Divided (8 page)

“
A
lani?” He repeated. It was a voice I could never forget. I knew exactly who it was before I turned around. I slowly turned and met his hazelnut brown eyes. Those eyes that were the perfect shade of cocoa.

“Ryan,” I whispered back. I hadn’t seen him in three weeks but the way my body was aching for his touch, made me feel like a lifetime had passed. My heart pounded in my chest. I hoped to see him at least once while I was here but I never truly imagined that it would catch me so off guard. I assumed that I would just casually bump into him and strike up a normal conversation.
Yeah, right.

Now here he was, standing in front of me and this was anything but casual. He looked scruffier than the last time I saw him, his hair longer and his five o'clock shadow was more of an eight. He looked pantie-dropper delicious. He looked at me up and down and then glanced to my left hand before looking around the bar.

“Please don't tell me you came all the way to Grand Forks for your honeymoon?” He moved in closer and I could smell his cologne. I closed my eyes and I could see us in Vegas all over again.  Biting my lower lip I inhaled deeply, his sweet smell filling my nose.

“I never got married.” I said as I looked at my hands before looking back up. “I called it off two days before the wedding.” He looked stunned almost like he couldn’t believe what I was saying.   He moved in closer to me and our snow boots were barely touching. I couldn’t meet his eyes so instead I looked down again.

“You never got married?” He questioned, his voice clouding my thoughts. I turned back in my seat facing the bar attempting to catch my breath. Being this close to him was doing absurd things to my insides, my pulse was racing, the butterflies in my stomach were flapping their wings, and I felt my core moisten. His sexual charm sending electrical shocks through my body

“No, I just told you that.” I responded looking back at him.

He smiled at me and gave me a tight hug wrapping his arms around my waist his chest pressed against my back. “Thank God! When I saw you here I thought I had just walked into hell. Like the world was playing some cruel joke on me by running into you and your husband.”

I could barely pay attention to what he was saying. All I could concentrate on was his arms wrapped around me, his face inches away from mine. When I didn’t respond, he pulled away; placing his hands on my shoulder he turned my stool around.

“Wait. What
are
you doing here?”
Crap!
Just the question I was trying to avoid. “You’re here to see me, aren't you?” He asked before I could explain. His eyes looking at mine for some type of answer.

“No!” I said turning back to the bar and adjusting my seat. “Come sit. You’re making a scene and people are watching us.” I said grabbing his arm. He walked over to me and leaned into my ear causing my breath to catch in my throat.

 “Bug, they’re staring because they know exactly who you are and how crazy I am about you.”

My head snapped in his direction “What?” I gasped. Our lips were centimeters apart. He looked down at my lips and back up to my eyes, pausing only for a second before he moved toward me. I closed my eyes and waited for a kiss but I opened my eyes when I felt his lips on my cheek; I felt a pinch of disappointment at the chaste kiss.

When he pulled away we were both smiling. “You heard what I said.” He replied while he took the seat next to mine. “And besides, I asked you a question first. What are you doing here?”  

I couldn't find a way out of the question so I decided on telling the truth. “You’re going to think I'm crazy.” I said. I turned myself in him so our knees were touching. Ryan's hand reached over and grabbed mine. “Try me.”

I took a deep breath. “After I called off the wedding, I wanted to get away. I needed to disappear. Kind of regroup and get my life in order. When I met you in Las Vegas, you were just so nice. It stuck with me; so when I wanted to leave the city, I wanted to hide in a place where the people were more like you.” 

 I was crossing into the dark side with Ryan. I was torn and broken from Marco but when I was with Ryan nothing mattered. He was in my presences for all of five minutes and I was already dreading saying goodbye. I wanted more, much more with him. I didn’t act on my feelings before but I had nothing to hold me back now.

His eyes were burning into me. “So you 
did
come here for me.” He smiled in my direction. He was laughing at my reasons for coming.

“I don't remember you being this full of yourself when I met you.” I told him, turning myself back around so I was facing the television. I had no idea what was going on with the game anymore.

