Happy Valentines Day everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful time spending time with their special someone but even if you don't you still have the right to be happy. Valentines day doesn't have to be about relationships involving a boy/girl, you can celebrate your wonderful relationships with your friends and families as well :) This is a small bonus chapter on how Raph and Char met two years ago.
***
Two Years Ago
I don't know what I was thinking when I decided that going to a club will help my headache. Although, in my defense it was either going to a crowded place with loud music or listening to Leo whine like a baby the whole night. I chose the first option since Leo can really act like a baby when he doesn't get what he wants, sometimes I wonder if he is a five year old or a twenty two year old man.
I am sitting in the V.I.P section of the club that's on the second floor of the building. There are couches and a private bar in here for people who mostly want to keep to themselves. I look down at the dance floor and see that Leo is sitting next to the bar with girls swarming around him. I can't wait till the day a real woman comes into his life to steer him straight and away from his playboy attitude.
"You seem to be having fun."
I look up and see Caleb leaning against the door way with a beer in his hands.
"Call it whatever you want," I say and take a sip of my drink.
He sits down on one of the chairs and faces me. "You need to let loose sometimes. Being tense isn't going to help you in the long run."
"I find it funny how you and Leo lecture me but not Asher."
"They know better than to waste their time on me," Asher grumbles from the bar.
"Raph, Asher is a different subject. He needs someone who isn't scared to put him in his place without peeing their pants before they say a word to him."
"Are you saying I am not intimidating ?" I ask raising my eyebrow.
"Believe me you are but you don't have a thick head like someone here."
"I really feel the love D' Angelo," Asher says sarcastically.
"Didn't know you even have such things like a feeling."
Asher glares at him and leaves the room.
"Having sex with random girls and getting drunk isn't what I want to do in my free time," I say ignoring Asher's departure.
"I never said that you had to do those things. Everyone has their own way of being free, it might not be right but it's better than building this tension in you," Caleb says. "Leo will eventually grow out of his playboy stage and find another way to be free."
"What do you do?"
"I go visit mom sometimes."
"That woman isn't your mom Caleb."
He shrugs. "She might not be my biological mother but she still loves and cares for me. She even cares for you Raph, don't punish that innocent woman for our father's crimes."
"She played a part in them," I growl.
"She didn't know what was actually happening. She was too in love with a monster who she thought was a wonderful man and too happy that she had children to love."
"She destroyed another family for her happiness," I yell.
"No, Marcus D' Angelo destroyed a family for his happiness! He's the one who hurt so many people not our mother!"
"You might think of her as your mom Caleb but I will never see her as my own mother. My mother left me years ago and my father died the day she left."
With that I left the room and went to find Asher so I can get away from here. I finally found Asher with a drunk Leo who is trying to make him dance.
"Leo if you do not let go of my damn arm I will make sure you will not be able to have kids in the future."
"You know it's kind of gross that you want to cut off my balls. Are you sure it's not an excuse not to see them?"
"I most certainly do not want to see your junk Leo!"
"You sure man, I mean I know I am irresistible. Sometimes straight men even want a some of this, no need to be shy dude but it's too bad I don't swing that way."
By now Asher has steam coming from his ears. Knowing that he will dump his drunken ass on me I leave the club. As I walk through the dark streets of New York my head starts hurting again. Groaning I close my eyes and try to make the pain go away. Before I fully close my eyes someone runs into me making me lose my balance. I fall onto the ground but the person who ran into me quickly got up and runs away.
"Bastard," I grumble.
Not a second later two men come running in my direction but I move in time before I get run over again. Shrugging off the weird run ins I continue to walk away but quickly stop once I hear a scream. Turning around I run towards the source of the scream. The scream dies down and I slow down my pace as I turn a corner. As I am about to walk back I hear the scream again and it sounds closer than it was before.
Too close.
I turn around and before I can fully comprehend what's going on something hard slams against my head. I hear a gasp and the last thing I see before passing out is hair the color of fire.
***
Beep.
Beep.
Stupid alarm.
Beep
Wait that doesn't sound like my alarm.
Beep.
I slowly open my eyes but quickly shut them. When did I have bright lights in my room and white walls?
"I think he's alive guys."
"Since when was he even dead Leo," a voice says that sounds much like Asher's.
Ignoring them I try and go back to sleep but something pokes my side. Hoping the poking will stop I try to ignore it but instead I feel more pokes.
"I swear to God Leo I will chop those fingers off your damn hands," I slowly growl.
"Yup he's back," Leo says.
