"Hello there." Ruby smirked as her eyes raked all over Derrek's body. He was dressed nicely in a black, glossy expensive looking suit paired with a white button down shirt and black shoes.
I frowned as I watched her catwalked over to him, extending her arm as she did so. "You must be Derrek Dune. I'm Tiara's cousin, Ruby but you can call me anytime." She winked at him and I scoffed but said nothing. It was so typical of Ruby to do that.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, anytime." Derrek joked as he took her hand in a friendly shake and Ruby let out the girliest giggle I had ever heard.
"You're so funny, Derrek." Ruby playfully smacked his upper arm as he let go of her hand and I felt my blood boil. Oh the nerve she had to shamelessly flirt with my fiancé right in front of me.
Fake fiancé. My mind reminded but I brushed it off. Ruby didn't know we weren't really engaged.
"Wow, you're even more good looking than I imagined. I never really believed Tiara would land someone as hot as you." Ruby continued to flirt and I had to hold myself back from tackling her to the ground. How dare she?
"Ruby, quit flirting with my fiancé and go find your own." I said through gritted teeth as I stormed over to them. "You, come with me." I glared at Derrek as I grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him along with me as I made my way to the stairs.
"I was just being friendly, Tiara. Jeez." Ruby muttered from behind me and I rolled my eyes. "Bye, Derrek!" She called in a flirty voice and I scoffed as Derrek responded with a wave.
As soon as we got to my room, I let go of his wrist and shut the door behind us before proceeding to my bed and taking a seat at the edge.
"What do you want?" I asked coldly as I crossed my arms across my chest.
"Oh, I was in the neighborhood and decided to drop by." Derrek simply shrugged as he took a look round my room, avoiding my glare.
I scowled as I glared at him for a few more seconds, only easing my face as his eyes fell on me.
"I see you've become jobless. Don't you have a company to run or something?"
"It's Saturday." He replied as he stared blankly at me.
"Whatever, Derrek. You can leave now." I gave an annoyed sigh. I didn't know how much longer I could stare at him without yelling at him for yelling at me and kicking me out of his house. I wasn't holding grudges but he'd been so rude to me and he hadn't even bothered to apologize.
"But I just got here."
"And?"
"Come on. We haven't hung out in almost two weeks. You can't kick me out just yet."
"Really?" I scoffed, shaking my head in disbelief. "Watch me kick you out." I got up to my feet and stormed past him to the door, then, I pulled it open and waved my arms, motioning for him to get out. "Get out!"
"Tiara-"
"Get. Out."
"I know you're upset and you have every right to be, so, please, just-"
"No!" I cut him off loudly as I pulled his arm and dragged him out of my room, all the while aware that he'd let me pull him.
"Can you just hear me out?" He pulled his arm from my grip after we'd taken a few steps down the hallway.
I turned around to face him and placed my hands on my hips as I spoke up with a firm voice.
"I. Will. Not. Get out!"
I reached out to pull his arm once again but he didn't let me move him this time and I was reminded of how powerless I was against him.
"Is everything okay?" I heard Ruby call from behind me and my eyes widened. I had totally forgotten she was still home.
"Not really." Derrek voiced before I could and my eyes widened even wider. What was he doing? He was going to ruin everything.
"We're fine, Ruby. Don't worry about it." I turned to Ruby with a fake smile and proceeded to pull Derrek in the direction of my room but he still didn't move.
"Tiara's mad at me." Derrek went on to say and I signaled for him to shut up with my eyes but he ignored me. "I came over to apologize but she wouldn't even hear me out. Can you please talk to her for me?"
"Tiara, why are you giving this handsome young man such a hard time?" Ruby glanced at me with an unimpressed expression and I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, Tiara. Why are you giving this handsome, dashing, charming man such a hard time?" Derrek glanced down at me with a smirk playing on his lips and I rolled my eyes once more.
"Handsome, dashing, charming my ass. I've seen better looking men, so, don't flatter yourself."
"Ouch! That hurts." He feigned hurt as he placed his palm over his heart. "Anyway, since you refuse to accept my apology, I guess I'll just have to hang out with Ruby instead."
"Ehn?" My eyes widened as he said this and the side of his lips tugged upward for a split second before he nodded, glancing at Ruby.
"Would you like to have dinner with me, Ruby?" He asked. "I know it's short notice but it's a double date thing and it'll be awkward if I show up without a date."
"No!" I yelled. "She's not going anywhere with you!"
"You're clearly not coming with me, so, why can't Ruby?" He arched an eyebrow at me.
