Love, Passion and a Shattered Dream

It was almost nine in the evening when Tawney got home. She was exhausted and landed on the sofa without removing her coat. The long hours at work were starting to take a toll on her wellbeing. She knew it was time to re-examine her situation and add more balance to her life.
For several years, she focused on building a career and was now ready to take that next step, meeting a dynamic man who would sweep her off her feet and take her away from all of the grueling and demanding tasks encountered on the job.
In two years, she wanted to be a wife, have at least two children and be a stay-at-home mom. If her aspirations were going to come true, she would have to start planning her course of action soon.
After receiving her Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Tawney immediately got a job at a small tech firm called Tech World, Inc., which was located in Lower Manhattan, New York. She was an educational software developer and worked at the company for over ten years.
There were times when she wanted to pack it all in, because she never felt appreciated by management or her co-workers. Because she was encouraging, hard working and accommodating, the staff would take advantage of her.
When co-workers were on vacation, she would do their work and hers, sometimes putting in twelve hours a day.
However, when she went on vacation, her work would pile up, and upon her return, she would end up putting in extra hours and sometimes weekends, just to catch up.
Since she was single and had no children, many executives saw this as justification to give her more work.
They assumed she had no added responsibilities at home and would welcome the extra overtime. Of course, she never complained about the money.
Her salary was over $150,000.00, and with overtime, she was pulling in close to $200,000.00 a year.
In addition, she accumulated a nice nest egg through good investments and savings. Her assets were worth over $650,000.00. If warranted, she could have left her job and lived off the interest without touching the principal.
She had always lived in a rent-controlled apartment with her parents, until they retired and moved to Arizona. She remained in the modestly decorated apartment, which was still in her parents’ name. Her rent would have been the envy of most of her co-workers, who were paying rents and mortgages in the four figures.
Her sense of style was unfussy. Unlike many of her associates, she had no credit debt, did not own a car and did not live a lavish lifestyle. Living within her means was her strongest suit. She ate out a lot at home and for fun, would rent movies or attend off-off-Broadway plays.
She enjoyed her successes and was now ready to share those triumphs with someone special.
Tawney was a plus size and sensuous beauty, but her social life would have never made the society pages. She did not date often. Most of the men on her job were married, and the single ones were already in committed relationships.
Although there were a few office romances, she did not believe in mixing business with pleasure and would never date a co-worker. For one thing, people on the job had a tendency to chat about which employee was sleeping with whom. Moreover, some were great at kissing and talking about their colossal lovemaking escapades.
There were even rumors that several male workers were keeping score cards on the number of female employees they were doing. Tawney was a very private person and believed in keeping people speculating about her love life or lack of.
People would always ask, “Are you seeing anyone?”
Her answer would always be, “Not at the moment.”
If a male associate asked her out on a date, she would always decline.
Her mother would say, “To be involved with a person you work with is a recipe for disaster, and what goes on in the bedroom should always remain there.”
Therefore, Tawney never wanted to come over as being easy or the subject of office gossip or dirty jokes.
However, she was about to ignore her mom’s words of wisdom and have an office tryst that would leave her with a crushed heart.

Now that Tawney’s career was on track, it was time for her to find a dynamic man. She put in a request for a one-year sabbatical, but the company would only give her six months’ leave. She was somewhat thrown, because workers who wanted to take a one-year break could if they were with the company for ten or more years. Nevertheless, she went along with management’s decision. If she did not accomplish her goals in six months, there were other options.
Friday was Tawney’s last day on the job. Before she left, the staff gave her a going away party and introduced her to the person who would be filling in for her. His name was Amal. He was a computer software consultant and had his own company called Safety Net Now that designed security software for major corporations and financial institutions.
His company had been around for more than twenty years, with annual sales of over five million dollars. He had an assistant and two part-time employees. His business was home-based in Uptown Manhattan.
Amal was a hottie. Many of the female employees could not keep their eyes or hands off him. To say they were not smitten with his looks would have been incorrect. They flocked around him as if he was the last man on earth.
Tawney appeared to be oblivious to all the excitement.
