Chapter 3

“Welcome to my boat “, Ian said, taking another sip of the wine in his hand. Rita was never patient enough to wait for the wine to ferment into something stronger, he needed to get drunk.

The woman threw him a look. Ian liked to call that look “The Ashley Toma alarmed look”. She had that look on her face a lot. Alongside a host of other looks he was unfortunately familiar with.

Rita always used to have the best intuition, her friends were always smart and people that deserved to be in her sphere. The only exception was this one. Ashley Toma. He had investigated her extensively and found that he knew her father, Leo Toma, and the man was always going on and on about how his daughter decided to become a lecturer instead of taking the reins of the family business and how he froze all her accounts of the money from the business till she decided to become useful.

Ian knew she was out to dig gold, perhaps she was spurred on by the fact that her father would make her lose out on everything if she didn’t find good enough connections. He hated people like her father, but he hated people like her even more. Sadly, she was his only companion on this ridiculous night.

His grandfather had called him right as he got into his hotel. Apparently, his fiancee had called him that she was calling off the wedding for him being "cold and mean to her". Ian wished he wasn’t as big on privacy as he was, after all if he had installed CCTVs, she wouldn’t have anything to say.

His grandfather, not really caring much about whoever he married, only wanted him married off the next day. So he had no choice but to marry Mava, or get a bride from the sky. The other alternative was choosing to forfeit all his potential shares. Ian was not in the best frame of mind.

“What do you mean by that?”, she asked, her eyes shining with concern, he also saw the underlying curiosity for gossip somewhere deep in her eyes.

“Are you that dumb?”, he asked dramatically, sipping out of his drink.

That garnered an “Ashley Toma offended glare”. It was his favorite look. She might be the embodiment of bad company, but she was very pretty, and who didn’t like to look at pretty things?

Her thick black hair was always in a ponytail that seemed to be defying its bonds every time he saw her, making him itchy to get them out of their prison and into something more healthy, like ribbons. Like a true gold digger, her looks were utterly mesmerizing, it was probably one of the only reasons he hadn’t gotten rid of her yet.

“I was cheated on today too”, he simply said, he didn’t know why he suddenly felt like talking to her, after all he was used to keeping his affairs private. What if this little minx used the information against him someway?

“Who in their right mind would cheat on you?”, she laughed quietly, a little snort escaping that always drove him mad. 

“My fiancee”, he deadpanned, was she that dumb? She looked at him in fear, why was she scared?

“Beauty Queen Mava?! What the fuck?! Was she drugged?!”, She asked like it was any of her business. She was really playing her gold-digging cards to the fullest, everything she did managed to have an endearing quality.

“No”, he said, gritting his teeth and taking the path of the gremlin, forgoing the cup and drinking straight from the bottle. She looked at him in surprise, before glancing at his neck and looking away. Did she think he was blind? What was that look of lust on her face?

“I saw that you disgusting pervert”, he said in a low monotone. 3,2,1, ah yes, there it was. “The Ashley Toma offended glare”. He should trademark it.

“You saw what? And uh…that’s rough buddy”, she said, looking away. Ian had finished the bottle in less than a minute, ignoring the burn of drinking it too fast. He needed to get drunk, and fast.

He chose to ignore her question. “That’s rough? It was in MY bed”, he said, expecting a lot more than that’s rough.

“What?!”, she said, taking another swig of the strong vodka, he should’ve gone for the vodka too. It was stronger than the wine he had taken. “My boyfriend told me to get ready for a once in a blue moon date at seven. I decided to surprise him and tada”, she said, her hand vaguely going to where her heart was located.

Even the worst of the worst didn’t deserve to see that. He could also see that unlike his and Mava’s match, Ashley and her boyfriend’s match was a love match, that would hurt a lot more.

“She did it with my biggest rival”, he said, slightly losing his brain to mouth filter more and more with every passing minute. The woman in front of him got further depressed. Did he say something wrong?

“He did it with my step-sister”, she said and he recoiled. This was worse than rough, this was unfathomable. He wasn’t too surprised. He had investigated her boyfriend too. He was relatively well off, but he used to be notorious for never staying with one girl. Didn’t he know that? It was only a matter of time before he found her sex boring. No matter who she was.

“Accept my condolences”, Ian said, not knowing what else to say. He was gradually getting too drunk for this conversation. He used to be able to hold his liquor with any of Rita’s drinks, why was today different? He grabbed the bottle and did a double take. This wasn’t Rita’s alcohol, she had stolen it from his primary house when he wasn’t home. The audacity little siblings had!

“Nobody died”, she laughed, the little snort escaping. Ian felt his eye twitch. 

“Even still”, Ian slurred slightly, it was too hot in here. He began to unbutton more till he got to his navel. There was only the drunk heartbroken woman beside him, he could afford to. Said woman was even putting her head on the bar.

“I’m grateful for your condolences”, she said, pretending to be royally giving a decree. She glanced at him and her eyes stuck to the part of his body exposed by his anger at the heat and his buttons. Her eyes darkened, he cleared his throat and looked away. He had never been so blatantly stared at before, especially not when his skin was on display.

“So…um uh… uh….”, she said, sounding disoriented. “Uh…how are you gonna handle… married life”, she drawled, already sounding more drunk than he had ever heard anyone sound.

“I’m not getting married to her”, Ian said like he was commenting on the weather.

“Who are you marrying then?”, she asked like a sloth. That sentence didn’t even sound like english.

“I don’t know”, he said, pinching his brows as he stood up. He should probably put her in the guest wing of the house. He held her hand and she immediately put her cheek to his exposed chest like it was a magnet and she was an iron pin.

“I should marry too. Show Melie I, she, good and all”, She slurred. Ian gritted his teeth and removed the woman from him.

“I didn’t understand a word of that nonsense”, he said in frustration. Who just randomly puts their head on a man’s exposed chest. That was rude. He was feeling more drunk. He should get her to the guest wing so he could sleep off the entire day’s struggle away.

“I should marry too”, Ashley started, frowning and counting her fingers as if to not stray off course.

“Show Melie I’m the boss and she’s a fake”, she said, glancing up at him proudly.

Ian rolled his eyes and dragged her away from the mini bar. 

“NOOOOOOOOo, Vodka my love! You can’t take me away from my love!”, she protested. Ian felt a headache coming on and he threw her over his shoulder, her legs wiggling for freedom.

“WHy yOU hORRible MoNSter!”, she growled and tried in vain to free herself.

Ian opened the door to the room and threw her on the bed. 

“Excuse me while I go find a bride in ten hours”, Ian said decisively, turning around to get out.

“WAIT!”, Ashley yelled after him.