Gaming for Love (30 page)

“Whoa, Yasmin. That
dress is sick,” Luke tells me. Owen and Ryan nod their agreement.

“Thanks, Luke.”

“You look beautiful,
Yasmin,” Gary tells me, kissing my cheek. “Thank you for doing
this for my boy.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

We head to our table
and have a nice dinner, laughing and talking. It’s nice to see John
again and I tell him that. I notice that both Ryan and he keep
glancing to a gorgeous blonde across the room. She has a smile on
that doesn’t reach her eyes. A handsome guy who obviously thinks
he’s God’s gift to us all keeps trying to kiss her, but she is
expertly dodging him. He’s holding her hand, though. Ryan looks
like he wants to punch something…or cry. John just looks resigned.
I will have to ask Scott about it later.

I head to the restroom
before dessert. I walk out of the bathroom and start to head back to
the table when two women step into my path. They are both dressed in
similar bubble gum pink dresses and look like they haven’t eaten in
a year.

“I don’t know what
Scott sees in you, but he’ll toss you aside soon. I mean look at
that trashy dress you are wearing,” Thing One says to me.

“Seriously, are you
that desperate that you would need to put his last name on the front
of your dress and his mom’s name on the back?” Thing Two chimes
in, then adds, “You don’t know him like we do.”

I paste a sweet smile
on my face as I stare them down. “Oh, you mean like you know him
from when he fucked you in the closet?” Their eyes nearly pop out
of their faces and I continue. “And I think that if you really knew
him, you would know that these are his tattoos and that he loves my
dress. In fact he loves it so much, that when we get back to his
apartment, he is going to make love to me all night in
his
bed
. Just like he did last night.”

“Who do you think you
are, you bitch?” One sneers at me, seeming shocked that I would
stand up to her.

“She’s my
girlfriend.” Scott comes up behind me and puts his arm around my
waist. “And if you don’t shut the fuck up, I’ll have you thrown
out.” They looked dumbstruck that he is defending me. “Oh, and
for the record, I
am
going to take her back to
our
apartment and make love to her all night. And then, we are going to
go back to Vegas and pick out furniture for our house there. Because
anything that is mine is hers, too.”

They stand there with
their mouths open as we walk away laughing. “I’m sorry that I
didn’t get there faster, but you were holding your own.”

“It’s okay. I
was
holding my own. And you know what? I didn’t feel self-conscious
when they were insulting me, especially because they didn’t even
know that these were your tattoos. How is that possible?”

“I never took my
shirt off when I went in the closet,” he tells me with a laugh.

* * *

Scott

It’s almost time for
our speeches. I had mine written already but I would like to add
something. I ask my dad and Ryan if it is okay because it might
affect their deal, but they tell me that I’m more important than
any deal. I thank them and look over what I wrote, deciding on where
to add this in. I read what I had written to Mike at our last session
and he said it was great. Yas had gone with me to meet him a couple
of weeks ago and it was really good. He told me the next time I saw
him that he liked her. My parents and Ryan speak about Erin and Dave
and how we want to keep helping and then it’s my turn.

I take a deep breath as
I step up to the podium. “I want to thank you for this award and
for honoring my sister and brother in law’s memory. Many of you
know the circumstances of their deaths and you probably wouldn’t be
surprised to know that I blamed myself for a long time. I don’t
blame myself any longer because I realize that I was a victim too. I
wanted to get that out of the way but that is all I am going to say
about it publicly. I would rather talk about the people who I care
about, who love me and have helped me become the man that I am today.

“Dave was a great
guy. He was a wonderful husband to my sister and a wonderful father
to my niece, Alex. I will always be thankful to him for that. I will
also be thankful to him for being like a big brother to me. When he
married my sister, he took us all in as his family. His advice and
love helped me though high school. I love him and I miss him.

“My good friends John
and Zane helped me through some rough times, too. They were always
there for me and listened when I had a problem. To this day I know
that I can call them up and they will drop whatever they are doing to
talk to me. They mean more to me than they will ever know.