As the women were talking to him, he was watching Tawney. His alluring smile was beyond description; he was like the worm on the hook tempting the fish. Without a doubt, he got her attention. His charismatic charm worked, and before anyone realized it, the two were conversing, as if they were the only people in the room.
As the party ended, Tawney thanked everyone for the send-off. The staff wished her a great respite and looked forward to her return in six months.
Amal offered to drive her home, but she declined. She did not want to come over as a fast woman. Even though she was into him, she wanted to play hard to get.
He did ask if he could call her. Of course, she said yes. After all, he was going to be taking over her work and would need to contact her if he had questions or encountered any problems.
After arriving home, she was exhausted and took a warm bath. While relaxing in the tub, she thought about Amal and romanticized about the two of them being together, getting married, having children and living happily ever after.
The next day, Tawney was up early and started to make plans for the next six months. Suddenly, the phone rang.
It was Amal. He wanted to discuss the work he was going to do, while she was on leave, and invited her to dinner.
She had no qualms about going out with him and accepted his invitation. He was not an employee of the company. When her sabbatical was over, he would no longer be working there. Furthermore, he did not come over as someone who would discuss his personal business at the workplace.
He made plans to take her out next Friday to a popular restaurant in New Jersey.
She could not wait to see him. Friday could not have come fast enough for her.
In the meantime, she looked through her wardrobe to select an outfit to wear and picked out a nice teal color strapless cocktail dress, a pair of black suede pumps, and a hand-made beaded purse to complement her attire.
It was Friday evening. Tawney was getting ready for her date when the doorbell rang. As she opened the door, it was Amal. When she saw him, a feeling of elation traveled throughout her body. He was drop-dead elegant in his gray pinstripe suit.
She invited him in. When he embraced her, she became aroused, but immediately got hold of herself and asked him to have a seat, while she finished dressing.
He sat on the sofa, observed her from a distance and had an expression on his face like the cat that just ate the canary.
When she came into the living room, he was speechless. The chandelier could have fallen on him, and he would have never known what hit him.
As he stood up, she got closer. The two cuddled and kissed for almost five minutes and started to make honey like two bees in heat. They ended up in the bedroom and never made it to the restaurant. When he was ready to take a break, she would scream for more. It was almost three in the morning when the lovemaking ended.
When Tawney woke up, Amal was not in bed; she thought he had left and that it was a one-night stand, on his part. Then she heard a noise coming from the kitchen. As she went to check, he had prepared breakfast. They kissed, and he escorted her to the table.
She was thoroughly surprised and impressed.
“Where did you learn how to cook?” she asked.
He answered, “While attending college, I worked at a popular Caribbean restaurant in Newark, New Jersey, where I was going to take you for dinner. I worked in the kitchen and learned how to prepare a variety of West Indian dishes from the finest chefs.”
If she had any misgivings about him, those uncertainties were eternally gone. She was ready to be his lover and lifetime partner.
After breakfast, the two went back to bed and talked about their years growing up in their respective communities.
Amal grew up in New Jersey, attended a popular state university and majored in computer science. While in college, he started a business in his parents’ basement, designing software for students, local businesses, religious institutions and community organizations.
After graduation, he did freelance work for major tech companies, saved enough money to purchase a brownstone in Harlem and expanded his business to where it was today.
Some of his clients were fortune 500 companies, small businesses and not-for-profit agencies.
He had just signed on as a consultant with Tech World, Inc.
Tawney talked about her life growing up in Manhattan. She had a sister who lived in Canada. They were not that close, because her sister was twenty years older, but Tawney and her parents were extremely close. Both parents were municipal employees.
Her mother was an accountant with the New York City Finance Department, and her father was the head superintendent of several school districts at the Board of Education. After leaving their jobs, they moved to a retirement community to be near family and friends.
Tawney always wanted it all, and systematically mapped out her road to success. She graduated from high school at the top of her class and won a full scholarship to a prominent university in Connecticut. She had a steadfast career, accrued lots of money, and was now ready to settle down and have children.
Amal was listening very carefully to what she was saying. Whether he got the message, was anyone’s guess. As he started to kiss her, his cell phone rang. There was an emergency at his company, which needed his immediate attention. He apologized and said he had to leave.
