Our Time Will Come - An After Story

20

Tessa

Why is Karen always right? Seriously. "Honey I'm telling you, you'll be tiny for ages, then you'll wake up one morning huge" her words revolve in my head as I gawp at myself in the mirrored wardrobe. I went to bed last night with a bump that hardly existed.. and I've woken up this morning feeling like Fat Albert. So this is what it's like to be pregnant with twins? I'm twelve and a half weeks pregnant and already feel like I'm at least twenty. I'm wearing a black leather skirt with a white long sleeved blouse, the sleeves are frilled and my outfit screams strong, independent woman. "Let's go and plan some weddings you guys" I say aloud, placing a hand on my growing bump.
I grab my MacBook that rests on the dressing table before heading down the stairs.

I fill Louie's bowls with his favourite food and tell him goodbye before leaving. "But first, coffee" i mutter to myself. I have a feeling I'm going to be talking to myself a lot while Hardin's away and the kids are in school. I retreat to our matte black Range Rover and instantly connect my phone to the Bluetooth. I beam as I select the playlist that Hardin made for me last night. It's titled 'ones for on the road'. I type the address of my first client of the day into the SatNav, and off I go. I'm driving along and smile grows when I press shuffle and the first song that plays is 'HeartBeat' by one of my favourite bands, The Fray.

That husband of mine makes my heart melt. It's the small romantic gestures that I adore but he swears are 'no big deal'. I find myself yawning as I wait in the queue at the Starbucks drive through. It's understandable seeing that I've been up since four Am. I've had one busy morning.

First, I woke up to the piercing sound of Hardin's alarm. I was dressed in my saucy red night dress that Hardin dotes on and instantly recalled dressing to seduce him. I must have fallen asleep while he was saying goodnight to the kids. Poor Hardin. I clung to his clammy body as he attempted to climb out of bed. "Baby, I have to leave.. Paul is waiting" he whispered, sympathy in his voice. I waved him off with a tear in my eye and contemplated going back to bed, but I knew then that I was awake for the day. So I kept myself busy by rearranging Hardin's office and making the kids a packed lunch for their first day back at school. Before I knew it, it was eight Am and the children were leaving for school. I wished them a fabulous day and even managed to snap a photo of them to send to their dad. It was quite the amusing capture. Emery looks less than impressed and her brother is pulling the silliest face, much to her annoyance. I giggle to myself, remembering the quarrel they had over who gets the last breakfast bar as they rushed out of the house.

Before I know it I'm pulling into my clients driveway. Their house is huge and I can tell by the multiple vehicles surrounding mine, that they are wealthy. I am yet to meet this couple and I'm pretty nervous. I take a deep breath as I grab my laptop and the decaf cup of coffee I purchased en route. Before I know it, the couple are opening the door to me, the smiles on their faces are welcoming and my nerves are calmed. "Hi, I'm Tessa. You must be Rachel and Nathaniel" I put on that artificial, professional voice of mine, tucking my laptop under my arm and freeing a hand to shake theirs. "We sure are" the young woman says as I follow them into their sitting room. They can't be any older than twenty years of age, something tells me that this house belongs to Rachel's parents.

Nathaniel looks the complete opposite of his fiancé, he has this preppy school boy look going on. Where as Rachel is kind of mysterious looking, she has this gothic look going on and is wearing black from head to toe, including her fishnet tights. But somehow, they look really good together. It takes me back to when Hardin and I was their age and people used to look at us like we didn't belong together. Well, look at us now, bitches, my subconscious chimes in.

I leave thirty minutes later and.. that was humorous to say the least. I tried to hide my smirk as Nathaniel pleaded with his fiancé to change her mind, when she told me that she wants everything black, the wedding dress, the bridesmaid dresses, the flowers, everything. I tried to persuade her to have at least some colour at the wedding but she was having none of my shit. It's going to be ... what can I say?interesting, working with this couple. I let out the laugh that I kept in for the whole meeting as I leave their driveway. "Onto the next client" I tell myself while heading onto the freeway.

My mind starts to stray as I focus on the road. I wonder how the book event is going. I hope Hardin's not being too hard on Paul. Is he missing me like I already miss him?

Hardin

Fuck, there are far too many people here. Four and a half thousand to be precise. There's not much that gets my heart racing but I can feel my asscheeks flapping at the sight of the crowd before me. The crowd is cheering, it's a deafening sound and hell, I can't hear myself think.

"Thank you all for coming today!" I yell through the microphone and they roar even louder. I debate telling them to shut the fuck up, but decide against it. I remove a folded piece of paper from my jeans pocket, it's the opening speech that I wrote on the plane here this morning. I clear my throat and begin to read it.

"I'm blown away, by the response to the release of my fourth book 'After Ever Happy'. I have to say, this one is my favourite of them all. If you've read all of my novels , you've seen me transition from a foolish, immature cretin who was angry at the world, to the man I am today, a slightly less arrogant, old fart" I joke, the crowd begins to laugh. "No, but you've seen me transition into a father of two, a loving husband and you've joined me on my mission to drown my demons, I can't tell you how much I appreciate that " I speak from my heart, blowing a kiss to those who stand in front of me. "So, let the signing commence. I'm going to be here all bloody day" I banter as I watch the crowd form a not so orderly queue.