Tell him what I’d like for breakfast in the morning? Was he serious? The man has a reputation as one of the biggest players in the world. I’d heard about the breakfast line from several people but I thought it was one of those urban legends because it sounded so ridiculous.

I must have been completely wrong because he had just used the line on me. What’s worse is that it must actually work if he keeps using it.

I left his table and ran out the front door as fast as my heels would take me. The cool air caught me by surprise as I descended the stairs. Autumn was arriving early in New York. The evenings were turning colder and the leaves on the trees were starting to turn various shades of orange and yellow.

As I breathed in the fresh night air, I wondered what types of women actually fell for those lines. It didn’t take me long to realize that I knew exactly what kind of women were falling for those lines. I’m nothing at all like those women and he was crazy if he thought a sleazy pickup line like that was going to work on me.

All I wanted to do was go home but Liam’s phone was going straight to voice mail. Knowing how my sister could be, I figured she was being stubborn and putting up a fight.

I didn’t want to stand in front of the building looking like an idiot so I walked into the gardens located behind the ballroom. I’ve loved gardens ever since I was a little kid when my mom and I used to plant flowers out in the yard.

The garden that I had just walked into was huge. There were colorful and fragrant roses, azaleas, daffodils and a variety of other flowers. What caught my eye, however, was a massive archway right in the center that led into some type of maze or labyrinth made from tall bushes and shrubbery.

I figured I had some time to kill so I decided to check it out. This thing was amazing and was much larger than it appeared. As I made my way deeper into the maze, I could hear voices talking from just outside. They were discussing Christian Wilde, the man that had just been trying to pick me up. I couldn’t understand their entire conversation but I did learn that Christian himself was the sponsor of the gala that I had been attending.

He also donated large amounts of money to the charity that was hosting the event. I was a little surprised by what I was hearing. Was it possible that I had judged Christian wrong? After all, the information I’d heard about him all came from second-hand sources. Maybe the things I’d heard weren’t actually true.

Maybe Christian Wilde wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

Wandering further into the huge maze in the garden, I stopped every so often to smell some of the flowers I came across, especially some that I was not familiar with and hadn’t ever seen before. My favorite was these purple flowers that resembled a rose but didn’t have the perfume smell that roses were known for.

Instead, they smelled sweet, almost like a honeysuckle. It made me sad to think that the cold New York weather would soon be swooping in, leaving all of those flowers frosted over, most of them dying until spring came along to revive them, starting the process all over.

As I walked and took in the beautiful scenery, I tried to call Liam again to let him know I was no longer at the gala. When he came back, he would be looking for me and I didn’t want him to worry that something was wrong. Once again, his phone went straight to voicemail. I was going to leave him a message but who does that anymore?

I know when someone leaves me a message, I’m more likely to call them back to see what they wanted before I’d ever listen to it. The only time I ever actually check it is when I get tired of seeing the little envelope icon in my notification bar. After not being able to reach him, I tried calling my sister, hoping Liam had been able to get her home safely so that she could let him know where I was.

Her phone rang and rang before her voice mail picked up as well. Hanging up my phone and tossing it into my purse in disgust, I realized that I’d been walking aimlessly in this giant maze and hadn’t paid any attention to where I was going. No matter where I turned, I seemed to run into a dead end. When it kept happening, my palms started to get sweaty and my heart began to race. Being lost in the labyrinth was beginning to freak me out.

I continued to try to make my way through one way or another. If I couldn’t find my way back to the entrance, hopefully I’d be able to make it out the other side. The thing that bothered me was how dark it had become inside the garden.

The front of the maze was illuminated from the lights outside but none of it was able to penetrate the significant growth within. Turning a corner, I jumped in surprise when I realized I wasn’t alone.

Straight ahead was a man with his back towards me. He was well-dressed and had likely been at the gala as well. I was about to speak up to ask if he knew how to get out when I realized that he was with a woman. She was wearing a black dress with the top pulled down, exposing her breasts.

They weren’t having sex but it looked like they weren’t far off from starting. The two of them were making out pretty heavily when the woman looked over his shoulder and saw me standing there.

