The Second Time Around Ch. 03

Previously in "The Second Time Around":

Completely shattered by his unexpected rupture with Brigitte, Caid Harrison speeds on to a new life without his true love only to find that a life without her is not one worth living. Now in the world of the dead, Caid is gifted with another chance to recapture the love that he was forced to let go of, but in the form of Adriano Comito. With a new lease on life, will Caid be capable of winning his Brigitte back or will he be doomed to spend the rest of his life, as Adriano, loveless and alone?

Now back to "The Second Time Around":

Caid didn't realize how true Dante's words were until his brain snapped to with recognition—after seeing a commercial for luxury sailing yachts during one of his rehab sessions.

The Comitos equaled one of THE richest Italian-American families in the U.S. Their occupation: ship and boat manufacturing and not just flimsy sailboats, we're talking yachts, cruise ships, steam engines, racing boats, motorboats, lifeboats; if it was a boat or something that sailed/functioned in the water, the probability of it being made by the Comito family was a hundred and fifty percent. Not to mention, they dabbled in submarine production and aquatic sports equipment as well.

Caid almost shat himself when the "revelation" (thanks to the droning television) came to him. This meant that he was richer than his old parents! A devilish look of malice had taken root on his face from that idea, which made his physical therapist think that he was in pain thus invoking him to utter incessant, annoying words of encouragement to push through the "pain."

"You can do this, Adriano, gimme ten more! Come on, big guy! Ten more!"

He wanted to tell him to shut the hell up, but figured he could get rid of the guy much sooner if he finished off his exercises like he was telling him to.

He hated physical therapy, but after his release from the hospital, his new family had insisted that they get him the best of the best and that he went three times a week with the addition of aquatic therapy on the weekends. He had complained like a pussy at first, but after they had bribed him, "Adriano, how will you meet Brigitte if you are stuck in a wheelchair or hobbling around like the broke down version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame? She's going to take one look at you and say, 'get the hell away from me!'"

That had done the trick and he was now receiving his reward being that today was the last time he would have to deal with his physical therapist spewing globs of spit in his face while hunching over him, as if he was ready to pounce and take his manhood, with horribly funky armpits all in the name of encouragement.

"Great job, Mr. Comito, you passed the test, which means that I can officially sign your therapy release forms. Will you miss our little hangout sessions?" he asked with a too big and too bright grin.

"Yes, I will," Adriano lied through his teeth with a fake grin of his own.

"Go on and hit the showers while I process your paperwork."

Caid nodded and walked off with the grace of a king though he had a slight limp and would have a permanent one for the rest of his, or Adriano's, life. He couldn't really be upset with that notion since his little gait defect got him a lot of attention from the ladies: concerned grandmas, horny grandmas, brazen married women, lonely office women, hot college girls, and jailbait high school girls who had yet to learn their place. They all flocked to him like bees to nectar. That and the fact that he now had a sinful Italian accent that he had tried to get rid of by secretly attending speech classes after some crazy woman had groped him back in the days when he was trapped in the wheelchair and defenseless, but the damn thing was stuck and refused to leave. It also helped to be 6'2" with hair so black it looked like fresh coal and eyes so dark blue that some swore it danced on the edge of being a subtle purple. If those didn't work for the ladies, his evenly tanned olive complexion and bright pink lips usually removed the rest of doubt, especially when he flashed a crooked, pearly white smile with an adorable side gap.

"I found her," he heard Dante announce as he walked into the locker room to find his brother getting dressed.

"You found Brigitte?"

"Isn't that what I just said?" he told him with a big grin.

Adriano stood there with his shirt covering his head although he had yet to pull it all the way down his torso. "What? How is she? Where is she?"

"She is doing fine, apparently," Dante told him then tugged on the bottom of his white and blue striped shirt to remind him to continue getting dressed. "She seems happy and in good health..."

"What aren't you telling me?" Adriano asked, picking up on the hesitancy in Dante's voice.

Dante handed him a packet of pictures, waiting for him to look at them. He did, feeling his heart stutter at the sight of his Brigitte. She was still beautiful....beautiful and supposedly... "Married?" he asked in disbelief as his eyes stared down at the rock on her left finger.

"Yeah to some schmuck named Paul Rivers." Dante regarded his little brother carefully before once more speaking, "You didn't only want to thank her for coming to see about you, did you? You were thinking about dating her?"

