Chapter 1

I have waited for my first kiss since I was seven. That magical moment is one that I have dreamt about since the first time I ever watched the movie Practical Magic. The moment when Sandra Bullock runs into the arms of the man she loves, and they share their first kiss. The background music just brings you into the moment. That is where I have set my standards. For my first kiss, I want to hear music and run up into his loving arms to feel what I hope to be one of the single most sensual moments of my life.

I know most girls like to get their first kiss from the first boy they like. Not me, at the age of 7 I just knew that my first kiss would be from the man I loved. That is why I, Tara Stevens am now 21 and can say I have never been kissed. I bet at the age of seven I never thought I wouldn’t have found my true love by now. That’s what I get for believing in fiction. The only fictional story that is remotely true is the Princess and the Frog. The author of that was trying to get the true meaning of life out there. There are too many frogs out in the world, that I believe now wholeheartedly. They currently have taken over the male population and there is no prince charming left.

Hell, I’d just like one that would stop adjusting himself every five seconds, or hey how about keep his eyes at a respectable level. God didn’t make our faces on our chests for crying out loud! Ugh. The stress of today has really gotten to me if I am sitting here morosely thinking about my failures in life. Now, to get back at the problems at hand, my livelihood is about to be over in the mere matter of days and I can’t seem to get my head on straight.

I opened the Fashion Lovers clothing store 3 years ago and have loved every minute of it. My parents passed away on the day of my high school graduation and since they passed it had been hard for me to find anything to really enjoy in life. Everything had been a struggle to really cope with. I didn’t have any other family except for my parents so when they left, I was pretty much alone in the world. Most of my friends went off to college and what not, except for one friend, Dustin Jacobs.

Dustin and I have been friends since we were 8 years old. He grew up only a few houses down and we knew from the first day we met that we would be friends and stick together. My mother had thought we would drift apart because boys were so different from girls growing up, but not us. We were kindred spirits. I am falling in love with my best friend, and he is engaged to be married in only a few months. On top of that, I am losing my store. The property owner upped the rent six months ago and I have been trying to get caught up with all of the new expenses and seem to be finding myself in a bigger hole. I have three weeks to come up with three thousand dollars or I can kiss my life goodbye.

Sitting here in the small office at the back of my store on a Saturday night wallowing in self pity, is what my life has reduced to. Fashion Lovers has beautiful clothes that I get from distributers around the world. You can find items from many designer names and others with no-name brands. I have always liked to keep a wide variety to target a larger clientele. Now looking through the office door to the storage room that is nearly empty, I truly am appreciating the severity of the situation.

The office is a 6 by 8 room that was really meant to be a closet used to feel like home to me. Now sitting here with red ink everywhere, I find the walls closing in. Before I get too trapped and start having a panic attack, I decide on closing up shop before I completely lose my mind. I bunch up all the bills in front of me and throw them in the top drawer. They will keep until morning when I have a clear head. I switch the light off and proceed with locking the office up. On my way around the racks to the front of the store, I notice a package on the window display inside the store.

At first glance, I had thought I forgot to unpack some merchandise from the back but couldn’t remember the last time I had even touched the window display. As I near the package, I notice an address label with my name on it and store address. The mail man must have left the package outside again and someone brought it in for me.

I start opening the package and inside is a small grey box wrapped in bubble wrap. As I start opening the box, I notice it is a metal what looks like jewelry box with butterflies engraved on the top. In the center of the box there is an inscription.

My Friend, My Confidant

Tears begin to poor. The jewelry box is the same one I was looking at only a few weeks ago. I had told Dustin I had secretly always wanted a jewelry box and that one day I would buy this exact one. We had always called each other friend and confidant. It started when we were younger, and I had been watching Golden Girls with my mother. I would always sing the song at the beginning of the show and was fascinated with the word confidant. Ever since then, we had been using the phrase in cards and other gifts. God, I love this man!

Just then, my phone begins ringing. I look at the caller id and a smile forms on my lips.

“Well hello friend.” I answer.

“Hey, so you received my gift. I know you said not to get you anything this year, but I knew how much you wanted it and you have been saving money so I knew you wouldn’t get it for yourself.” I could hear the smile in his voice which made my sickening grin even wider.

“Thank you, D., I love it.” I couldn’t say any more or I was going to cry with him on the phone and that just wouldn’t do. Tears were meant for private moments by ones’self.

“I’m glad. You deserve it. Listen, I called you because Beth and I are going to Johnny’s tonight at 9 and we would love for you to join us. A few of the guys from work are going and so are a few of her friends.” Beth is Dustin’s fiancée. I wish I could say she is an evil person and I hate her, but that would just be a flat out lie. I can say that I tried to hate her. But God was not on my side with her. She is really a nice person, a little quiet but she has always treated me as a friend and not competition like most girlfriends of his have. Considering my feelings towards him, maybe the other girlfriends had it right. Though, I must admit that I would never act on these feelings. Well, at least, not now since he has finally found someone, he believes he wants to marry. Listen to me I’m really sounding spiteful. I should be happy for him. He has always been there for me.

