The Breaking Point

Unpleasant Surprise

Jacob's POV:

Well, now since Trevor is gone and out of the way, no one is in charge of the Ballroom. I decided that as much as I hated this dreaded place, I'd take it into my own hands and renovate it into a night lounge. No strippers, no exotic dancers, just the sounds of jazz and the voices of talented singers. I told everyone in our staff that Trevor is dead and gone and that they could live their lives freely. Everyone was so happy, we all decided to have a huge dinner, staff only, before we all went our separate ways. I even called Stephane and invited her over from Washington. She was more than thrilled to see me again. Angela and I became close friends and I helped her find a space for her beauty boutique. She had a talent of doing hair and makeup for all of the female dancers and decided to put it to use.

I was on my way to an interview with artists who were interested in singing in my lounge. I had a lot of work to do in order to make this business work. So far, I had a kitchen staff and waiters, all I needed was entertainment and a decorating staff. My father was a business man before he died and I seemed to posses a lot of his qualities in the business management field. So I've been told by one of his old business partners that I so happen to run into at a cooking convention. I was looking through my schedule on my phone when I bumped into someone. "Sorry" We both said. Hold on, I recognize that voice.

"Ciara?" She stopped and looked at me, then blinked a few times while she covered her mouth. "Jacob, is that really you?" I nodded and smiled at her. She ran towards me and we embraced each other in a long hug. Ciara shook her head. "I can't believe I'm even seeing you right now- wait, why are you here, where's Trevor?" She looked around frantically. "He's gone forever." I said smiling. "Wow, so what happens to the Ballroom?" Ciara asked. "I'm turning it into a lounge, exotic dancer free. I have so many ideas of what I want to do and how it's going to be decorated. " I said as I started rambling.

Ciara smiled. "Wow, just wow." She shook her head again while looking down and frowning a bit. I didn't notice as I kept rambling and Ciara cut me off with something that immediately broke my heart.

"Jacob, I'm getting married."

I looked down at her. "What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Yeah, I'm getting married a month from now, on Saturday, March 12th, to a man named Nicolai Dalton." She said quickly as she took deep breaths. "Oh." I said. "Well...congratulations." I ran my fingers through my hair not knowing what to think. It was an awkward silence until Ciara spoke up. "You know, I was actually going to send this to you through mail." She said as she went through her bag and pulled out a vanilla envelope. "I know this is sudden but, I'd really like if you'd come...to the wedding." She handed it to me.

Did she just ask me to come to her wedding?
I took the envelope and looked at it. She always had such good handwriting. "Well I'll see if I could...stop by." I said still looking at the envelope. My thoughts were interrupted when Ciara's phone went off. "Oh, I was actually on my way to meet my girlfriends at that café over there." She pointed to the café behind us. "So, I guess I'll see you later?" She asked. I looked up from the envelope. "Uh, yeah I guess." She smiled and went up on her tippy toes and kissed my cheek lightly. "It was really nice seeing you Jacob."
She said as she started walking towards the café. I stood there.

"It was nice to see you too."