“How can you let him slip from your hand?” Mom asks in an incredibly angry voice, making me huff out of frustration. “Cut it out, mom.” I plead, turning my attention back to washing dishes. “It's been 2 days for fucks's sake!” She doesn't calm down, instead she fumes in anger, “Don't talk to me like that, young lady! I'm your mother.” “Then act like a mother.” I mumble under my breath, getting tired of her endless demands and whines. She has been living here since the day she flew from Arizona. If it wasn't enough, her soon to be husband thinks he is invited here any time of the day. My once safe place has turned into a mess, a mess which suffocates me every second I'm in here. I'm tired of it. First Lily and now I'm caring for my mom and her new man-child. “What did you say?” She demands to know, getting closer to me. “First, you let a rich man walk out and then you talk back to me? How can you be so useless? He could get us out of this hellish life if only you knew how t
“Hey!” I call for her before my mind even registers what I'm doing. “You can sit over here.” What am I doing? Am I that much of a sadist that I'm willing to hurt myself even more? As if arguing with my mother wasn't enough for one evening. On the other hand, the other part of mind, the careless mind, is telling me that I've nothing to lose so I might as well know what's going on between them. She looks a bit confused. Nonetheless, she walks back towards me. I make room for her to sit. As she sits down beside me, I realize I don't even know what to say and how to hold a conversation with her. “Tough day?” She asks, making it easier for me as I didn't have to initiate. “Huh?” I tense assuming she has cracked the code and can tell I've been crying like a pathetic creature. “You are wearing sunglasses when it's about to get dark. You must be having a headache?” She tries to explain herself. “Uhh…Yeah.”.I go along with her explanation. I'm not lying though. I always get
“Miss.Brown.” Spencer calls me for the third time in 2 seconds. Shit! He is breathing down my neck again. I need to do it fast! “Mr.Cruiz, I'm almost done. Just give me 2 more minutes, please.” I finally answered his call before he exploded due to my lack of response. I've been working on this file for God knows how long. I somehow clicked on the wrong buttons when I was dead tired and now everything's messed up. I need to clean my mess before he can even sense it. I keep on typing furiously, keeping my eyes trailed on the screen. “I didn't call you for the file.” This stops me from typing maniacally and taking a small pause. “Oh?” I peek behind the screen, “What is it then?” “Lunch.” He says one word and expects me to make a fully coherent sentence out of it. “What?” I think to myself if I had to do something about lunch. And then I finally noticed him. He is totally dressed for going to a five star restaurant for a business lunch. Not to mention, he is looking hotter than an
“There's my baby.” Grammy throws her hands over Spencer's shoulders and engulfs him into a hug. I stand on the sideline, a small smile breading through my lips even though I know I'm in a pickle. “And my other lovely baby.” Grammy doesn't deprive me of her warm hug. “How are you, Grammy?” I ask as we break the long hug. “Better now that I've seen my favorite faces.” Spencer rolls his eyes at his grandmother's cheesy words. “In fact, I think I just added twenty more years to my long life.” I shake my head in amusement. She is hilarious. “You and your cheesy lines.” Spencer mutters under his breath.Once we are seated, grammy finally stops talking like we being here with her is a big event. Spencer and I are seated on either side of Grammy. “So, how's life with him?” Grammy asks me, winking. There we go! I don't know if I will be able to dodge the situation today, but a girl gotta try. I fake a smile, praying both Grammy and Spencer will buy my lie. “You know your grandson, gra
“Here, have some water.” Grammy hands me a glass and goes back to drawing circles on my back. Spencer is standing beside me, worry written all over his face. When I calm down and my breathing gets even, Spencer takes the glass off my hand. “Are you alright?” He asks.“Never been better.” I reply while breathing hard. “Oh dear, you are a walking magnet to mishaps.” Grammy exclaims, still drawing comforting circles on my back. “A girl can't help.” I'm still taking a sharp intake of air. “A girl shouldn't eat like a savage as well. Take my advice and save yourself from your next choking.” Spencer grumbles under his breath before going over to his seat, all his worry vanishing from his voice. “Jerk.” I settle for a name calling rather than engaging in a full blown argument with him. A short while later we went back to eating. Thankfully, Grammy didn't stick to throwing shades at Spencer. “You didn't answer me. How did it happen?” Grammy presses for an answer. Once again. “He fell
“You knew it, didn't you?” Spencer drones around my ears, annoying me nonstop. When I decide he is annoying me beyond my limits for so long, I decide to turn around to face him, only to find him standing too close to me with a scrawl on his face. “How many times do I have to tell you that I didn't have any idea about it?” I reply through gritted teeth. He has been chewing my ears off after leaving the restaurant yesterday. It's no secret that he isn't on board with the idea of spending one week of vacation with me in France. Well, lucky for him, I'm not looking forward to it either. “Oh really?” He scoffs, his right hand on his hip, “You mean to say you magically cleaned out my schedule for one week for no particular reason? Do I look like a joke to you?” Damn it. How can I forget my own doings? Grammy tricked me. When she asked me to clear his schedule for a week, I should have realized she was up to something. “Well, for your information, Grammy told me she was planning a
