Well, this is interesting. The wording sounds a little bit similar to the contract we concluded and the fact that this one is much more serious sends a shiver to my body. It feels a little bit scary. Instantly, images of women at my age or even older reading this paper, since Andrew and I have six years difference in age and I don't take Andrew to be the kind who dates older women, fill my mind.
Up to this point, I have started feeling mixed emotions. Before I would grant this feeling as curiosity and in fact, I wanted to go there and feel the way Andrew would be as a dominant. I wanted to see him as a dominant. But now, I guess, my feelings are withdrawing. There is the tension in me that calls for failure. Perhaps, it's the same insecurity I had while I was reading our contract and while I never liked the punishment Andrew would refer to every time I would misbehave. But this is making me confused.
"Whatever," I sigh and put the contract back in the drawer in the nightstand table on my side.
Putting the contract behind me, I grab my phone to call my aunt. She answers on the third ring,
"Hello, honey." Her sweet voice comes with such a chirp.
"Hi, Auntie. How are you?"
"I'm doing just fine. I was worried about you. I thought you did the unthinkable again, like last time you disappeared and didn't call me until much later." My aunt presses on the matter again. The last time I spoke to her, about a week ago, while I was still dazed with my relationship, I was actually calling her for the second time after my disappearance and she wouldn't stop asking me about what happened. "I know you don't want to talk about it, but I'm here if you want," her reassurance is what keeps melting my heart. "How are you, baby girl?"
"I think... I'm good... um, there's a lot happening and um... I'm doing everything to keep myself sane." I sigh as I settle in the fancy chair in our room.
"Trouble in paradise?" she asks.
"Like always. It's just that everything about Andrew and I is too complicated and sometimes I just want the time to stop." I sigh with frustration and I rub my forehead with my free hand. "You know, the least is, I learned something from my past experience and this time I stayed with Andrew when sh*t went down. I should have stayed and dealt with it last time too, but sometimes Andrew makes me frustrated and makes me do crazy stuff."
"That's what men are for," she laughs, adding humor to our conversation.
"True." I agree with her. "I just miss you so much. You were supposed to come down to LA, what happened?"
"Honey, I would like to but Peter's job doesn't allow him and I can't live without him. Who's gonna take care of him when I'm not there to make him breakfast and lunch to take to work?"
"Hey, I am fully grown and can take care of myself," My uncle's voice comes from a distance, "baby girl, don't let your aunt fool you. I am capable of making my own meals," he comes closer to the receiver and says the words on the phone,
"Yeah, like eggs and noodles. Nice," My aunt makes fun of him. I smile at their interaction. Twenty-five some years of marriage and still they are in love.
"Andrew is taking me to Las Vegas tonight for an Interior Design convention," I change the subject and fill her in with the recent events.
"Oh, nice. He's a good guy. I would say clutch him with your claws honey, but then I remembered you already have," we both start laughing. Well, it's true. Except, apparently, Amelia's claws are mostly close to clutch him too. "Honey, have you called your mother? She feels really bad that you have excluded yourself from her life. Please forgive her."
"Auntie, I have already forgiven her. A long time ago. She has a new life, a new marriage, a new husband, and a new child; I don't feel right intruding in her life." I purse my lips into a thin line.
"Don't say that. I know my sister well. And believe me, no parent would want to feel distant from their child no matter what. Pay her a visit. Connect with her more. She's your mother, she loves you no matter what. Just because she has built a new life after your father's death doesn't mean she doesn't love you or doesn't want you." my aunt's words, though true, are repetitive. I've heard them many times when I used to live with them. After that dreadful night happened, I shut everyone out, but to my aunt it appeared that my teen hormones were at fault, thus she tried to connect me to my mother more, which didn't work.
"I do miss her," I confess. My daughterly compassion has taken over me from the moment my mother married her current husband. I knew my father's death had made a great deal on her and perhaps that is why she sought love from another person other than her young daughter and her dead husband.