“That's strange,” he looked at me and smiled. “I remember everything about you. The way you walk, moving your hips from side to side, moving that curvaceous ass from side to side. And the way you talk like a New Yorker. Your beautiful brown hair that falls over your shoulders half way down your back. The way you smell sweet, citrusy, and sexy.”

I smiled at him. He was so smooth with his words that I'm stumbled over every word he said. He leaned in and touched the tip of my nose with his finger. “And that smile, Alani. I have dreamt about that smile for three weeks now. I’ll never be able to forget it or the beautiful woman it belongs to.” 

Completely taken aback by what he just said to me, I looked away. I couldn’t get myself to look at him. I felt my face blush; I was so embarrassed.

 “How bad did he hurt you, Bug?” He asked, completely blindsiding me. I hadn't seen that question coming. And I still didn’t understand why he called me Bug.

“Huh?” I looked at him, clearly confused by what he just asked.

“The girl I met in Vegas could take a compliment. She had no problem staring at me and letting me see her big brown eyes. Clearly he hurt you so bad that you have your guard up. I can tell you’d just rather avoid things all together.”

I couldn’t look at him. I was so humiliated that he was able to read me like a book. “Ryan, it's hard to explain.” I looked down at his shirt, still unable to look at him, though his finger rushed to my lips before I could say anything else.

“Shhhh.” He removed his finger and placed it under my chin forcing me to look up at him. “I don't want to discuss this here or now, just want to enjoy this time with you.”

A small shy smile appeared on my face. “Okay.” Still holding my chin he leaned in quickly and kissed my forehead before quickly grabbing my hand and pulled me off my chair.

“Come, let's see how good you are darts.” Walking behind him, as soon as I realized he said darts I stopped in my tracks.
Darts? oh no!
“Um yeah. Darts are not a good idea, unless you think stabbing people is a fun game.”

He laughed at my answer and changed directions back to the bar. I felt everyone staring as we walked hand in hand. This was what I got for coming to a small town where everyone knew one another.

The billiard room was to the left in a closed off space. There were no windows so no one could see what was going on inside. There were three pool tables inside with a lamp low on each one. Four guys who were drinking their beers instead of playing pool were occupying the pool table on the far right corner of the room. The two girls with them seeming to giggle at everything the men said. 

“Do you know how to play?” Ryan asked as we walked over to the pool table on the left side of the room.

      “I'm not great, but I know my way around a pool table.” This could only go two ways. I’d either be lucky or I’d suck. Hopefully luck was on my side.  

“How about a friendly wager?” He suggested as he was setting up the rack.

“What do you have in mind? I’m not playing strip pool!” I said trying to sound flirtatious from the other side of the table.

“If I win, you have to hang out with me for the rest of your stay.” He said pulling the balls out.
Perfect!  
Now I'm losing on purpose. I didn’t know how much more of Grand Forks I could take on my own. It was a great city but when you have nothing else to do, you manage to see it all in a few days.

“Ok, what if I win?” I asked because I was trying desperately to make it seem like I wasn’t completely excited to hang out with him.

 “What do you want, Bug?”
You
. It was the first thing that popped into my head.

“I want two things. First I want to go to the
Mall of America
in Minnesota.” I laughed at myself. “And I want to go to
Mount Rushmore.
” I stepped to the front of the pool table ready to break.

“Are you serious?” He asked.

“Yes! When is the next time I’ll be close to these two places?” I looked over at him. He hadn’t moved from his spot across from me.

“Deal?” I asked, pulling the cue stick back.

“Deal.” He said.

With that I broke and the game began. Two solid balls went directly in. I made the first few shots and then scratched. As I bent over the pool table to hit the cue, Ryan stood behind me staring at my backside; and my skin burned from his stare. I could feel his eyes on me and all I wanted was his hands all over me instead of just his eyes. Ryan, of course, was great. He made every shot that was open for him. I tried talking to him when he was ready to hit, or letting our bodies rub against one another every time he passed me in the tight space. I tried to distract him, but it didn’t help. At this point I wasn’t even trying to lose, I was just trying to keep up.      

