Scandalous Affair

Sofia

He didn't stay late at the libraries solely to avoid Chelsea, he actually liked learning about more important things than the newest star to overdose. He sucked up everything he could find about politics and American political history, it fascinated him and felt more worthwhile than kissing teenie-boppers who wanted to have his baby. His favorite library was the LA County Law Library. He spent hours lost in books, learning about the presidents and their career paths, laws and how they came into being. He wanted to be a part of it, that was where the real power was anyway, and there was no one more famous than an American president. He memorized all of them, not counting Grover Cleveland twice. He wanted the White House; a dream, his dream, not Chelsea's started then.

That was when Sofia moved into one of the gated and palm-tree lined mansions that overlooked the city. All he knew about her was that she was a wealthy Argentine tycoon's daughter and she had come to study the culture and people of America. She was like an exchange student, only a rich one that got put up in her own mansion with staff and servants and such. Nate thought she was lucky that she had family money because she certainly didn't have a face that would get her anywhere.

His father represented one of Sofia's father's California companies in all their contract disputes and he tried to introduce Nate to her. Randall asked him to be a good neighbor and show her around the city. Nate used school, football, debate and anything he else he could come up with, to avoid accommodating the request. Because their father's knew each other the polite thing would have been to greet her, maybe even talk to her, at least in passing, but when she did enter his proximity, he tried not to acknowledge her. He avoided eye contact at all costs, that was an invitation to engage and he wasn't going to give her the time of day, especially if his dad wasn't around to encourage it.

His first real interaction with her was an accidental encounter during a late study session. Sofia confessed later that she purposely looked for him that night. He was sitting at his favorite green-lamp, oak table at the LA County Law Library. The thick table was out in the open where he could see and hear other patron conversations. His father told him once that listening to other lawyers was a good way to learn the lingo since it was like a language of its own. Nate had been absently reading a book on presidential marketing campaigns of the twentieth century when she asked to share the table.

Her accent was so thick he couldn't understand her at first. "What?" he asked, without looking up.

"Mind if I share the table with you?" It was the cadence of her words that struck him. She enunciated every word ending it sharply. Her voice was exotic and tantalizing, the tone seductive even though the accent was strong. He looked up then, surprised to see the ugly foreign girl.

"Whatever," he answered apathetically and absently gestured to the opposite side of the table and pulled his stack of books closer to his side. Back then it was she, not Chelsea who smelled. Sofia had bad breath or something; it was faint but definitely noticeable. It made him stop his reading and take a second look at her. She was well kept so he assumed maybe she was one of those people with halitosis.

His eyes stayed on her long enough to see she wasn't quite the ugly duckling he thought she was. Her hair was thick, straight, jet black and shined gloriously under the library lighting. It was actually stunningly beautiful. He had a sudden urge to reach across the table and touch it, to see if it was as silky and thick as it appeared to be. He wanted to run his fingers through it. He shook himself back to reality as soon as he realized he was fantasizing about an ugly girl's hair. He went back to his reading.

He tried to ignore her and her hair and her smell but it was futile. It wasn't noxious, just unpleasant enough to distract him. After a few minutes studying silently he couldn't take it anymore, he had to say something. He hoped she'd be embarrassed and go. He spent enough time with Chelsea to know how to get the undesirables to scatter quickly. He was cocky enough to say what he needed to say and not feel bad about it, so he did.