6. The Complicated Man

“I’ll be out of the city for a few days. Love you, xoxo!” Natalie was in the back seat of the taxi, her hands roaming over the tattooed guy’s body, when her phone lit up with a text from Keith.

“Love you too! Come back soon.” She texted Keith and shoved her phone back into her wallet. “Let’s go to my place!” She said and gave her address to the driver.

Drunk as fuck, they reached the apartment Natalie shared with Keith. Natalie was about to turn on the lights when the guy pinned her to the door, his lips traveling down her neck. She giggled, watching him getting impatient for her, and taking his hand, she led him to the room she shared with Keith.

Unknown to her, Keith was sitting on the couch in pitch dark and saw their every movement with a glass of wine.

The next morning,

Keith was making breakfast, and the kitchen was filled with the sound of ear-blasting music. Natalie grumbled in annoyance. “Turn off the music!” The tattooed guy sleeping next to her let out a piercing shriek.

Natalie draped a bed sheet around her. The thudding pain in her head was relentless, yet she stumbled out of the room and turned off the music.

“Why did you turn it off?” The voice came, and she turned, only to find Keith standing with a tray.

Natalie was aghast. She stared at him, speechless. “You know I love music while cooking?” Keith put the tray of food on the table and drank some orange juice.

“Keith, you are here! But you said you’d be away for a few days!”

“My life isn’t very interesting to talk about! What about you?” He eyed her and Natalie gulped, watching him.

“I was sleeping,” she trailed off.

Keith took another sip of his juice and smirked. “With whom?”

“I-I..” She couldn’t meet his eyes.

“Change into something bearable for my sight!” He said, and she nodded, disappearing into the room. She saw the man sleeping on the bed and rushed to the wardrobe, but it was empty. All her possessions vanished, except for jeans and a T-shirt with her underwear on the couch.

Keith was nearly done with his breakfast when he received a text from the Ascent Group. He saw the picture of the girl who was appointed at his insistence. “All women are the same!” He thought bitterly.

“Fire her! She is an imposter,” He texted and turned his phone off when Natalie appeared. Keith rose from the couch and threw her suitcases at her feet.

Instinctively, she took a step back. “Keith, I can explain to you! Please,”

Keith chuckled, “I saw you kissing him in the club, bringing him to our apartment… my apartment precisely, and spending a night with him on my bed! What is left to explain?”

“Babe, I’m sorry! I was drunk. This won’t happen ever again,” she pleaded, her eyes pooled with tears. “I love you.”

Keith scoffed. “Care to share the details of your blind date a week ago?” He lifted an eyebrow, and Natalie turned pale.

“H-How…” she trailed off.

“How do I know?” Keith asked. “Because I’m a fucking cop and I know what the fuck goes around behind my back! Just I don’t confront you every fucking time.”

“This wouldn’t have happened if you had given me time. Work! Work! Work! You’ve forced me into another man’s arm,” Natalie accused Keith.

“Right, that’s why I’m breaking up with you now! So that you can forever drown in the arms of other men!” Keith retorted.

“Keith, I love you!”

Keith laughed. “You don’t love me. You love the fortune I hold.” His eyes pinned on her. “You love the heir of the Ascent Group, Keith Wilson!”

Natalie stood in her place wordlessly. There was a minute of silence between them when Keith spoke again. “I won’t change my decision, Natalie. You’re just wasting your time here!”

“You’ll regret this!” she gritted out, and taking her luggage, she moved to exit from the door.

The reverberating thud of the door echoed in Keith’s ears as Natalie left his life, and he hastily wiped away the tears from the corner of his eyes. He truly adored Natalie, despite the people around him saying she was after his money, yet he never allowed himself to believe them.

“What’s going on here?” The tattooed guy rubbed his eyes as he walked out of the room in nothing but his boxers. “Where is Natalie?” He asked, taking the couch across from him.

“She just left!” Keith answered, and the guy nodded, stretching his arms. “You must be tired after all-night-long actions?”

The guy smirked proudly. “Yeah, can I get a coffee, please?”

“Sure!” Keith stood and headed to the kitchen.

“By the way, who are you? Natalie’s roommate?”

“Boyfriend!” Keith corrected. “I mean ex-boyfriend. We just broke up!”

***

Cara walked into her house after an exhausting day at work and was greeted by the sight of her suitcases, packed and waiting for her. “What’s wrong?” Cara asked her roommate, Meghan, who was a travel blogger and usually off discovering the beauty of the world.

“You have not paid rent for three months! What do you expect?”

“I know I am sorry, but I’ll do it next month. I promise!” Cara panicked.

Meghan slid the suitcase in her direction. “Please don’t waste my time and show yourself out. I can’t do charity anymore!”

“Please don’t do this to me! Where would I go in the middle of the night?” Cara’s eyes filled with tears.

“That’s not my problem! Why don’t you sell your luxury car and pay for the damn expenses?” Meghan raised her voice.

“I have got a job in a famous club!” She took out a folded paper from her bag and passed it to Meghan. “The pay is good! I can pay the rent starting next month!”

Meghan gave the letter back to her. “Look, I earn well, but that doesn’t mean the expenses are solely my responsibility. If you cannot pay the rent next time, I will throw you out.”

Cara nodded, wiping her tears. “I won’t disappoint you!” She attempted to move to her room, but Meghan blocked her path.

