HOOK UP

CHAPTER 1: HOOK UP

Raquel Roswell – Smith was shaking, while holding the test result in her hand. She was trembling, her tears are streaming non-stop from her eyes.

“You had been diagnosed with 1^st stage cancer, Mrs. Smith.” The doctors voice would ring across her ears once more.

Lost, whether to felt happy or sad, distraught, because the illness were like a blessing in disguise for a battered wife like her.

5 months ago, Raquel married a distinguished billionaire, David Smith, who came from a wealthy family, and was the CEO of the number 1 shipping company across Europe. On their wedding day, she received envious glare from women thinking that she was the luckiest woman on earth, but misfortune seems to fall on Raquel after their marriage. David mistreated her. He hated her guts, and would occasionally bring women and do the deeds in the same room they share.

He was satire cold, a ruthless man of his league who regretted that one drunken night waking up with Raquel’s side. That until the reporters flashed the camera, excited for the scandal that was captured in a flash.

Raquel let out a sigh.

David was like a dream. A bad dream.

If they hadn’t gotten married, he would have married her sister instead—Grace Roswell.

When she arrived home, Raquel was tired. She was heading to her room when the lamp was turned on placed beside the sofa.

“Where had you gone off.” Her husband slurred.

“D—David.” Fear-stricken, her lips quivered.

He sounded drunk, and the empty bottle of brandy lay there motionless.

“I’m fucking asking you where had you gone off, you bitch!”

CRASH.

For an instant moment, Raquel felt suffocated. Her chest has been filled with anxiety in the fret of how terrified she was.

“I—I had just met with Grace—” She lied through her teeth.

“Liar!” David growled.

Behind him, the sister she was speaking of appeared.

“I told you she’s a liar.” Grace sneered.

“G—grace.” Raquel paled.

David stood up from his seat. He was unsteady, and Grace watched like a hawk, but the smirk on her face told her otherwise.

David had gotten closer to her.

“I—I—m sorry—”

SLAP.

“You damn slut!” David’s face was red.

He grabs her hair.

Raquel whimpered.

“I—it hurts, David.”

“You are going to get hurt!”

His rage leads to footsteps that resounding from the stairs.

“What’s all this commotion about?” The sophisticated Mrs. Smith, the lady of the house appeared on top of the staircase.

She looks stern. Her chink eyes, and the high cheekbones made her appeared an elite, who take no as an answer.

“M—Ma’am!” Grace quickly transformed into a tamed wolf, and greeted David’s mother with an unsure and innocent smile. “David was just worried about Raquel, but she just keep trying to rudely walked past at him.”

“W—what—I didn’t….” Raquel winced in pain.

“Is that so?” Mrs. Smith turned her attention to her, and Raquel isn’t surprised either when her gaze turned distasteful. She knew that David’s mother do not fancy her. “Well, keep it low, son, I don’t want to hear any of that low life’s voice. Besides laying a hand on that slut would only make your hand dirty.”

Instinctively, David’s hold loosened. Raquel fell to the floor with a thud.

Her eyes brimmed with tears. She always thought that she had gotten used to their insult, but it was still painful. They still hurt her to the core.

“Yes, Ma.” David sobered up. “Let’s go, Grace, I don’t want to waste my time with that bitch.”

Abiding, her sister was quick on her feet, and they were gone in a second. The old lady also return to her quarters, this left Raquel alone or so she thought.

“What was that again, Raquel?” It was her father. “I told you not to mess with David again!”

“I—I didn’t—”

“Yes, you did.” Her mother seconded. “I know you were a slut, but if David decided to throw us out here, I will strangle you!”

“Damn bitch!” Her father scowled.

Raquel only lowered her head.

She doesn’t understand. Had she been a bad daughter? All her life, she was seeking love, and comfort which she thought she could find in her husband, but it was different.

What David gave her was home for another trauma and torments.

The next morning Raquel was woken up by David, who throw a box of contraceptives at her.

“W—what is the meaning of this?” She was cautious.

She isn’t pregnant, nor would she want to be given her situation. But taking pills would made her condition deteriorate. Her doctor told her not to take anything without any prescription.

“I just don’t want to have a child with you, nor would I want to anyway.”

David’s words were like knives that struck her heart.

“I—I understand—.” She gulps down the lump that was forming on her throat.

RING.

David’s phone ring. Seeing the registered name, he quickly picked it up.

“Yes?... What?!” He seems worried. “Grace was hospitalized?”

That caught her attention for an instant.

“Yes…. Don’t worry, I am coming.”.

He ended the call.

Although their relationship is not okay, Raquel still care for her sister.

“What happened to her? Is Grace okay, I’m worried—”

“You’re worried?” David cut her off. “Shouldn’t you be the happiest, if she die?” He sneered at her.

What he said left Raquel frozen on her spot.

David scowled at her, before he quickly run downstairs.

On the other hand, Raquel felt hopeless. It was as if no matter how much she tried to fit, she won’t be able to. They would always judge her, call her harlot, and a slut in spite of her efforts.