He got dressed, gave her a loving kiss and said, “I already miss you. Let’s get together tomorrow for Sunday brunch at my place, and then we’ll go to the restaurant for dinner.”
She replied, “I wish tomorrow was already here.”
He gave her his e-mail address and cell phone number and said, “I will send a car to pick you up at ten in the morning.”
To say Tawney was on top of the world was like saying she was at the peak of Mount Everest and was ready to leap for joy. Sending a car to pick her up was the embodiment of sophistication, to say the least. When was the last time someone sent a chauffeur for her? The answer was never! Then again, how often did she date?
“Amal had class,” she said to herself and immediately called her parents and screamed, “I met my future husband.”
For a second, her mom who answered the phone did not recognize the voice and thought the person on the other end had the wrong number. As Tawney continued to talk, her mom realized who it was.
Tawney explained in depth how she met the man of her dreams.
Her mother listened and was deeply concerned, because her daughter had only known this man for twenty-four hours, and to conclude that he was the one did not make any sense.
Nevertheless, she was madly in love and would marry him in a year.
Her father who was listening in did not voice his opinion, not that it would have mattered what he thought. As far as he was concerned, you can never reason with a woman blinded by love. He wished her love and happiness.
Her parents did want to meet this man. Tawney insisted it was not necessary for them to come to New York at this time. It was not as though she was going to marry him next week. There would be plenty of time for her mom and dad to get to know Amal.
While she was talking to her parents, there was a beeping sound on her end.
She said, “There is a call coming in, and I will be talking to you soon.”
When she answered the call, the voice on the other end said, “I just called to say I miss you and can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”
After hearing Amal’s voice, she started to hyperventilate and whispered, “I love you.”
There was a click at the other end.
It was getting late; she was tired, decided to turn in early, and had no trouble falling asleep.
It was Sunday, and the church bells were ringing. Tawney knew it was time to get up. She was full of energy and bliss, could not decide what to wear, and struggled over several attires and lastly, selected a beige linen pantsuit. The weather was divine, with temperatures in the mid 70s.
At approximately 9:45 a.m., the doorbell rang.
It was the chauffeur, who introduced himself as Rick.
The ride to Amal’s house took about thirty minutes. The driver escorted Tawney to the house and then left. When the door opened, Amal was in his silk robe and led her into the living room.
The interior of the house was elegant. The four-story residence came with an elevator. The cathedral ceilings stood 16 feet high. There were parquet floors and central air conditioning.
The kitchen had all computerized appliances.
His office, which was on the second floor, had several computers, workstations, printers and scanners.
Stored records occupied the third floor, and on the fourth floor were three bedrooms with their own baths.
What she liked most about the house was its beautiful enclosed garden.
Believing that Amal had his act together, she was very proud of his accomplishments. He was going places, and she wanted to be by his side.
He took her to his bedroom, which looked more like a love nest.
There were several decorative mirrors on the ceiling and imported wall-to-wall black wool carpeting on the floor. Erotic images accentuated the deep red brick walls.
On his bed was a zebra skin throw.
She started to get hot. As he got closer to her body, he removed his robe and started to undress her. Before she knew what was coming, they were doing every lovemaking position and technique known to man and woman.
Being in a state of erotic joy, she sensed Amal was a master of The Kama Sutra or a talisman, who had the power to keep her going and pleading for more.
She would have given up all of her worldly possessions and sold her soul to the devil to keep this sensation going without end.
The aroma from the kitchen was stimulating Tawney’s carnal desires. Amal had prepared hot and spicy cod fish cakes, candied yams, sausages, yellow rice with black beans, and coconut bread.
She was not hungry and wanted to continue her lovemaking antics with him.
However, he was pooped; they would resume their lovemaking in the evening, and instead of going to New Jersey for dinner, they would eat in.
That was acceptable to her. The last thing she wanted to do was go to a restaurant.
That evening, Amal called and told the driver he was no longer on call. Amal and Tawney went back to bed and made love until they no longer could.
When Tawney woke up, Amal was gone. He left a note reminding her that he was going to Tech World.
