120 Blind Dates... And Other Short Stories

Chicklit Flash Fiction Prompt #31: A Ghost Of Her Past

I made a mistake and thought this was supposed to be up to 2,000 words (not characters) long. So I wrote a full story, which I'm going to post here...
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She couldn't believe they were doing this to her.

Her younger sister was not only dating her ex-boyfriend, but she had just announced that she was pregnant by him and all set to marry him on Valentine's Day next year.

When Ivy had dropped her baby bombshell during their family dinner on Christmas Day, a children's choir had been singing, "We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year! Good tidings we bring to you and your kin...", because they had been listening to a festive Christmas CD on her father's insistence. Daddy was over the moon at the prospect of becoming a grandfather, of course. No matter how successful he had been as a businessman, he had always put his family's needs first.

Everyone seemed to be positively tone-deaf regarding the aunt-to-be, who felt that she had been more humiliated by this whole affair than she had ever been in her life.

Or as Ryan, the baby daddy, had put it when he had broken up with her six weeks ago: "C'mon, Chrissie, all we shared was a summer fling! I'm thankful for that though because I met Ivy through it. And she is the love of my life."

At least he had had the decency not to appear overly joyous when his girlfriend's pregnancy had been announced. As a matter of fact, she noticed that he had been watching her reaction. He must have supposed correctly that his baby news would hurt her deeply. So it wasn't as if he didn't care about her anymore. He probably cared too much about her. She had no idea how her sly sister had managed to embark on a relationship with him. From her point of view, her romance with Ryan had been more than a mere "summer fling." But Ivy had seduced him, and now Ryan was paying the price for it. His reputation was at stake here, not hers.

Christina - or "Chrissie," as she was often called - had first met Ryan at a fashion show in Paris. With his rugged good looks, she had taken him for a male model at first. A society gossip columnist, she didn't know much about the world of fashion. She was only there because Bernie, her boss and the editor of "Mrs." magazine, had insisted that she cover the fashion week and because she had never been to Paris.

Ryan had immediately tried to make eye contact with her backstage. She had ignored him because she was at the show to interview the designer, not to flirt with the models, no matter what shade of blue their eyes were.

But as it turned out, Ryan wasn't one of the models, but the big boss himself. She noticed her blunder when the designer's Japanese assistant came over and told her that "Ryan" was ready for the 5-minute interview. As she was formally introduced to the gorgeous guy by his assistant and shook hands with him, her red face and apologetic facial expression betrayed her embarrassment. But he appeared to be ready to put the matter to rest and invited her to go out with him that night, turning a 5-minute interview into a 5-course candlelight dinner.

"It is a great compliment to be taken for a male model, don't you think?" he asked her while they were sipping the most delicious red wine she had ever tasted in her life and waiting for the main course to arrive. Of course, he had chosen a restaurant that provided a great night view of the sparkling Eiffel Tower.

"I can think of better compliments. Like, that you're a great designer, or that your show was quite impressive," she stated.

"So I impressed you today, huh?" he asked.

"I think you impressed almost everybody today," she admitted. His interest in her opinion appeared to be a quite honest one; and yet she was wondering whether this was how he usually proceeded when he had met a woman he wanted to get into bed.