Page 19 of Soaring and Saucy

“If Stephanie does – or doesn’t – contact you,” his mother began tightly. “Let this be a lesson that you need to change your ways and grow up right now. Do you hear me? No more of this partying all the time. You need to keep it in your pants, young man – period!”

“Oh my gosh…” he chuckled, mortified.

“What? How do you think you got here? Now, unless you want to have this conversation again in a few months – behave!”

“Yes, ma’am,” he repeated before hanging up the phone and letting out his breath. It was going to be a long couple of days, weeks, or months – and he wasn’t sure which it would be. He hoped Stephanie would contact him in a few days so they could talk, but something deep down inside of him already knew that wouldn’t be the case.

6

STEPHANIE

A week later…

“Soooo?” Lila smiled. “Are you still giving us the silent treatment, or are you finally going to blab?”

Stephanie looked up from the stack of bills she was sorting and turning in different directions, staring at the woman in disbelief. Just because Lila and Natalie gushed on for hours on the flight home about their weekend didn’t mean that she intended to share her own personal moments. No, right now, she wanted to hang onto any sense of privacy she could after seeing their photo on the television screen at the airport.

“I’m not discussing my weekend with anyone.”

“When are you getting your name changed?”

“Why is it bothering you?”

“I just didn’t know why you went through with something like that after I told you how awful marriage can be sometimes. It’s just not worth the hassle, and it’s strangely depressing to think that you can only bone one guy for the rest of your life.”

Stephanie looked away from her friend’s disjointed expression, hiding her smile. Was that really what prevented Lila from settling down - Boredom Boning? And who referred to that act as ‘boning’ anyhow? How callous and gross was that description?

And sighed, picking up the bills and counting them again.

No, nothing that happened that evening a week ago could ever be described as ‘boring,’ and she was really regretting her panic the next morning. She had awoken, heard his intake of breath, and felt him stiffen beside her, pretending to be asleep as he stealthily pulled himself from the bed that they’d made love in all night long. She had cracked open her eyes, watching him move, and everything in his form, his beautiful figure, was screaming, ‘this can’t be happening’…

Lance regretted their marriage, and their lovemaking and was in the process of making his grand escape – so she did the unthinkable.

Stephanie shot out of the bed they’d shared, dressed in a rush, and tried to be nonchalant about everything that had happened. If he was going to ditch her, she wasn’t going to stop him. Instead, she would hurry on his departure, be brave in the dismissal of their beautiful night, and stand bravely amidst the storm raging within her soul, holding back painful tears of rejection.

She knew she wasn’t a catch. Knowing that the most beautiful man she’d ever met would rather gnaw off his arm than to lie there in bed with his bride the next morning… yeah, that hurt.

Everything hurt.

Her mind, her heart, her soul, and her body… there was no corner of her that was untouched by the evening’s events, which is why the rejection was so painful.

Lance had looked at her differently, treated her tenderly, whispered words softly spoken between lovers as he made her his. He brought out a part of her that she’d never shown the world, trusting him with her deepest sense of self… and he left her standing there, holding his contact information in her hand after removing it from where he’d crammed it into the underwire of her bra.

It was not either of their finest moments.

She’d lied horribly in order to let him run away – and he did, but with enough foresight to leave her his information, something she didn’t volunteer because she was afraid to cry. She had met the man of her dreams, married him, and slept with him, only to learn that those dreams were more like nightmares.

Regret burned deeply within her soul – and it shouldn’t. That was a memory so beautiful it would haunt her for years, something she would treasure privately… which is why she couldn’t tell Lila or Natalie. She wouldn’t share Lance’s memory with anyone.

That moment was hers.

A day later, Stephanie went by the post office during her lunch period to pick up a certified letter. As the clerk handed it to her, she signed the slip and stared at it, shocked. Opening it there at the counter, she stared at the paperwork before her in dismay.

It was a marriage license that looked more like a certificate that you would print out online. There was a signature from Pasteur… and a spot for either of them to sign that was blank.

Did this mean that they weren’t married?

Folding the license back, she shoved it into the envelope and rushed out of the post office to the privacy of her car. Putting hands over her face, she threw the envelope in the passenger seat – and broke down crying.

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