Road to Casablanca (34 page)

“Now you’re talking. I have to get home to Max now.”

“Yes, of course, your one true love.”

“You got it, girl.”

Cindy drove the short distance from the restaurant to her apartment and pulled into her parking space.
 
As she began to walk toward the sidewalk leading to the stairs in front of her apartment, she didn’t immediately notice the expensive cherry red Lamborghini parked out front.

She climbed the stairs, looking down to find the proper key to her front door. When she looked up, she was shocked.
 
“Erick?”

Erick, wearing a black tuxedo and carrying three dozen red roses, stood in front of her door smiling at her.
 
He shifted the roses to one arm and reached out for her.

“I missed you.”

Cindy shook her head, not wanting to fall victim to his manipulative ways any longer.

“Look, Erick, it’s over, okay?
 
I don’t know how you found me. but you need to get going back home. And also, you…”

Erick reached out and grabbed her, placing a deep sensual kiss on her mouth that took her breath away; still, she managed to push him away.

“Stop it, Erick, you can’t just barge in here and do whatever you…we are
not
getting back together, Erick, so just sto–” Cindy yelled as he stopped her words with his kiss again and this time she felt herself, body and soul, melt into him.
 
Damn him
, she thought.
 
She was powerless to resist him.
 

Erick kept kissing her through every single protest she could mutter, unwilling as always to take any kind of “no” for an answer.
 
It was obvious to Cindy he wanted her and he was here to get her the same way he acquired any property or business.

“I love you, Cindy Brown.
 
I’ve looked high and low for you and finally had to call a private investigator to find you.
 
I want to marry you, Cindy.
 
Cindy…”

To her stunned amazement, he fell to one knee as he pulled the now boxed rings out of his pocket.

“Cindy Brown, will you marry me?”

Cindy shook her head violently as she shouted at him, unable to believe what she was seeing.

“No, Erick, no!
 
I am not falling for your games this time.
 
You don’t want me, you want…movie stars and…models.
 
You don’t want me at all, you never did!”

“No, it isn’t true!
 
Petra
and I are only friends; it’s all we’ve ever been to each other.
 
She has a boyfriend and is getting married in six months.
 
She only kissed me to get the reporters off her back about him.
 
You have to understand none of what you see on those shows is real; I promise I am telling you the truth!
 
I told
Petra
all about you and how much I love you and how even in
Morocco
after that night we spent together I wanted you, I wanted to marry you right then and there, not for some showy farce but for real, Cindy, for real.
 
I love you!
 
You are the only woman I’ve ever loved; you are the only woman for me in the whole wide world.”

Erick was actually crying now and at first Cindy didn’t know whether to believe him or to offer him applause and accolades for superior acting capabilities.
 
Instead, she just looked at him and stared down at his pathetic image slumped down on his knees in his tux, flowers thrown on the ground and wedding rings in his hands.
 

For a moment, it appeared the tables were turned.
 
Now it was he who was in a sniveling teary-eyed mess and she was the strong, confident woman who just that afternoon had a new date of her own.
 

What if he is telling the truth?
 
It seemed far-fetched at first, but the longer she watched him miserably sobbing on the concrete slab in front of her apartment, the more she thought that this might not be acting, but might be real after all.
 

“Please, Cindy, just let me come inside. I love you, I do; this is real.
 
I can’t live another day without you and I want you to marry me as soon as possible.
 
Please, Cindy. I love you more than anything or anyone in the world.”

By now, a few neighbors were starting to peek out their windows and doors since it was already after nine and the commotion outside was getting quite loud, not to mention interesting for nosy gossipers in her complex.

“Okay. Come in and just try to keep it down, will you? My neighbors are going to be talking about this tomorrow at the mailbox, I just know it.”

She let him inside and a startled Max instantly ran upstairs to hide under the bed. Cindy offered Erick a seat on the sofa and got him a glass of water.
 

“Thank you for letting me in. I hadn’t gotten your address or phone number before you left the other day, so you were tough to track down.”

Cindy wasn’t sure if she should feel flattered or violated by his invasion of her privacy.
 
A private detective?
 
That seemed a bit extreme.

“I’m sick of the games, Erick.
 
I can’t take it any more.”

