Work. Plan Wedding. Drink Beers. Train Idiots. Sex. Sleep.

That had become Imara’s strangely typical day. As she sat on one of the lawn chairs watching the two ding dongs run around the yard pulling weeds and mowing the grass, Imara couldn’t quite place when her life had become so….predictable.

The bottle of beer she held to her mouth was cold and it seemed refreshing after yet another round of ‘chicken or fish’ with the pair of mothers who somehow always seemed to know when she was trying to sneak out of the office. It didn’t matter what time it was. Today Imara had tried to go out the bathroom window at 2 in the afternoon.

They were waiting for her.

Leaning forward in the chair, Imara felt her head hang forward. She was gazing down at the bottle she held with both hands between her legs. This wasn’t what she had wanted, was it? To be some business woman running her husband’s gym and training the up and coming….

The sound of the lawn mower stopping make Imara look up and through her white bangs. She could see Connor over the machine as Jane turned to eye her. None of them said a thing.

Finally Imara stood, turned them them and walked inside. They could either figure it out on their own or do laps. She had told them to clean up the yard and leaving it half done wasn’t an option. Punishment for falling short on requirements last week after all.

Pulling out the chair at the kitchen table, Imara flopped into it and watched the troublesome pair kick the machine. No way in hell she was going to leave them on their own. They knew well enough she was going to be watching until she gave them permission to shower and relax.

But that was just it. When had she become so predictable?

Gazing down at the ring on her hand, Imara took a long deep breath. Oh she knew when it was. When the man she was going to marry brought her into his world. Imara didn’t blame Mathias. Oh ******** no, not at all. She blamed herself. Mathias had so much going for him in both their everyday lives and in their second lives. He was a General in one, if not THE, most powerful organizations in the World. His time needed to be spent where the most good would be done.

So she had fallen into place. Fallen into becoming the person he could depend on no matter what the task. Keep the books. File the taxes. Organize the files on new recruits. Train those under their guidance. Only thing she didn’t do was cook or grocery shop. That one was on him.

Not that anyone wanted her to cook anyway.

Her phone going off shook Imara from her staring gazing. Blinking to refocus her eyes, the woman rose, dropped the empty bottle into the recycling and went to grab her phone from the desk in their bedroom.

It was her mother.

With a roll of her eye, Imara put the phone to her ear.

“What’s up?” She spoke in a rather ‘you just saw me, what do you want now’ tone.

“Oh Imara, I just can’t stop thinking about that venue we went and saw last week. You know, the one that had the grand staircase down through the main entry?”

“Uh huh.” Imara mumbled back, her eyes looking to the side. She had no CLUE which one her mother was talking about. They had seen eight...eight ******** places in the span of three hours. By the end of it, everything looked the same to her. She had ended up just picking one that she remembered the name of. Don’t ask her which one it was.

“Oh don’t you think it would just be perfect? You and your father coming down the stairs together. Oh won’t you reconsider. I mean if you have your heart set on Azalea House then I understand but…”

“Mom, when will you and Ms. White get the hint.” Imara finally said, hearing the pleading voice on the otherside of the phone. “I really do not care where we have this stupid party. If you want it somewhere else then fine. Call them and cancel. We will go somewhere else.”

“Imara! It’s your day!” That pleading voice quickly changed. Imara knew she had hit that same old nerve. “This day is all about you. You are going to be a bride and I will not have you regret it later in life! I want you to have everything you could possibly want. I know you think it isn’t important now but you will. And by then it will be too late. Don’t throw away the chance to make this day the most memorable it can be.”

Imara sat on the bed, eyes closed as she listened to her mother. She could hear the tears forming. Hear as her mother envisioned her, her only daughter, as the blushing bride she was. But she wasn’t her mother. She wasn’t a pageant girl or even a girl who liked to wear dresses. From a very young age she had struck out on her own and done things her way.

When had that all changed?

“Mom, I need to go.” Imara finally said. “I love you. Call you later.” And she hung up on her mother’s questing voice.

Without another word, Imara pulled her laptop out of the bag at the side of their bed and flipped it open. Within the hour she had the plane booked and hotel ready to go. There was no more of this predictability. If she was getting married, it was on her terms.

Grabbing her phone, she sent the text finally to Mathias. “Get home early. We have a flight out of DC at 5am tomorrow.”


Word Count: 981