*
I was in a cute pink sundress that teasingly dropped till my knees, the color bringing out my mocha skin tone appreciatively. I didn't bother with makeup but pulled the voluminous mass of my hair into a simple messy bun. Grabbing my purse, I exited Adam's penthouse to his favorite grey BMW.
Adam had left for California five days ago and my pride doesn't allow me to admit the fact that I am missing him terribly. It was worse than I thought it would be, every single thing reminds me of him and it is tough considering that I practically live in his house. The bed had the faint trace of his powerful cologne and it drove me crazy that his absence is affecting me so. So I contented myself in sleeping in his t-shirt. I know, it was cheap clingy girlfriend move but being surrounded by his enticing scent as I listened to his husky voice over the phone made me feel that he isn't on the other side of the country.
The time difference between California and New York wasn't that great yet there was. I would sleep late, waiting for Adam to retire to his bed so that we can talk. And he never failed me. He called me every night after a tiring day at work, never disconnecting the call unless I feel guilty and asks him to do so. I couldn't ask for a better boyfriend.
Oh, you must be wondering why I was moving to in Adam's car with Anderson driving me around Manhattan when Adam is in CA and Zoey gone with Seb for their prolonged romantic getaway.
I was going to attend my promised coffee date with the Night Adonis of New York himself, Aaron Krystals. If you'd have told me an year ago that I would have been dating one of the most eligible bachelor in the globe and is going to have a coffee with the most sexiest guy in the planet, I would have questioned your mental stability. But the fate had brought me here, in the backseat of a grey luxury car.
I believe in fate, I do. I cannot help myself after the turn of events in my life.
Anderson parked the car near the coffee shop we planned on meeting up, a dainty little shop called 'Hot Cup' that overlooked the only non-concreted place in Manhattan, the central park. He asked me to be safe and ring him when I am done. I smiled at him and nodded as I slipped out of the car into the shop.
Anderson and I had come closer after my stay in his boss' place and is such a sweet guy underneath the entire tough guy exterior. I smile softly to myself wondering how much of a sweetheart he was; with Adam gone he had never stopped following me or acting protective over my safety.
My eyes were scanning for a familiar handsome roman face, a pair of sultry brown eyes that oozed charisma. Even after wearing a white tee with dull washed hoodie and faded jeans to look like any other New York commuter and look inconspicuous, he was undoubtedly the apple of every female's eyes in the room.
His glassed eyes fell on me and he sends me a wink in my direction with a grin that displayed all his pearly-whites. I returned the smile and walked towards his direction, with jealous women glaring at me. Aaron stood up to receive me with a gentle, chaste kiss on my cheeks before offering me the chair.
"And I thought chivalry was dead!" I told him teasingly as I slid into my open seat. Aaron chuckled as he pushed me closer to the cute French table. He went around and sat opposite to me.
"Anything for my cartoon baby." He winked charmingly. "I almost expected you to stand me up on this date." He told me once I stopped shuffling my butt around the seat, trying to find a comfortable position.
"Why?" I asked with a raise of my eyebrow.
"Well, I expected Adam to go all ape-shit crazy on you. Like forbid you or put you under house arrest or something." The humor from his eyes drained momentarily, "I don't blame him, you know."
I sighed, "Aaron, it is high time both of you get over it..."
"No, I am totally over it!"
"No you aren't, so stop defending yourself." I scolded and then added something that I was suddenly reminded of, "I met this Chloe the other day when I was with Adam on a date."
Aaron's perfect eyebrows shot up. "No way. You mean Chloe Olmstead? The Chloe?" I nodded gravely at his surprised face. It took a moment before he recovered.
"What did Adam say? What did she say?" He asked with a curiosity of a housewife on a juicy piece of gossip. I giggled at that thought .
"Adam was simply emotionless. Like as if he felt nothing; no hatred or anger or anything. But he was cold to her and she asked him why. He told her bluntly that he didn't trust her. She genuinely looked hurt, that woman and I truly felt sorry. You know, her fiancé died the day before her marriage and she loved that guy it seems. She is living her life as a widow, back in England." I briefed him.
"Damn." Aaron whistled lowly, his brows furrowed in disappointment. "I expected a cat-fight or something."
