The moment the words left his mouth I knew I had made a huge mistake in allowing myself to think that I would be able go into this with my eyes wide shut. I may have been a professional but the line was so blurred with this client that my head just couldn’t function correctly. I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t recognize him because we were well and truly passed that. Our lives had intertwined so much, what felt like a lifetime ago and if it wasn’t for one grave mistake I know I would have ended up marrying the man. I opened the door wider for him and motioned for him to enter. No matter what my personal feelings were towards this man I knew I had to keep a clear head and that meant limiting the amount of alcohol I drank.
“Thank-you” he said as he walked past me. He brushed his fingertips along my bare arms and I felt the tingle of anticipation course through my veins as his lips brushed mine in one single light peck.
“Kissing is extra” is all I could manage to say as I pulled away and closed the door. Wishing so hard that it was that easy to do with the door to my heart.
“Antonia, we both know I can afford that. If this it what it takes to get you to listen to me then we have 2 days and one whole night to spend together fixing what I never had the chance to repair. I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do but I felt this was the only way I could get you to hear me out after you dropped off the face of the planet.” I stared at him blankly. I couldn’t help the feeling I got when we were together. It was like a submissive charge took over and the moment he spoke, I listened.
“Maybe I didn’t want to hear your excuses Kyle. Maybe I’d had enough of them and chose what was best for me. I think you’d said everything you needed to say and I saw everything I needed to see. Can’t you just let the past be the past?” I responded, not believing a single word that came out of my mouth.
“If you really believed that, you wouldn’t have accepted this job. We both know that.” I hated how he could read me so well and I could never read him.
“Let’s sit down, or do you want to go to dinner?” he asked nonchalantly.
“Let’s just get this over and done with” I said as I walked past him and sat down on the closest sofa. I watched him as he walked confidently across the floor, to the bar and poured us both a drink. I took the glass from him and downed it quickly to dull the pain I knew I was about to deal with. He sat down on the sofa opposite me and sipped his drink casually.
“Antonia. Do you ever think about the first night we had dinner?” What the hell was he playing at. I thought about it all the time. I thought about every moment I ever spent with Kyle Richardson, the good, bad and amazing.
“Kyle, I don’t need to answer that. You know I have. If you think that a trip down memory lane is going to make things right then you may as well save your breath. I have been over everything in my mind a million times and can’t see any reason for us to revisit such a painful time for either of us. Please just let it go. I forgive you. Move on with your life. I have” I spoke with conviction, something that I knew he would respond to well. I had no idea what he had planned for the the next 35 hours and 30 minutes of our booked time together, whatever it was...I really wasn’t interested.
“Antonia will you please just indulge me. I never got the chance to say sorry. I want you to remember how good we were together. I can’t change the past but I know that the future is something I can’t walk into when I am so unhappy about how things ended between us.” I could hear the pain in his voice, he was a tortured soul but I couldn’t be responsible for his future happiness. It wasn’t my place to make things right for him, he had to live with his choices and unfortunately for him they didn’t affect me anymore. Hoping to pass the time quickly I nodded my head and chose to get this over and done with, the same way you would pull off a bandaid...Swiftly.
“The night that we ate dinner on the Yacht, the sparkle in your eye was the brightest I had ever seen it. As the night bore on my intrigue over you turned to like, it was then that I knew I wanted more in life. You gave me hope that there were people out there that were good souls. I will never forget the moment that I fell in love with you, As we passed under the bridge and the lights shone on your face I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life making you as happy as you were at that moment.” He took a breath and I knew he was struggling to continue as much as I was struggling to hear it.
“When I dropped you at home that evening I knew I had what it took to calm down the life I was leading and immediately begun making changes. I chose the life I had always tried to avoid as it had never worked for me in the past. I chose the path of the straight and narrow. My not so straight business dealings were the first to go as I knew it would never be a life you would ever want to get involved with.” I knew exactly what he was talking about. I had read all the media reports that there were online that night and fought with myself to justify that you couldn’t judge a book by its cover, but each and every report ate at me as I read them. I gulped as I realized that he hadn’t finished.
