Never Forget It
NEVER FORGET IT
By: Aleks Mitchell
© 2020 Aleks Mitchell. All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Sara
Chapter 2: Hayden
Chapter 3: Sara
Chapter 4: Hayden
Chapter 5: Sara
Chapter 6: Hayden
Chapter 7: Sara
Chapter 8: Hayden
Chapter 9: Sara
Chapter 10: Hayden
Chapter 11: Sara
Chapter 12: Hayden
Chapter 13: Sara
Chapter 14: Hayden
Chapter 15: Sara
Chapter 16: Hayden
Chapter 17: Sara
Chapter 18: Hayden
Chapter 19: Sara
Chapter 20: Hayden
Chapter 21: Sara
Chapter 22: Hayden
Chapter 23: Sara
Chapter 24: Hayden
Chapter 25: Sara (Epilogue)
Chapter 1: Sara
Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
Sara knew who it was even before he came in. Her father had a distinct way of knocking. He had a distinct way of doing everything.
Aside from that, she knew he’d want to check in with her to make sure she was getting settled in okay.
éé Williams smiled at his daughter before closing the door behind him. “So, how do you like the office?”
“It’s great Dad.”
It was more than great. The office was huge. Way bigger than she’d get at any other hotel as an assistant manager. Perks of being the hotel owner’s daughter.
“I wasn’t sure if it’d be too small.”
Sara laughed, looking up at her father. “Dad, it’s more than enough. Thank you.”
“Anything for my little girl.”
Oh how she wished she was a little girl again. Before life turned her into the workaholic woman she had become.
Sara picked up the frame from the box and placed it down on her desk. It was a picture of her and Jaime, her best friend. One of her only friends actually.
She wasn’t the best with people. They annoyed her. Or maybe she annoyed them. She couldn’t really be sure.
Either way, Jaime was the only person she could actually tolerate. And Jaime put up with Sara. They were good for each other.
“Seriously Dad. Thanks for this opportunity. I know I don’t have much experience, but I’ll learn quickly.”
“I have no doubt. The hotel business is in your blood.”
“That it is.”
Sara’s grandfather started this hotel when he was just a little older than she was now. He grew it to what it was today. It was one of the last family owned hotels in Florida. Her father took over it when her grandfather retired, and Sara being her father’s only child, was expected to take over one day as well.
To say it was daunting would be an understatement. She feared she wouldn’t be good enough and would end up running her family’s legacy into the ground.
“Now, down to business. I’m putting you in charge of events.”
“Events? Such as?”
“Birthdays, weddings, parties. Of course you’ll have the full help of the staff, but you’ll be in charge of meeting with the clients and making sure everything goes smoothly. Think you’re up to it?”
“Yeah, yeah absolutely.”
“Great, your first client is on her way. She’s getting married here next month.”
“Next month?”
That was hardly enough time to plan a wedding. Who started planning a wedding a month beforehand?
“Yeah, the bride wants to get married on her anniversary or something like that. I’m not really all that sure. That going to be okay?”
Not really. Sara still needed to get acclimated with being the assistant manager. She was good at multitasking, but she wasn’t an event planner.
But she’d make it okay. She didn’t have a choice. Sara had a lot to prove.
She already got the job just by being the boss’s daughter. She didn’t want people thinking she didn’t deserve to be here.
Especially when she was questioning that herself.
“Yeah, that’s perfect.”
Her father smiled. “That’s my girl. I’ll let you finish up. Client should be here in fifteen.”
Sara furrowed her eyebrows. “Minutes?”
“Yes.”
“Thanks for the warning Dad. Cutting it a little short don’t you think?”
Her father winked. “Hotel business is all about surprises honey. Good luck.”
She was sure she was going to need it.
* * *
Sara walked into the dining hall to meet with the bride to be. The woman was already sitting at one of the tables.
As Sara approached the table, the woman smiled and stood up. “Hi, you must be Rachel.”
“I am. Which must make you Sara.”
“Yes,” Sara said, smiling before shaking the woman’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you. And congratulations on your wedding.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you for choosing the Williams Manor for your wedding. We’ll do our best to make this day the most memorable of your life.”
“Don’t worry I’m not a bridezilla or anything. I know a month isn’t a lot of time to plan a wedding. But Andy and I wanted to get married as soon as possible. We didn’t want a long engagement. Plus, our anniversary is next month and we thought it was perfect.”
“How long have you two been together?”
“Since high school. So, nine years.”
Sara smiled. “Wow. That’s amazing.”
The longest relationship she ever had was three months. And that didn’t end very well. After that, Sara steered clear of relationships. Who needed love anyway?
As far as Sara was concerned, love was just an opening for heartache.
“Yeah, he’s definitely my soulmate.”
