What Was Meant to Be

by Q.B. Tyler

That’s exactly how it is. Whitney Monroe belonged to me regardless of our current relationship status. I don’t know who this guy is, but there’s no way in hell she’s walking down that aisle with him.

“That’s exactly what the fuck I’m saying.”

The irony that I also taught her to fuck and ended up hurting her way worse than any of those boys is not lost on me.

That one night of sex where I took her virginity turned into another night and another until it was almost every night and some days.

The idea of telling my two best friends that I’m head over heels in love with their daughter and have been sleeping with her regularly for two years has the anxiety slithering up my spine. Kevin and Michelle Monroe have been my best friends since freshman year of college. I was roommates with Kevin that first year and Michelle lived across the hall. It was love at first sight for Kevin and Michelle and before long, the three of us were inseparable. I’d even dated her roommate for a while making the four of us annoying co-dependent assholes. I’d been the best man at their wedding, godfather to both Whitney and her older brother Mason and had been a part of every memorable date of their lives until now.

How was I supposed to tell them this? I’d lose the two most important people in my life outside of those I was blood related to, the two constants I’d had for almost twenty years. But the trade-off was losing Whitney, and I didn’t love that either.

“You don’t want this.” She moves into my arms and wraps hers around me. “I know you love me.”

“I do,” I tell her honestly. I wasn’t about to lie to her after all we’d been through and I wasn’t about to let her think that this wasn’t going

to be hard on me as well. “I do love you. But sometimes, love isn’t enough. Sometimes loving som...

“Yeah, you’re fucked. He looks like a man that came here to play zero games.”

I’m impressed by his approach and while I respect him as her older brother, there’s no way in hell anyone can keep me away from her and certainly not a kid I helped raise. “Don’t you think that should be her decision?” “The fuck? J, she’s engaged. He asked her to marry him, she said yes, that is her decision.”

“No, J, it’s exactly what I think. You were too much of a pussy to come clean to my parents, and then you just up and left. Broke her heart and then took off for three years.” “You don’t know what you’re talking about and I would advise you not to speak on things you don’t. It wasn’t that black and white. It wasn’t just sex; I wasn’t using her. I fell in love with her.” “But then you left.” He repeats.

“I’ll deal with them. I’ll tell them. Now.” I want to add that I don’t give a fuck about this other guy and there’s no way she can be the love of his life while she’s still the love of mine and if my instincts are correct, that I’m still the love of hers.

“Yes, Mason. I am insane. I let the woman I love slip right through my fingers. I want her back and I want her back now.”

“I just… I thought I’d have more time.” “More time for what?” I whisper. “For a second chance with you.”

“You think I give a fuck? You could be married with three kids, and you’d still belong to me.”

“It wouldn’t just be one night, Whitney. It could never just be one night.”

“You never cheated on me,” she says quietly. “To my knowledge, you never so much as looked at another woman. I was always the only woman you saw.” “You still are.” The words leave my lips on their own accord.

“I never had that much power over you,” she interrupts and I frown at her. Is she serious? When we were together, all she had to do was look at me and I’d do anything for her. “What world are you living in? Yes, you did.” “Clearly not. Because you left. After I begged. Pleaded. Cried. Begged more. Don’t tell me that all I would have had to do that night is pull my top off and you would have stayed because I will get up from this table right now.”

“I love you.” Her eyes widen and I shrug, laying all my cards out on the table once in for all. “I’ve always loved you. I’ve never stopped loving you. Don’t marry him.”

“One doesn’t have anything to do with the other. Doing the right thing means admitting the truth to yourself. It means walking away tonight, breaking up with Parker so you can be free to be with the man you love. You’re twenty-two years old, marrying Parker when you’re still in love with someone else out of some weird sense of obligation because you said ‘yes’ to his proposal, isn’t doing the right thing, Whitney. You haven’t done anything wrong, yet.”

“Can’t say that I do. I went to three bachelor parties while we were together and I distinctly remember demanding nudes from you every four hours. So don’t hand me that drunk mistake bullshit because I could have been so drunk I didn’t remember my own name, but I damn sure always knew yours.”