“My dad has always
supported me and let me find my own path. He didn’t think that it
would lead me to his company, but we have been pretty successful with
my work. I will always appreciate the love that he has shown me,
especially in my darker times.

“Ryan, Owen and Luke,
you are the best brothers that a guy could hope to have. You have
kicked my ass when I needed it and called me on my shit more than
once. You’ve also always been there through everything and helped
me with my plans, even if they were a little crazy sometimes.

“All of those guys
helped me and shaped me, but it is the women in my life who have
shown me how to love and be loved.

“My sister Erin was
always like a second mom to me. She held me when I cried in
elementary school because no one wanted to play with the nerdy kid.
She taught me about girls and how to treat them, telling me that if I
was a jerk, I would never get a girl who was worth it. I didn’t
listen to her for a long time, but now I know that she was right. I
love my sister and miss her every day. I carry her love with me and I
know that she is watching over me.

“There is nothing
that I can say about my mom that will be enough. She is the mom that
every kid hopes for. She makes the best mac and cheese and can scare
us all with one look. She also let my brothers and I find our own way
even when she knew we were making a wrong choice. She wanted us to
learn from our mistakes. She also made sure that we stayed humble
despite our wealth. My mother taught me about unconditional love and
I love her unconditionally back.

“When my niece, Alex,
was born and I held her in my arms, I knew what love at first sight
was. I could not be any prouder of this beautiful girl who is smart,
funny and honest. She told me off a few weeks ago when I was being an
ass and I will be thankful to her for that for the rest of my life.
She is a ray of light to everyone who meets her and I am honored to
have the love that she gives me.”

I pause to think of the
other woman in the room who I should be talking about next. After
what she did to Ryan, I can’t do that, even though she did so much
for me when we were younger. I take a deep breath before moving on to
tell them about the most important woman of all.

“There is one more
woman that I need to tell you about. She is the woman who owns my
heart. I belong to her mind, body, soul and everything in between.
She belongs to me, too, and I am the luckiest man in the world. From
the day we met, she challenged me and didn’t let me get away with
anything. She loves me honestly and, although we have had some bumps
along our path and will probably have more in the future, I know that
I will be spending the rest of my life with her. She’s horrible at
video games and will never be able to code a website but she loves me
and puts up with the nerd in me. She is also incredibly sexy,
sarcastic, fiercely independent and smarter than me in so many ways.
Tonight, she managed to do something even more amazing than I could
have thought possible. When we were first told about this party, the
PR people at our company told me that I would have to take out my
piercings and cover my tattoos. I’ve done that for other events,
but it didn’t feel right to cover up for this. My sister loved me
just the way I am and I wanted to be myself. My parents agreed with
me but I ultimately decided to listen to the PR people and covered
everything up. Then, my girl walked down the stairs to me wearing my
tattoos on her dress. She had it made by someone from Project Runway
and my tattoo artist and friend, Zane, helped them get it right. She
said that she wanted to show off my tattoos for me since I couldn’t
do it myself. I can’t imagine anyone doing anything for me that
would mean more. I love you, Yas, and I can’t wait to spend the
rest of my life with you.”

I jump off the stage
and pull her into my arms, kissing her passionately. The crowd claps
and then I hear Owen’s voice from the podium. “You all need to
hide your game controllers now.” Yas laughs against my lips and I
flip him off behind her back. My life is perfect now.

Yas

Six months later

We’re in Paris for
the wedding. Not our wedding, Erika and Sean’s. Scott’s new
program did extremely well and as a bonus, he insisted on paying for
this wedding for them and flying all of us out here. They are getting
married in Monet’s gardens at Giverny with just their families,
Scott’s family, Sam, Danny, Candi and me. Scott and I will be
staying a few days after the ceremony to explore Paris. I closed the
store for a week so that we could all be gone. I can afford it now.

