Spaces in Between

Chapter Four: Adrianna

“You really weren’t behind it?” I asked James once we were settled back in his car. He laughed and looked at me.

“For the thousandth time, Ria, Jade was the one who did the stalking.”

I noted that he was calling me with a different nickname, one that I wasn’t entirely used to, “It’s Aide.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t like Ria. It was just the first time someone called me a name other than Adrianna or Aide. And somehow it made this whole ordeal a lot more intimate. James looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head, “I like Ria better.”

Before I could protest, I heard his phone ring and he looked at me, “Can you take it?”

I took his phone from the dashboard, “Hello?”

“Hello? Who is this? Is my son there?”

“Mrs. Parker? Hi. It’s Adrianna.”

“Adrianna!” she sounded so surprised and I couldn’t help but giggle, “The two of you are together?”

“He brought me to meet his friends.”

Without seeing her, I knew that she was smiling because of my words, “That’s nice. Well, I called him to tell him to pick up Jesse and Gabriella to school and then you at work since we’re coming over to your house for dinner.”

“To talk about the wedding?” I asked softly.

“To talk about the wedding. But since the two of you are already together, can you pick his siblings up? And come straight to your place. Claire already packed clothes for the two. You can pick it up at her bakeshop. I’ll see you later, then.”

“Okay. I’ll tell him that. Bye Mrs. Parker.”

“And it’s just Liz, Adrianna. Goodbye.”

I placed James phone back to his dashboard and he glanced at me, “What did Mom want?”

“Well, apparently, your entire family is gonna have dinner at my parent’s place and so am I. And we’re gonna have to pick up Gabriella and Jesse at school. And Claire already has their clothes at the bakeshop.”

James nodded, “Bakeshop first then.”

Despite the heavy New York traffic, we arrived at his sister’s bakeshop in record time. Somehow, I’ve heard of the place. Most of the staff bought their pastries here and swore that it was the best in the city. I’ve never tried, I wasn’t a big fan of baked goods but the sweet aroma did make me drool once I entered.

“James!”

I vaguely remembered talking to her before at the White Party. She was Claire but there had been drastic changes in her appearance since I last saw her. Her then long blonde hair was now cut short, only resting on her shoulders and she appeared more slender and taller but her beautiful blue eyes didn’t change. She gave James a hug and then turned to me with a smile.

“Adrianna,” she said softly, “It’s nice seeing you again.”

I smiled at her, “It’s nice to see you too, Claire. Are you coming with us?”

She shook her head and gestured at her shop, “It’s not closing time yet. I’ll be there though. Support my big brother.”

I nodded, “I’ll see you there then.”

She handed James a small backpack which I presumed held their younger siblings clothes and then she playfully slapped his back, “Go pick up Gabi and Jesse. You know she hates waiting.”

When we arrived at the school, there were only two people left. The back door opened, “Well, it took you long enough. And you know what I don’t even get why we’re supposed to come to dinner to your fiancé when in fact, it’s all just arranged to why do we have to come and meet her and plan the wedding with everyone when they could just pay a planner to have it all set.”

“Ugh, I hate the clothes Claire packed,” she muttered, “And fyi, I am confused at your future wife. She might be totally into you to just agree to marry a man she hasn’t even met. I mean who the hell doesn’t want to jump into an opportunity to marry James Parker. And what about you? The last time I checked you wouldn’t date because you’re still pin-,”

“Gabriella,” James chided, his voice stern and then he motioned his head to where I sat, “You shouldn’t be rude.”

When I turned to face her, her eyes widened but it didn’t seem like she was fazed, “Oh. So you couldn’t have said hi when the door opened?”

“Gabriella!” James scolded, his tone firmer, “Why are you so rude?”

“She’s here?” I faintly heard a guy’s voice and then Gabriella wasn’t in view and then a teenage guy replaced her. He looked a lot like James, blonde-brown hair but his eyes weren’t blue. They were hazel and he looked like an all-American boy that would be cast on an American TV series, “Oh Nate’s gonna have a field day if he finds out I got to see her first.”

