Murder To Excellence

3.

Friday couldn’t have come any time sooner for Raphael while Rose was still not in the mood to go celebrate her bitch of a cousin’s engagement party. 

When Raphael heard what he had to be her date for, he was ecstatic. He did have an important meeting that afternoon, but he gladly rescheduled. For starters he didn’t want her to ask anyone else like that “Vince” boy and he saw the engagement party as an opportunity to mess with George since he had gotten rather annoying. 

Rose didn’t even feel like dressing up for the occasion but decided to go with a simple knee-length black dress, which represented her mood that day. 

These body cons of hers were driving him crazy. His hands were basically itching to just touch her all over when he looked at her. “Are you ready?” He asked. 

She mumbled a few things under her breath because she was not ready at all. She was never ready for Beverly. “Yes,” she murmured. He held open the door for her and they went outside. 

As if this day couldn’t get any worse, Patrick was the one who was going to drive them. He wasn’t grumpy, just way too professional and not as cheery as Jean–Pierre. 

During the car ride, Raphael was mainly on his phone trying to do business as he had kind of abandoned it today for Rose. He glanced over at Rose every now and then while she was just staring out the window with a not so happy facial expression. She still looked absolutely breathtaking in his eyes. Her simplicity was beyond beauty. 

“Why aren’t you happy?” He asked being uncertain if it was his fault or not. 

“It’s nothing…” she mumbled but then realized there was no need for her to be this moody around him since he had done nothing wrong. He was the one who was taking care of her after all. She corrected herself in the car seat so she was able to sit comfortable while making direct eye contact. She started to explain everything she thought was necessary about Beverly. 

Once they pulled up in front of the building where the engagement soirée was held, Raphael was completely informed by Rose about her evil cousin. It had been hard to actually listen to what she was saying when she was doing all these small things that turned him on but after regaining himself, he got every single word she said.

Rose was never on time to things where she knew Beverly was going to be too. Whenever Beverly would complain about it, Rose would simply say that everybody else was early not really feeling the need to tell Beverly that she was the actual reason she was late. She didn’t want to give her the satisfaction. 

Again, she was late but she didn’t mind. She had Raphael by her side making everybody forget that she was late. Relatives halted their conversation to get a good look. To get a good look of their Rosy with the Raphael Ambrosios. 

Beverly and George’s face turned into a scowl, both for different reasons. Beverly’s because she never thought her cousin would come with someone like him and George’s because he already had a gut feeling they were together and for him to show up here, with his arm around his princess’s waist, just confirming all of it. 

Rose went to go greet everyone and introduced Raphael to every one of them. She even introduced him to her parents and she thought it was funny they acted as if they didn’t know Raphael and vice versa. 

“Bevy, this is my date. Raphael, this is my cousin Beverly,” Rose introduced. 

Beverly was still shocked for a while but then replied, “It’s such a pleasure to meet you.”

Raphael couldn’t answer back because he didn’t really see it as a pleasure to meet her after what he had heard from Rose, so as the cold-hearted man he was, he just glared at her for a brief moment and then looked down at Rose again. 

“Give me a minute, I’ll be right back,” Rose said and let go of Raphael’s hand. She walked over to her grandparents who were talking to Rose’s cousin Taylor. 

Philip, Rose’s grandfather, had LBD but for some reason he rarely seemed to forget who Rose was. He obviously did forget at times since that’s what dementia does, but all she had to do was say her name and call him Papa for him to recall who she was. “Rose?” He asked unsure. His voice was heartbreaking to Rose. It was trembly and the aging was audible. 

“Papa.” She smiled and hugged her grandfather tightly, but not too tight since he had a balance problem, that being one of the reasons he had a walking stick. 

Trying not to fall, he responded to the hug and sniffed her famous, sweet, comforting smell. 

When she let go, her grandmother Martha came to hug her granddaughter. “Rosy,” she gasped. It had been a while since she had last seen her granddaughter. She wished she could’ve been there at her graduation but the illness of her husband wouldn’t let her. “You get more and more beautiful every time I see you.”

“I love you, Mama.”

“So who’s the fine young man?” Martha asked, referring to Raphael who was standing across the room. “Your boyfriend?”

“I don’t know what we are. Let’s just keep it with date for now.” Rose was proud of her answer since she wasn’t actually lying, just keeping some information. “I’ll introduce you later.”