Sara wasn’t sure if she believed in soulmates. The idea that you only had one person out there meant for you sounded depressing to her. What happened if you never found them?
Or you push them away.
Sara was alone and she had no one to blame but herself for that. She pushed the love of her life out the door.
“We should get started,” she said.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just waiting for someone.”
“Your fiance?”
“No. My sister. She should be here any minute. She had to take a phone call. Work thing. My sister’s a workaholic.”
Sara waved it off. “Trust me, I completely empathize with your sister. I’m a bit of a workaholic myself.”
That was mostly because she was extremely neurotic and felt she had something to prove.
“Here she is now,” Rachel said.
Sara turned around to look at the woman approaching them, and when she did, her stomach dropped.
Standing before her was a person she never thought she’d see again.
Hayden.
Chapter 2: Hayden
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
This had to be some kind of sick joke.
There was no way Hayden was bad enough of a person in this life or any other life to deserve having to see Sara Williams again.
Sara’s hair was pristinely blown out and she was more buttoned up than Hayden remembered, but it was clear as day that the woman standing next to her sister was Sara.
Judging by the look on her face, Sara was just as surprised to see Hayden. And just as mortified.
“Took you long enough Hayden,” Rachel said. “You sure you’re up for the challenge of being maid of honor?”
Hayden cleared the frog in her throat and continued walking towards her
sister and the not so blast from her past.
“I think you know how good at multitasking I am Rach.”
“Sara, this is my sister Hayden. Hayden, this is Sara. She’s in charge of events at the hotel.”
Sara looked like she was shell shocked. She wouldn’t take her eyes off of Hayden.
Hayden didn’t want this to become a thing. Her sister really had her heart set on getting married at this venue and if she knew Hayden felt uncomfortable being there, she’d cancel and look for a new venue.
This was about Rachel’s special day. Not about the heartless woman standing before Hayden.
Hayden extended her hand to Sara. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Sara finally snapped out of the trance and extended her hand to Hayden. “Nice to meet you too.”
When her hand met Hayden’s, she took a deep breath. She never thought she’d feel Sara’s hand in hers ever again. It certainly wasn’t one of the many things on her to-do list.
Hayden took her hand away as quick as she could without making it seem obvious that she didn’t want any contact with the woman.
“What did I miss?” Hayden asked.
“Nothing,” Rachel said. “We were just getting started.”
Both sisters turned to look at Sara. She was still having a hard time finding words to form a cohesive sentence.
Hayden raised an eyebrow when their eyes met.
She almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
It was obvious that seeing Hayden again was throwing her off.
“Right, we should get started. Um, we should go over the menu today. Next time we meet we can set up a tasting for some of the dishes you choose and see if they’re up to par with your expectations. What’s the head count?”
“I don’t know exactly yet. But probably two-hundred at least. We have a pretty big family. Just my side alone is close to a hundred. That’s not too much is it?”
Sara typed something into her tablet. “Nope. That is completely doable. We’ve fit well over three-hundred before.”
Hayden looked around the banquet hall. It was gorgeous. Everything was white or crystal clear. “It’s a nice place Rach. I understand why you wanted to get married here.”
“The rooms are to die for Hayden. Wait til you see them. Jenna is going to love it here.”
Sara looked curiously at Hayden and then at Rachel.
Rachel picked up on the curiosity. “Jenna’s her girlfriend.”
Girlfriend may have been too strong of a word. It was kind of making it more than it was. Jenna was a girl who Hayden dated for a long time. She cared about her a lot. But to call her her girlfriend would be a bit of an overstatement.
Hayden and Jenna both knew what their relationship was and it wasn’t ever ending up in a place like this and tying the knot.
“Oh, that’s...nice.”
Hayden almost laughed at the look on Sara’s face. She wished she could snap a pic. She smiled. “Yeah...nice.”
Hayden made eye contact with Sara and grinned devilishly. She was rather enjoying how uncomfortable she looked.
“Let me get you a menu so you can take a look at our options,” Sara said.
“Thanks Sara,” Rachel said, smiling at her.
Don’t smile at her.
Hayden wanted to tell her sister that the woman standing in front of them was the woman that derailed her life. She told her sister all about Sara and her evil ways.
But she couldn’t do that to Rachel. She wanted to get married here. And Hayden wanted Rachel to have everything she wanted.
Out of all of her siblings, Hayden had always been closest with Rachel. Not only were they closest in age, but they also had the most in common.
Sara stepped away to get the menu.
Hayden looked around at the place again.
“What did you say the name of this place was again?”
“Williams Manor.”
Hayden closed her eyes, smiling to herself.
Maybe if she hadn’t been tweeting when Rachel told her the name she wouldn’t have been so surprised to see Sara.
