Free The Alex Chronicles:Girlfriends & Secrets by Tracy Reed Page A

different. It ’ s like we balance each other out.
    Oh, yeah,
I was talking about secrets and being impulsive. Of my group,
I ’ m considered the
rational one. I don ’ t
see how I got that label. My friends say it ’ s because I ’ m a planner and would never do anything impulsive.
That ’ s just not true. I
do a lot of impulsive things, they just don ’ t know about them.
    There was
one impulsive thing I was going to do, but circumstances prevented
it from happening. I ’ m
not using my planning habit as an excuse, but as a legitimate
reason why that impulsive event didn't take place. The impulsive
incident involved my fianc é , Jonathan.
    Jonathan
and I had been together off and on for ten years. If you ask my
friends, they ’ d say more
off than on. And as much as I don ’ t want to agree with them, they ’ re right.
    I met Jonathan in college when I returned
from my Paris internship to complete the second half of my senior
year. I was hesitant to get involved with him, because his best
friend and I had history. However, he won me over with his charm
and we started dating.
    By the
time we graduated, he had proposed … the first time. Much too soon. We barely knew each
other. I moved back to Los Angeles. He followed me to California
and took a job in Los Angeles so we could work on our relationship.
We agreed to table the marriage question until later.
    The magazine I interned for in Paris offered
me a Junior Fashion Editor position in their Los Angeles office,
but I turned it down. I know it sounds foolish, but there were
things going on in my personal life that made me re-think what I
wanted to do with my life.
    I had
come into a large sum of money, and decided to open a boutique. I
love what I do. It ’ s
taken me a while to gain the respect of the local fashion
community, but it was well worth the hard work, and a huge step of
faith.
    Alex
Simone is a place for women with curves, or real women. We stock
most sizes, but we are known as the go to store for curvy women who
love designer clothes. We ’ re not a plus size store per se, but in Southern
California, a store that stocks anything over a size twelve is
considered plus size. We just make it a point to offer designer
clothing for women in a larger range of sizes. Curves, sensuality,
and confidence are our business, and we know how to handle all
three.
    Back to
me and Jonathan. Things were going great with us. We had just
gotten back together again. I say again, because, we broke up a
lot. I know I sound like a fool, but I ’ m not. I had put a lot of time into that
relationship and I wasn ’ t about to just walk away just because he had a little slip
while we were apart. If only it had been a slip.
    Turns
out, all those times he was proposing to me, he had a side piece in
Long Beach. He ’ d tapped
that piece so much he slipped up one night and forgot to suit up.
So when he wanted to get back together he confessed. Like the idiot
head I was, I took him back. He even introduced me to his side
piece and their son.
    Here I
was saving myself, and he was out tapping anything with a pulse. I
didn ’ t tell my
girlfriends that Jonathan and I were engaged. I just told them we
were back together. They all said they were shocked that I took him
back. They didn ’ t
understand that I saw something in him they didn ’ t.
    This time
was different. We went engagement ring shopping and were making
wedding plans. Jonathan agreed to counseling, and I was even
warming up to the idea of marriage and being a step mother. I still
wasn ’ t happy about
having his side piece, I mean ex-side piece, in our lives, but she
came with the kid.
    The last
time he proposed, we didn ’ t tell anyone. Instead, he gave me an ultimatum, “ Marry me when I return from my
conference in two weeks. If you back out, it ’ s over for good. ” I still hear those words replaying in my
head, followed by a sharp chill in my bones.
    I knew my
friends didn ’ t approve
of my marrying