“I don’t even see what the big deal is!” Gabriella scoffed, grabbing her clothes and then heading back to school, not before throwing Jesse the backpack.

Jesse followed suit and James turned to me with a sigh, “I’m sorry about Gabi. She’s not normally that rude. She’s sweet, to be honest, she never really liked it when I’m in some sort of relationship.”

“She’s fiercely protective of you,” I mused, “It’s fine. I used to be like that with Nick. With Justin, not so since he was a player. And then there’s Andrew but I’ve never seen him take interest on anything other than his music. And my brothers’ are way more protective of me that I ever was of them.”

“But they’re okay with this?”

I sighed, “It’s Dad’s word against ours. We can’t do anything if the King has spoken.”

Jesse and Gabriella came back and I had a good look at Gabriella. She had brown hair like Will’s and brown eyes that were filled with so much fire and ambition. I couldn’t help but smile, I saw a lot of Lily in her. But then she had spunk too so she was a cross of Lily and I.

She moved forward and then rested her arms on James’ and mine’s seat, “Okay. So maybe I was uncharacteristically rude to you. But before I remove all barriers, tell me why you agreed to this, Adrianna. You are a former VS angel and you can have any guy you want so why agree to marry a guy you just met?”

“Gabri-,”

I shush James with a raise of my hand. I turned to Gabriella, our brown eyes meeting, “Okay, I know how it must look to you. Your brother is so devilishly handsome and an eligible bachelor and has thousands of girls wanting him and then comes an opportunity for one girl to marry him and the said girl grabbing it. But I didn’t grab it for a chance to tie James Parker to me.”

“Then why?”

I sighed, “I’m in love with someone else, okay? But it’s my father’s word against mine. It’s our fathers’ words against ours.”

“And Gabi, they’re helping us,” Jesse interjected, “So stop being such a b***h about it.”

Gabriella huffed and then seized me up and down, “Well. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.”

I flashed her a smile, “Thanks.”

The travel time to my place was long but the Parker siblings kept me entertained. I was right about Gabriella, she was a cross between Lil and I and I’m sure that my best friend would love to meet her and have her be her protégé. Jesse, on the other hand, was a little bit quiet and reserved. He’d join James’ and Gabriella's bantering but he stayed quiet and just listened to his music. When I’d ask him a few questions to get him to talk, he’d answer me politely but he didn’t add more to his answer which made him all the more mysterious to me.

“Well, Nate’s here,” Jesse commented once James parked his car and I saw a tall figure on the front porch. He was decked in a dark blue dress shirt and black pants. His blonde hair was cropped short and neat and his blue eyes were dark and mysterious. I’ve been in the presence of guys like him before, guys who acted mysterious and charming and held the bad boy’s looks.

If I could classify the Parker brothers, I’d say this. Jesse had the all-American looks and boyish smile but he held a mysteriousness that drew girls in. Nate, I guess his name would be, held the bad boy’s image. Cool and collected, he knew his looks would make girls fall in line. And then there was James. He held more charm than Jesse and Nate combined and he seemed to know just the right things to say. If I was just an ordinary girl, he would be the guy that I pictured my prince charming would be.

“Hello,” Nate greeted me once I was in front of him, “Nathan Parker.”

Jesse clasped his back, “Don’t do the smooth talking, Nate. You do realize that it’s still James she’s marrying.”

Nate glared at him, “I was just going to ask if she has any sisters I could take out on a date.”

“Nope. Not that I know of,” I said answering, “I do have a three-year-old niece.”

Nate groaned and Jesse and James guffawed at him before entering the room. Gabriella stayed behind and I noticed her hesitation. I looked at her, “What’s wrong?”

She sighed, “I just don’t get it okay? I don’t get why James is doing this when he’s in love with someone else.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. I know I’ve only spent a short time with him but I can’t remember him ever mentioning that he liked someone else. In all honesty, he acted like all this way okay to him. So he might be doing this as an apology for the rejection of taking over to his father but it never occurred to me that he might be doing this to heal his own broken heart.