“I don’t know. I have a lot to do tonight, D. Maybe- “

“Oh, no you don’t! Don’t even finish that sentence, Tara. I know you, remember? You are probably locking the doors to the store right now and heading home for a night with Ben & Jerry. Though I admit they are good, they are not good enough to keep hiding behind every weekend. You have to live and get out of the house.” Dustin was fuming now. I had royally pissed him off. “And furthermore, you will be there, and you will have a good night, if I have to go get you and drag you there kicking and screaming and you know I will.”

“Fine. I’ll be there when I get there. Bye!!” I disconnected and threw the phone in my purse. Oh, I had no doubt that he would make good on that promise. Two years ago, his PR firm had a Christmas party and he made me go. He literally picked me up and carried me to his car while I was pounding on his back screaming the whole way. I had to spend the rest of the night at a Christmas party where everyone else was wearing suits and dresses, while I was there in my tank top and fuzzy pajama pants with hearts on them. (Not one of my finer moments).

I locked the door to the store and walked three streets down to my loft. I rent from the same property owner from the store, which is how I got the spot for the store in the first place. I had told my property owner Gerald to look out for an opening for me when I decided to open up a store. He had one available two months after I asked him. At the time I thought it was meant to be. Now I am starting to think otherwise. Not only had Gerald gone up on the rent for the store, but also for the loft. It was all beginning to be too much for me. But here in Cape Shore, Mass, there are not many apartments available with low rent.

I took my phone out of my purse to look at the time. It was already rounding 8:00 and I was already dreading going out with all of them. I walked into the hall at the front of the building and walked up the three flights to my loft. Opening the front door, I heard the faint mews coming from my bedroom. Great, Max must have sneaked back in my room before I shut the door this morning. The damn cat was already 2 years old, and you would think he was only two months. He’s forever clawing everything that I own. The little bugger found a way into my drawers last week and destroyed half of my bras and underwear. He is out to get me.

It so happens the day he decided to do that, I had Dustin and my friend Jenny Winters come home with me for dinner and movie night. As soon as I opened the door, I had realized my mistake in leaving the bedroom door open. My pink bra and panty set were sitting on the floor as soon as we walked into the main living room. To add to my embarrassment, Dustin told me that was a sign from Max that he thinks that set would look better on me and that I should get out more. Jenny wouldn’t stop laughing while helping me get all of my undergarments back into my room to go through later.

As I opened the door to my bedroom, I started cursing the cat. Yup, underwear drawer again I see, and oh look this time he decided to throw up on them too.

“Damn it Max! Really? Are you personally out to get me or something?” Ugh this cat is going to be the death of me. In true male fashion he ducked his head and ran out past me. On my way over to my walk-in closet, I finally noticed the door was ajar. Great he must have gotten in here too. I opened the door with my eyes closed bracing myself for the mess in there.

Once I opened my eyes, I just laughed to myself. He must have just gotten into the closet because the only thing in disarray was the box of scarves, I had on one of the bottom shelves.

Thank God for small miracles.

I grabbed a black loose-fitting sweater that falls off the shoulders, dark blue skinny jeans, a purple halter top and my black engineer hat. Well, if I was going out, then I might as well look nice. Who knows I may find Mr. Right tonight. Yeah right! I already found Mr. Right, I just didn’t tell him before he found his Mrs. Right.

Life moves on, right?

# # #

Around 8:45 I headed down the stairs to the store before heading to Johnny’s. It was only three blocks down, so I had enough time to check on things before I headed out. Even though things were really starting to go to crap with the store, I always seem to have this feeling that something is going to happen to it if I leave for too long.

The store is really all I have right now. I have to find a way to salvage what’s left and find a way to bring it back. Maybe I could take Jenny’s advice and get the inventory from the store on the web. Online sales are a really booming business. Or so I’m told. I’ll think about that tomorrow.

Tonight is meant for fun, right? I checked all locks and when satisfied everything was okay, I headed to the bar. Showtime!

As I reached the front doors, I took a deep breath. While gathering my nerves to enter and plaster on my fake smile, my phone started ringing. Looking at the caller Id, I didn’t recognize the number. Curious I answered it anyways.

“Hello, this is Tara”

“Hello, Tara. So how did you enjoy your gift?” asked the ominous voice. It was so soft; I couldn’t tell if the caller was male or female.

“Who is this? What gift?”

“You know, you cannot have him. That must kill you. To spend so much time with the man you are in love with and not be able to tell him how you feel. Poor Tara.” There was a soft chuckle on the other line.

Panic started to rise. There was something wrong with this call. I have had prank callers before but nothing so personal has ever been stated before.

“I repeat in case you are hard of hearing. Who is this?” Now I was pissed. I was never a victim and never plan on being one.

“It has been fun chatting with you. I’ll call again real soon. Have fun at Johnny’s” The caller disconnected, and I was left standing there in front of Johnny’s with a fear deep in my soul. This person was not your average prank caller. This was serious. I decided to call the number back and try to get some of my power back.

As I hit send, the automated voice told me that it is not a valid number, to redial and try my call again. Another surge of panic started to arise, and I just tamped it down and gathered my bearings. No one was going to scare me, especially someone that has to hide behind immature prank calls and wrong numbers.

Before I had a chance to over think the situation, I swung open the door with a little more force than necessary and headed inside. Tonight, was my night to enjoy. Tomorrow I would go to the police department and file a police report.