The gardens are
magnificent and Erika looks beautiful in her lacy Elie Saab gown.
Sam, Alex and I are in short gold Elie Saab dresses as her
bridesmaids. The guys are in black suits. There are the natural
flowers growing around us and Erika brought in gorgeous white
flowers, offset by gold ribbons. Her cake is a masterpiece of white
and gold layers. We all eat, dance and drink into the night. Sam
catches the bouquet, which is fitting since she and Danny are already
engaged and will be getting married at Disney World next year. Scott
is paying for that, too. He has no reason to, but he says that he
loves my friends and wants to do this for them. We head back to the
little inn where we are staying and fall into bed so that we can get
up early for the train into Paris.

In Paris, we are
staying at the George V. I would have picked a small hotel, but Scott
likes to stay at luxurious hotels with me. Yesterday we explored
Montmarte and went to the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay. I loved it
all, especially the museums. I let Scott buy me a bunch of stuff from
the museum shops, because I knew he would just watch me again if I
didn’t tell him what I wanted. I felt a little weird at first,
being here with him, when I know that he once wanted to make a trip
to Paris with Amber. Scott assured me that what we are experiencing
is nothing like what he would have been doing with her. She would
have just taken him to all of the most expensive boutiques and
expected him to buy them out for her. I prefer the fun, little French
shops although I did pick up a few designer things. I paid for them
myself, though.

We kissed on the top of
the Eiffel Tower last night. This morning, we went to the Lover’s
Bridge and left a lock. I know that they take them down to make room
for more but I really wanted to do it and Scott thought it was cool,
too. We ate at a café and looked at a flea market for things for our
house.

Scott moved in with me
last month. It was time. Well, actually it was past time, but, he has
been patient with me as I fully learned to trust him again. He’s
still been having sessions with Mike, but they’re now only meeting
once a week. I am proud of him for getting help and working on his
issues. I decided that going to school full-time wasn’t good choice
right now, but Scott convinced me to take a few online classes. I’ve
enjoyed them and it’s nice to do the work when it’s convenient
for me.

We just went to Laduree
for macaroons and saw Notre Dame, standing on the spot marking the
center of Paris. Now, we are headed into Shakespeare and Company, a
famous bookstore that I really want to see. I want to buy a copy of
Much Ado About Nothing
,
my favorite Shakespeare play.

“Why don’t we just
ask the guy at the counter? They probably keep all of the Shakespeare
plays up there,” Scott says as we try to navigate around other
shoppers.

“Umm, OK,” I tell
him, wondering why he is in a rush. He knows that I wanted to come
here and he’s been acting weird today.

I ask the guy at the
counter and he
does
have a copy behind the register. He smiles brightly at us as he rings
it up. I pay for it and Scott hurries me out of the store. He finds
an empty bench and pulls me down next to him.

“Is everything okay,
Scott?” I ask him nervously.

“Everything is
perfect, Yas. Open up the bag and look at your book, please.”

“I can wait until
later.”

“No, baby, I
need
you to look at it now.”

“Okay.” I pull the
book out and see the ring tied to a ribbon like a bookmark. It is a
princess cut diamond surrounded by square purple sapphires around it
and more diamonds on the band. It is big, but not huge. “Scott?”
I look up as he slides off the bench and gets on one knee in front of
me.

“Yasmin, I know that
I should write you a big speech, but I’ve already done that, so I
am going to keep this simple. I love you and I want you to be my
wife. Will you please marry me?”

“Yes, oh my God, yes
Scott!” I pull him to me and kiss him as I hear clapping around us.
We pull apart and receive congratulations from the crowd.

“Do you like it?”
he asks slipping it on my finger.

“I love it and I love
you, Pretty Boy.” I tell him and I can’t wait to spend the rest
of my life with him.

First, I would like to
thank my daughters, Dominique and Gabrielle for always supporting me
and inspiring me. They have told me that they will never read my
books (because that would just be weird), but they encouraged me to
go for it and write!