Sara’s family owned it. Or course she would work here.
Hayden should have seen this coming.
“Are you okay?” Rachel asked. “You seem off.”
Hayden turned to smile at Rachel. “I’m fantastic. But who cares about me. You are the one getting married. How are you?”
“Nervous, but excited. It’s a good kind of nervous.”
“Definitely.” Hayden pulled her sister into a hug. “You and Andy are going to be very happy together.”
Hayden could see Sara coming back into the hall. She stopped when they made eye contact.
Hayden looked away.
There was nothing between Sara and her. They were strangers to each other. That wasn’t a lie.
What happened between the two women happened eight years ago. She moved on. Hayden was a completely different person now. A person that didn’t go around looking for heartbreak.
Hayden grew up a lot since she last saw Sara.
She didn’t know her anymore.
And Sara definitely didn’t know Hayden.
Chapter 3: Sara
As soon as her meeting with Rachel and Hayden was over, Sara went straight to her father’s office.
There was no way in hell she could plan this wedding for Rachel. For God sake she was Hayden’s sister.
Out of all the ways Sara imagined seeing Hayden again, this was not in any of those scenarios.
She had rehearsed so many things that she would say to Hayden. She didn’t say or do any of those things.
She just stood there looking like a blubbering idiot.
She felt mortified at how unprofessional she had behaved.
Hayden didn’t help matters. Sara could tell she was enjoying herself. She kept looking at Sara with this look in her eyes. She was so different from the Hayden she knew back in college. And yet, still so much the same.
Hayden still had that feistiness to her. That was for sure. Actually, it seemed like she kicked it up a notch in that department.
Regardless, Sara could tell she was not happy to see her.
There was no way Sara could get through planning this wedding. Even if it was only a month away. It was a month too long.
Sara couldn’t stand being around Hayden knowing that she hated her guts. There was a time that Hayden was in love with her. Seeing how she looked at her now was too much to bear.
She knocked on her father’s door before walking into the office. “Sara, how did it go?”
“Good. Very good. Rachel’s very easy going and I think she’s going to be very easy to work with.”
“Excellent.”
“Yeah. So easy, that I was thinking maybe we could assign someone else to it. You know, delegating and stuff.”
The crease between her father’s eyebrows deepened. “I have to say I’m surprised.”
“You are?”
“Yes. You’re so… controlling. And I mean that as a compliment. It’s a good quality to have in business. It means you’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the hotel stays afloat. Even doing small tasks that are usually assigned to the staff. I would have thought you’d want to take point on this project, especially since it’s so close to the date.”
Sara did have a bit of a controlling personality. And he was completely right. She didn’t want anything to go wrong with Rachel’s wedding just because she was letting personal drama get in the way of business.
“You know, you’re right. I can take care of the wedding.”
“Great.” Her father looked back down at his laptop, getting right back to work.
Sara squinted her eyes at him. “You did that on purpose didn’t you?”
The man smiled, not bothering to look up at her. “Yes I did.”
“Very nice strategy.”
“Thank you. I find manipulation to be the best business tactic. And of course, positive affirmations.”
“Did y
ou hear that at a convention?”
“No. It was a TED talk thank you.”
Her father and his TED talks.
“I better go finish getting settled in.”
“I really am glad to have you aboard honey. I know you’re going to do a fantastic job.”
“Thanks Dad.”
Hayden closed the door and walked down the corridor.
The next month was going to be a nightmare.
Sara wished she didn’t feel like she had something to prove. This was a definite conflict of interest and if she had told her father that she was sure he would have understood.
But she didn’t want to risk him thinking she wasn’t professional.
Sara stood up tall, straightening her jacket. I am a professional.
She could do this. There was no reason she couldn’t be civil with Hayden. So what if they saw each other naked on several occasions. Maybe more than several.
The point was, she had a job to do and she was damn good at her job. She wasn’t going to let personal misgivings come in the way of her proving to her father that the hotel would be in good hands with her as the boss.
I’ve got this!
It seemed her father was right about those positive affirmations. They did wonders.
Now all she had to do was actually believe that what she was telling herself was the truth.
I wonder if there was a TED talk on that.
* * *
8 YEARS AGO
Sara should have stayed home for college. She knew absolutely no one in Connecticut. This was going to be her worst nightmare.
Back in Florida, everyone knew her name.
Here, she felt like a nobody. Just a face in a crowd. A very big crowd of smart, intellectual people that probably deserved to be here a lot more than she did.
Sara knew what people were going to say. Her dad is Richard Williams. He bought her way into Yale.
It probably wasn’t a lie.
Her father swore he didn’t. But it wasn’t like he would tell her the truth about something like that.
Sara’s name alone was enough to get her into Yale.