I never thought I'd be where I am now. I imagined my life a little differently.

I didn't plan on getting married. I was a fucking criminal who loved going to bars with friends, having one night stands, playing poker or just walking the streets of LA at night. I wasn't interested in women. Never. I liked to sleep with one sometimes but nothing more. No attachment.

Then one fucking night, during a party I saw her. She was looking around the bar with these big eyes like she was lost. But really she was sitting with her friends on one of the couches but she was uncomfortable. That's when the spell was broken. And here I am.

With my wife, that innocent girl from the bar. We just got back from the wedding party and instead of laying in bed and making out, we're sitting on the carpet in our apartment playing some board games. Yes, board games. Oh and now chess. My wife was changing games so fast I could barely keep track.

This is not how I imagined my wedding night. I thought that right after the ceremony and the congratulations related to the wedding, I would go back to my new apartment with my wife, hold her in my arms and then throw her on the bed. Then I would hang over her and then... you know. I would make her scream my name all night long and the neighbors would hate us.

At first, it was like that. I gently took my wife, you into my arms bridal style and laid her on the bed. A little less gently I started unbuttoning her dress and even less gently kissing her. I forgot for a moment that she wasn't like other women I spent time with. She was innocent. You were innocent. You were a fucking virgin who was terribly ashamed of her body because of some ex-boyfriends.

That's why I stopped touching her when I saw tears in her eyes. She panicked. And I felt like an idiot. So now we're sitting on the floor playing chess. Who would have thought that a 29-year-old criminal would play chess with his wife on their wedding night?

AJ from the past would laugh at me. I'm sure of it. But I wanted my wife not to be afraid of me. And to express herself.

"Now it's your turn" Her soft voice pulls me out of my thoughts. She had just moved her pawn. Well, I had kind of forgotten how to play chess and what all the pawns were called. But I still won.

"That's not fair! You win all the time." She says, looking at me reproachfully.

"Hey! I'm just good" I say laughing. I wink at her. "I'm really good at all games"