"And who said I'm not going? I promised Tosin I was going to be there."
Derrek smiled at this and I frowned, realizing this had been his plan all along. He knew that I would've never let Ruby go on a date with him, so, he'd played on that. He thought he was so smart, didn't he? Well, I was smarter.
"On second thought, you can take Ruby."
"What?" Derrek's eyes widened at my words and the smile fell right off his face, giving me the urge to laugh but I held it in.
"I don't think I can pretend to not be mad at you the entire night, so, let Ruby go on my behalf. I'm sure Tosin and Alex would understand." With that said, I started off in the direction of my room and I noticed Derrek chasing after me. Immediately, I began to sprint in an attempt to run into my room and lock the door but the moment I took the second step in, Derrek grabbed my arm.
I let out a shriek as Derrek pulled me back, causing me to crash into his hard chest and I got a whiff of a fruity scent; apples, roses and most definitely vanilla. He was using a new cologne. It smelt really nice. However, my thoughts were pulled away from the cologne as I felt Derrek's heart beat on the left side of my back. It made me realize how close to each other we actually were and I felt something strange move in the pit of my stomach.
"L-Let me go." I stuttered, attempting to snatch my arm back but Derrek refused to let go of me.
"Not unless you say yes."
"No!" I moved forward, so, I wasn't pressed up against his chest but he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me back to him.
"You mean yes?" He leaned down, so, his head and mine were side to side. From the corner of my eye, I could see him batting his eyelashes at me. The moment his warm minty breath fanned my face, I felt the strange feeling in my stomach once again at our new found closeness and I wanted nothing more than to get away from him.
"No! Let me go!" I struggled to break free and in the process, my braids slapped Derrek in the face, causing him to wince.
"My eyes!" He groaned as he let me go and I gasped as I spun around to see him rubbing his eyes.
"I'm so sorry!" I apologized as I rushed over to assess the damage done to his eyes. "Can you see?" I asked as he blinked continuously.
"I think you've blinded me." He responded as he continued to rub his eyes.
"God forbid! Don't say that!" I rejected as I reached for his face to angle it downwards so I could see if a strand of hair had perhaps gotten into his eyes. "Hold still, let me see. Derrek, hold still!"
Derrek complied by dropping his arms but he continued to blink rapidly. I searched for the hair strand but there was none, however, his eyes had turned slightly red from the harshness of my hair hitting his eyes.
A moment later, Derrek stopped blinking and focused his eyes on mine, causing me to gasp as I felt a tug on my heart. I had never noticed that his brown eyes were slightly lighter than mine and they looked so pretty and-
"No!" I screamed as I shoved him backwards.
What was that?
"No? No?" He scoffed, taking a few steps closer to me and I stretched my arm out in front of me as I stepped back to stop him from getting any closer. "You leave me no choice then. I'll just have to carry you to dinner, right now, in your shorts and t-shirt."
"What? No! You wouldn't dare!" I gasped as he stretched out his arms towards me.
"Wanna bet?" He had a look on his face that told me he had meant every word he had uttered, a look that said to dare him. I swallowed hard.
"Give me thirty minutes."
*
"I can't believe you." I shook my head at Derrek before staring out the window. I couldn't believe he had disappeared for a week, kicked me out of his house when I tried to question him, set up a double date with my friend and her boyfriend without asking or telling me about it and then, forced me into going on said double date.
"Can we just put the past behind us?" Derrek briefly glanced at me and I crossed my arms in hostility, then, I shook my head in disagreement. "Why not?"
"You insulted me, Derrek. That was very rude of you."
"I don't recall such a thing happening, Tiara."
"That does not surprise me. If you could forget about me for a whole week, of course, you'd forget that you insulted me." I rolled my eyes at him and I heard him laugh, causing me to turn to glare at him. "It's not funny, Derrek."
"Alright." He nodded. "I was out of line. I shouldn't have been so rude to you. I'm sorry."
"You don't mean it."
"Tiara." He groaned and I scowled at him. "I really am sorry. Please, forgive me."
I narrowed my eyes at him for a few moments before giving a sigh of defeat.
"Fine. I'll accept it."
"Thank you." He gave a sigh of relief and I uncrossed my arms.
"Just don't disrespect me like that ever again."
"Yes, ma'am." He gave a mock salute and I reached forward to turn on the radio. "Ooh, that's my jam!" He cheered as the familiar tune of Anybody by Burnaboy played through the car speakers. I nodded along to the beat and sang the words I could remember but I had to give it to Derrek. He knew the song word for word.