Chapter 2

Sandra lay in bed unable to sleep. She has the opportunity of staying in Arizona at the time, as she wanted to further her studies in nursing but she was deeply in love with her college sweetheart Dan Logan and when he moved back home to Baltimore, she decided to neglect all her plans and move in with him with hopes that she will work and study in Arkansas. She soon realized her mistake a few months after moving in with her now ex-boyfriend, they split up. Dan always had his eyes set on numerous ladies. After several confrontations and arguments with him, she decided to move out and get her apartment. Luckily she had already started working at a restaurant and could support herself with her meager salary. She still had hopes of going to nursing school and kept her eyes on the mark. Returning home was not an option. It was times like these that Sandra wished she was home with her mother.

Eric was averagely built, with a good figure and lots of money and women at his disposal which he mostly shrugged off after one-night stands. He knew most of the ladies were on to him for his money and he accommodated them when he needed to relax. As he lay in bed that night losing sleep, he could not get his mind off Sandra. He knew he had to see her again and this time he was going to ask her for a date. Must I be honest with her from the get-go he thought to himself? He knew he just wanted friendship, no, a little more than that, and decided he was going to just be there, nothing serious but how could he tell her he just wanted a fling, no, he would rather avoid the subject and just let things go with the flow. He kept churning out possible ideas on how to approach Sandra the next day as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

At the first streak of sunlight, Eric jumped out of bed. Today was not the usual hectic day filled with meetings but he knew he needed an early day at work to sort out the several proposals he had received for his new building project so that he could get the afternoon off and see if he could spend some quality time with Sandra. The thought of her filled him up through the night and he wanted to get it sorted out. 

Eric had established different companies in Arkansas and was also a board member in many different companies. His new project was going to be the talk of the town as he had dreamt it would be, two twin 20-storey buildings linked together by a small bridge with all social amenities inside. Fascinating, he thought to himself as he carefully shaved his beard in the shower. "I need to look good today," he thought out loud, " I must make a good first impression, who knows today will be a winning day for me with Sandra". He hurriedly showered and made himself a cup of coffee.

Sandra woke up with a terrible headache. The alarm would not stop ringing. She turned around and shut it down.  The news of her mother's missing dog, Roxy, kept her drifting in and out of sleep the whole night. I need to place a quick call to my mother, I guess she will be stressed out by now. She got out of bed and placed a call through to her mother who exclaimed " thank goodness, we found Roxy last night, it was too late to call you as I thought you would already be asleep". Good news mother exclaimed Roxy as her mother continued to rant on and on about how a neighbor found the dog. Sandra found a way to quickly excuse herself as she knew her mother would not stop talking. She had to be early at work as she did not want to get in on a bad start with George.

As she got to work she realized she was early and had a few minutes before the start of work. She had been procrastinating checking for a few more schools online. Sandra was afraid of the commitments ahead and it worried her as she was not sure how she would be able to manage her school and work life together. She browsed through some school's profiles and gathered a few more pieces of information just before she signed in for work.

Eric's receptionist, dialed the intercom to inform him of his ex-wife's presence at the reception. "Damn!" Eric exclaimed. He had completely forgotten he had some paperwork left to finalize with her today. Let her in, he responded to Mary as he ruffled his fingers through his hair. He hoped all they had agreed on had been properly documented as he did not want any arguments today. His marriage to Jessica was filled with arguments mostly centered around his infidelity. She felt Eric did not shower as much love as he did before they got married. She will not be able to fully commit to children when she always felt so insecure and decided to end the marriage before it began.

Jessica walked in, looking beautiful as always wearing a striking pink halterneck top that revealed her cleavage and black three-quarters pants on tiger-printed stilettos. Just as charming as she always was. Bright red lipstick and nails painted red to complete her charm. Jessica was a charismatic woman who was outgoing. Their first meeting was at the beach in Miami. He remembered her in her tapered bikini as he thought to himself if I can have her I would keep her. Where did he go wrong he thought to himself as Jessica greeted him taking a seat across from him jolting him back to reality.

They exchanged pleasantries and Jessica proceeded to hand over some papers to him. "Can I take a day or two to read this?" he asked as he stretched out his hands to receive the documents from her. Of course, she replied but all that we discussed are in there. I even got my lawyer to read through just in case I had missed out on anything she continued. No problem replied Eric. I will also get my lawyers to read through and I will send them over to your office In 2days. Thank you she replied and proceeded to stand up. Eric's eyes fell on her breasts; he remembered the warmth he felt whenever he held them in his arms. He quickly brought himself back to reality. It was over and he was sure she was now in some other man's bed.