I pulled out a tissue paper wearily and wiped the dripping sticky milkshake from my face carefully. I sighed and looked up tiredly at that bunch of foolish girls. They were from the other day, from the bathroom incident. The fake boob one, whose name I assumed Grace, by her friends calling her, was smirking in front of me, putting her hands on her waist.
"Oops, sorry!" Grace gasped with a fake expression, "My hand slipped! Are you Ok?"
Didn't they feel exhausted by carrying out these childish actions?
I chose to sit in the cafeteria. Because I thought they wouldn't dare to pull those silly pranks in the public space. But it seemed they didn't care about their public appearance at all. I looked around. People were looking at me and laughing mockingly. Some were taking pictures and videos to upload on their social media.
Suddenly my eyes met with Oli's. She was sitting with Rose uncomfortably. They both had a pained expression on their face. They slowly look away.
I sighed resignedly and concentrated on my cleaning. Thank god, I brought my extra change, for those kinds of critical emergencies. I threw the tissue paper in the dustbin just beside me and took out some wet tissues. That drink was too sticky.
Grace leaned a little towards me. "You should thank me!" she hissed. "Today I chose a healthy drink instead of some filth water."
Suddenly a recyclable Styrofoam coffee cup flew just beside her ear and landed in the dustbin. She gasped and stepped back a little with widened eyes by the sudden action. My wide mouth wasn't much different from her.
"How was it?" We all snapped our heads to the direction of the question.
Oli!
"Ten points!" Rose yelled happily.
"What was that?" Grace asked angrily at Oli when she was done from recovering her miserable shock state.
"What was what?" Oli asked her back innocently. "Recycling first!"
"You...you..." Grace lost her words.
"What?" Oli scoffed. "Are you gonna cry now?" Her expression slowly turned into a blank expression. "How childish! Grow the fuck up!" Then she glanced a little at me and turned to pack her stuff from the table. Rose also got up with her. Their eyes met with mine again when they passed me.
*********
"Fuck!" Anna only could utter a single word, when she saw me in that state. I smiled thinly and pulled out a grey t-shirt.
"I was prepared today," I told her with a smug face. I showed her my extra clothes.
"You look happy, today." Anna raised an eyebrow. I halted a little. Was it too obvious? Actually I was a little happy, from the afternoon incident. I knew that Oli and Rose were defending me. It gave my tightened heart a little relief. They cared about me. I sighed profoundly. I wished I could turn the time back and correct every single mistake.
"So, why did Ron come to your house last night?" Anna asked me casually while checking her eyeliner in the pocket mirror.
I froze on my spot. "How did you know that Ron visited me last night?" I asked her with a shocked expression. I haven't told anybody yet.
Anna looked at me and blinked a few times. "From the news."
"What news?"
Anna took out her phone and scrolled down. She held the phone in front of my face. I looked at the screen. There's a picture of Ron and me. Ron was gently holding the door and was saying something to me, while I was looking at him.
My chest instantly tightened again.
Oh my god!
Those reporters were hiding somewhere near my house. I couldn't believe it.
"Listen up everyone!" Suddenly Mr. Scott called out to everyone. I was snapped back from my thoughts.
"Today, some higher-level person is going to visit this shop." Scott swiped his eyes at everyone. "I want the best behaviour from all of you. Understood?"
"Yes!" We all said in unison.
We all dove right into our work. In the middle of our busy work schedule suddenly a group of four entered our shop and lazily swiped their eyes at the store. They dressed casually to be heading home from the office, but they were too grimy to be homeless. They were joking loudly among themselves, laughing raucously and punching each other's arms.
"Are you sure dude, it's here?" I heard one of them ask as if they were searching for something leisurely. "This store awfully stinks of filthy animals."
"Yeah, I mean they showed this store, I think," the other one answered unsure as he shrugged his shoulders carelessly.
Suddenly the one who answered looked at my direction and nudged the person beside him promptly. The other one looked at me and smiled creepily. My hands turned cold.
As they approached me in a loafing way, I realised they weren't too many years older than I was.
"Hey, there!" one of them greeted me with a wink. I felt a little disgusted.
"May I help you?" I smiled professionally as I tried hard to endure my puke.
"Yeah, you can." He looked at me sheepishly from head to toe with a filthy look on his face . "We want a strawberry muffin for the four of us." He licked his lips. "With extra batter."
"Sorry." I narrowed my eyes. "This is a pet store. We don't sell muffins."
"Then would you like to have a nice hotdog between those firm buns?" Everyone in that group laughed shrilly like hyenas.
Those assholes!
That's it!
"Go and fuck yourself!" I hissed.
"We would like you to join us."
"You mother-fucker..."
"What's going on here?" I was cut with a heavy voice. I turned around to see Scott and...another person. Scott looked at me with a pale expression.
Shit! The higher level!
That guy leaned off the counter slacking and clicked his tongue. "Your employee doesn't have any manners dude. We were asking her some mere questions, and she told me, "Go and fuck yourself." That's how you treat customers!" That bastard looked at me and smirked. I glared at him ferociously. "I guess, I will try another shop." That bastard left the shop with his group with a smug face.
"You! To the office now!" That other person pointed his thumb to the office room grimly. My heart dropped like a gravestone.
**********
"Son of a bitch, you motherfucker!!!" I yelled angrily and kicked on my punctured tire. My day couldn't get worse than that.
