Lost In Autumn

                   
Lost in Autumn

    
 
  
  
Written
by Frankie Delgado

Contents

Copyright

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

                                     
 
Frankie
Delgado

Copyright © 2016 Delgado
Publishing

All rights reserved. Except
as permitted under the U.S Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication
may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means
without prior written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction.
Names, places, characters and incidents are either products of the author’s
imagination or used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living
or dead, or businesses, organizations or locales is completely coincidental.

Chapter One

“Mommy, Mommy!”

The clear innocent pitch of the little girl’s voice pierced
through my hazy thoughts and brought me back to the park bench where I was
sitting. “I wanna ride the merry-go-round Mommy!” her upturned tiny nose
wrinkled and her sea blue eyes looked up pleadingly at her mother. “Sure baby,”
the woman replied “Daddy will push you.” She smiled over at her husband and
helped her daughter wrap herself around the metal bars as he began slowly
pushing the ride around. I smiled to myself, enjoying the enthusiasm the girl’s
face displayed over such a simple activity. My mind began to wander back into
dreamland and my eyes filled with tears as thoughts overcame me of how soon I
would be welcoming my own daughter into the world. I too would be playing at
the park with my own little girl - but there would be no husband. That was no
longer in the picture. If only things had turned out differently.

 
If…

         
If only.

When I was twenty-one everything in my life was almost
perfect. I was in my second year at college after taking a gap break for two
years when I graduated high-school. I took the break so that I could backpack
in Thailand and “find myself”. I came back to the States with a clear mind and
a determination to get my degree in Anthropology. I loved studying different
cultures and people, and I wanted a degree that I could travel the world with.
I was in the best shape of my life – I was still slender from my travels and
walking everywhere in Thailand and now that I was back home, I had started to
lift weights almost every morning. The sleek sculpted tone that figure now
displayed, showed off my commitment to my new habit. I had started my own
online business from my travel blog and I had started to do freelance and
coaching for other bloggers. I wasn’t a millionaire, but I made enough to pay
for school and my living expenses.

School and work kept me too busy to maintain a relationship,
and the few dates I had been on since I had moved back had left me unimpressed
and bored. I was content being alone. I didn’t need anyone distracting me from
my goals, and I had never met anyone I didn’t want to live without, until the
Saturday that I met Darren.

Saturday, August 21,
2010. 11:02 pm

As I walked across
campus towards the Suzzalo Library, I inhaled the scent of the approaching
autumn and I was glad that I had decided to wear my northwest green sleeveless
blouse. The sun was warming my still summer-brown shoulders and a trickle of
perspiration made its way from my cleavage to my belly button. I had about an
hour to study before I had to head out to meet some of my friends at the Mariners-Yankee
game. I used the back of my hand to wipe off the mustache of sweat that had
collected on my upper lip and smirked to myself.
It’s a good thing I don’t have anyone to impress today
.
 
My long chestnut hair had a slight wave in it
from the humidity and I could tell my eyeliner had smudged. I walked under the
archway and opened the glass door of the library adding my sweaty palms to the
collection of handprints on the glass.

I plopped down in
one of the wooden chairs and opened my textbook. Long rows of tables spread out
in front of me with a handful of other students spending the afternoon in the
same pastime. I read the first page of words and after I reached the last
sentence, I realized that I couldn’t remember a single sentence I had read. I
sighed and started over only to be distracted by a soft deep voice behind me.
“Is that seat taken?” I followed the sound of the masculine voice up from the
dark wash of his snug fitted jeans, the swell of ripped pectoral muscles to the
intense chestnut eyes that were inquisitively looking at me. “Huh?” I swallowed
awkwardly and immediately felt embarrassed over my not so glamorous response.

“Oh. No.” I barked
out and flashed my eyes back to my studies. I peeked up through my eyelashes as
he walked in front of me and gave me a full view of his glutes.
Shit, stop gawking!
I was acting like I
was going through puberty and I was ashamed of myself. He sat down in the seat
opposite from me and appeared to lose himself in his book. I turned my full
attention back to my studies, narrowed my eyes and focused.

I struggled my way
through two chapters. I felt like I hadn’t accomplished very much, but I needed
to go. It was only 12:02 pm now but the game started at 1:05 pm and I wanted to
stop by my dorm and have a quick snack to avoid the expensive stadium food.

I gathered my things
and had almost reached the door when I heard that deep voice again.

“Excuse me. Miss? I
believe this is yours?”

I turned around in
response but no words came out of my mouth.

The muscled almost
godly man handed me the small canary yellow case that I had somehow nudged out
of my purse that I tried to carry all my belongings in.

I flushed a bit
knowing the contents were my pocket-size vibrator and tampons – an odd
combination.

“Thank you!” I
studied his face trying to decide if there had been enough time for him to look
inside.