The train of thought brings a new thought to my chains. Until now, I haven't noticed the parallel of my life and Andrew's. There may be a few differences; however, the principle is the same. Andrew and I both lost our fathers when we were young and wounded by our lost; we sought comfort when our mothers decided to marry another person, guess, their way of dealing with their pain.
The only twist in our story is that I was fortunate enough to have my aunt and uncle who welcomed me into their family with an open arm. Andrew, however, decided that he and his sister are no longer wanted, thus, they left.
"Laura? Still there, honey?" my aunt snaps me out of my thought.
"Yes, I was just... thinking... um... you know, I think, you're right, I need to deal with this, I need to talk to her more." My only daughter-mother time with my mother is once a month and even with that, it's either her sending me letters of her adventure and her having fun or a two-minute talk on the phone. I can't believe we've become so distant from each other and here I'm lecturing poor Andrew to get closer to his family.
"Yes, you should do that." there is a deadly silence between us. I can feel the unspoken words, "Laura... I know that you and Andrew are happy, or so as you tell me but... are you really? Is your relationship serious this time? I'm only asking because I don't want you to get hurt, honey. I still remember when you were seventeen and Matt broke your heart. You were devastated. I know Andrew is a good guy and he can take care of you, but so was Matt. I'm just worried about you. I haven't heard you were so wrapped up and confused. You sound broken and I just don't want you to..."
"I think this one might... work. Jeez, I don't even know myself. I... our relationship is really difficult and very strange, not like the one I had with Matt, obviously, but I think Andrew is the guy for me. I love him." I bite my lips.
"But does he love you?" she asks the question I've been avoiding.
"I think so," I give her the answer I give to myself.
After talking to my aunt, I decide to shake my depressed ass off and start packing. I want to be done packing by the time Andrew shows up, although it wouldn't be until the next five hours or something. Standing in front of my section of clothes, I look at the colorful materials consist of half mine and the other half brought by Andrew. Given to him going overboard, he had made sure I have all the necessary items a woman requires. Necklaces, Earrings, scarves, dresses, gowns and all sorts of underwears and lingeries.
Grabbing a little bag from the bottom shelf, where travel bags and suitcases sit, I put it on the couch sitting in the middle of the room and put a pair of underwears and comfortable clothes for the night. Moving toward Andrew's sections, I do the same thing with his clothes. Obsessed with how manly his clothes are, I grab the shirt and inhale. Since I know he might want to change his work suit with another one, I pick one for him as well as the tie. Like it or not, he has to wear it. It's my night tonight, so I get to decide for him.
For quite some time, I ignore the nagging in my head that as a daughter it's my duty to call my mother, however, the other side of my head wants to delay the action as much as possible.
Using Andrew's desktop computer, I contact some companies and then check my emails. I also make sure to message Ella and Alice about my short trip; they'll be over my head by the time I get back. Leaving it to them, they would start day dreaming that Andrew has some plan for us. I don't even want to get started on that.
Since Andrew suggested I start my first personal project to put in the portfolio by start redefining his apartment, I turn on my designer mode. Grabbing a blank paper and a pen, I start observing the apartment. One thing I really like about this place and I wouldn't change it is the position of the piano, sitting in the isolated section of the living room far from everything else and surrounded by a semicircle of windows. By day, the light of sun covers it, and by night, the stars shine on it. How poetic.
"F*ck, I'm bored," thirty minutes later, I give up. Heading towards the fridge, I open the freezer, looking for some high calorie full of fat ice cream. Imagine my surprise when I find one sitting in there. I grab the box and read the label. Some fancy organic, supper... whatever ice cream.
"Of course," I murmur to myself.
When I'm done with my project of eating ice cream, I sit in the library, my comfort zone, and grab my phone, breathing deeply, I click to face time with my mother. I don't face time much because it's excessively awkward to me.
I look at the camera and then at my picture. Soon the picture turns black and then I see my mother, smiling happily at me. In response, I give her a weak smile.
"Well, I thought you are just going to ignore your poor mother," she sounds hurt.
"I'm sorry I haven't called in a while." I apologize.