She completely forgot it was Monday, dashed out of bed, got dressed and went downstairs. There was a woman in the living room; she introduced herself as Amal’s assistant.
Tawney greeted the aide and said, “It is nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” said the woman.
As Tawney was leaving, the assistant wished her a good day.
Tawney replied, “Thank you and you have a great day as well.”
When Tawney got home, she made breakfast. While eating, she was thinking about Amal.
Already, she was missing him.
For the next four months, they were seeing each other and having wild and romantic trysts. When she was with him, she was always in a state of sexual glee. To say he had her completely under his control was the truth. He was now ready to proceed with his evil scheme.
The following Saturday, Amal called Tawney and wanted her input on a business proposal.
He was planning to buy a small tech company and asked if she would be interested in becoming his partner; she would only have to invest $500,000.00.
She loved the idea, and without even thinking or asking any questions, said yes.
Tawney was excited about the new business venture. While she was going over her portfolio, to decide which stocks to cash in, the phone rang. It was Amal announcing that the tech company had accepted his bid. All he needed was her share of the money. He instructed her to make the check out to him, personally, and wanted to come by the following Saturday to pick up the money and go over the final plans for procuring the company.
It was now Saturday. Amal arrived at Tawney’s apartment around ten in the morning.
She had cashed in $350,000.00 worth of stocks, borrowed the balance from her 401(k) plan, and as he requested, had a check for $500,000.00 made out to him.
It would take about four weeks to finalize the deal.

Tawney started to wonder if it made any sense to go back to work. Now that she was a business owner, management would not take likely to it, because there was a clause in her contract that read, “Employees are not allowed to accept any type of employment with any tech company while working for Tech World, Inc.”
While technically, she would not be an employee but a part owner of the new company, it would be a conflict of interest and against policy rules. It was a catch-22, and before making any final decisions, she would consult with Amal.
In one month, Tawney’s sabbatical would end. She still did not know if she was going to return to work.
In the meantime, Amal finalized the purchase of the new corporation and renamed it Info Limited.
The two celebrated their new acquisition.
He asked Tawney to be the C.E.O. of the new company. She was flattered but knew nothing about running a business. She was a software developer and expected to be a silent partner. Amal told her, he would be her mentor, and she would get assistance from his staff.
When she told him she was planning to leave Tech World, he insisted that she remain there for at least several more months or until Info Limited was turning a profit. She thought that made perfect sense; if revenues were slow coming in, she would still have a paycheck to fall back on.
Besides, Amal was planning to leave New York for several weeks to do more acquisitions.
Before Amal left town, he came to see Tawney and had a big surprise for her. He got down on one knee, took out a four-carat diamond ring and asked for her hand in marriage. She was ecstatic, started to jump up and down like a contestant who just won the grand prize on a game show and accepted his proposal.
They got undressed and made intense love into the wee hours of the night. He was leaving the next day, and upon his return, they would plan the most memorable wedding.

For the next couple of weeks, Tawney was craving for Amal. She had problems sleeping and was tossing and turning every other night.
One evening, it was almost one hundred degrees; it was too hot and humid to sleep. She took out her laptop and started to write the following love message:
My Darling Jamal:
As I lie in bed and admire my engagement ring, I am thinking about you more and more each day. Meeting a beautiful, considerate and kind man has always been a vision of mine, and you have fulfilled that dream. You have made me the happiest woman on the planet, and I cannot wait to be your business partner, lover and wife. Hurry home my sweetheart.
Love always,
Tawney
She sent the e-mail to him, closed her laptop and started to make plans for their pending nuptial.
Every other day, Tawney was sending erotic e-mails to Amal. The fact that he never replied did not faze her at all; she figured he was too busy to answer.
The last thing she wanted to do was throw him off course when it came to making business deals and opted to cool it with the messages.
After his return, they would have plenty of time to tease and write notes to each other.
In two weeks, she would return to work and could not wait to tell her colleagues that she had met someone and accepted his marriage proposal but would not mention his name or her new business partnership until she was ready to leave.

It was Monday. Tawney was ready to return to work. She woke up feeling excited and arrived on the job earlier than usual.