The mischievous look
in his dark eyes made my cheeks turn even brighter than they already were and
my stomach dropped as he replied with a smirk,

“My
pleasure.
”

He dragged the word
out as long as possible and finished it with a knowing wink.

I was flustered and
quickly stuffed the damn yellow case back in purse and continued my journey to
the door, hoping that even though he was incredibly hot, that I would never run
into him again.

I arrived back at my
small off-campus apartment where my best friend and roommate Janet was waiting
to ride with me to the game.

 
“Hey girl heyyyy,” she drawled dramatically
and slapped my booty as I walked in.

“I swear Nala, your
butt gets bigger every day - it isn’t fair!”

I giggled over the
compliment and walked over to the refrigerator even though I knew it was
probably empty. Janet rarely bought groceries and I hadn’t been to the store
yet this week.

An eggroll that was left
over from Chinese takeout I had ordered on Tuesday and a small amount of lemon
chicken was all that was inside, apart from condiments and a half empty ginger
ale bottle.

“Still good,” I
mumbled and stuck the whole eggroll in my mouth so I could free both hands and
pour myself a glass of J. Rieger whiskey – Kansas City deliciousness that Janet
had bought for my 21
^st
birthday.

I topped off my
midday drink with the rest of the ginger ale and one of my circle ice cubes
that I kept in the freezer just for such occasions.

Setting the rest of
my eggroll on the counter, I joked “If an ice cube is a circle, do you still
call it an ice
cube
or is it an ice
circle
?”

I had a bad habit of
making dumb jokes and being the only person to find it hilarious.

Janet ignored my
query and stole a sip of my drink.

“blech!” her cherry
red lips left a print on the rim of my glass and then twisted into a disgusted
expression, “I don’t know how you actually like whiskey. I can only drink
fruity drinks and this stuff is just nasty.”

“You’re just a wimp,”
I teased her as I swallowed my last bite, washed it down with my cocktail and
grabbed my keys.

“Come on turd,” I
pulled on the front of Janet’s baseball jersey to lead her out the door.

Safeco Field was
only a short fifteen-minute drive from our apartment, but by the time we found
a place to park and walked to the gate, the game had already begun.

“We’re in section
331, row 7, and you are in seat 6, I’m seat 7, and then my classmates that I
invited are sitting on both sides of us,” Janet informed me as we passed
through security and the attendants scanned our tickets.

“Anyone I know?” I usually
had social anxiety when meeting new people, but in the environment of a
sporting event, I wasn’t as worried about having to force an awkward
conversation with some stranger.

“I don’t think
so…Amanda is coming...Eric, Natalie, Erin, Darren and Jon said they were coming
too. You’ll like them, I promise!” she reassured me. Janet was a people-person
and didn’t have any difficulty making new friends and her blonde hair, blue
eyes, and petite figure never failed to keep a crowd of admiring boys around as
well.

Our seats were at
the top of the stadium behind home plate and as we climbed the flights of
stairs that seemed to go on forever, I could see the net that covered all the
bleachers.

“Aww dang it,” I
moaned with mock disappointment in my voice. “Why didn’t you pick seats where I
could catch a baseball and get it signed by Derek Jeter? The day is ruined now.”
I sighed dramatically.

“These seats are
just fine and it’s not like you want to meet him anyways, he’s a big old
sloozy.”

We reached our
crowded row and started sliding awkwardly past the line of knees with our butts
at the eye-level of everyone seated.

“Seat 3… Excuse me!
4… pardon!” I softly said the seat numbers as we neared seats 6 and 7 and I
stopped to let Janet squeeze in front of me to sit down first.

A flying insect of
some type flew in front of Janet’s eyes, and she began to swat back and forth
wildly in my face.

“Sweet baby Jesus!
Tits!” she cussed while simultaneously striking me in the tits and sending me flailing
into the warm lap behind me.

I felt a pair of rock
hard arms reach out to support me and I immediately began apologizing before
even making eye-contact with whomever I had just sat on in such a familiar way.

“I’m so sorry,
please excuse me!” I pleaded as I turned my head and looked directly into those
smoldering mischievous eyes from the library.

Color flooded my
face for the second time that day as I realized who I was perched upon.

I reached for the
armrests to clamor my way back to my feet but his arms were still holding me to
his iron chest. I could hear Janet’s bubbly laugh next to me breaking me out of
my daze.

“Don’t apologize to
Darren. It’s not like you could have possibly hurt him,” she giggled.

I struggled again to
stand up as I felt a hard bulge against my left butt cheek.
Was that his…?
I didn’t finish the
thought as I finally slid successfully into my seat and hoped some of the red
in my face had faded.

“Nala, this is
Darren. Darren – Nala, although I think you’re past the point of introductions
now since you’ve already sat on his lap,” Janet teased.

I reached out to
shake hands to try to get some formality back into the situation, but
immediately regretted my decision as his fingers touched mine and squeezed
slowly, making my heart race and causing a needy ache between my thighs.