Caid couldn't hide the truth from his eyes, instead he thrusted the photos back into their envelope, telling himself to remain calm. What had he expected? A year had gone by since he was in his coma plus six months of physical therapy before actually finding her. Did he expect her to wait for him? A complete stranger? Of course, he wouldn't call himself that, but let's look at the facts: he, Caid Harrison, was already pronounced dead after ripping her heart to shreds, fact number one. Fact number two, he, Caid Harrison, was now encased in the body of Adriano Comito, someone she most likely had never met or even knew existed.

So yeah, he knew the facts, however, it still hurt like hell to see her with some other guy who had his hands all over her bikini clad ass. He punched the locker, feeling the pain before it registered to him what he had just done.

Dante remained unfazed by his outburst. His little brother had always had a temper underneath that gentleman's exterior. It usually had to be something serious for him to show it, however...as it appeared, this was serious.

"Who is this Paul Rivers?" Adriano asked, throwing the packet of pictures on the ground while heaving deep breaths.

"I already told you that he is a schmuck, but I have great news that will cheer you up."

"What's that?"

"Paul and Brigitte Rivers are hosting a dinner party tomorrow night and guess who are invited?"

Caid smiled that crooked smile of his as he slapped his new brother's back. "I have the strongest urge to tell you that I love you. Would that be wrong?"

"Man, get the hell out of here," Dante said even though his arms opened wide for a hug. Adriano did more than hug him; he lifted him and swung him about before setting him back on his feet and planting kisses on either sides of his cheek. "Cut that out. Let's get out of here, Ilenia is waiting for you."

They stopped by the reception area to retrieve his certificate of release then arrived home just in time to see his ex-wife (remember, he's Adriano now) dropping off their daughter.

"Susan," Dante hissed, snatching his niece away from her before walking into the house.

"Hello to you too, you dumb fuck," Susan greeted with just as much venom. "I don't like him being around my daughter. He is a bad influence on her."

"The last time I checked, it did take two to make that child. So she's half mine," Adriano told her quietly. His eyes took in her evening attire. She looked as if she was about to go on a date. Her thick blonde hair was pulled up into a princess type bun with ringlets of curls framing her square face. Her little pink dress, that revealed too much of her thin long legs clad in strapless heels, wasn't really leaving much to the imagination of what would be happening after the date, but hey, to each his own.

"Always so calm and collected, how infuriating," she snipped, turning to get back into her car. "Do us both a favor and get that heart you've been searching for. Maybe I can take you to meet the wizard to get it done. It's a shame for all of those good looks to be wasted on an unfeeling, selfish, screw up."

Adriano chuckled and shook his head as she drove away. At first glance the woman was a knockout, but then she opened that tight-lipped mouth of hers and ruined it. "Cutting off your nose to spite your face," he said in regret as he walked into the house to spend time with his daughter and looking forward to tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I didn't know that you knew Brigitte," Adriano whispered to his sister who was now standing beside him and Dante at the dinner party.

"After you said that you wanted us to find her, I got to work. Did you think Dante did it all by himself? He's always trying to take all of the credit. Besides, how do you expect to get her alone if I don't distract her husband?"

Paul's boring speech ended receiving unwarranted rounds of applause. He stepped down from the podium (yeah, he actually had one in his house for such occasions) and snaked an arm about Brigitte's waist. She didn't seem any too happy about it; nevertheless, she smiled for their guests, thinking of a way to get away from him just when an excuse came in their direction.

"That was a lovely speech, Mr. Rivers. Most dinner parties are filled with useless banter, but you knew exactly how to bring yours to life and make your guests feel engaged."

Paul turned his head in the direction of the voice then plastered on a bright smile of appreciation to the woman wearing the sleek chiffon blue dress that hugged her curvaceous body. She looked sinfully delicious, and he almost had to wipe his mouth to stop himself from drooling. "It is nice to make your acquaintance, Mrs..."

"Ms. Comito. Ginevra Comito and these two are my brothers, Dante and Adriano Comito."

"It's nice to meet all of you. I'm Paul Rivers and this is my...beautiful wife, Brigitte Rivers." He had said the beautiful wife part as if she were actually a succubus dressed in a human costume and he was forced to accompany her or she would steal his soul.

"Hello," Brigitte greeted, shaking Dante's hand then Adriano's while his intense eyes gave her a hungry once over. It wasn't the sexual type, more like the type that asked if she was doing all right and eating healthy meals. It confused her to see a stranger regarding her so carefully when her own husband rarely and barely took the time to worry about her needs.