She felt her phone vibrated inside her jeans. Raquel quickly pulled it, and Jade’s message, the only friend she could rely on was the first thing that greeted her.

‘Are you coming to Bali?’ It says.

She bit her lips. Torn, because she had not yet opened it to her husband, but either way—he won’t let her come no matter his much she beg.

Another ping came.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll return you whole and alive, Raqy (pronounced as Rocky)’

That made her smile a bit, but on a second thought—their treatment wouldn’t change to her no matter how much she tries.

Raquel quickly type a reply she would soon regret.

‘I’m coming, Jade.’

**

BALI, INDONESIA

“I really thought you’ll let yourself get imprisoned on that hell hole, Raq!” Jade was already drunk.

Raquel only laugh at her, but she never answers. It’s just felt surreal that she was there—freely. As of the moment who knows how much her husband has been cursing her already. But that does not make her afraid. For the first in her life, she felt rebellious.

Raquel never knew how much she would enjoy this freedom.

“But girl—”Jade sit beside her. “—If David was like that, why don’t you just divorce the bastard?”

“You know I can’t.” Raquel said sadly. “My parents would kill me, if I divorce David.”

Jade rolled her eyes.

“If they are that eager, then they should have married him himself.”

“Yeah.” Raquel laughs bitterly.

“But anyway, let’s just enjoy ourselves!” Jade grins.

She pulled Raquel from her feet, and the pair dance as if they own the stage. She was free. No bound, no husband to worry who would dragged her away from there. On that place, Raquel find a home.

She was lost, she was grinding her hips, and dancing as if it was her last night, when she felt another presence beside her. With that scent, she could tell that it was a man.

“Hey.” His baritone voice whispered above the music that was blasting around.

Raquel giggled. She turned around only to get shunned on her feet. When her eyes laid to the stranger, she felt her heart thump and hyperventilate.

“Are you… a god?” She blurted out.

The man chuckled.

“No, but I was called Eliot by most people I know.” Eliot was cheeky.

Raquel giggled.

“Do you want to dance?” He later on asked.

“Are you going to take no for an answer?” She bit her lips, but the smile was evidently plastered on her face.

“No.” Eliot chuckled.

“Well, I am not rejecting your offer anyway.”

With that said, Raquel placed her hand on his shoulders. They were broad, and hard. Instantly, she felt her cheeks reddened the moment Raquel felt him wrapped his strong arms around her waist, and pulled her closer.

It doesn’t feel right, but it doesn’t feel wrong either.

“Are you okay?”

She felt her breathe hitched when he smiled.

“Y—yeah.”

“But you know what I had been watching you since earlier.” Eliot admitted.

“What?” She was shocked.

“Don’t get me wrong, I just have this feeling that you came here for a reason, either way, I wouldn’t see you sadly holding your drink on the corner.” Eliot was straightforward.

“So, you knew.” The sparkle on her eyes become dim. “You, why are you here?”

“For business.”

“Business…” She repeated after him.

“Yeah, my client is a party goer, I supposed.”

That made her chuckled.

“You came with a friend?” Eliot asked afterwards.

“Yeah.” Raquel couldn’t tore her eyes off from him. “But she was busy hooking up with some guys.”

Eliot turned to look at her. “Wanna hook up with me?”

Raquel’s eyes widened hearing that bold question. “What….?”

“Hook up with me.” Eliot asked again as if it was one of the common thing he could ask to someone he just met. “We can start with a kiss, and if you find it revolting, we can stop from there.”

Raquel blinked.

“You are not running away.” Eliot seems amused.

“I—I’m not that rude.” Raquel finally recovered from her shock state. “I—”

She felt her phone vibrated.

“Hold up.”

When she fished it out, her mood instantly turned sour.

It was a text coming from David.

‘Where the fuck are you, Raquel?!’

Raquel bitterly smiled. Unknown to her, Eliot has been watching her silently.

When she lifted her head to meet his eyes, there’s this fiery daredevil, that rebellious her that wanted to just let out everything she had been burdened.

“You wanna hook up, right?” She didn’t know where this courage came from.

“I do.”

“Then kiss me.”

“What?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself—”

To which she didn’t need to. In a heartbeat, their lips meet and a tingling sensation shoots through her body, making her open her mouth, and move her tongue. It was a foreign feeling for Raquel. It wasn’t like the night that David and her spend together.

She like it so much that she found herself wounding her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. Eliot groaned at the taste of her lips.

Both of them are lost that Raquel failed to notice when had they gotten to his room.

“You fucking taste good.” Eliot growled.

Pieces by pieces, Raquel’s clothes started dropping on the floor, from her dress to her underwear until she was bare and was sprawled naked on the mattress.

She knew it was wrong, she knew for a fact that it would end badly for her, but at that moment, she did not care. For the first time on her life, she listened to her heart, and not to someone else’s.

He was her choice. He was her freedom. And regret it, she will not.