Getting fired!
Having a flat tire!
Just great!
JUST-FUCKING-GREAT!!!
I slammed the door closed on my car with extra force and stormed out of the parking lot. That son of a bitch manager didn't listen to any of my excuses no matter how hard I tried. Scott was nice, he was trying his hardest to save my job.
But that son-of-a-bitch!!!
I angrily kicked a stone near my foot and looked up tiredly. Then I realised I was walking on the wrong road. I left my jacket in the car, and a sudden shiver made me cross my arms tightly across my chest. A single van passed me, and then the road was empty. The houses around me have closed windows and doors, and that place was a little dark.
I turned around and froze with a fearful shock when I noticed that two men were walking quietly twenty feet behind me. They were from the same group at the store incident. I anxiously turned forward at once, quickening my pace. A hair-raising chill that has nothing to do with the weather made me shudder again.
I was not stupid, I instantly understood the situation. I didn't want to think but a small, frightened voice in the back of my subconscious mind warned me about the worst scenario about the grave situation. When I almost reached the end of the road, my breath hitched. Because at the end of the road where the other two men from the same group were smiling excitedly at me.
I was being cornered!
I sucked in air, preparing to use it for screaming, but my throat felt so dry. That bastard from earlier walked slowly towards me with a smirk on his face.
"Stay away from me!" I sternly warned him with an angry tone.
"Oh come on, it's not fair if you only play with some rich dude." that guy told me sarcastically as he took another step towards me. I stepped back, and my back hit the person behind me. He brushed my shoulder in a sinister way and blew some ragged breath into my ears. I turned around and threw my cleaned fist in vain hoping it could meet with his nose.
But he seemed prepared for that out-coming. He dodged a little so the fist grazed his right cheek.
"Fuck! She is strong!" That man laughed raucously while rubbing his sunken cheek.
"Good, I love feisty women!" the other bastard said excitedly. He yanked me towards him. He reeked of alcohol. I wanted to puke.
"The moment I saw you in the news, I got hard." He licked his lips. "Come on, play with....."
He was cut, when a pair of strong headlights suddenly landed on us and a car almost flew to us from nowhere. We all instantly jumped on our feet.
Suddenly a peaceful wave of relief washed all over me when I saw the familiar silver jaguar and the person who hastily got out of the car and almost ran towards us.
Ron.
He yanked me towards him from that bastard and instantly covered me slightly with his body.
"Hey, we were talk....." That bastard tried to speak but was cut again when Ryder and another hulk type guy stood in front of them. I was not sure, but I felt like I saw the other person somewhere before.
"Should we call the cops or will you choose to leave quietly?" Ryder asked them sternly with a scary voice.
They looked back and forth between us for a few seconds. They scoffed and spat as they slowly took their leave.
"Get in," Ron requested me softly as he gently opened the door for me, of his car. My nerves were in an emotional wreck. I felt so dreadfully tired. I got in the car silently. I didn't have any energy left to argue with him. Ryder and the other man got in too.
There was only the sound of the air conditioner being heard in the car.
"How did you find me?" I finally asked, breaking the dull silence.
Ron didn't answer me. I sighed wearily and looked at him. "Are you following me?"
"I was worried, ok?" Ron sounded frustrated. "And, thank god, I did."
I paused awkwardly because that was the first time I saw Ron like that.
Ron looked at me. "Please Liza, why don't you try to give me a chance? If you agree, I can solve everything."
I shook my head. "It won't work. A fake marriage will never..."
"I never said that the marriage would be fake." Ron cut me and looked straight into my eyes.
I completely lost my words. I stared at him like a stupid. "You mean, you will marry me, like real marriage?"
"Yeah." He told me firmly.
"Are you nuts?" I laughed foolishly, because I felt so funny right at that moment. My laugh died when I observed Ron's expression.
He was serious!
"Ron," I sighed and looked at him. "I don't love you." For a slight moment a pained expression played on Ron's face. "Do you think a lifelong marriage could work without any mutual feelings, left alone love?"
"We can make it work, if we try." He told me, a little desperate.
"Well, I don't want to." I told him curtly. "Can we stop talking about this matter, please?
The sudden stopping of the car broke our odd conversation. I looked out to find my home.
"Fine." Ron sighed defeated, "Can you take another shift for your job?" Ron asked me with a begging tone. "Alone this late, I mean..."
"You don't have to worry about my job anymore." I put every ounce of my sarcasm into my words. "I got fired."
Ron paused a little. "Liza, I..."
"Bye, Ron." I quickly opened the door and got off before he could continue.
************
Ping..
I propped my head up drowsily when my phone screen flashed a light signal of getting a message. I was alone in my room. I succeeded in convincing Arthur that I was alright and he could sleep in his room. He hesitated a little, but I made him leave. I took my phone from the nightstand sleepily and opened the message box. I got some pictures and a text message from some unknown number. I rubbed my eyes to clear my eyesight. I opened the pictures and instantly stopped breathing. Those pictures are from that night, when Ron and I were intimate with each other in the hotel room. We both were naked in the picture. I hastily opened the text message with trembling fingers.
"They are actually screenshots from the main video. Wanna see the full video?"
My blood instantly froze in my veins.
**********
Author's Note:
Oh my, those sexy, smoky, alluring, beautiful pair of blue eyes, just like some black panther......
Vote
Comment
Share 😘