Mason Ch. 02

With another long weekend looming ahead of him, Mason sat down at his desk and turned on his computer and began surfing the web. It wasn't long before he googled Toni's name, at first he got nothing and then realized that Toni was short for Antoinette. He typed in her name and was hit with a list that had to contain hundreds of women with her name. Mason worked until he had the list narrowed to what he considered to be manageable; one hundred names.

The next thing he did was to Google James Jacobson, as with Toni; there were several pages of men with that name. By the time he was done, he had a list that was almost as long as the one that he had for Toni. Starting with Toni, he narrowed the list to fifty and then finally to ten. He repeated the process with James. He sat back and looked at the lists and went to bed.

"Let's go somewhere." James said cuddling Toni after they made love. They had been living together for four months now.

"Like where?" Toni asked as she cuddled closer to James.

"I don't know, how about Vegas? My folks have a place there and I know for a fact that it's empty, they're in Hawaii for the next six weeks"

"I don't know James. I need to study and so do you for that matter." Toni replied.

"Why can't we do it there? And besides, boards are quite a ways off." James said, "Toni, when was the last time that we both had more than two days off together? We have almost two weeks off together and it would be a shame if we didn't do something with the time."

The more Toni thought about it, the more she realized that James was right. It had been a long time since she'd really relaxed and maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to leave the books at home and just have fun.

"I agree but under one condition." she replied.

"Whatever you want." James replied.

"We leave the books and laptops here."

James was surprised but didn't argue with her.

"Deal! Let's get moving. If we leave soon we can be at the airport in an hour." James said as he got out of bed.

James' enthusiasm was infectious, Toni found herself getting into the spirit of things. She heard him on the phone talking to the pilot of his parent's private plane. Toni knew that he came from money, a whole lot of it but that was never the attraction for her; it was the fact that he never flaunted it, his car was a run of the mill older Honda and his apartment while nice wasn't over the top. To look at him one would never know that he came from one of the wealthiest families in the state of Massachusetts. She once asked him why he was going to be a doctor when he could have sailed through his life without a worry.

"Having money isn't all it's cracked up to be and besides a man has got to have some purpose in his life. I chose medicine partly because I thought that I would be good at it and partly because I knew it would piss my father off which it did at first. The other thing is I wanted to be able to support my wife and children on my own without the benefit of my family's money."

That was what really drew her towards him. As for herself, she didn't come from money; her mother was a registered nurse and her father a maintenance man at the college where she got her undergraduate degree. Her parents often worked extra shifts to help her pay for books and tuition and she got a break on that because her father was an employee at the college.

Medical school was another matter; she picked up odd jobs here and there to help support herself. That in addition to the grants and loans combined with the additional help from her parents had gotten her to this point.

An hour later they were at the airport and boarding the plane. It was the first time that Toni had ever been on a private jet; she looked around and was awed by the way the other half lived.

Later that evening, they were at the condo standing on the balcony watching the traffic go by. This was Toni's first visit to Vegas and she was taken but the lights and the crowds of people. James stood behind her with his arms around her; he thought about the diamond ring in his pocket and prayed that she would accept it. He had finally told his parents about her and there were mixed reactions, he hadn't talked about her earlier because he never knew from day to day whether they were together or not. Once they came to an understanding, he went home to talk to his parents. His father much to his surprise didn't have any major issues; it was his mother who objected.

"Who are her people? What do they do for a living?" she demanded, and why a black woman? Aren't there any nice white women there?" she asked, "and how do you know that she's not after your money?"

James became angry, "What is it with you? Why do you think that everyone is after my money? I will grant you that some of them were but not Toni. She wouldn't even let me pay her rent one month when she was short. Her parents worked their asses off to help her and she works her ass off so that they don't have to help her so much so don't make judgments about something that you know nothing about. As to her parent's, they're good, honest hardworking people. Her mother is a registered nurse and her father does maintenance work at the college where Toni got her undergraduate degree any other questions? "

"If she's so special, why are we just hearing about her?" his mother asked.

"We had things to work out and before you say anything, it wasn't of a racial nature. We had to come to some understandings about what we wanted and needed from each other." James replied.

Finally James' father spoke.

"She sounds like a good woman but I have to agree with your mother in that I wished that she wasn't black but having said that I know that things aren't the way they used to be, this kind of thing is much more accepted now then it was even ten years ago. The only thing that I want to ask is this, do you love her and does she love you?"

"We love each other." James stated without hesitation.

"If you're going to marry this what's her name? Toni, the least that you can do is to get her to sign a prenuptial agreement." His mother said.

"Absolutely not!" James protested, "And it's not up for discussion." James said and walked out.

"Toni, do your parents know about me?" he asked.

Her stomach flipped; in the time that they had been together they had never really talked about their parents.

"They know." she replied.

"And?" James prompted.

"They have no issue with the race thing if that's what you're asking. You're not the first white man that I've dated." she replied.

"I told my parents about you too. I thought that my father would be the one to object but it was my mother. At any rate, they know all about you and how much I love you."

James hesitated before continuing.

"Toni, I love you; you know that and I know that you love me too, marry me."

