Free The Bride Who Bailed by Misty Carrera Page A

hoped, then?" he asked, taking in my gown and lack of a groom.

    I paused in my digging through the overnighter I had stowed in the limo earlier"Actually, it went exactly as planned," I said. It took some time, but I struggled out of my gown and slid into my jeans and a top. Balling up the gown I left it on the seat. Once we were at the airport I tipped the driver and jumped out of the car. Free. God, I felt free! I had already decided to swear off of men, I mean, who needed them? Well maybe for sex, but not to get involved with.   I could live with that though, I just didn't need the complications. I swear, they open their mouths and lies fall out.  

    My reservations were still in my maiden name, the one I'd be keeping for the foreseeable future, obviously. I checked in and put my little bag next to me. I had exchanged our honeymoon reservations for tickets to the sugar white beaches of Florida. It still said there would be two of us, just in case he checked at the last minute. I hadn't thought he would, and of course, he didn't. Leaving everything to the little woman. It was lucky he did, but still he was a bastard.

    The terminal wasn't too crowded, good enough for people watching though. I settled in and began to relax and look around. After months of planning the real wedding, in conjunction with my getaway, I was finally able to relax.  

    It was too bad I was just now deciding I was done with men, as one of the finest I've ever seen was hanging out in the lounge. He was smoking hot, self confident, polite. He was talking with the staff as if they knew him. I could tell by the way he moved that he'd be great in bed. The way you just know with some men. Not that I usually found out. I had been perma-engaged for years, and also I'm more curvy than stick girl, so I didn't always get the looks, but it was a theory.

      He was, of course, with a horrible shrew. I could hear her whining from across the concourse. Her nasally tone grated on my nerves.  

    "You said you'd stay with the kids, they're running all over, go get the kids...why do I even bring you if you're not going to help." She was priceless. He set his jaw and went about collecting the children, shuttling them into formation, and mostly keeping them out of her way. Isn't it funny that the bitchy ones get the good looking guys?

    And then a funny thing happened, funny weird, not funny ha-ha. I started to cry, really bawl.   I was never going to have a good guy, I'm curvy, and I wasn't bitchy enough, and they're all liars anyway. The full reality of what I had done set in and all I could do was sob. I was going to be alone and sad and hopeless forever, I thought to myself as my shoulders heaved.  

    I felt a tapping on my shoulder and it was him. Silently he offered me a freshly pressed clean white hankie, and when I waved it away he smiled a megawatt-million-dollar smile and simply said, "you need it more than I do right now, it's ok."

    Gratefully I accepted and pulled myself together. I had slipped the noose on marriage to Jake and compared to that, being alone was probably a bargain.

    We boarded the plane and took our seats. The one next to me was empty, waiting of course for my groom. The plane had barely taxied out of the gate when he, the hot one, not, thank God, my groom, approached. He nodded toward the rambunctious toddlers who were climbing all over his seat and his wife's and whispered, "Is this seat taken?"

    "Oh, no, not at all. Please, sit down." Normally I'd be thinking 'shut up and go away'. But for this guy, I could make an exception. After all, I owed him a clean hankie.

    "Thanks for, well you know."

    "Sure, no problem. Where are you headed?"

    "Destin, gonna spend some time on the beach." I said gratefully, I didn't want him asking about the tears, since I couldn't even explain them myself.  

    "Meeting family, friends?"

    I smiled, "No, nothing like that, I haven't had a vacation in forever, or it seems like it anyway." Half of me