The Second Chance

By Adrienne D'nelle Ruvalcaba

A SHORT STORY. While on a romantic weekend getaway with his current girlfriend, Matthew Wiley runs into his ex-girlfriend Anna, the love of his life. He can't resist the urge to confront the issues that drove them apart years ago, but he has less than two days to convince her to give them a second chance at love and trust.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Indigo Plume Publishing Company
• Release date: Nov 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311984531

Adrienne D'nelle Ruvalcaba

My name is Adrienne D'nelle Ruvalcaba. I was born and raised in Southeast Texas. After high school, I joined the U.S. Army and served four years at Fort Campbell, KY. During my time there, I married a fellow soldier and had two children. Following my years in the service, I ended up as a single parent. After setting out on my own with my two children, I enrolled in the Engineering program at Southern Illinois University.While at SIU, I completed my bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering with a concentration in structural analysis. Also while at SIU, I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. This diagnosis significantly changed my life. Since the onset of this disease, I have learned a lot about those around me and even more about myself. Due to some serious and sobering complications, my health has declined in recent years. I am no longer able to spend time outside with my children, or do many of the things that I used to take for granted. I'm in my early 30's, but most of the time I feel decades older. After a few years of struggling to accept this illness as a part of my life, I've finally come to a more peaceful place. The most important thing I've learned while dealing with this devastating and serious disease is that it does not define who I am.I've been writing since grade school, and I often take solace in the world I create in my imagination. Most of what I write is romantic fiction, meant purely for emotional fulfillment, enjoyment, and sweet escapism. Real life is difficult enough, and I believe we all need a little break from it sometimes.

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The Second Chance

By Adrienne D’Nelle Ruvalcaba

Published by Indigo Plume at Smashwords

©2013 Adrienne D’nelle Ruvalcaba

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Percy smiled across the table at Lena as he appreciated the glint of her white teeth against her perfectly tanned skin. Even in the dead of winter, Lena’s skin could never be described as pasty. She spray-tanned just as religiously as she attended aerobics classes at her father’s gym. She’d been a personal trainer for over a decade, and her body was a shining example of perfect health and fitness. Her chestnut colored hair glistened in the soft lightening of the restaurant. She tucked one lock of her remarkable hair behind her ear as her blue eyes met his.

I think somebody might finally get lucky tonight, she faux-whispered with a huge grin.

Percy’s temperature went up a few degrees as her foot nudged his under the table. So you don’t want to kill me for taking you on a weekend getaway to Montreal in the middle of winter? he asked with a smile.

Please, she rolled her eyes. Florida is too hot, and we both needed a break. Besides, I’ve had my eye on you too long to pass on such a golden opportunity.

You’ve had your eye on me? Percy asked with a chuckle.

Honey, I’ve been watching you since your first training session in Daddy’s gym six months ago. You’re actually the first guy I’ve ever asked out on a date. Of course, if your sister Jamie hadn’t told me you were a little shy, I might not have bothered.

That’s incredibly flattering, Percy said as he reached across the table to take one of Lena’s perfectly manicured hands in his. She let out a girlish giggle and squeezed his hand in what could only be described as a death grip. Her gel manicured nails momentarily dug into his fingers, but he grinned and bore it until enough time had passed for him to retract his hands without seeming insensitive.

Lena had an overabundance of physical beauty, there was no denying that fact, but he still felt like he was struggling to learn what kind of person she was on the inside. Since asking him out a few weeks ago, she’d been the aggressor in their budding relationship. When he went out on dates with her, he often felt like he was being dragged along by a strong current.

She still enjoyed going to nightclubs, something he hadn’t even enjoyed in his college years, and she frequently invited him to tag along with her and her entourage of shallow fitness buffs. He’d relented a few times, but on those occasions he’d felt too old and out of place to enjoy himself. As a man in his mid-thirties, he had very little in common with the twenty-something, club-hopping crowd. Despite being a few years older than him, Lena seemed to fit right in with them, or maybe it was just that she was determined to hold onto her youth in any way she could now that she was approaching the dreaded age of forty. He’d certainly seen enough of his older sister doing the same thing. The fact that his sister Jamie and Lena were good friends led him to believe that there must be something more to her than a hot body and the ability to dance to frenzied techno music all night long. He’d asked her to spend the weekend in Montreal with him in a final effort to peek beneath the exterior that was quickly losing its luster.

I had a good time at that museum today, she said, interrupting his thoughts.

Which exhibit did you enjoy the most? Percy asked with an inner sigh of relief; maybe they had something in common after all.

Oh, I don’t remember. They were all pretty good, she said, and then in the next breath she asked, What do you say we skip that orchestra performance tomorrow night, and hit that little club we passed on the way to the hotel?

Skip the orchestra performance? Skip the entire reason they’d flown to Canada for the weekend? Maybe we should sleep on it and decide tomorrow? he suggested with a smile that felt forced. He hated to think that he’d wasted so much time and money on something that she wasn’t even remotely interested in.

For the next hour, he politely listened as she talked about many of the same things she’d expounded on during their previous dinner dates. She told him again about her ex-boyfriend, the nightclub owner who wanted her back. Of course, she assured him that it was never going to happen now that she had him. Percy had to suppress a cringe at that statement, because he wasn’t so sure he was had by her. She then switched to the subject of her latest haircut. She’d been forced to find a new stylist, because her last one had moved away. She went on for almost ten minutes