James took the diamond out of his pocket as Toni turned to face him.

"James, I ... what about our schedules? And our families will be royally pissed off."

"I already thought about that too but this is just for us; we'll have a family wedding later. As for our schedules, we'll work it out. Toni, marry me."

Toni didn't know what to say, she had known that he was going to ask her but it still came as a surprise. She felt the cool metal of the ring slide onto her finger and wondered why she was hesitating.

James waited nervously, knowing that it could go either way. He also knew that while she loved him, it wasn't with the same intensity that he loved her but he just didn't care, he still believed that in time, she would love him just as much as he loved her.

"Yes." Toni said so softly that James wasn't sure that he heard her right.

"Yes?" he asked seeking confirmation.

"Yes."

James bent down to kiss her holding her so tight that she almost couldn't breathe. She broke the kiss laughing.

"You're going to kill me before we get married!"

James loosened his hold on her with a chuckle.

"Sorry sweetness, I guess I'm so happy that you said yes. I want to marry you tonight, the chapel is open."

"Tonight? What about the blood tests and the license?" Toni asked.

James' face fell.

"There is that, hold on let me find out what we need."

He gave himself a mental kick in the ass, he should have researched this but he really didn't think that she'd agree to come to Vegas and even if she did that she would say yes to getting married.

Toni heard him on the phone talking to the front desk and he sounded pleased.

"Well, we can get the blood test done in the morning and there is no waiting period. After that we can go get our license, by tomorrow night you'll be Dr. Antoinette Jacobson. That has a nice ring to it doesn't it?"

Toni had to agree that it did even as she ignored the little twinge that she felt in her gut but decided that it was just nerves and nothing more. She didn't resist when James led her back into the condo and into the bedroom, what surprised her is that she really wanted him. It wasn't her usual acceptance that they were going to make love, she wanted and needed him.

Even James sensed the difference in her response as they kissed; it was as if she was throwing everything that she had into it. James found himself wishing that he had proposed sooner, apparently this was what she needed in order to let go.

As always, James made love to her slowly spending extra time on her nipples which were always sensitive but seemed even more so tonight. He trailed kisses down her soft stomach and wondered if she would allow him to do the one thing he had wanted to do from the first time they made love, he wanted to taste her. He wanted to feel her throb on his tongue as he ate her.

Toni let herself go, she was at a loss as to why the change but didn't question it. The nervousness that she felt not long before was gone, there was only here and now. Toni felt James' warm breath on her thighs and knew that he was waiting for her to either stop him or let him continue. She gently pushed her hips up to his face letting him know that he could go on. James hesitated for the briefest of moments not quite believing that she was going to allow him to do this.

James thought that he had died and gone to heaven as the tip of his tongue touched her for the first time. He felt her tense and then heard her moan softly as she pushed herself against his mouth. James however wasn't in a hurry; he pulled back and teased her until she moaned in frustration. He spread her lips wide and latched onto her swollen and throbbing clit and sucked her into a mind blowing orgasm. Even before it ended, he was on top of her sliding into to her slowly. They came together clinging tightly to each other as the orgasms waned.

"Jesus Toni! That was amazing!" James said as he held her afterwards. And for once Toni agreed.

Mason had narrowed his search down to two Antoinette Greene's and one James Jacobson. James, Mason noted was the only offspring of a very wealthy family, searching further; he found a picture of James and recognized him as the drunken man that he had carried home several weeks before.

He went back to the two Toni Greene's. It took him awhile but he finally located the right one but there wasn't a whole lot of information on her. Following a hunch, he logged on to face book. He didn't have an account so he set up another email address and set up an account. Like on Google, there were hundreds of women with her name. He typed in James' name and had better luck but the problem was he couldn't see any information because he wasn't on their friends list. He went back to Toni's page and sent a friends request along with a message.

"I don't know if you remember me but I carried your friend home one night after he drank too much. I've been looking for you to take you out for that drink."

He hit "send request" and logged off. All he could do now was wait for her to respond. As the days went by, Mason was coming to realize how big of an error that he made when he didn't take her out for a drink.

James and Toni left Vegas as Drs. James and Toni Jacobson, the reactions of their parents were basically the same; disappointed, hurt and angry.

"We're going to have a wedding." Toni told her mother, "You'll meet him soon I promise."

"They're upset." she told James after the phone call, "and they want to meet you ASAP."

"No problem and my parent's aren't real happy with us either and they want to meet you too." he replied hugging her.

"Maybe we shouldn't have gotten married." Toni said softly.

"Yes we should have. Toni, we're adults and we made a decision that our parents aren't happy with but they'll get over it especially when we give them a wedding date." he replied.

They had been home for two weeks before Toni logged onto face book to post that she and James had gotten married. When she saw the request from Mason she couldn't believe it. The question was why he was contacting her now and what she should do about it. After debating for several minutes, she declined the request, she was now a married woman and he had blown his chance to have a drink with her.

Mason checked his email daily for a response from Toni, after a month he realized that she hadn't accepted his invitation going. He knew that she was still active on face book so that wasn't the issue. He decided to try again.

