A Hard Man To Love

Threats

Over the next month the news of your engagement to Merle spread along with the news of Andrea's supposed pregnancy. She still hadn't talked to Merle about a paternity test and you knew it was because as soon as she did her lie would be exposed. You weren't really sure what her end game was. Andrea had tried for years to get Merle to leave you for her, she was the only repeat hookup, but he'd always made it clear to her that you were his world. He'd made it completely clear after he got clean that were it not for being drunk or high he never would have been with her in the first place and it was never happening again. A few months later she hooked up with creepy crawly Mayor Phil.

And that was another conundrum. They'd been together for at least ten months and he never struck you as the type of creep who could get over his girlfriend cheating on him. Which led you back to the question, what was Andrea's end game? All you could come up with was creepy crawly Phil still held a grudge against Merle for outing his more sadistic tendencies and was encouraging his addict impressionable girlfriend. Merle had worked for Phil at one point along with Caesar Martinez as his security detail. At the time Merle worked for him he was on the town council a few years before being elected mayor.

Their antics would either die down or it was going to come to a head. You weren't sure which but you were sure if it came to a head there would be plenty of drama to go along with it. That was probably one of the things that Merle loved about you the most. You weren't prone to drama, in fact you very deliberately removed any drama queens from your life, it was something you simply didn't have time or patience for. Andrea was a drama queen, so was Lori to a lesser degree. You'd never tolerated Andrea. You had been friends with Lori for a lot of years and there had been times where you went months to even a year without talking to her because of the drama. The two consistent friends in your life were Maggie and Carol. No drama.

So when you, Maggie, and Carol went into the city for you to start looking for wedding dresses you planned for a drama free day. It just wasn't what you got.

All you knew going in was that you didn't want big and floofy, you'd get lost in it. Carol picked out a few Audrey Hepburn elegant dresses for you to try on. They weren't you. Maggie found some Anna Nicole Smith sex kitten dresses that also just weren't you. When you finally tried on the one dress in the entire store that you were drawn to you realized it was perfect. It was a tea length ivory taffeta with a sweetheart neckline and wide gathered silk chiffon straps that started under your breasts and tied back around your neck and had a crystal buckle in the front. When you walked out to where Carol and Maggie sat you had tears in your eyes and their mouths dropped open slightly.

"Wow Grace, that's perfect for you," Maggie said enthusiastically.

You stepped up on the pedestal in front of the mirror and turned side to side and watched your petticoats swish around. Smiling you looked at Carol in the mirror. "Well? What do you think?"

She lifted a hand to wipe at her eyes and nodded her head, "Get it, that's it."

Looking back in the mirror you started to smile then rolled your eyes when you saw Andrea walking by on the sidewalk in front of the shop. Unfortunately she noticed you. Why the hell was she in the city? And then you saw creepy crawly Phil following next to her and Caesar along with them. All three of them walked into the store.

"There's goes the fun," Maggie grumbled under her breath so you could barely hear her.

"Don't you just look pretty as a picture," creepy crawly Phil said.

Taking a deep breath, you gave him a tight smile, "Hello Philip."

He rounded on you, looking you up and down like he could see through your clothing and see all the secrets you were hiding under that dress. His eyes danced like he was thinking about more than what you might look like naked, and you saw his cock twitch in his pants. The bile rose in your throat as he eyed you, this man was a predator, not a leader. You'd never been around a man who made you as uncomfortable as he did and you'd worked in the lock down criminal psych ward for several years after nursing school. At that moment you were wishing for Merle's strong steady presence because Philip was legitimately scaring you. If it weren't for the fact that he was your town's mayor you wouldn't give him the time of day and would certainly lambast him for treating you like a piece of meat but you held your tongue. Carol stood up from her chair and moved a little closer to you but Caesar cut her off. Maggie stayed where she was. She never talked about it but something had happened a few years ago between her and your town's infamous mayor who was trying to intimidate you.