“Oh, Rose!” Taylor, Rose’s fifteen year old cousin exclaimed and threw herself at Rose. Taylor had always been the black sheep of the family and untamable really. Her parents were the cause of that. Taylor’s mother was schizophrenic due to alcoholism while her father had an affair with Taylor’s mother’s sister and was fairly proud of it too. That kind of made Taylor who she is now and she could be very stubborn. Relatives had tried to take her in, because her mother always being drunk and her father always being out with his mistress, not caring about his teenage daughter, wasn’t an ideal situation to live in. They didn’t want her to go into a foster home since that was the worst case scenario. So they all took her in but in less than a week sent her to someone else, because Taylor was that unruly. Even Rose’s parents had taken her in and it lasted a pretty long time. Rose and Taylor had a really good bond so Rose could be able to talk some sense into Taylor when things were getting bad. But after a while, even Rose’s parents couldn’t take it anymore. “I have missed you so much. I hate everybody here.”

Rose laughed, “That’s not true, Taylor, and you know it. I missed you too.”

“No one here likes me except for your parents just a little bit and Papa and Mama.”

“Tell me, what have you been up to?” Rose asked, trying to get Taylor’s mind off of things. She excitedly started about all her weird adventures…

“So tell me,” Beverly started and took a swig from her champagne. “How much did Rosy pay you to be her date?” She had a smug look on her face, thinking this was how she could mess with Rose. There was no way in hell that Rose could’ve brought him as a date. 

“Nothing,” he replied and narrowed his eyes at her. He had lost all interest in this particular relative even before they had arrived at this venue. 

She was very much taken back by his answer and the way he said it. “What do you mean nothing? Why are you with her then?”

“Look at her,” he said and turned around to a Rose talking to her grandparents and cousin. She looked absolutely beautiful in his eyes, especially the way her face lit up when her grandfather was talking to her. He had never seen her smile like that in the short week he had known her. 

Beverly’s mouth stood ajar as she watched him admire Rose like she never thought he would. She knew about him and his ways, having a different girlfriend every week, and him being very introvert when it came to all aspects in life. But she knew Rose wasn’t just… just a Rose to him. 

He casually walked away towards the bar as if he Beverly wasn’t talking to him and ordered a scotch after the bartender was done looking at the guest wide eyed. 

“What are you doing with my princess?” George asked. He knew about Raphael’s ways too. He knew he wasn’t about the long term relationships, but more about the ‘hit and quit’. He hadn’t been the happiest at all when he kind of figured out that Ambrosios had some sort of hold on his daughter, but he didn’t expect them to come together. His innocent princess probably didn’t even know she was being used, he thought, and it was all his fault…

“Well, hello there, George. How is my money?”

“Answer the question,” George growled. “What are you doing with Rose?”

“You shouldn’t be surprised, George. I told you she was beautiful and apparently she was very interested in me too. We got to talking, one thing led to another,” he paused and winked towards George who looked like he could strangle him.

He couldn’t, George thought, he couldn’t have. “You’re lying.”

“You tell me. I didn’t even finish my sentence yet. But what happened – or didn’t happen – is none of your business, George.”

“Your relationship with Raphael seems very platonic, Rosy.” Beverly smiled. She just couldn’t have it that her cousin, who was younger than her by three years, got what she wanted without even trying. She had always been the good girl and it started to get on her nerves. 

“Shut up, Beverly!” Taylor snapped. She always had Rose’s back no matter what, because Rose had Taylor’s too.

“Hush, little rat.” Beverly rolled her eyes at Taylor and faked a smile towards Rose. “So, are you two actually seeing each other or is this just for today? You could’ve at least tried to make this more convincing.”

Rose was so done with Beverly. She had brought someone with her, who was a guy, and the bitch still felt the need to complain. Instead of just letting it rest, she wanted to set her in her place – at least for today. Rose examined the room and saw Raphael standing by the bar talking to her father. She walked over to where they were standing, determined to shut Beverly up.

“Excuse me,” she said and stood in between her father and Raphael. She grabbed Raphael by his blouse, stood on her toes and pressed her lips against his.

Beverly and George were both piercing a hole through the couple. George because of Raphael and Beverly because of Rose. He was absolutely furious and wanted to tell his daughter everything at the point. April on the other hand was way happier. It had been a pretty long time since Rose had brought a guy to meet the family.