“I just don’t want to inconvenience you.” “Doing something for you is never an inconvenience.” I melt and I try to hide the smile but he notices it and his lips turn up in what I assume to be triumph.

“I feel like you’re trying to break me. You’re not playing fair.” “I never agreed to play fair. Another man asked you to marry him. As far as I’m concerned, he declared war on me first. And you know what they say about love and war.”

wish I did like her.” His right hand moves off the wall and finds my face. His palm rests against my cheek as he drags his thumb under the space just beneath my eyes that are now welling with tears. “I wish I liked anyone. But I don’t.” He shrugs before shaking his head. “I can’t. Not while I’m still in love with you.”

“I believe you would have had a ring on my finger the second my parents knew about us. Instead, now we’re in this mess because you’re having a mid-life crisis or whatever the fuck and realized you don’t want to spend the rest of your years drowning in random pussy. That’s what this is right? You’re over being single and you realize no one can suck your dick like I can?”

I was angry. At him. At myself. Angry at the world for putting me back in this situation when I fought like hell to get out of it. For giving the man I’ve loved my whole life back to me when I wasn’t free to love him anymore.

“Fuck. Where did you learn to be like this? How are you this confident about sex as a virgin?”

“You made me this confident about everything,” she whispers. “You taught me to go after what I want and what I want JP, is you.”

In script, it says, “after all this time?” and just beneath it, “always.” She swallows and leans back. “I told myself one day you would come back to me. That you still loved me and we’d find our way back to each other. But, in the off chance you didn’t, I would just look like a normal Harry Potter stan,

“Then baby, why all the pushback when I did come back to you?”

“Because I was mad at myself for not waiting,”

“I am mad at you too for breaking us, but… now I have to hurt someone. I put all these unresolved feelings and emotions I had over you and locked them in

a box in my brain and away from where my heart could feel it so I could heal. And then you come back and you ripped it open.”

“Come for me, Whitney,” I tell her and when I look up at her, I catch her gaze and see the look in her eyes. “Come for daddy.”

“I love you.” She moans when I let her lips go and I stop thrusting for a second to look down at her. She smiles. “I thought it was obvious?” she whispers, probably in response to the look I’m giving her.

“Please don’t ever leave me again.”

“Never, baby.”

hands into her hair as she begins to ride me. “I love you too,” I murmur against her mouth.

“Thank you for coming back to me.”

“You are fucking mine. All mine.”

“I just got you back and now you have to go to New York to tend to some other man.” He drops his forehead to mine. His eyes

How was your guys’ date anyway? JP getting married anytime soon?” Not to anyone but you, my mind thinks automatically.

“Okay and now only you are my type,”

“Jesus Christ, baby. If I were there, I’d rip you apart.” He grits his teeth as he begins to pull harder on his dick. “Play

“What I feel for you is deeper than love, Whitney.” Oh. He lies on his back and stares at the ceiling. “Devotion. Obsession.” He sighs. “Telling you I love you doesn’t seem to feel enough. The fact that I feel so out of control with need for you when I know I shouldn’t. I know it’s going to cause a catastrophic response and yet I don’t fucking care.” He turns his head toward me. “I just want you. I need you. I feel you underneath my skin every second. I felt you in every painful beat of my heart when we were apart.” I remember feeling something similar.

“This is real. It was never not real. I’ve loved her for so long and I let fear of so many things get in the way of what I wanted. I’m not doing that to us again.”

“Wherever you and this pretty pussy are, that’s where I want to be.” “Don’t… don’t make this about sex. JP seriously? I… You see me in your future?” I nod. “I know you’re young and you may not—” I’m cut off by her hand over my mouth.

“Well, regardless of the fact that I fit the criteria, you are not my mid-life crisis. You’re my everything,”

“I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. I see it all with you, marriage, kids…” Her cheeks turn pink as her eyes light up. “I don’t know how I’m going to tell Kevin and Michelle.” I sigh. “But I want to keep you forever.”