What A Girl Wants: With A Twist (BWWM)

Prologue

The year was 1996...

I had just graduated college and had decided to take a year off before attended graduates school, so me and some friends had taken a trip to New York after graduation. We went to some party that we'd heard about through the grape vine.

That's where I first met him.

The first thing that I noticed were his eyes; he had the strangest eyes I'd ever seen. They were beautiful, a bluish green hue with one stained with brown. I had never seen anything like it before.

As the night progressed, we found ourselves gravitating towards one another until were standing right across from one another. He kissing my hand and politely greeted me, his English accent pleasant to my ears. I politely asked him for his name.

"My name is Frederick, Fredrick Henry Leopold, as tragic as that may sound", he said with a smile that made the corner of his eyes crinkle in the cutest ways possible.

I decided to call him Ricky instead.

He told me that he was taking a gap year from Uni and wanted to see the states, much like myself.

We talked about our lives, school, hell even politics. He had told me his family was pressuring him into taking over the family business -a business that I would learn about at a much later date. Talking to him was just so easy; maybe it was because he was very easy on the eyes but it was as if we were connected in a way. Soulmates as some would say.

Next thing I knew, we were dating and not even long after that, we moved in together. We spent the next 14 months together; we were like an old married couple, cooking and cleaning up after eachother. We would take spontaneous road trips across the country and at every stop he would get a tattoo "To remember this of course", he'd say. By the time we'd return home he was covered in tattoos and I loved every single one.

It was perfect.

One day, some people came to our place, a woman about his age and an older man. Whoever they were, Fredrick was absolutely livid that they found him. They had a huge fight and right then and there the truth came out. I found out that he was some Lord or something, I didn't understand anything he had said.

The woman said he needed to head back to London, something had happened with his family and he demanded I come with him. Ofcourse I said yes, I loved him more than anything in my life and i knew he felt the same.

So I packed a bag and we were off to the UK. I had met his parents the first day and to say it was awkward was an understatement. He wasn't joking about his strained relationship with his father; they didn't even speak to eachother, glaring at one another to get whatever point they were making across.

"Don't get too comfortable", he whispered to me,"we won't be here long."

As the days went by, the tension between them only thickened. I had spent my time with his mother Annissa who had been great company to me. We talked and laughed about all sorts of things.

I should have know the bliss wouldn't last. Time had flown by and school was starting back up; I had to go back home, but I was surprised to find out he wasn't coming back with me. He said he had some business to get in order and that he would be back for me once he was done.

"I'll be back for you, Minny", he told me.

"I'll be waiting, Ricky", I promised, wiping away my tears.

If only I had know that was a lie.

I waited and waited and waited, but nothing. He didn't call or even send a letter. I did everything to try and find him especially when I found out I was pregnant after the first semester began.

I sent him even more letters, some about my doctors appointments, how excited I was to find out we were having a girl. I even sent him an ultrasound. What could I say, I was a gullible, lovesick fool.

He never sent anything back.

Not one letter.

After I gave birth, I was forced to face the harsh reality of what had happened to me. "You had promised me, Frederick." So I did what I had to do, I went back home to Oakland and moved on with my life. I couldn't just sit there waiting for him, I had a beautiful daughter to think about.

A few years passed by and I was watching the news and I saw him. Although a lot of time had passed, he hadn't changed at all. It seems he had taken over for his father once he'd gotten sick; the one thing he had sworn he'd never do. That wasn't the worst thing; he was with another woman.

I had recognized her from when her and the older man had come to our home and called him back to Britain. I couldn't help the bile that rose in my throat.

He had moved on and forgotten about me...about us.

As much as it hurt, I had someone else to love: my beautiful daughter."

Memphis finished the story, looking down at the teenage girl nestled against her side. She had dozed off along the end of the story, her soft snores filling the silence. The older woman smiled at the sight, closing the scrapbook and placing it on the table. It had become a tradition for her to tell her the story of how her and her father met. Aria would snuggle into her side with a birthday tiara on her head as she recanted the story that she was sure to know word for word after all this time.

Instead of walking up her daughter, Memphis grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and draped it over themselves. She kissed her daughter's forward, before leaning back to go to sleep as well.

"I love you Aria Henry Blake, Happy Birthday"