“I can’t either; that’s why I’m here.”

Cindy held up her hand to shut him up.

“Will you give me a minute to talk?
 
Please?
 
I haven’t been in a lot of relationships in my life until you.
 
I’m shy. I live here in this tiny place, as you can see. I’m sure it’s a far cry from whatever palace you reside in.
 
I grew up on a farm in
Iowa
with totally different values and a completely different background from yours. Up until a week ago, I spent most weekends at home with the cat, reading my books. Occasionally, I went to a movie with friends.
 
Other than that, I worked.”

Erick started to say something, but Cindy put her palm over his mouth.

“I’m not finished yet, mister.
 
The point here is that you hardly know me at all. You know the girl who you transformed from terrified wreck to Moroccan beauty queen on our little fantasy vacation, but do you know the real Cindy Brown?
 
Do you even want to?
 
That’s what you have to ask yourself.”

“Yes, I know her….” Erick began, only to receive her hand over his mouth once more.

“Hey! I’ll tell you when to talk, okay?”

Erick nodded obediently.
 

“I’m a small-town girl with small-town values, Erick.
 
How could you possibly think I could fit into your glamour world?
 
I doubt you and I have anything in common at all, and to top it all off, there you were sitting in a bar on our date, wrapping yourself around some
Hollywood
starlet on TV.
 
How am I supposed to feel about that, and what’s more, compete with that?
 
We come from two different worlds, Erick.
 
How can you expect this relationship to work out?”

“I’m sorry, Cindy.
 
I told you that and I can tell you sorry a thousand times, but none of the things you mentioned change the way I feel about you.
 
I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and quite honestly, you are the sexiest woman alive when you yell at me like that.
 
It’s exactly what I need to keep me in line.”

Erick had that look on his face that made him completely irresistible to her, and Cindy both loved and hated him for it.

“The trouble is, that in spite of the fact that I can’t see any logical reason for you to want to be with me and I can see plenty of reasons why I should run as far away from you as possible, the point is that I can’t do that now.
 
I just can’t walk away from you because as much as I’d like to shake myself free of you and get over all the wonderful and awful things that have happened over the past week. I can’t because I love you too, Erick, and if you are serious about wanting to marry me, then I accept.
 
Yes, Erick Redmund, I will marry you.”

Erick cheered with joy as he threw both of his arms around her, hugging her like she had never been held before and kissing her with love and passion she had only dreamed was possible.

“You have made me the happiest man alive, and I love you,” Erick told her as he kneeled on her carpet, and placing the rings back on her finger.

Cindy looked down at her rings and at Erick and smiled as tears filled her eyes.
 

“I love you too, more than anything.”

She tenderly put her arms around his neck and kissed his lips, feeling at last that the part of her she left behind in Africa was once again back with her.

 
“Do you like those rings?
 
I mean, you didn’t get to pick them out yourself.
 
I’m happy to give you anything you want; just let me know.”

Truthfully, Cindy couldn’t imagine any other rings after the incredible sentimental value she had attached to the ones he’d already selected.

“I love these. They remind me of our journey to
Morocco
and everything we’ve been through together.”

By now, Max was inching his way back down the stairs. After looking at them as they held each other, he greeted them with a big meow.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The tangerine sunset fell over the
Pink
Palace
of the Beverly Hills Hotel as the friends and guests of Erick and Cindy filed in to witness their marriage on December thirty-first.

Cindy’s family was shocked by her sudden announcement, but they were happy for her, especially when Erick flew her home in his jet so they could meet him.
 
Her sisters were initially green with envy, but when they realized the man was so generous with them all, they were more than happy for their sister.

Now the entire family and all their friends were all gathered in
Hollywood
at the location most closely resembling the place where Erick and Cindy first met. The pale pink stucco on the towers of the hotel and the palm-lined driveways reminded them both of their paradise in
Morocco
.

The chapel was adorned with white lilies and red rose petals; a classical pianist played quietly as the guests all took their seats.

Victoria, Cindy’s mother and her sisters were all inside the large dressing area helping the bride with last-minute touchups to her hair and makeup.
 
Her gown was like something out of a storybook, and as always, Erick had it hand made to her specifications.

“I’m so happy for you, although we’re going to miss you around the office, you know?”