Eyes as green as emeralds looked across the water and into my soul. I stood there staring at the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen and I couldn’t speak. She was smiling at me and my heart began to swell. When she lifted her hand and waved, I thought I was going to pass out. I raised my own hand and then her face twisted in confusion. That’s when I looked over my shoulder to see Brad waving back at her.
“Put your hand down, freshman. She’s waving at me,” he scolded, and I tucked my chin and went back to cleaning.
I watched her during the whole lesson out of the corner of my eye. I felt stupid and vulnerable after embarrassing myself in front of her, but I know she was looking at me. I felt something in that moment had changed my life forever, and I wasn’t wrong.
The next four years I got to know her and her best friend Aiden. We weren’t exactly what you’d call friends because I’m pretty sure she hated me. But every time after the pool incident when my dick got hard it was for her. And it got hard a lot.
Then two years ago I got a phone call from Aiden asking me for a favor. He needed me to draft up some paperwork, and when he said it was for a premarital agreement for him and Savannah I nearly ripped my desk in half.
I’d just made partner in my firm and was finally making the money I knew she deserved. I knew her father and had done business with him, and I knew that he wouldn’t let her tie herself to just anyone. With my past there was no way he was letting me near her unless my pockets were padded, and I was finally there the day Aiden dropped the bomb.
What the fuck could I do but file the paperwork? I knew she didn’t love him and he didn’t love her, but that didn’t mean she could be mine. I wanted her more than I’d wanted anything, but I couldn’t have her. Not yet.
I made the agreement to where she got everything and then some. I wanted to make sure if she ever wanted a way out she could have it. I knew that one day I would have her, and until then I wouldn’t have anyone else.
They invited me to the wedding, and at the bottom of the invitation there was a note from Savannah. She wrote that the day would only be full of joy if I was there. For a moment I thought she’d written it on everyone’s invitation, but I knew better. Savannah would never go out of her way to be nice to someone if she didn’t mean it. We have a long history of back and forth and her wedding day was no exception.
I was standing in the back while the guests were filing in and I didn’t want to go inside. I convinced myself a thousand times that I should leave, but I felt like if I didn’t see it with my own eyes then I would always wonder if it was real.
After seeing Aiden at the end of the aisle I couldn’t do it. It should be me. I couldn’t sit there and watch the woman I’ve wanted my whole life give her heart to another man. I turned around to storm out and there she was.
She was dressed in ivory and she looked so beautiful I couldn’t breathe. When my eyes met hers I saw tears form there and before I knew what was happening I was holding her in my arms. I moved so that we were out of sight from everyone else and I held her as she cried. I didn’t speak or ask any questions, I just rubbed her back while she wept in my arms.
I closed my eyes and the scent of roses surrounded me. She was so soft and fragile in my arms and all I wanted to do was steal her. But she took a breath and then stepped away from me as she straightened her back.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her emerald green eyes piercing straight through my heart.
“I’ll be waiting,” I whispered to her as she walked past me and down the aisle to her future husband.
I stood there for just a second before I walked out the door and never looked back. That day I carried her heart out of there with me and promised myself to protect it and to keep it safe until the moment was mine.
When Aiden called me to file the annulment papers I hit send on the email. I had them drawn up the day they were married and was waiting for the day I could put them to use. I saw Savannah over the past two years and I knew with one look that she was miserable but she wouldn’t leave. It killed me because I loved her and I wanted her to be happy, but she didn’t love herself enough to ask for it.