“It's not going to work, Bug. I know you’re trying to distract me. I’m going to win this and you’re going to spend the rest of your time here with me.”

Needing him to scratch his shot so I’d have a fighting chance for some kind of bragging rights, I walked behind him and leaned in really close as he was setting up for his next shot.

 “You know, Kraft, I would have spent the rest of my trip with you; if you would’ve just asked.”  I lowered my voice to a quiet whisper, attempting to sound sultry. “You just wasted a bet on something that I would do for fun.  Imagine all of the other possibilities you could have had me do for you.” I felt the goose bumps rising on my arms. In my efforts to distract, him I had managed to turn myself on.

“Grrr.” He growled.

I stood up, letting him take the shot. It must have worked because he scratched and I had a chance to catch up. I sunk in four out of my remaining five. I had one left before the eight ball, and so did Ryan.

“I want a new wager.” He shouted before I prepped my shot. I stood up straight and looked at him.

“I’ll go with you anywhere you want, I just want to change my wager.” I nodded at him to go on. “I have an awards dinner to go to and if I win, I want you to be my date.”

I stared at him for a good twenty seconds.
Think Alani. What do you really want?

“Deal. Only if you can take an ‘I owe you’ because I can’t think of anything right now.” I leaned in, taking my shot, I made it. “Eight ball corner pocket.” I set up to finish the game and missed. Ryan was like a kid at a candy store when he realized he still had a fighting chance. 

He walked over to the cue to set up leaning down he checked his aim. As he pulled back the pool stick he had the shot, I knew he wouldn’t miss it.  Sure enough his last stripe made it into the left corner pocket.
Perfect!

“Corner, right pocket.” He said as he pointed to it with the cue stick. It was a perfect shot. The cue ball had stopped right next to the eight ball. All he had to do was tap it in. He smiled as the eight ball went into the proper pocket.

He walked over to where I stood with my lower back hitting the edge of the pool table. He placed both of his hands on either side of the table, leaning into me, our bodies touching, forcing me to lean back in order to look up at him.

“Looks like I have a hot date to this award dinner.” His smile was breathtaking. His fair skin, brown hair and hazelnut eyes were already a panty dropper; add that smile, and women all over the world would fall in love.  

I was so into the Ryan daydream that I completely missed what he was asking me.

      “Hello? Alani! Did I lose you?”

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “I'm sorry what?” 

“I asked if you wanted to go back to the bar. Maybe grab a bite?” He said. 

“Yeah that sounds good.” I said as we walked out of the pool hall. He came up behind me and locked his arm with mine.

When I first met Ryan I had no fear, I had held his hand, hell I had danced in extreme proximity with this man; but Vegas was my last weekend of freedom. He knew I was with someone else so it had all seemed innocent, but this, this seemed intimate and I liked it. 

We walked back towards the bar and Ryan asked the waitress for a booth. Her name was Shelly and apparently she knew Ryan very well. “Shelly, this is my friend Alani.” He introduced us. I smiled at her.

“It’s nice to finally meet you.” She said. I looked at her, then at Ryan, a question evident in my eyes.
Finally? What was that about?

During dinner our conversation was simple.
How was your day? Am I enjoying the freezing cold?
NO!
Shelly came by one more time to take our plates away.

“Would you like dessert?” Shelly asked after she took our empty plates away. Her accent was so much thicker than Ryan’s.

“Yeah, can we have the New York cheesecake, with two spoons please, Shell?” Ryan ordered for us. I looked at him and squinted my eye.

“What makes you think that’s what I wanted?” I pouted my lips at him. He leaned in close placing his hands on mine.

“I want you to tell me if it’s really a New York Cheesecake. I’m convinced it’s from here, but I’m not sure.” Ryan had an answer for everything. Our cheesecake was placed in front of us and we both took a spoon full. It was sweet and velvety. It wasn’t like the one from
Junior’s Cheesecake,
but it was still delicious. 

“Can I ask you something?” I asked Ryan as I scooped another piece onto my spoon.

“Depends.” He said as he put another piece of cheesecake in his mouth. I would give anything to be that spoon and have his lips wrapped around me.