Forgiveness, Trust & Forever

Emily

"Em?" A male voice calls out, God I hate the city streets all you ever hear is your name being called out and all because your parents insisted you have such a regular name instead of something more unique.

I keep my feet moving and my head facing in the direction I am going, I know that the shout out wasn't for me because lets face it no-one in this city wants too speak with me anymore not after everything that's been happening anyway, and I can't say that I blame some of them but others they need to learn how to be loyal and by some of them I mean my so called best friends from back home, my best friends who felt that their loyalties would go over to the dark side with the Mboys, a side they will never return from now after all they have spent the last few years planning the romantic dream futures with them. My future.

A swift shake of my ponytail and I set my focus back on the task at hand. My meeting today.

This meeting is too important to worry about some random stranger calling out a name like mine this meeting could see all my hard work this last six months finally pay off.

"Emily" it comes again but this time it's met with a shiver down my spine. This is a voice I know and its not one of the Mboys this is a voice from my past, one of the voices I had cut out of my life in the hope of my dream future away from the drab life of my arrogant old crowd but somehow, they keep sneaking back into my future somehow.

I don't let the voice stop me; I can't face the past not right now, actually I'm not sure I ever will after everything that's happened since I said goodbye to them that summer before we all headed off to university. I headed in my future with a head filled with love and glamour at least before my world crashed around me and I made the biggest mistake of accepting Hero back into my life. Back then my need for security in my relationship was all I could focus on at least until that day when I received the confirmation that Hero wasn't what I had dreamed he would be.

Maybe I had forced him into this box of perfection because its what I needed instead of just seeing the real him, the him that would always be the party guy with control and jealousy issues who would always destroy any hope of happiness for himself because of his own insecurities but above all he was the guy who I should have avoided so that I didn't end up with only a story of a train wreck to speak of instead of tales of fun from my years of university like all my friends have around me.

"Hey sis" Mimi meets me at the entrance to our bar with a hug, finally snapping me from yet another trip down memory lane "how is everything going?" Wow she isn't hanging around with the interrogation today it seems.

I offer her a smile and go to move past her when the familiar voice calls out again, this time it sounds out of breath "Emme" I let a small groan leave my mouth as I hear my sister gasp in response to the newcomer.

"Oh my god Asher" she smiles up at him "what are you doing back here?" She questions him "I thought you were planning to settle overseas" she continues not giving him chance to respond.

"I had planned to but turns out American soccer isn't the sport I wanted to be involved in long term so here I am" he tells her "Come in" she waves him through the door to join me just over the threshold and into our shiny new lobby.

I lead the way down the entrance steps and into the open lounge area, the vision of the bar finally being finished shocking me into to a stumbling stop. "Its exactly what we dreamed of when we sat with the designer but after my months of self destruction had kept me away from this part of my life, I had kind of forgotten all about the vision we were holding onto when we refused to budge on any of the changes the contractors had pushed for.

I step up to the bar "can we get three waters please" I call out to the staff who are stocking up the bar for our launch night, the moments taken to order the waters allowing myself just a few more seconds to register this moment, to accept the changes that are fast approaching my life but mainly before I have to face my old best friend "is water ok?'' I check with them both hoping that they will say no so I can take extra time to deal with the drinks before I must face the interrogation that's about to take place, the nods of confirmation cutting short any chance of that happening.