I snatch the box from his hand before he can even blink and run towards another room to keep it there away from his observing eyes. “What was that?” Spencer asks as soon as I come back to the room, looking all serious. “Nothing.” I exclaim, trying to sound relaxed but my heart is pounding hard against my chest. He doesn't seem convinced. His hard eyes linger on mine, silently demanding to know the answer. Of course, he needs to know. He thinks he needs to know about everything. “It belongs to my mom, it's not mine so untangle your panty from the twist.” He doesn't react to my choice of words. “What was that, Willow?” He repeats himself, taking my first name now. Is that supposed to intimidate me? I can't just tell him everything just because he wants to know them. He has no right to press me for answers when I don't want to do so. “It's none of your business. So, how about you shut your mouth? Why do you even care?” My tone is sharp and mean as I face him to speak. Surprisingl
Spencer ignored me like a plague for the reminder of the day. He is a weird man to say the least, but I think I've figured him out to some extent and that makes me beyond happy. The sane part of my brain warns me about Spencer, calling him a stalker for stalking me on Instagram. Who knows if he stalks me in real life. But again, the insane part of my brain gets excited just by thinking about him finding me important enough to stalk. Yup, I'm a weird woman as well. “Yes, Owen. Yes, I'm flying business class.” I repeat whatever Owen says excitedly on the other side of the phone with a smile on my face. “Though your class is low, you are flying high.” He just has to poke fun at my name. “Shut up, asshole.” I rebuke him though I'm smiling from ear to ear. You see, I've never flown business class though it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. I've flown a few times only in my life time and never imagined of flying in business class. So, my excitement is justified. However, Owen's
I've known Spencer for more than 3 years now, working under his tight grip and demanding nature. I thought I had it all sorted out. I thought I knew everything about him. Turns out, I couldn't be any more wrong. The man I've subjected to scrutiny and baseless judgement just because I thought he was a spoiled brat who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and was used to having his ways, was far from the Prince I've imagined. “You used to live at an orphanage?” My voice is dry as I speak, eyes focusing on him only. He gives me a curt nod before his chest heaves with a sigh. He looks uncomfortable, out of place and out of control which seems to be bothering him. He looks me in the eyes before replying, “Not something you expected, huh?” As a reply, I just blink my eyes at him. What else was I gonna say to this vital piece of information? I and the other people who worked at his company knew nothing of it. Hell, no one seems to know about it because I haven't read any gossip about
For the entire ride, I sat perfectly still like a rigid wall, not even daring to blink. If I speak, it will be my loss. He knows everything that I wanted to keep a secret, that I needed to keep a secret. So, valuing the art of silence was my only option until he killed the engine and sat still on his seat. “We are here. I'm so sorry it took more than five minutes.” If he is being sarcastic, his tone isn't showing it. Giving him a curt nod, I unbuckle my seat belt and step out of the car without even looking where we are now. “What is this place?” I speak for the first time in a while, scanning the yard where children are playing and running around. There's a 4 story building just behind us. Spencer points at that for me to look at. “It's an orphanage. Little sunshine orphanage.” He says as if I'm too blind to read the big signboard that is hanging in front of me in bold letters. “Why are we here?” My curiosity resurfaces, pushing back the growing embarrassment that I was feeling
I didn't have a favourite coffee shop until I started running errands for Cruiz. It was sent from Heaven when I found a place that served coffee which cooled down his temper and soothed my soul. However, I never mentioned this to him. I knew he would make me search for a new one just because I found this place good. He was as sadistic as this. However, when I catch him sitting at the said coffee with an untouched cup of coffee sitting in front of him, I now realise that he did notice I liked it, he did notice when I bought coffee from this place every morning. I take a minute to take a few deep breaths before I step towards him. He seems to be lost in his own thoughts as he continues to stir the spoon in the cup absentmindedly. Why did I come, you ask? Truth be told, even I can't give you the answer. All I know is that I decided not to show up initially, telling myself that I didn't care. But then I spent the entire day staring at my clean apartment and the letter. The next thing I