The girl was either on something or freaked out for some reason because her eyes turned wide and her face went white as she pushed them man off of her, pulled her dress up and took off running out of the maze. If I had been in my right mind, I would have followed her as she looked like she knew where she was going. Instead, shock took over me and I was frozen in place as I realized I knew who she was.

She was an older woman who is married to Benjamin Eager, a man who was one of my dad’s best friends when he was alive. I saw them together at the party so I knew they were still together. I didn’t know who she was making out with but I knew it wasn’t her husband.

“Hey, you know she’s a married woman, right? Don’t you have any respect for the vows her and her husband took?” I asked, disgusted by what had been happening.

“Yeah, I know she’s married. It’s not me she’s cheating on so it’s not my problem,” replied the very familiar voice. I wasn’t able to put my finger on it at first but as soon as he took a few steps out of the shadows, I realized who I was talking to. It was Kade Nichols.

Kade was my age, so the fact that he had been making out with a woman much older than him should have been surprising, but in reality, it was what everyone had come to expect from him. He had a thing for married women and had ruined several marriages with no regrets whatsoever. Sometimes I wondered what went wrong with him.

It would probably surprise many people who’ve only met me in the last few years to know that Kade Nichols and I used to be very close. In fact, the two of us had been best friends ever since we met in kindergarten. We did everything together and had lots of play dates.

We even used to make sure we napped next to each other in class. Our friendship continued as we got older and was going strong all the way up until I was placed in state custody. Kade and I lost touch but I thought about him often. As soon as I was back out on my own, he was the first person I looked up.

Unfortunately, the Kade that appeared at my house did not match the person that I used to know. The boy who used to come over to watch movies and had me cracking up with laughter had become a chauvinistic pig who thought he was God’s gift to women everywhere. After hanging out with me a few times, he developed some sort of crush on me and decided that he had to have me. I had to tell him over and over that he was a best friend to me and that’s how I saw him.

Besides, I had to work on getting my own life in order before I’d be ready to date anyone, let alone think about starting a relationship. Nothing I said mattered to him. All he wanted to do was pressure me to do something I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to be with him and he wouldn’t get it through his head. I tried to look past the way he was acting, hoping he would get the hint and things could go back to the way they used to be but it never happened. In the end, I had to stop hanging out with him.

He called and sent text messages like a mad man for a couple weeks but he eventually took the hint and I hadn’t heard from him since.

“Do my eyes deceive me?” he asked in a sarcastic tone. “Is that Sarabelle Williams I see before me?”

“Hi, Kade. How are you?”

“I was a lot better a few minutes ago before a certain someone ran my lady friend away.”

“Sorry about that. I got lost in this thing and you guys kind of caught me by surprise. Besides, don’t you know she’s married?”

“Yes, I do. I wasn’t exactly trying to come in between their marriage, Sarabelle. I was just attempting to cum between her legs.”

“Ugh, you’re disgusting Kade.”

“Is that any way to talk to an old friend?”

“Look, you seem to know you way around in here. Can you show me how to get out of this maze?”

“Of course, I can but why should I help you? I’m the one who needs a little help here,” he said as he started to approach me.

“Kade, what are you doing?” I asked as he inched his way closer to me.

“You need my help and I’d like to help you. But since you ran off my date, I was thinking that you could finish what she started.”

Before I could protest any more, he stepped up to me, wrapped his arms around me and tried to force his tongue down my throat. The taste and smell of alcohol on his breath was overwhelming. I could feel my entire body starting to shake and my pulse raced as I used all the strength I had to try to push him off of me.

With our size difference, it seemed like it was going to be useless but I did manage to wiggle away, temporarily putting a little distance between us. Using all the breath I could muster, I started screaming for help as loud as I could. Kade started laughing.

“You can scream all you want Sarabelle, but nobody is going to come back here looking for you. Everyone is too busy with the gala and besides, that noise is drowning out anything happening in here. I’m not sure why you’re trying to fight this. I know you’ve wanted this for years. Just relax and let it happen.”