Raphael was surprised by her move, but when he was about to react, she pulled away. He swiftly put down his glass on the bar and grabbed her face with both hands – gently yet firm. He was euphoric that she had kissed him, but he wished it would’ve been longer and deeper. Not just a lingering peck on the lips. So he lowered his face to hers and kissed her the way he wanted to; longer and deeper. Now Rose was the surprised one out of the two, but she soon regained herself. One hand rested on the back of his neck while the other one ran through his hair. As his tongue brushed against hers, it sent tingling sensations throughout her entire body and they couldn’t get enough of each other really.

By now they had everyone’s attention. Mama smiled while Papa was left confused. Taylor was overly happy her Rosy was getting it on and April joined her excitement, Beverly was left salty along with George who was standing the closest to this scene while the other relatives were just trying to see what was going on.

“Beverly, sweetheart, what’s wrong?” Beverly’s fiancé asked. He saw Beverly sending hateful looks towards one particular thing and saw what she was looking at.

“Leave me alone,” she snapped and walked away.

Raphael captured Rose’s lips one last time before pulling away. He sent her a smile that made her knees buckle and she returned the smile while she corrected his hair as she kind of tousled it during the kiss.

“Rose…” her father rambled. He wanted to tell her at that exact moment about his money problems but his voice hitched in his throat. He couldn’t do it. She was the princess to his kingdom and he couldn’t tell her that after twenty-two years there was a high possibility that there wouldn’t be a kingdom anymore.

She turned around so her back was now not facing her father anymore and looked at him to see his awe-struck face. Raphael took advantage of George’s visible disapproval and he winked at him after wrapping his arm around Rose’s waist.

“Daddy?”

“No, it’s nothing. I’ll… I’ll be… yes,” he stammered and stormed off. 

“Did I upset him?” If so, it was never her intention to. She did this to mess with Beverly and not with her father. “I need to go find him.” She walked away but Raphael quickly grabbed her by her forearm. 

“What are you going to tell him, Rose? That we’re not actually together and that I’m blackmailing you? Because you know the terms of blackmail…”

“I don’t want him to be sad.”

“And you don’t think he will be if I make him leave the house?”

“Then what should I do, Raphael?” She almost shouted. Yet again, concentrating was rather difficult for him because of the dress and the way she said his name.

He didn’t want her to be sad because — for some reason — he wanted to treat her properly. If this would’ve been anybody else, he probably would’ve ended it right there, letting them wallow in their own tears. 

“Look,” he started and closed the space in between them by taking a step. “He’ll get over it sooner or later, he’s a grown man. Don’t stress about it,” he comforted her. 

The attraction between the two was undeniable, even though them being together was somewhat forced. To others it did look as if they were a serious couple. It was like they had had a brief altercation and after that the boyfriend tried to calm down the girlfriend. They’d kiss and make up. 

And they did that exactly.

He grabbed both sides of her waist and pressed her body against his. Her hands rested on his firm chest while his hands traveled around her body, to the back and further down south. He might as well take advantage of the situation since she could not stop because this needed to look somewhat convincing. Also, he wanted to kiss her. He needed to kiss her. 

Beverly on the other hand was not having it at all. She filled her glass with wine and walked over to the nearly kissing pair. 

Taylor noticed Beverly looking extra salty and not once did her eyes leave Beverly as she noticed Beverly was watching her favorite person in the family. “I’m sorry, Mama. Give me a second,” she interrupted. She speed walked across the room but unfortunately was too late. 

An intoxicated Beverly had emptied her glass on Rose. “Oops! Sorry, Rosy,” she fake apologized. 

“What is wrong with you?” Taylor yelled and, again, the room’s attention was converted to that side of the room. 

“What’s going on?”

“Well, Mama, Beverly over here decided it was funny to pour her fucking wine on… where’s Rose?” They both looked around the room but both Rose and Raphael were nowhere in sight. 

“No cursing, Taylor, please. And Beverly, what has gotten into you? You’re drunk at your own engagement party.” Mama shook her head in disappointment. 

Beverly rolled her eyes at the fact that now everyone was ranting at her, all sticking up for and trying to defend little Miss Perfect. 

“I hate her,” Rose mumbled against Raphael’s chest. They were in the ladies’ room and he didn’t really care about that at the moment. After all, he owned the ground this building was built on, so no one could really tell him what and what not to do. 