“You can’t use the room until you clear the dues!” She stated. “You can sleep on the floor or can take the couch, whatever suits you!” She said and disappeared into her room, closing the door behind her back.

Cara smiled bitterly. She kept her bags in the corner and slumped down on the worn-out couch. Her legs were killing her, and she was too tired to even mourn over her fate, but like every night, she didn’t forget to ask God.

“Why me?”

***

Aries was sitting on the bed resting his head against the headrest, his thumb scrolling the video of the dark alley on his phone. He doesn’t remember how many times he has seen the video in the last three days, yet he couldn’t get over it or with an obsession with finding the girl he kissed.

Alyona softly moaned, opened her dreamy hazel eyes, and smiled at Aries. She pulled the cover tight against her chest and pecked Aries on the cheek. “Good morning!” She said, her voice came out sluggish and Aries gave a tight smile, appearing a little distant.

“You were the beast on the bed last night!” her slender finger caressed his sharp jawline.

Aries held her hand and looked at her. “Why don’t you get ready and I’ll drop you at your hotel?”

“Do you want to get rid of me?” Alyona smirked.

“Nope, I have got an important meeting!”

“Don’t let me stop you! You can go to your meeting. I can handle myself,” she said.

“Wow, really? You aren’t cringy like other women?” Aries raised an eyebrow and Alyona chuckled. “Okay, then!” Aries stood back on his feet. “I’ll see you later!” He smiled and turned to leave while Alyona watched him, and as he reached the door, Alyona stopped him.

“Aries?”

“Yes!” He turned to her.

She walked to him, tightening the bedsheet around her body. Her face was an inch away from him. “If you ever think about trying a relationship, I’m willing to wait for you!” Alyona said and Aries turned silent as she pecked on his cheek again. “Let’s have dinner tonight,”

***

Just as Cara was on the brink of making her way to work, she received a call from Sandra, “Hey there!”

“I lost the job!” Sandra cried on the other side.

“What?” Cara shrieked.

“The manager summoned me and called me an imposter. He also said that they would make sure I won’t get a job anywhere!” Sandra said, and Cara was confused at first.

“Imposter?” She wondered.

“I think they were referring to me replacing you,” Sandra said. “But how did they get to know?”

Cara recalled the brief meeting with Keith at the club and understood what had gone wrong. “Sandra, calm down! I’ll see what I can do for you. Please be patient!” She said, and they ended the call. Cara searched the Ascent Group on her phone and decided to visit them to solve the issue and give Sandra’s job back to her.

An hour later, she took a bus to reach the Ascent Group and her eyes traveled up, watching the massive building. She walked in through the entrance but stopped in her tracks when she saw Alfred Doyle shaking hands with some gentlemen. She gulped the lump that formed in her throat and her eyes widened when Cynthia Glazier and her daughter Isla Glazier came into the picture.

Before they could catch sight of Cara, she wheeled around and dashed away without a pause or glancing back.

***

Grayson Group of Hotels,

Simon sighed. “Are you still looking for the woman you kissed in the alley?” He asked. “Why are you after her?”

“I don’t know!!” Aries shifted his gaze to Simon. “I haven’t seen her, yet she has possessed my mind! I can’t get her off my head and when I realize I won’t find her, I feel like I’m losing a fight. It frustrates me to no end.” He resigned in his high executive armchair.

“Delete the footage and move on!”

“Are you kidding me?” Aries gawked up at Simon and the latter shook his head. “Why would I delete the only evidence of that night?”

Simon pulled a chair and sat across from him. “What will you do if you find her?” He asked. “Will you marry her?”

“What rubbish!” Aries gave a ridiculous look.

“Will you force her to sleep with you?”

“Of course not! I never force women to sleep with me,” Aries retorted.

“Then why the fuck are you wasting your energy to find her?”

“I just want to know who she was!” He spoke.

“And what will you do then?” Simon asked, and Aries had an ‘I don’t know’ look on his face. Simon took his phone and handed it to him. “Here, delete the video and get over your obsession with her.”

Aries groaned, taking his phone from Simon. His brain agreed with what Simon said, but his stony heart continued to win against his head. Pulling a long face, Aries deleted the video as he believed the heart always tries to mislead you and left the office to pick up Alyona for dinner.

Aries took Alyona to an Italian restaurant. The server poured wine into their glasses and Aries took a sip, focusing on Alyona, who was playing with the rim of her glass, and smiled when she found his piercing grey eyes pinned on her. “Don’t stare at me like that!”

Aries cleared his throat. “You are a good woman!” He said and Alyona glanced up at him. “But I’m a scarred soul who can only offer scars in return. I don’t have any sad backstory to support my dominant side. This is just how I am and I don’t want to change myself for anyone!”

Alyona understood what he meant. “If there is a scar, then there must be some unhealed wounds!” She said, and the side of Aries’s lips curved up.

“Healed wounds too leave scars sometimes to remind you what you’ve suffered!” He countered. “Alyona, you can get any man you desire!”

“Except the one I really desire.” She raised an eyebrow.

“I am not good enough for you!” Aries slightly raised his voice and Alyona chuckled.

“Calm down! I won’t pester you to try things out with me!” She said and took another sip of his wine. “You’re a charming man, not just by looks. Something is enchanting about you that seems to attract women.” She smiled. “And I’d say this again, if you’re ever tempted to try a genuine relationship, just know someone in Russia is willing to try things out with you.”