“But it was never going to be as simple as cutting people off. It was a process that was going to take time and strength and that was something that I knew I was going to struggle with.”
* * * *
The morning after our dinner I woke up with a heavy heart. Kyle had read me like an open book and delivered on his promise to make me want to see him again. I had been up all night online and searched everything I could find about him. The more I read, the more I began to wonder if the media had the right idea about him. The man that I had spend the most amazing night of my life with was nothing like the man they were painting him as. He was a kind and gentle soul and yet they were selling the story that he was a heartless villain. I fought with myself over the possibility that they were right but refused to see what was in front of me. I didn’t know him well enough and justified my choice to see him again by convincing myself that I shouldn’t judge someone I didn’t know. After all I was no saint.
Over the next few months I began to see Kyle more often and found myself growing to really like him. He was a gentleman towards me and I never saw anything out of the ordinary that would cause me to think otherwise. We began an exclusive relationship six months after we had met and almost overnight I found my name being splashed around the entertainment and gossip pages of The Daily Telegraph’s Confidential pages on a daily basis. We went out every night and spent our days together with his friends or mine. I loved that he was so interested in my friends and I didn’t feel like I was trading them in. My friends loved him, none of them were bothered by our relationship, his reputation or any of the attention they got in the press. As time went on I began to find myself being watched even more closely. Kyle had arranged for someone to drive me permanently and I soon after had to quit my job because they weren’t happy with the media attention. It was then that I was offered column in a magazine. I had never been involved in any form of publication before and as much as it excited me it scared me too. I worked with an in house journalist and after another three months it became a must-read. Kyle was always extremely supportive of everything I was doing, seeing a smile on his face always made me want to do more to keep it there.
A year into the relationship we began to talk about the future as though ours would be never ending. We discussed marriage, children and where we wanted to end up living. One afternoon as we drove around the city he took me to Vaucluse where we looked at various properties to get ideas about what we wanted. As we pulled up outside a three story glass house that overlooked the water I knew it was exactly what I wanted.
“That’s it!” I squealed.
“That’s exactly the style of house I want. One day I could see us living in something exactly like that...with gates of course.” I added hoping he wasn’t thinking I was rushing things.
“Then that’s what we will have” he responded with a smile plastered across his face. He always knew exactly what to say when a twinge of self-consciousness entered my voice. We drove away talking about what we would decorate it with and what type of rooms we would have. I was on cloud nine and for the first time in my life I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
That night when we returned to Kyle’s house he seemed a little fidgety. I was standing in the kitchen cooking dinner when he came up to the counter and looked at me shyly with his arms behind his back.
“Antonia, do you love me?” I dropped the knife on the counter and looked at him to see where he was going with this.
“You know I do” I said as I leant over the counter and planted a kiss on his lips. The passion from our first kiss still hadn’t faded and I found myself wanting him just as much as I did that very first time. He was incredibly gorgeous and always took my breath away.
“Move in with me” he whispered as I pulled away. I was completely shocked. As much I was never really at my own apartment I found solace in the fact that it was always there if I needed it, but what I realized in that moment was that I really did love this man. So I took a leap of faith.
“Okay” I responded, looking him deeply in the eyes and not regretting anything. A few moments later I returned to cutting the chicken breast but something in the air told me he had more to say. I stopped and looked at him, catching him staring at me intently.
“Do you mean it?” he asked.
“You know I wouldn’t agree to something like this if I didn’t” I said honestly.
“Good, because I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes.” he said. My heart began pounding harder than ever as I felt his arms wrap around my waist.
“Open” he whispered. Just as I did I saw a white envelope sitting on top of the chicken breast. I turned my head to look at his over my shoulder but he only nodded. My hands began shaking as I lifted the envelope and pulled out the pages inside. As I unfolded them I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
“It’s ours” he said burying his head into my hair and breathing in.