Beverly was a good example as to why Raphael hated commitment. Women in his eyes were conniving, jealous and selfish. Rose had barely done anything, yet Beverly felt the need to do something like this. Out of what? Jealousy? 

He didn’t know what to say or what to do apart from hugging Rose. He had never ever tried to soothe someone in his twenty-nine years of existence. 

“Uh,” Taylor tapped Raphael’s shoulder making him turn around. “I can take it from here.”

He didn’t really want to leave her alone right now, but Taylor looked as if she was about to snap if he didn’t move. And since he didn’t want to have an argument with a fifteen year old, he complied. 

Taylor groaned, “I can’t stand the bitch. Come on, let’s get you out of this dress.” 

She unzipped Rose’s dress as Rose got out of her heels and slid off the dress from her shoulders. 

Raphael stood against the doorframe, not really wanting to leave as she was undressing. Taylor looked around the room quickly only to see Raphael staring at her cousin. She smiled at him, finding it entertaining that this man was watching her cousin with such desire. 

Raphael noticed Taylor smiling at him and he winked before leaving the room for real. 

“He’s so handsome, Rosy.” Taylor dabbed Rose’s body with the paper towels to get rid of the wine. “You look cute together.”

“I’ve known him for less than a week, Taylor. Plus we’re totally different. It’ll never work.”

“Your point being? To me it’s very convincing that you two are together,” Taylor shrugged. “The attraction is obviously there.”

“But that’s not enough. It’s complicated, I might explain it to you some other time, okay?” And Taylor nodded her head. 

“Sweetie, I got you something to wear.” April barged in with a shirt she found in the car and a pair of flip flops she always kept in the car in case her feet would give in after a long day in heels. It was George’s shirt so it would fit Rose like a dress. 

Rose smiled as she saw the shirt her mother gave her. It was one of those plain white shirts Rose had gone all Picasso on way back in her childhood days. 

“I seriously feel so uncomfortable in this. If I make one move, you can see my underwear.”

“Oh, suck it up, Rose. We’re all family here.” 

“Don’t you worry, Rosy,” her mother soothed. “It’s mid-thigh, it’s alright. We can’t see anything.”

Rose looked at herself in the full length mirror that stood in the corner and thought that she looked ridiculous but didn’t really care. 

“It’s not like your boyfriend would mind.”

Rose abruptly turned around to look at Taylor who was just smiling. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Rosy, are you two a thing?” April asked. She was wondering for two reasons. One, obviously because it was her daughter and she loved to hear about who she was dating. And two, because if they were dating, it wasn’t just some random guy. It was the guy who could make them lose everything. 

“Auntie, isn’t it obvious that they are?”

To Rose it was weird to actually label it and have April and Taylor talk about them as if they actually were a thing. They weren’t even friends. Yet she had to pretend he was something to her and they hadn’t even discussed that something. 

“Can we go back now?”

“Trying to avoid the subject, eh?” Taylor elbowed her. 

“Shut up!” Rose laughed and left the ladies’ room. 

“Don’t you look bedazzling,” Mama exclaimed and spread her arms wide so Rose could walk right into them. 

“I look hideous, Mama, but thanks.”

“You don’t. Right, Philip?”

He mumbled some inaudible things to himself before actually answering, “Huh? What?”

“Don’t you think Rose still looks as beautiful as she did before her dress got ruined?”

“Who?” He asked confused and Rose felt her heart clench. 

“Me, Papa. It’s Rose.”

He stared at her for a while before smiling. “How is your fiancé?”

“Papa, I’m not the one who’s engaged. It’s Beverly, not me.”

“Yes you are. Look, there he is,” he said and pointed his trembling finger to Raphael. 

“He’s not my fiancé.” Rose extended her hand to show she had no ring on it. “Beverly is getting married, not me.”

“This isn’t for her engagement, Martha?” He asked and started trembling. 

“Philip darling, no, it’s not Rose’s.”

“But Stewy told me…” he mumbled and then stopped to look to the side. “Stewy, you lied to me.”

“I’m sorry, Rosy. He has been hallucinating a lot lately. We’ll be right back,” Mama apologized. She felt sad for her granddaughter as she could see how her heart was breaking into a million pieces when she watched her grandfather’s health getting worse and worse each time. She hooked her arm with her husband’s and led him to a more secluded area to give him his medication that helped to reduce the hallucination a tad. 

