Author's Note: This is the first chapter of a new series I plan to write. Not sure how long it will be or what the outcome will be. I'm just going with the flow on this one. Happy reading! All characters featured in the story are over the age of 18.
***
The day that my wife Bella met my brother Rob was the day that everything changed between us. Bella and I had been together for five years and married for three of them. We met when she was an intern at a marketing firm where I replaced her previous boss who was fired by HR after he was found to be guilty of embezzling some money that went unaccounted for in the books.
Bella was one of the most beautiful women I had seen in my life. She had long brunette hair and doe brown eyes that lit up whenever she smiled. And boy was her smile breathtaking. As were her other assets. She had breasts on the larger side and her body was curvy and vivacious all at the same time. She was undoubtedly the most gorgeous woman in the office but she was very modest about it. I wasn't thinking about starting a relationship with a subordinate so I put aside my attraction for her and focused on the job at hand.
Our relationship had been very strained at first. Bella had been honest with me in our first meeting and told me that she felt the marketing strategies were the reason the business was struggling. Their last boss had no idea what he was doing and had set unrealistic expectations when it came to performance and procedures. While I agreed with her, some of the procedures were in place for a reason and I wasn't willing to just throw them out willy nilly on her intuition. As much as I liked her, she was just an intern at the time.
So I quickly shot her ideas down and we got off on the wrong foot. At the end of the day, I had realized my mistake and called her back into my office and told her that a lot of points she made, while not all of them, were valid. A week later I invited her to go to a seminar in Seattle with me that I promised would be life-changing. I told her if she managed to make a few good impressions there would be a possibility for promotion in her future.
Of course, Bella had accepted. She was like any strong independent woman and wanted to advance her career. She not only impressed me, but the other marketing associates fell in love with her as well. Even some of the more snobby ones that had taken me years to impress. I was five years Bella's senior so it was quite impressive for such a young girl like her to make such long strides so quickly in the field. I knew I had made the right decision putting my faith in her.
I could not deny that Bella was a beautiful woman. She was drop-dead gorgeous. We made a picture-perfect couple. After the trip to Boston, we went back home to California and I promoted her to marketing strategist. Our first kiss happened when we were working very late one night to impress a rather stuffy client that we seemed to be losing. She managed to turn it around and in celebration, we ended up kissing. It had been explosive.
One thing led to another, and we became a couple. We dated for a year until I proposed to her when we were out for a romantic dinner in celebration of her getting a job in Seattle that we both could not resist her accepting. As much as we loved California, we were perfectly inclined to move and make new friends and start a new life together in the city we fondly called "The Coffee Capital of the World".
Our wedding day was when Rob made his first appearance. I had briefly told Bella about him, but for the most part, my brother and I were estranged from each other. We were close when we were kids but went our separate ways after high school. I went to Boston to attend college for marketing and he had gone to Seattle to get his business degree.
Rob was very successful and owned his own accounting software business company based out of the city we moved to. It had been small at first, but he had caught a big break when he had gotten the interest of Microsoft and had formed a partnership with them. From there, business was booming and Rob only made appearances on holidays and special occasions because he was too busy with his growing company to see us otherwise.
My wedding was that of a special occasion where he decided to show up out of the blue. It made sense seeing as it took place in the same city his ever-growing business was in. Bella's jaw had dropped when she had first seen him. He was tall at 6'4 with an athletic build whereas I was only 6'0 and more stocky than muscled. His hair was a shade darker than mine but his eyes were just as emerald green and bright. We were similar in looks but he was taller and had more of a playboy look about him that women seemed to fall for left and right.
The bridesmaid's jaws were hitting the floor as he sat down in the front of the church to attend the wedding. Bella and I recited our vows and we were soon married. I introduced her to Rob, who whistled inappropriately and complimented me on landing such a hot one. Bella seemed put off by his behavior and seemingly found him to be disgusting.
I thought nothing of it and life went on. Rob went back to Seattle and Bella and I went on our Honeymoon to Hawaii. It was romantic and some of the best sex of our relationship and I still look back at those late nights where our lovemaking went on into the late hours of the morning very fondly.
Two weeks later, we returned to our new home in the Emerald City. Bella and I started our new jobs. Life got a little hectic for us but our relationship remained solid. We still made time for each other on weekdays and weekends when we could. Whether it was just to watch an episode of our favorite show, or have a candlelit dinner together. Our sex life remained phenomenal. We talked to each other in length every day.
The only time we saw Rob was when we visited my parents who had moved to Seattle to be closer to all of us. We had dinner with them during the holidays and then went our separate ways. We didn't have lengthy conversations with my brother during those times. He was always boasting about his software and how successful it was and bragging about his accomplishments in life. Bella would say every time that we were forced to put up with him that he seemed like a real piece of work who was extremely full of himself and I couldn't agree more. He had let his talents give him a big ego.
It was Christmas three years later that Rob decided to unintentionally invade our personal lives. Bella and I decided that we wanted to host a Christmas party with the whole family in our home instead of at my parent's house to give them a break. My Mom and Dad were thrilled at the notion and thanked Bella profusely for proposing it. I was very impressed with her initiative to make my parents happy.
Bella's parents had divorced shortly after we met a few years ago but there was a lot of strain on the relationship between all of them, as her Mom and Dad were now seeing different partners. It was my understanding they still claimed to love each other but their marriage had come to a stalemate. Recognizing it was never going to progress, they filed mutually for divorce.
Despite all that Bella invited them if they could make it out to see us. I had only met them a few times over the years and they seemed like nice enough people, but I also had to take Bella's feelings into account and be the understanding husband at the same time. So their visits were few and far between and when they happened they left Bella emotionally exhausted.
Naturally, we discussed not inviting Rob but had decided that since he was asked to come throughout the previous years to the dinners we shouldn't leave him out of it just because we did not want to deal with his arrogance. He was bound to hear about the event from other relatives and they would have found it very rude we didn't extend him an invitation. It would raise more questions than we wanted to answer.
Dinner was absolutely lovely. Bella made a pot roast big enough to feed the Salvation Army. She also whipped up some cheesy garlic mashed potatoes that made everyone's mouths melt. For vegetables, she prepared carrots, green beans, and broccoli. It couldn't be a Thanksgiving-like dinner without cranberry sauce, stuffing, and several choices of pies for dessert.
Her cooking was a hit. We owned a modern and spacious five-bedroom house because eventually, we wanted to have children. Everyone fit comfortably in our enormous dining room. Even Bella's parents made an appearance and somehow things managed to go very smoothly. The family was getting along and having a grand ol' time.
Eventually, the majority of our guests made their excuses and left until there were three. Rob explained he'd had had one too many glasses of wine and as Bella cleaned up the table he asked me to spend the night to sleep it off. I reluctantly agreed without even having talked to Bella about it, as it was a sudden proposal that caught me off guard. Lucky for me, her anger dissolved quickly when I told her I just kind of panicked on the spot and agreed to let him stay.
By then it was nearing 11:30 pm when she finished putting all the food away and wiping the table spotless. We all three decided to retire to the living room despite how late it was.