"You go and disappear and leave me hanging in the air thinking what could happen to you and then I have to call your aunt, my sister, to ask about my daughter," Hearing the words, I realize how much distance I have put between us.
"I'm sorry, mom. I just... you have a life-
"So, what? You think you're not part of it. Do you know how much I blame myself every day for putting my happiness before yours? But I thought forming a family would help you as well. We both needed someone to take care of us." She explains.
"No, mom, you needed someone. The only person I needed was you, and you decided to give me the cold shoulder," I breathe in deeply. The moment I say the words, I start feeling guilty. I did not just call her to blame her for not being a good mother to me.
"That's not what I was doing. I was trying to make the family you and I deserve." I see the shining drops in her eyes.
"I didn't have a place in your family. You were newly married, Gabrielle was a young guy, who accepted you, but he couldn't accept me. He wasn't ready for kids in his life. How could I force myself into your life? I wanted you and him to be happy. I couldn't face the way he would look at me as if I'm a burden not a part of a family. That's why I left. I needed love and acceptance and aunt and uncle gave that to me. Don't blame yourself for not being there for me because I had the best childhood with them. I would never regret my decision, so you shouldn't either." I look at her, expecting her to burst into tears any moment. But she sits there and stares at me.
"Were you happy?" she asks.
"Very," I answer honestly.
"I'm sorry that I wasn't that person for you," she sounds sincere.
"I know, but it's ok," I smile weakly at her. Composing herself, she wipes her tears with the back of her hand, embarrassed that she's crying in front of me.
"You look great. Young and beautiful and now you have found a guy. Is he treating you well?" I nod my head, biting my lips as I remember how Andrew treats me gently and lovely, in his own ways.
"You should come over here sometime. We can go out, to Disneyland or something," I offer.
"I wish I could but it's too late, already. Aaron is going to school next week." She laughs. "I was never there for your school time, but this young man makes trouble that I wonder how I go from day to day," she says. My mother, who is only in her mid forty and has a ten-year-old son, doesn't look devastated by the years passed her.
"So how's everything?" I ask her.
"Everything is just fine, the way it should be." She starts moving around the house with her phone in her hand. "I'm going to make dinner for Aaron if you don't mind because Gabrielle and I are going out tonight."
"Oh, no, go ahead. I can hang up and call you later if you want," I suggest.
"Oh, no please, stay on the line. God knows when you're going to call me again," she makes a light joke. "How's life with you? I've heard from your aunt you're still looking for a job. Did you find one?"
"No, I'm still looking,"
"How's life with Andrew?" someone clears their throat from behind me. Startled, I turn my back and find the subject of our talk leaning against the wall with his hands in his pocket like the arrogant handsome he is.
"What are you doing here?" I whisper to him. "How long you've been here?"
"Doesn't matter," he whispers back as he smugly smirks at me.
I narrow my eyes at him threaten him not to make me angry.
"Laura?" my mom calls me. I turn my head toward my mom as she stirs something in the pot. There is a pause and I see her grabbing the phone and staring. "Oh, my goodness, who's that behind you?"
Andrew puts his hands on my shoulder, startling me again. Look up, I find his dark eyes looking down at me.
"What are you doing?" I ask him.
"What? You met my parents. I want to meet yours," he whispers. "Hello, Mrs. West, good evening," wait a second. How does he know my mother's last name? According to him, he should only know that she was once upon a time, Mrs. Brown, and now she's married to a guy named Gabrielle. How does he know Gabrielle's last name? F*cking mysterious, my ass.
"Oh my god, it's him. You're Andrew Martinez, the eligible bachelor of the ACM, well, not anymore, you're dating my daughter now. Oh my god, I'm a mess. Um... hold on," she fumbles around to clean her hands.
"I wonder whom you got your awkwardness from," he whispers close to my ear so I would only hear it while my mother tries to look presentable.
"F*ck you," I whisper back.