“Willow.” I hear someone call me while shaking my arm. Letting out a groan of annoyance, I turn on my left side, trying to get some sleep. My head feels heavy and it's aching like there is no tomorrow. However, that's not enough to drag me away from my beauty sleep.“Damn it! Wake up.” This person is as stubborn as me. “Fuck off, Cruiz.” I yell in a sleepy tone, not really realising who's name I just took. I don't remember much about last night, but I can't deny that I remember the bit where Cruiz was there, doing what I don't know. I don't even know if it's a dream. Seeing how stubborn this person is, I'm sure it's him shaking my arm which feels like a massive earthquake. I'm aware that I need to know where I'm and what's happening, but just by thinking about it, I'm feeling tired. All of a sudden, I feel myself being kicked out of the bed. Although the force wasn't much behind the kick, I fell face first on the cold floor. It didn't only knock sleep out of my system, but also my
“Willow, are you okay?” The concern in his voice adds salt to the injury. I don't reply to his question, nor do I look around to see the baffled reaction of the people. Just a second ago I was declared a drunkard who was just blurting out nonsense and in the next second Spencer comes parading around, debunking the accusation the bartender kindly set for me. “Why the fuck do you care?” My reply comes out harsher than I intended. He doesn't shake away the concerned look from his face as he approaches me. It just pisses me off more. He is the reason I'm a mess. He is the reason why a bastard named Ronny Kingston thinks he has something on me. But the next time I look at him, I'm ashamed to admit that a little tear escapes my eye. “Why do you care?” I ask again, softer this time, my voice cracking. I don't know if it's the fact that Spencer doesn't care about the fact that we are making a scene in a crowded bar or it's the fact that I'm surprised that he is standing in front of me, g
I turn back to the dimpled man and give him the biggest grin I can muster. “Do you want to screw the playboy billionaire’s secret girlfriend and get on his bad book?” I watch the man contemplate his options as he takes a gulp of his Martini. “I love leftovers.” He smirks instead of coiling or turning away from me. Even though I am drunk out of my mind, I recognise the urge to smack someone when the right time comes. A sour expression engulfs my face, my fists turned into balls. How dare he belittle me like that? The loud murmuring around me after my little announcement starts to be fading away as my attention is turned to him only. There is no doubt that I'm fuming in anger right now. I bet my nostrils are flaring.He shakes his head as he laughs, “I'm sorry if I came across wrong. But I meant this.” He takes a hold of my glass and takes a deliberate slip as his eyes drink me. Setting the glass on the counter, he steers closer to me, bending down a little so that he is whispering
I knew where to go after that not so good encounter with my ex-boss. So, here I'm in my natural habitat. If you guessed the pub, you know me well. Though I wanted to mop alone and cry over my predicament, I ended up drunk calling my friends. I could hear them sigh in relief over the phone when they first took my call and they huffed in frustration when they cut the call with the promise that they would come get me as soon as possible. I don't really care though. I'm having a blast and it's been a while. I was done hiding in my bedroom. Maybe I'm having a little too much fun because I feel drunk out of my brain. So drunk that I feel like picking up fights with someone like some hooligan. “How about I buy you another round of shots?” A voice startles me by speaking up all of a sudden. Keeping my hand on my breast for a dramatic measure, I gasp, my eyes blinking at him in surprise. Soon after my eyes twinkle in amusement as my lips morph into a huge smile. “Why not? I see no harm in
Keeping my back pressed against the door, I try my best to control my abnormally beating heart. Thousands of emotions cross my mind in this particular moment, each of them pushing me to open the door and see what's he doing at my door, but one sensible and angry part of me is unwilling to cooperate.A gasp leaves my mouth when the doorbell rings again. What's with him being so persistent? He is never gonna change, is he? Suddenly, my pent up anger resurfaces and dominates all my senses. I'm not gonna let him win this time. “Fuck off already, Cruiz! I don't want to see your rotten face. Just see yourself out before I call the cops on you.” I yell loud enough for him to get my message before stomping towards the couch and throwing myself there. Unnoticed tears make an appearance on my cheeks, bringing unwanted feelings along with them. Last week has been a hell for me, both physically and mentally. While all the articles and news channels were desperate to know who was this lady whom
One week went in a blur and this week is following the same lead. I've no will whatsoever to even know what day it is and what the hell I'm doing with my life. I feel so utterly betrayed and destroyed that it overcomes any other feelings in my heart and declines them from surfacing. My apartment is a mess. I would like to call myself a decently tidy person. However, if someone takes a peep into my house now, they will totally get the wrong idea. When my life is a mess, how can I find the stamina to clean my house? Sighing one final time, I get up from the bed to make myself something to eat. It feels like forever since I have eaten anything remotely good. I will myself to get up and get moving. I shouldn't sulk over a bastard who doesn't even care about me. I'm done being a victim and a loser. With that newly found motivation in my head which is now very rare, I head towards my kitchen, looking around my place. It looks like I've entered a warzone. I sigh once again. Mom is out with