Brigitte had married Paul on the pretext that he loved her and that she could actually restart her life after her rupture with Caid; whereas Paul had married Brigitte because he thought that every strong black man needed a strong black woman by his side, which he revealed to her was a mistake after their honeymoon. Five months of courtship, seven months of engagement and one wedding ceremony followed by a honeymoon was enough for him to finally realize that he was never in love with her and never would be. Twelve wasted months of her life filled with disillusioned fantasies of marriage and children came crashing down after that night. And now two months later, after the wedding, they were drowning with regret.

But would he divorce her? Hell no, Paul had had her sign a prenupt that stated the only way he could be rid of her is if he or she could prove infidelity. That way he kept all of his rotten money to himself, but it's not like Brigitte wanted nor needed his money. After Caid's death, she had had to deal with his lawyer and venomous parents because he had taken out a life insurance policy and listed her as the sole benefactor. That and the money stored away for him by his late grandparents, that he had entitled to her in his will, had left her well off...very well off.

Her heart ached at the thought of Caid. Some nights she still awoke in a cold sweat to that heart wrenching argument. Other nights, she dreamed that she had been in that car with him, that they had taken their last breath together, and that they had finally been able to be happy in heaven. Her eyes watered and when she lifted them to the sky to blink back the tears, she caught those dark blue eyes on her again.

"Excuse me, I need to use the bathroom," she lied, briskly walking away to the staircase then disappearing down the hallway beside it.

"When I heard that you had recently moved into our neighborhood, I knew that I had to meet you. It's not every day that we get an aspiring congressman living right around the block from us," Gina said to keep Paul's attention focused on her while her two brothers slowly walked away.

"Didn't I tell you that he was a schmuck?" muttered Dante.

Adriano snorted at Dante's comment, eyeing him curiously when he made to go in the opposite direction. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to make friends with Paul's bodyguards."

Caid hadn't thought about that, that the man would keep Brigitte under surveillance. He nodded in appreciation then walked off in the direction she had disappeared in to find her. It didn't take him long to do just that when she collided with him in the dimly lit hallway.

"Excuse me, I'm so sorry," she apologized, raising her head to look up at who she had assaulted. Her mouth opened yet her voice refused to come out to say another word.

Caid took his cue, grabbing her gently by the waist and pulling her towards him for a kiss he had been dreaming of ever since Dante had told him about the dinner party.

She resisted at first, pushing feebly against his broad chest, clawing at his arms through his suit jacket, biting down hard on his bottom lip, but Caid still remembered how to calm her when she was this upset. He settled one hand on the small of her back and softly massaged her taut skin while his other hand went to work at the back of her neck.

Brigitte instantly melted into this man. She didn't know him, but from the way he was touching her so familiarly like only one man had ever touched her and kissing her so tenderly, it made her feel as if they had been lovers in a past life. She kissed him back, gently moving her tongue over the spot she had bit on his bottom lip. She sighed, her body and soul hungry for attention that her husband withheld from her and refused to share since the night of their honeymoon. This man knew exactly what she needed and how to give it to her and she reveled in that fact.

His strong arms held her tighter than a second skin, but as soft as petals of the cherry blossom floating on the wind. He made her moan, a broken, wanton moan that shocked her to her core while his thick, long tongue stroked deeper into her mouth and explored her. It felt too right, but she knew that it was wrong. She was a married woman, perhaps not a married woman who loved her husband, but she was married, nonetheless. That meant that she needed to show her husband some sort of respect even though he did the exact opposite when he ogled other women in front of her.

Caid felt Brigitte's arms wrap around his neck as she lifted herself on tiptoes. She was giving him back just as much as she was taking, diving them deeper into their own little world, a world that crashed back into reality when he picked up on approaching footsteps.

Breaking the kiss, Caid grabbed Brigitte's hand and took her back in the direction she had only seconds ago came from then locked them both inside of the bathroom.

She didn't speak while her mind replayed what she had just done. How could she have kissed a stranger? How could she have cheated on her husband? She had never cheated before! What was she going to do?

"Stop," Caid told her as her brown eyes filled with panic.

"Stop what?" Her voice. He had missed that seductive voice of hers. A voice that made him melt on the inside and crave to bury himself so deeply inside of her that he didn't know where he began or where she ended. He kissed her again and to Brigitte's surprise she didn't even put up a meager effort to pull away. She held onto him for dear life when her legs gave way and he lifted her to wrap them around his waist.

Sitting her on top of the sink, Caid broke their kiss, replacing his lips with his thumb as he traced her pouty pink mouth. "Brigitte, I know that we just met, but I'm going to make love to you right here in this bathroom."

"Any objections?"

She stared at him in doe eyed shock although her head was slowly shaking no.

"Good," he said then kissed her again.

To hell with her husband.