“Kyle, what have you done?” I said breathlessly. In my hands I held the deed to the house we had been to that day...with both of our names on it.
“Whats mine is yours princess. I want us to start somewhere fresh, with both of our personalities infused. We both know where this is headed and I want to make sure that you are looked after no matter what. This is our first home together and I want you to live in the house of your dreams.” I was taken aback. I had no idea how he had done it but I was eternally grateful for ever meeting the man of my dreams. We moved in less than thirty days later and began renovations immediately. It was more than I could have ever dreamed of, it was then that I realized that we were going to be together forever.
The New Years Eve before our second anniversary we held our newly founded annual NYE party. We had 200 of our friends attend and I was excited to spend New Years with those I loved the most. Anyone who was anyone came to our party which was themed as black and white. I dressed in my favorite white strapless gown and draped myself in diamonds, letting my curls run wild. Kyle dressed in a full black tie suit and the press attending the media wall got some amazing shots. We danced the night away and entertained some of the most influential people in the industry. We were joined at the hip the entire night and for the first time in my life I began to feel I had a direction in life.
An hour before midnight Kyle decided he wanted to thank everyone for coming. I left our friends and joined him on the stage where we had a live band.
“Thank-you all for coming. Antonia and I are so glad that you all chose to spend your New Years with us. We are so blessed to have so many friends that have been there from the beginning of our lives and have been there to support our relationship” An applause erupted from around the yard as the patrons listened intently. Standing on stage next to Kyle I felt like I was definitely the luckiest girl in the world.
“I would like to take the opportunity to thank my beautiful girlfriend for putting this all together. She has made our new house a home in a matter of months and made me the happiest man alive over the last year and a half.”
“I’ll second that, you were a grumpy asshole before she came along” yelled out Kyle’s friend Antony. Everyone laughed, including Kyle.
“Thanks Ant. I know that as the New Year rolls around I will have definitely have the best year if I have Antonia by my side.” As he spoke I knew he loved me, I could feel it emanate from everything within him. I squeezed his hand a little tighter as I looked him in the eyes.
“Antonia...” He let go of my hand and stepped away from me. I looked at him confused and then it hit me.
“Will You Marry Me?” he asked as he got down on one knee. The entire crowd was on edge as he took my hand and waited for my response. I didn’t think twice.
“Yes!” I screamed as he placed the five-carat pear-shaped diamond flanked by pear-shaped stones on my finger. The entire crowd erupted into applause again as I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him when he stood up. I spent the remainder of the night doing the rounds and having our photo taken for what would be an impressive announcement the next day. Right on New Years Eve I made a wish that I would spend the rest of my life making Kyle as happy as he made me. With the look on his face I knew I was well on my way towards making that wish come true. Our first dance of the year was to one of my favourite songs of all time “I’ve Had The Time Of My Life” from Dirty Dancing. I really had the time of my life that night and knew no matter what happened next, nothing could break us. We were...unbreakable.
* * * *
I felt the tears stream down my face as I remembered that time of my life. Kyle and I had been so happy once. I couldn’t understand what it was that I had done in my life to deserve the pain that I had suffered. He jumped up and ran to my side before kneeling in front of me, taking my hand in his. This time I didn’t flinch.
“Antonia, I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to do everything in my power to protect you. I know this is painful for you, but I really want the chance to do the right thing. I need to explain everything, you deserve answers to things I was never able to admit. Will you please just let me do that, and if you still don’t want to know me after that. I will walk away and never bother you again. I really don’t want to hurt you” I’d heard that line before and knew what I was getting myself in for. I wiped away the tears that stained my cheeks and decided that while I was already on the trip down memory lane, I may as well get it over and done with.
“Okay” I whispered. Knowing that what was going to come next would break me no matter what his explanation was.
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