“Princess, you alright?”

Rose was startled as she watched her grandparents walk away and turned around to see her father who looked a lot better than he did before. His face lit up as he saw his little princess in the shirt she had made him about eighteen years ago for Father’s day. 

She hugged her father like she hadn’t seen him in years. Seeing her Papa like that just did something to her. 

“What’s wrong?” George asked as he rubbed his daughter’s back. 

“I hate to see him like this.”

Papa was George’s father. Over the years George had learned to cope with the situation. Of course, it had been hard on him too but he had to stay strong, for his wife and for his children. 

“I know, princess. But we can’t change things. I know you wish you could, but you can’t.”

She lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him directly. She wasn’t crying, her eyes were just glistening, but the bottom of George’s glasses was getting a bit foggy as he saw his daughter in such pain. 

Seeing her father like this made her think about her decision again. She knew she was doing this all for a good cause. Her parents were always there for her, would do anything for her and this was her way of repaying them. As screwed up as it was, she felt obliged to. Her family meant the world to her and she couldn’t just let this all happen to them if she had a chance to prevent a disaster. 

“You and Raphael Ambrosios?”

“Yeah,” she replied, her voice cracking in the process. 

“How did you two meet?”

Raphael and Rose never really talked about what they were going to tell others. “Uh… graduation.”

“Are you staying with him?” George hoped she wasn’t staying with him but he knew there was a high possibility she probably was since she moved out that quickly. Though the thought of her moving in with a man she had met that exact same day, was nothing like Rose. 

“No, but he did help me get a place.” It felt as if a weight was lifted off her shoulders. One lie down. 

“Is he treating you alright, princess? Does he do anything against your will?”

“No!” She quickly defended. “Daddy, he treats me perfectly fine.”

“Perfectly fine is not alright enough for my princess.” He removed Rose’s hair out of her face. It hurt him that out of all people she had a thing with Raphael. Not only was his reputation with women not one that comforted him when he thought about the fact that his daughter was with a womanizer, also, he had the power to destroy George. But if she was happy with him and he treated his princess right, who was he to stand in the way of them actually becoming something? 

He liked observing. Raphael liked watching people in silence, adding up to his mysteriousness. He watched Rose while she was talking to her grandparents and how he could tell her mood immediately changed as they walked off. She looked extremely hurt. 

He watched her as her father came to hug and soothe her, her shirt slightly hiking up. Even though she was wearing such a thing, he still found her stunning. He was never one to believe it when people said that there were women that were able to pull off a garbage bag. Who on earth would be able to look good in that? But the longer he looked at her, the more he could tell she was able to pull off a garbage bag; that hideous shirt coming damn near close to one. 

He was so into watching her, he didn’t even notice she was actually making her way towards him. 

“You were right,” she said, “he’s kind of fine with… us.”

“I told you so.”

“What do we tell others?” She asked and he smiled on the inside. This was a sign she was getting more and more comfortable since she was now really asking questions about their ‘relationship’. 

“That we’re together. That’s all. They don’t need to know the details because that’s none of their business.”

“Alright.” She tucked her lips softly with her teeth again and his eyes were planted on her lips. They were practically begging him to be kissed. Of course he wasn’t going to let those pleading lips down. 

He grabbed her face with one hand, forcing her to look up in those green eyes of his, and gently pressed his lips against her hers. 

She squealed at first, rather surprised that this was the third time out of the four that he had initiated a kiss. She grasped the back of his head and stood on her toes, while he had a heart time to not lift her shirt or make his hands wander underneath it. 

Beverly was absolutely enraged. Raphael Ambrosios was every woman’s dream. Tall, handsome and Greek. Her fiancé was nothing compared to him. 

George just couldn’t watch the scenario. It still did bother him and he felt slight pang in his chest as he watched the two.

“Do you want to leave?” Rose whispered in Raphael’s ear. “It’s not that I want to… you know. I just don’t feel like being here anymore.”

It was arousing to him how her lips were swollen because of him.

“No problem.” He looked around the room and saw Beverly sending hateful glances. He made a mental note to make some crucial phone calls to ruin this particular woman when needed. 

He texted Patrick and after a few minutes, he had arrived. Rose said her goodbye to everybody, including Beverly, while Raphael excluded Beverly.