There was a note on her desk requesting that she come to management’s office, at once.
On her way to the executive suite, there were unfamiliar faces in the conference room.
When she entered the office, her boss, whose name was Thea, greeted her with a vigorous handshake, and said, “A company has just bought Tech World, Inc. and renamed it Info Limited, and Mr. Chip Washington is now the new C.E.O.”
Before Tawney could declare that she was the C.E.O. and part owner of Info Limited, she received a layoff notice.
Tawney sat there in a state of alarm and asked, “Who acquired the company?”
Thea answered, “A multi-national conglomerate located in Seattle, Washington bought-out the firm.” She then asked in a confused state, “Was Amal part of that conglomerate?”
Thea looked as though she misunderstood the question and asked, “Who is Amal?”
“He was the consultant who took over my job while I was on leave,” answered Tawney.
“Oh yes, now I remember. No, he had nothing to do with the takeover. Besides, he only worked here for four months. There was so much confusion with the buyout and the terminations that I completely forgot about him,” answered Thea.
“Didn’t he have a tech business of his own?” Tawney asked.
“I am not sure. You would have to ask Human Resources since they hired him,” said Thea and went on to say, how much she enjoyed working with Tawney, and how disappointed she was that the new owners did not wish to keep her on.
Thea stated that she would write a glowing letter of recommendation for her and said, “If it is any comfort, half the staff was fired. When a business goes through an acquisition, there are always cutbacks. You can never take it personally. It is just business.”
Thea continued to talk about one thing after another, but Tawney tuned her out.
Almost in tears, she thanked Thea, quickly left the building and went straight to Amal’s residence to see what was going on.
When she got to the house, there was a for sale sign in the front yard. She rang the doorbell, but got no answer; she took down the phone number on the sign.
After arriving home, she immediately called the real estate agent.
While inquiring about the house, she discovered that Amal never owned the property or the business. He was house sitting for the owners, who were now living and operating a new business abroad.
Amal and his helper disappeared over a month ago, and no one knew where they were.
The broker did ask if she was interested in buying the property. The asking price was one million dollars, in its present condition. It was ironic, because prior to losing her job and handing over her money to Amal, she might have qualified for a mortgage. Now she barely had enough money to live on.
After Tawney got off the phone, she sat there as though someone had sucked all of the life out of her, that someone being Amal and surmised that his assistant was probably in on the con, right from the start.
He used the information regarding the conglomerate’s plan to buy Tech Now, Inc. to his advantage and was able to trick her into believing he was purchasing a company. In reality, he was a snake who swindled her out of her money.
How she could have been so dim-witted was devastating. She had very little money and no job and would have to repay the loan, pay taxes and penalties on the money she borrowed from her pension and retirement accounts.
What was she to do next? She was too embarrassed to file a complaint against him. Where would she begin? She knew nothing about this man and reckoned that everything he told her was a flat out lie. He used her, pretended to be in love with her, and then ripped her off without blinking an eye. Behind that façade was a cruel and immoral person.
Excessively in lust, she never saw the cautionary sign: Requesting that the check for the business be payable to him and not to the company, which was never his from the start.

For the next several months, Tawney was in a state of shock and depression. Every time she went to bed, she would picture being with Amal forever, and seeing the two of them having erotic fun, eventually getting married and having children, but all of her dreams ended up being shattered into miniature pieces. The hurt was just too unbearable. She would cry herself to sleep every night.
After slowly getting over the initial distress, anger and betrayal, she could no longer remain in her apartment or in New York and resolved to move to Arizona to be near her parents. She would have no problems finding work and could probably start her own software designing company. The prospects were endless.
She did not intend to tell her parents as to what took place between her and Amal.
That was a tale better left untold.
Before Tawney left New York, she thought about the engagement ring Amal had given her and decided to go to a high-end jewelry store to have it appraised.
The jeweler examined the ring and informed her that it was a fake.
He said, “There is a way to tell an authentic diamond. Place the diamond on a business card. If you cannot read the letters, it is real. If you can read the print, you can use the ring as a magnifying glass.”
A mortified Tawney ran out of the store and threw the ring into a dumpster.?