"I know." I told him as I entwined my fingers on top of the table, "But she seemed decent and very friendly even. I expected a real b*tch, the way you and Adam portrayed her. Like you know the psycho ex-girlfriend material."
Aaron was silent at my judgment for a moment, analyzing and mulling it over when a peppy red-haired girl, who introduced herself as Sephora, came to take our orders. I ordered a macchiato and croissant when Aaron ordered for a cappuccino. The girl eagerly took it down, not before giving him an appreciative once-over. Surprisingly, Aaron was too caught up in his thoughts to notice the girl.
"If I know her well enough," He began once the girl went away, "I'd say she's still the same cunning woman I had met clinging on my best friends arms, her eyes on his wallet alone."
"You can't judge someone like that." I argued for my boyfriend's ex, "Maybe she changed. Maybe this Joshua guy actually affected her ways and amended her."
"I doubt it." Aaron told me without missing a beat. "See, I had put up with her for three years. When you've been with a person long enough, it is natural you understand what sort of person they are. You will understand the difference between in-built character traits and the traits that can be changed."
I remained silent mainly because I ran out of any smart counters to what he told me. It is true, you would see through a person when they are around you for a long time. Not everything but nevertheless, you get a jist of it.
"I guess." I vaguely offered and tried to steer the conversation elsewhere. "So are you settled in NYC or are you planning on moving back to somewhere?"
"No, no, no." He told me with a jolly air and a wide grin. The coffees arrived. "It's Adam who is settled in CA. New York is my place and that is one of the reasons why Adam and I drifted apart very soon. Although I would have to take a ride to LA once every two weeks for my modeling works, New York's worth it."
I sipped on my macchiato with a small smile. "You know, that's how I used to feel about Mumbai. I kind of miss being there." I admitted.
"If I were to miss the place where I was born, I miss Florence terribly." Aaron said, with an unexpected air of nostalgia.
"You were born in Italy?" I asked conversationally.
"Yeah." He said fondly. "My mama is an Italian and my dad is American. That doesn't matter now, mama is married to Daniello and they've been happily married for 20 years. I have a brother and sister from my mama's side as a bonus."
"You have siblings?"
"Shocker, huh? A brother, Dante Rizzo, he does some wine business in Sicily. Ione is into fashion designing. I love both of them to death."
"That's nice. So your father?"
Aaron rolled his eyes uninterestedly as he toyed with the Styrofoam cup. "You might have heard of him. Victor Krystals, the former CEO of Krystals corp."
"Actually, no." I answered truthfully and Aaron eyed me amusedly.
"He married again as well, when I was 19." His features darkened at the mention of his age. I concluded that something that happened then, didn't sit well with him. "To this lingerie model Amanda Carter or Harper or something. She is a Krystals now, anyway." He said disgusted. "She is three years to my junior."
"Yikes." I cringed at having a thought of a mother who is younger than me. "If you were 19, then she got married when she was 17?"
"Yup. And my dad was almost hitting 50 then." He said in a disapproving tone. "The only good part of Amanda being my legal mother is that I gained a legal aunt by that means. She's another female in my life who has the power to boss me around, the other being mama and Ione."
"Who?" I asked with a grin.
"Her name is Charlotte. She is the one and only heir to the entire Harper empire, being 24, the youngest female billionaire. She's in Britain with her mother and step-dad."
"Wait, Charlie is your aunt?!" I burst out laughing. I found is ridiculously funny to know that the feisty and zesty Charlie was Aaron's aunt.
"You know Charlie?" He asked me with an eyebrow raised, "You know what, I am not even surprised. You two are very alike and I am sure you two bonded over some quality time planning your next grand run away from home."
"How did you know that?" I asked with a gasp on how he hit the mark so precisely.
He shrugged. "She is fiercely independent like you. And she faces a lot of family problems. She always tells me how she is planning on running away. Not now, probably in a year or two when shit hits the fan."
"Then why don't you help her?"
"I would, as much as I can but I have my limits. The last thing I want is to drag her name along the mud with me. Those paparazzi wolves would tear her apart if she is caught with me. I cannot do that to her."