"Hello, I'm still wondering about that drink." and hit send message.

Toni saw the message and declined it, why was he so anxious to have a drink with her now? He didn't act interested when they met. She remembered how he had politely brushed her off when she offered to have a drink with him. After thinking about it for several seconds, she hit the decline option and logged realizing that she never did post about her and James. She almost got back on but changed her mind; if she got back on she wouldn't be able to resist one of her guilty pleasures, "Farmville."

Mason checked daily for a response from Toni and it wasn't long before he realized that she wasn't going to respond; the question was why. He found out several days later.

Mason was a voracious news hound; every television in his house was turned to a news station whether it was CNN or the local news. He read the various news papers even if they had the same stories; it was the various points of view on the same story that interested him. Mason even found the society pages interesting even though he didn't know anyone in them, that was until today.

He sat was sitting in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee when he opened the society page. There was an article and picture about none other than Dr. James Jacobson and his new wife Dr. Antoinette Jacobson formally Dr. Antoinette Greene. Mason's breath left him in a gush, "she married him." he murmured in shock.

Several emotions ran through him, anger; but not at her, sadness and confusion. The not taking her out for that drink when he had the chance had just cost him dearly. His mate had married another. That brought back thoughts of Katrina, she had chosen another over him and Toni had just done the same thing. He made himself slow down; he hadn't given Toni the chance to choose him. It finally dawned on him that Toni was the one who was supposed to help him get over Katrina and in his efforts to be fair to her or maybe it was stupidity, he had pushed her away, it didn't occur to him that there were other reasons for his rejection of her.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Mason swore, "It was one damned drink, how could one fucking drink have such enormous consequences?" he asked himself as he threw the paper down. One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to let Toni get away from him. He already lost one woman to someone else and he wasn't going to let it happen again. "But it already did." he whispered to himself as he looked at the article and the accompanying picture.

Two years later

"James are you sure that you're alright?" Toni asked concerned.

"Baby, I'm fine! If you don't stop hovering you're going to be late." he said as he hugged her, "it's just the flu."

"I can stay home with you and make some homemade chicken soup." She replied.

James hesitated before speaking.

"Toni, you know that I love you and everything about you except your cooking and your coffee, it sucks so go to work and I'll see you tonight." James said.

"Ok fine! See if I ever offer to make soup for you again!" she teased.

"Is that a promise?" James teased back.

Her love for him had grown just as he had known it would. Once their parents had gotten over the shock of their Vegas wedding and they had a family wedding everything had worked out except for one thing, he wanted a baby and she didn't at least not yet. They hadn't exactly argued about it but had some heated discussions, she was right in that it was something that they should have talked about before they got married but it wouldn't have changed anything, he would have married her even if she didn't want children.

James watched as she drove away, it was going to be a long day. He headed back to the bedroom and climbed back into bed cursing at himself because he didn't get the flu shot. He set the alarm for five so that he could get up and make dinner for them and he had a surprise for her.

For the past two years Mason watched Toni from afar, he was over Katrina as much as he could be or so he thought. It didn't hurt so much to think about her and the girls but he didn't lie to himself either, he still loved her. Maybe it was time to have that talk with Eustace. Even now he didn't feel particularly drawn to Toni but maybe it was because she was now married. The fact was that he didn't understand the lack of attraction to her any more than he did when he first saw her. He hadn't tried to contact her since she didn't respond to his friends request on face book for the second time but he watched her career with interest. He watched James too and realized that she really did love him. If she hadn't, he would have found some way to interfere but seeing as she loved her husband, his damned honor wouldn't allow him to break up what seemed to be a happy marriage.

He really was at a loss as to what he should do. He didn't want to move again, he liked Boston; even the winters which surprised him. To keep himself occupied he took lovers but was very careful not to let them get too attached to him, more than once he had to erase a woman's memory of him. Here it was another weekend night and he was alone. He wondered if Eustace was busy, he had to get a handle on his feelings for Katrina.

"Eustace, Mason here; are you busy tonight?"

Two hours later, Mason was sitting in Eustace's living room. It reminded him of the times that Ethan sat in his living room trying to make sense of how he could have hurt Katrina. Now here he was trying to figure out how to stop loving her so that he could move on.

"What's on your mind?" Eustace asked.

"Cut the bull shit Eustace, you know why I'm here." Mason snapped.

"I think I do, but why don't you tell me."

"I'm fucking in love with another man's wife! Alright? And I met my own mate three years ago and I fucked that up too. She married someone else."

Eustace didn't say anything for a long time.

"Why don't we start with Katrina? I think that she's at the root of all of this. Would you agree?" Eustace asked.

Mason nodded, it was true. Ever since he first laid eyes on her, that would have been just after she'd been raped he felt something for her. Even then Ethan knew it but had been so wrapped up in his guilt that he dismissed it until much later.

"Tell me about her." Eustace said.

"What do you want to know?" Mason asked, "Do you want to hear about how my heart went pitter patter when I saw her?" he asked sarcastically.

"If that's what happened, then yes." Eustace replied unfazed by the sarcasm.