.
"Mia, please listen-"
"To what, Ajax? What lies have you spun now?"
"I've never been anything but genuine with you," he claimed, his eyes glossy. "Please hear me out...The last few weeks have been the very best of my entire life; I've fallen in love with you."
I could not keep the disgust off my tear-stained face. "I hate you," I said, making sure verbal quotations were snuggly wrapped around the word hate.
"Please, you must listen-"
I did not listen. I unlocked the door and hurried out, taking off in a hard run towards the exit. My throat knotted with thick tears.

"You idiot," I breathed to myself, allowing the tears to fall once I was across the building and jogging outside to the parking lot. Isla was right; Ajax was plenty too good to possibly be true. We went out to dinner, to zoos and aquariums, to the movies, spent late hours talking on the phone, and we even played board games...
He became one of my closest friends and confidants. We made out before he begged me to jump on his private jet and leave the country with him! I covered my mouth as I cried, the sick realization that I could very possibly be pregnant with Ajax's baby swimming through my thoughts. I was so busy trying to stifle my tears, I barely noticed I was not alone. Following very close behind me was Aura.

I jumped once I spotted her lurking. I had run out of the building so extremely fast I was certain no one would know where I was headed. I blinked as I desperately tried to form words to speak. Tears formed behind my eyes as I felt overwhelming sadness for the poor girl who was engaged to the man who was obviously lying to us both. "I'm s-sorry I ran out," I sniffled, trying hard to maintain a professional composure. In all honestly, I wasn't sure how professional I could be considering I had sex with the poor girl's fiancé before I started slowly dating him. To top that, there was a very good chance I was now pregnant due to our unprotected encounter. Shame filled every ounce of my body and soul.

A smile lit up Aura's pretty features before she looked around the large parking lot. Only a large delivery truck was heading down the road. Before I could even register her movements, the young bride-to-be snatched up my wrist that wore Ajax's bracelet he had gifted me. She moved my shawl down and examined it closely; her eyes raking over the specific amount of detail placed on the gorgeous trident and pretty seahorse dangling beside it.

I simply wanted to cry not even for my own agonizing misery of feeling betrayed, but for this poor girl whose fiancé cheated on her while they had been planning their wedding. Life wasn't fair for either of us. I could tell at that very moment that Aura knew who had gifted me the bracelet. It struck familiarity for her. Aura did not cry, nor did she really show any emotion as she examined it.

She used a finger to gently touch the trident on the bracelet. Soon, she dug into the small purse that was slung off her shoulder. She pulled out a very familiar pair of black panties that I did not remember I had lost until that very moment. It was my same underwear I had lost the morning I woke up in Ajax's bed. A part of me was dumbstruck wondering why on earth this woman carried around my underwear in her purse. I realized Aura obviously now knew who that underwear belonged to while she brandished them. Me.
Aura held the underwear up for me to see, causing me to cringe. Before I could even think of anything to say, a lovely voice sounded through the air.
"I suppose I finally discovered who it was that fucked my virgin fiancé," said Aura, clear as a bell, before she raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

Before I could even process that the supposed deaf and mute woman had just spoke clear as day, Aura smiled as four sharp fangs protruded from her mouth. Her eyes started to vein out and morph into a hideous shade of lemon-yellow. Her skin changed into a mint green color. A scream locked in my throat before Aura roughly shoved me out onto the very hard ground eight inches away from a speeding delivery truck. My arms burned as the heated pavement scratched my skin roughly upon making contact.
One moment I had been standing before Aura, the next, I had been flung backwards by her at least fifteen feet away into the path of the speeding truck.

There wasn't even a momentfor last thoughts as I braced for death. This was surely the karma for havingunprotected sex with the perfect stranger. I could feel the heat from the truckas it readied to barrel into me. But right before it could make an impact,someone was hovering over me as the truck flipped over backwards and was sentflying at least ten feet through the air. The large truck landed with anear-piercing shriek of a crash as the back end seemed to explode with anoverwhelming display of packages and boxes that poured out of the broken backdoor. The old man who was the driver appeared unscathed although frightened.

I could only lay on the ground while still holding in my scream as I came tofind Ajax was now hovered protectively over me. One moment he wasn't outside,the next, he threw a truck. People inside the building started to come out asmore individuals took notice the delivery truck was now tipped over completelyon its side. I could not formulate words as to what was going on as I trembleddown on the ground atop the hot pavement. As I finally found my bearings, myhead slowly swiveled to stare at the man who threw a truck as if it did notweigh more than a teddy bear. Ajax's jaw locked as we looked at one another."I think I have a few things to explain," he offered quietly.
***