"Oh, you will," he winks at me. That arrogant *ss,
"So you're the man who has won my daughter's heart." She looks happy and cheerful as she looks at us with a huge smile on her face. Only if she knew that this man also f*ck her daughter's brain out, too.
"I'm the guilty one. Mrs. West, I promise you, your daughter is in good hands, I wouldn't let go of her. I once did and I am forever ashamed of myself for what I did. She has my heart in her hand, she can't go anywhere." He looks at me with this adorable smile on his face. Yeah, yeah, win my mother over too, why don't ya?
"Mr. Martinez-
"Please, it's Andrew. I consider you as my family. Laura's family is mine as well if she allows me," he sneakily grins down at me while having his hands on my shoulder.
"That is very nice of you, Andrew. I am just glad that you were able to work things out between yourselves after what happened merely a few weeks ago. As you may know by now, Laura and I don't have a very intimidated relationship, but now I don't have to worry about her happiness. She has found you and I'm sure you can take good care of her. She's my only daughter and the only symbol of my love with her father. That's all I'm asking," my mother looks down, avoiding the camera and I instantly realize that talking about my father has touched a part of her. I can clearly see now, through an adult perspective that she did love him. And her loss was as touchy as it was for me.
"Mrs. West, I promise you I will, with all my heart and strength." A silence sits among us. Curious, I look up at Andrew only to find him staring at me with passion in his eyes. There seems to be something else in them too, something that Andrew hasn't tried to mask it.
"Ok, I'm gonna go, my dinner is on fire. Not really, but um... ok bye. I'll talk to you later, Laura?" it's not a question my mother is asking me. It's more of a request, a silent plea.
"Yes, you will. Bye mom," I disconnect the call and stare at the blank screen.
In the reflection, I see Andrew's face, looking at me with concern. His hand comes around and takes the phone out of my hand. Turning the chair I'm sitting in, he appears in front of me, as he puts my phone on the nearby table.
"You didn't want your mother to see me," he states, "why?"
"It's not what you think it is," I answer,
"Well, then tell me," he crouches down to his knees, becoming eye level with me. "You are getting distanced from me and I don't like this," he waves his hand between us. "When you first met my mother, you thought I was ashamed of you, now, I have to toss your reference at yourself. Are you ashamed of me?"
I look at him sharply. Looking at the young and beautiful man before me, I couldn't really point out a disadvantage to him that would make anyone be ashamed of him ever. He's fortunate, young, sexy and powerful. Every eye would turn toward him when he steps into the room. The temperature would run high. The impulse would be quickened. How can anyone be ashamed of him when they're around him?
"I love you and I will no matter what. I can never be ashamed of you. There's too much going on between my mother and I and so in our relationship. I'm trying to catch up. Things are getting crazy around us." I grab his hands, bring it to my lips, and kiss his palms. "I just need a time away from everything. I want silence. I'm tired."
Looking down at our joint hands, Andrew concentrates as he goes deep in thought, "I'm gonna fix this. I promise. I won't let anyone or anything come between us. Amelia is not even considered a threat. All we need to do right now is to get away from this city for some time, then come back, and deal with this tomorrow. I'm having my personal lawyer coming tomorrow night to discuss the contract. I've already talked to him, he was really positive about this." He stands up all of a sudden and takes me with him, "now all I ask is to forget everything and be with me tonight,"
Almost an hour after his promise, we are at the entrance to the airport. Being V.I.P. we don't have to get out of the car and stay in the long lines, instead, the car drives inside the airport and runs over the Tarmac where we initially come to a stop before Andrew's jet with the initial of ACM on its tail.
"Wow," I look out of the window.
"You should see the inside," he smirks and gets out only to walk to my side and help me out as well.
Scott starts on our baggage as a man in a suit asks for our I.D.s and checks the paperwork. Even this formality doesn't take long. Almost five minutes later, the officer hands us our documents and we climb the stairs with Andrew's hand on my small back.
"Holy Moly," I breathe as I enter the cabin. Luxurious wouldn't be a word to describe what I see. Cream white and brown are the dominant colors. The woods are polished with a golden essence. A lounge with couches on either side is what greets you first. Behind it, rows of seats situated like the way the business class on an airplane would be. And behind everything is one door.