I nodded understandingly. He was right, he had his limits but fortunately I don't. I would do anything for her if she calls me for help. There was beat of silence as we mulled over everything. Then I remembered something I was dying to ask him.
"Aaron, can I ask you something?"
"I thought that was the whole point of this date?"
I smiled. "Back in Adam's room in Virginia, I saw your old pictures and he told me that you were involved in a car crash? Adam admitted himself that he was still confused as to why you would drunk drive when you hated alcohol then."
"You sure notice a lot of things don't you?" He asked me in what he tried to be non-chalant but came out as a rasp of pain.
"It's kinda hard not to notice when Adam has a full scale picture of you on his walls."
"Wow that didn't sound stalker-ish at all." He replied sarcastically. "Who would have thought he had a man-crush on me."
I reached over the table and smacked his head, making his bark out a profanity. I sat back and sighed, "Okay, now out with it and stop teasing my boyfriend." I told him with an air of warning.
"Somebody is possessive." He commented lightheartedly before his whole mood took a nosedive. His eyes simply became guarded unlike the easy-going persona he seemed to be.
"A lot of things happened to me, Ria. And I believe that it is the circumstances that make us who we are and it is the same circumstances that changed me as well as Adam. I cannot tell you what happened to not because I don't trust you, I do, but I simply can't go through the pain of having to relieve all that. The pain that is the consequence of love."
His words shocked me, it hurt me and most of I realized that a person is always more than what meets the eye. Aaron had a past that scarred him for lifetime just as did it for Adam. He too had once fallen in love, deeply and irrevocably. He must have been betrayed or cheated on or rejected or even worse, lost his love to a bigger truth of life, death.
I would never know.
"I believe in love, Cartoon baby. And God knows that I want it back. But there are things that we cannot ask him simply because it is not possible. What I am now is a ghost of what I was and I know there is no going back. But I see that true love in you and Adam, Ria and I know he loves you. All I beg of you is to give him some time, he will come around. He deserves to love again." He told me, his fake brown eyes were haunted of a love that never made it to the end. It told me tales of tears, it told me of struggles and passion.
"If Adam deserves to love again, you do too." My voice was a whisper as my eyes refused to leave his. He laughed, dry and mocking as if only he knew the truth of his words and it was true.
"Adam deserves to love because it wasn't his fault that he was betrayed. But I don't deserve it because I am a motherf*cker who never kept his words and lost the only woman he loved. I was the b*stard who left her stranded. And guess who got to live? Me."
I kept silent as I watched the way Aaron morphed into something else beyond what I had seen until then. A tortured man he was, his eyes showed the weariness he held for himself and of a dark past he feared of.
"Life is shit like that." He told me with a cold shrug of his shoulders, "Besides I wouldn't want to narrate how the fates f*cked me up in a story that clearly isn't mine. A time will come soon enough when I would tell my story as well but this is just about you and Adam. Let's not confuse between two sob stories. I want mine to be a stand-alone. That is the least I can ask of, after going through a shitty life."
I laughed at his excuse of not wanting to tell me of his past. And I let him be. "Very well, you will get your lame excuse of a life as a stand-alone. But I will get a guest role." I told him playfully.
"I have this hunch that you will be featured in the story of my life." He told me with a grin, "Or else you would tear everything down and murder the author of my story or something."
"Probably." I laughed as I finished off my croissant that was cold by then.
"Hey, Aaron?"
"Yeah?"
"I know I lost the bet and all I don't have any right to ask 'cause I lost obviously-----"
"Can you be out with it already?"
"Caniseeyoureyes?"
"What was that? And this time a bit slower so that I can actually understand something?"
"Can I see your eyes?" I asked after a deep breath and he looked up at me. He pondered over my question with an exaggerated show of thinking with his fingers tapping on his chin.
"I will, but I have a condition."
"Name it."
"You help me raid Adam's secret vodka stash in his penthouse."
"But Adam will come back home tomorrow."
"Then we simply have to be quick." He winked mischievously, "You don't mind some quality vodka time with me, do you?" I smiled slyly at his question.
"I'm in."
*
Think Aaron's gonna get his stand-alone?
Wait and find out!
DOUBLE UPDATE! READ ALONG!!!
:P