Giving up on falling back to sleep I slowly open my eyes. Once I fully open my eyes I come face to face with Leo's ugly face.
"Get your fucking face away from me, " I say while pushing his face away from me.
"I just want to make sure you really are alive."
I give him the finger and rub my eyes while he gives me a fake hurt expression.
"Looks like sleeping beauty finally woke up," Caleb says while walking into the room.
"What the hell happened?"
"You my friend got beat up by a girl," Asher says with an amused smile.
"With a baseball bat," Leo adds.
I look at both of them like they grew two heads but slowly the events from last night come to mind.
"Is the girl alright?" I ask.
Caleb lets out a chuckle. "She wants you to pay her five hundred dollars."
"What the hell?" I yell. "For what?"
"Apparently it cost fifty bucks for the taxi ride, one hundred dollars to make the driver carry your ass up here, and fifty extra dollars for scaring her," Caleb explains.
I look at the three of them who look like they are about to start crying from laughter while I just stare at them. "Please tell me your joking."
They shake their heads and I groan. "She's the one who fucking hit me with a baseball bat!"
"Well who told you run after me?"
At the door way stands a girl with red wavy long hair and green eyes. She is short but her face is literally flawless and her full lips stand out even without lipstick. She is wearing jeans that hug her legs perfectly and a purple shirt that hangs lose on her body. Her beauty almost took my breath away but I quickly come back to reality.
"Well excuse me if I wanted to help a screaming girl," I snap.
"I had it completely under control."
"You were screaming your head off!"
"No I wasn't!"
"Yes you were!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"Okay enough," Caleb says cutting us off with an amused smile. "I think we can solve this like adults Miss.."
"Charlotte Sanders."
Charlotte. What a cute name.
"Okay Charlotte, we will give you the five hundred dollars as a thank you for helping our friend out and not leaving him on the streets," Caleb says calmly.
She nods and Caleb makes me write a check out to her. I give her the money while glaring at her and she glares back at me. She turns around and leaves the room while I sit there kind of amused myself of her antics.
***
Two Weeks Later
I am sitting in a café enjoying my hour of free time from work by drinking coffee. Work has been difficult these last few days especially since Walker has been being a pain in the ass lately, causing Asher to be even more of an ass.
A familiar voice snaps me out of my thought and I look to my right to see Charlotte talking to a man who is sitting by her. She seems happy and more relaxed than the last time I saw here, making me a bit jealous that another man can make her smile like that. After a while the man stands up and hugs her before he leaves. She sits back down and I immediately go sit in the empty chair.
"You," she says.
"Me."
"What do you want?"
"Can't a man sit next to a beautiful girl without any questions?"
"No," she deadpans.
"That frown doesn't suit you well love."
"Please tell me what you want and leave."
"Now is this the way you treat a man who you sent to the hospital and paid you five hundred dollars."
She glares at me. "What do you want?"
"What I want to know is why the daughter of Tom Sanders, a man who owns several law firms wants money when her father clearly is pretty stable on money?"
She looks taken back by my question but she quickly covers it up. "I must have heard your question wrong Mr. D'Angelo because it sounds like you been stalking me."
"I look into everyone who I give money to Miss. Sanders, even if it's just a few hundred dollars."
"The money isn't for me," she says. "Did you see that man who just left?"
I nod.
"He owns an orphanage that I used to volunteer at when I was a teenager. Some officials threatened to shut him down because it was deemed not fit for kids. He's a good man and I know he will do anything for the kids, all the officials want is the land to build some hotel on. If they succeed then the kids will have nowhere to go. My father, as you said, is Tom Sanders but he is already helping out by helping him in court and I didn't want to trouble him with money. I am an intern so I don't really get much money so I used the excuse of the taxi drive, carrying you to the hospital, and scaring me to get money."
She looks at me with her beautiful green eyes and tucks her hair back behind her ear. "I know that it doesn't give me the right to ask a man in the hospital for money. I am deeply sorry for hitting you with a baseball bat and asking you for money."
"Well now that I know that the money was used for a good purpose I will let it slide but I do not completely forgive you just yet," I say as I sip my coffee.
She gives me an alarmed face. "I am truly sorry sir, is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"
"In the matter of fact there is," I say with a smirk. "Miss. Sanders, are you free this Saturday evening to accompany me to a restaurant for dinner."
She looks at me with wide eyes. "Are you asking me on a date Mr. D'Angelo?"
"Indeed I am Miss. Sanders."
A small smile appears on her face and a blush starts to form on her cheeks. The next few words that came out of her lips are what changed my life forever.
"I would love to."
***
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