"Good evening, Ms. Brown, Mr. Martinez, welcome aboard." A stewardess says, grabbing my attention for the first time. She's dressed in a blue jacket and blue skirt with a red ribbon around her neck. Typical. Elena, or so as her badge says, is a petite blonde-haired woman who has her hair bound tightly behind her head.
"Hi," I smile before redirecting my attention back to the cabin.
"Is George in the cockpit?" Andrew asks her,
"Yes, sir. Let me call him," she immediately goes to the telephone. On the front of the jet, there are drawers and cabinets, designed and covered professionally, not like other airplanes.
The door to the cockpit opens and two men step out.
"Andrew, man, I'm glad to see you. You've been away for so long," the man with jet black hair approaches Andrew and gives him a pat on the back before stepping out and directing his attention to me,
"Ms. Brown. It's going to be a pleasure to be at your service. I'm George, and this is my co-pilot, Jack." He shakes my hand and then allows Jack to shake my hand. "I've heard about you. Having Andrew wrapped around your finger,"
"Charming f*cker," Andrew says under his breath in a way that everyone in the cabin would hear it.
Elena gives out a chuckle. George turns toward her with a raised eyebrow,
"You know it's true. You fell for it," he raises his left hand with his ring on his ring finger and shakes it. Awww, I would not guess that.
When everyone is settled, we get on our way to taxi. I sit across Andrew. Andrew has taken off his jacket and has rolled his sleeves to his forearms, showing his delicious muscles. When we settle and Elena leaves us to ourselves, I extend my foot and touch Andrew's feet with mine.
Andrew looks up at me with his eyes sharp and filled with lust. The jet runs and I get sucked into my seat. Grazing my heels over Andrew's pants, I flex my toes and close my eyes.
"So you're ready for your first convention?" Andrew speaks out.
"Hmm," I say as I bite my lips. Sneaking a look, I find that Elena has drawn the curtains, giving us somehow privacy,
"What you are going to do tonight?" he asks another question.
I ignore his question with my muffled moan as I let my hand find its way through my cleavage and sensing my aroused nipples.
The plan gets stable and soon we are in the air, flying toward our destination.
"You brought your resume?" Andrew asks another distracting question.
"Shut up," I say through my teeth as I try to catch my breath. Not caring anymore, I open my seat belt and dive for Andrew.
Startled by my sudden action, Andrew grabs my hips and looks up at me.
"All this luxurious has me built up. Work something out," I say, as I demand a kiss.
Longing for his lips, I finally get a taste of them after waiting for him for... a day. Andrew drags his hands to my back and plays with my hair.
"You look gorgeous in this dress, did I tell you? I want to get it off you," he says with his raspy and dark.
"Do it," I whisper. Looking back at the closed curtain, I realize it's not the best place to have sex. We need more privacy. As if reading my mind, Andrew launches to grab me from my bottom, lifts me as he stands up, and makes his way to the private room in the back of the jet. Opening the door, we walk in and Andrew places me on the bed before going toward the door to close and lock it.
Hazed by my lust, I look around me to find a big suit with a double sized bed in the middle, which I'm sitting on and another set of doors which I assume is to be the bathroom. The interior is just as the same as outside.
"You trying to play with fire?" Andrew huskily says as he starts on his buttons,
"What? We're like fifty thousand feet in the air and I'm h*rny. And I think we need to rectify that," I lean back on my hand on the mattress, observing the sexy show before me.
"We sure do," he steps out of his pants and stands before me with his boxers. "But first we need to get rid of that dress of yours."
"Careful, this is the only dress I've brought," I say as I stand up so he can unzip me reputedly not like a caveman which he is.
Pulling the dress off me, Andrew put my dress on the rest of the pile, which is probably going to get wrinkled. I would care for that if I wasn't too high.
"Get on the bed, now," Andrew stand over me with his alpha male power, ordering me. "We're going to have a long flight,"