James popped back on the front porch and gave both of us a questioning look, “What’s got you two held up?”

I shook my head, “Nothing. Just got into talking.”

He glanced at Gabriella, “I hope she didn’t say any more rude things.”

Shaking my head, I flashed Gabriella a smile, “No. She didn’t say anything rude. Actually, I don’t find her rude at all. She reminds me of myself and Lily, a cross of us.”

“Who’s Lily?” Gabriella asked loudly.

“Attorney Lillian Wesley,” I said with a proud smile, “I’ll introduce her to you next time.”

She grinned at me for the first time today and the three of us entered the house. I grabbed James hand though, wanting to talk to him for a moment regarding what Gabriella said, “James.”

He glanced at my hand on his and he gave me a teasing smile, “So you’re starting to be totally okay with this now? You’re getting touchy.”

Rolling my eyes, I let go of his hand, “Gabriella told me you’re in love with someone. Is that true? Is that one of the reasons why you’re doing this?”

I watched as his demeanor changed completely. Gone was the guy who seemed sweet and charming to someone he just met and came in a cold, almost lifeless one, “I told you, this is purely business.”

“You told me you wanted to heal my broken heart,” I stated, “When you told me you lost a friend through a broken heart, you meant yourself, didn’t you? Because whoever you’re in love with broke your heart to the point that you can’t love someone else.”

So many thoughts ran to my head, so many what-ifs, so many possibilities. And in the silence that embraced the two of us, in the tension that filled the atmosphere, I watched as his face started to morph into the one I’ve seen all day, as he started to calm down. He closed his eyes for a brief second as if composing himself from the myriad of memories that I knew that flashed before his eyes.

“Why did you agree to this, James?” I asked him the second time, “I want the real answer this time.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, “She wasn’t exactly my first girlfriend or my first but she was the first girl I really loved. When she broke up with m, I chased after her thinking that that was what she wanted but she upped and left New York and I followed still. I was desperate, I wanted her.

“And after all this time, I waited for her,” he whispered, shaking his head, “It’s why I never dated, for fear that she’ll come back and get hurt because I chose someone else. I wanted her to see that I waited, like the guy in the song of The Script.”

He then motioned to the couch and the two of us sat down. He tugged on the collar of his shirt and then exhaled loudly, “But then when Dad told the media I was engaged, I realized that it’s been so long and she hasn’t come back to me. When Dad explained that the marriage was for the business, I knew I had to do it because I owed him for having to reject it for the meantime.

“And then I met up with your Dad and he told me you were so broken over some guy who left you. And when I saw you, I saw myself. I saw how broken I was too and I realized that I chose to be broken and on that night, I chose to piece myself together. I saw this whole arrangement as an opportunity to heal my heart, to open it to a new love.”

I could only stare at him, unable to comprehend the words he was saying, “What does that mean, exactly?”

He shrugged, “For three years I’ve been scared to have any entanglements with other girls, for fear that I might ruin the relationship through whatever way I did with my previous one, for fear that she might come back and get hurt. And now finally, I realize that I need to finally let this go. She isn’t gonna come back to me. And being with you means that I get to overcome my fear.”

I stayed quiet for a moment, my thoughts overwhelming me until I finally asked the one that bugged me the most, “What if you fall in love with me?”

His blue eyes darkened for a moment and I shivered at the intensity that his gaze brought, “Then I fall. If you’re still in love with him when I do, then it’s my heart that gets broken a second time around. But if it patched up for the first time, then it’ll heal again.”

“James-,”

He shifted closer to me, and then he reached for my hand, “I want this to work, Adrianna. I’m grateful that your family is helping us with the business, but I want to fix myself. And I want you to fix yourself. We can do it, together.”

It wasn’t as easy as he seemed to imply. I was still helplessly in love with Adam and he was still on the process of moving on from his ex after three long years of hoping. But the hopeful look in his blue eyes made me want to believe that it could happen, that I could let go of Adam and he could move on from his ex, “We’ll see.”