“What do you mean by that?”“He kissed me.”“No way!” Kate's eyes nearly popped out.“And his fiancée almost caught us in the act.”“Rafa? How did you let that happen?”“How should I know? Things happened so fast that before I realized it, all of this had already happened.”“Why did he kiss you? What did you two talk about that made him do that?”“I don’t know, friend, but I was very confused by what I saw and heard,” Rafa revealed.“What do you mean?”“Ethan sent his fiancée straight to her parents' house, even though he lives alone.”“Maybe he didn’t want her to be alone.”“I don’t know, I thought he was very indifferent to her. The two had planned to meet at night, and even so, he went out drinking and then called me to take him home. If she hadn’t gone after him, he wouldn’t have gone to her.”“What are you trying to say? Do you think Ethan and his girlfriend don’t get along?”“I can’t say that just yet. After all, he did make a point of sending flowers when she arrived.”“That doe
When she arrived at Ethan's apartment, Rafaela called to let him know she was there."I'm not ready yet, come up immediately," he said."No, thank you, I’ll wait for you in the car," she replied."That wasn’t a request," he said before hanging up on her."Ugh, I really hate this man!" she exclaimed nervously, hitting the steering wheel."What happened?" Kate asked, concerned."He rushed me, and he’s not even ready yet, and now he’s telling me to go up.""If I had known, I wouldn’t have come with you," she grumbled."Friend, wait for me here, I’ll be right back."Rafaela got out of the car, heading towards the elevator, pressing the button for the floor where Ethan lived. She was nervous; she didn’t know what he wanted, and after what happened yesterday, everything had become strange. She looked at herself in the elevator mirror, adjusting her white button-up shirt in the front, and ran her hand through her hair, pulling it out from behind her ear. She thought about the possibility of r
"I'm sorry!" she apologized, quickly closing the door.Realizing the mistake she had just made, she ran back to the living room, with her hand on her throat to keep her heart from leaping out of her mouth. Only a few minutes had passed when Ethan appeared, dressed like a true executive."What were you looking for?" he asked calmly."The kitchen," Rafa replied."Oh, right, I forgot to show you."He walked toward a wall decorated with wooden slats and touched it. The wall started to move, revealing a door, and behind it, the kitchen appeared, now connected to the living room."I would never have guessed," she said sheepishly."The upper cabinets have everything you’ll need. I’ll start the meeting in 10 minutes," he said, sitting down on the sofa and opening the laptop that was on the coffee table.She began rummaging through the kitchen, looking for everything she needed to make coffee. Even trying to control herself, there were moments when she couldn’t help but glance at him."Why do y
And once again, there was Ethan, wanting to remind her of what she wanted to forget. "I shouldn’t have called you," he began. "Indeed, I won't disagree with you on that," she said, showing her discontent with the previous night. "I recognize it was a mistake, alright? If I do it again, you don’t need to come to get me." "But what if you threaten me?" "Don’t take what I say when I’m drunk to heart; what matters are my words when I'm like this, talking sober, face to face with you." "Fine, I'll remember that. I hope you remember what you just said as well. I care a lot about my job, and I can’t afford to lose it for any reason." "Are you that afraid of being fired?" "Of course I am; things are complicated for an immigrant," she lied, never revealing the true reason. "Don't worry about that. As I said, please ignore what I say when I’m drunk. I’m a man of my word, Rafaela. If I say or promise something, you can be sure I’ll keep it," he looked at her intently. "I don’t
“Of course, nothing is happening; don’t be paranoid," he replied."I'm not paranoid. I just think you both seem pretty close.""She’s my secretary; it’s normal that we’re close.""But isn't it strange that you two came to work in the same car, don’t you think?""You know she kept my car last night.""Even so… First last night, and now this. Why did you two arrive at this time?""I had a last-minute teleconference, so I did it at home.""And she was there with you?""Yes, she came to pick me up and ended up waiting for me.""Were you alone in your apartment?""Are you going to start again?" he sighed impatiently."I don’t like the idea of seeing you alone with another woman, whether she’s an employee or anyone else.""All right, Eva, now you can go.""What do you mean? I waited for you for quite a while, and you’re dismissing me like this?""I told you since yesterday that I’m full of work; I can’t give you attention right now.""Don’t you care about how I feel? Don’t you think I feel l
It was Friday morning when Ethan arrived at the office with a serious expression. From the start, Rafa noticed that something wasn’t right, but she continued working as usual, knowing his problems were none of her business. As always, she went to the café next to the company and ordered the boss’s coffee. Knowing he didn’t have a housekeeper, she started buying something for Ethan to eat along with the coffee. Not that he’d asked for anything, but since she’d done it the first time and he seemed to like it, she kept it up. There was nothing wrong with earning points with the boss.Entering the office after knocking on the door, she served him coffee and was about to leave, but Ethan intercepted her."Rafaela," he said."Yes, sir?""What are my commitments for this afternoon?" he asked."This afternoon, there’s nothing major. You just need to sign two reports that have already been reviewed by the legal team.""Damn! There’s nothing important that needs to be done or expedited?" he aske
"I was glad to see you again. Could we meet this weekend? I need your help."When she read the last sentence, she became curious. Why did Tácio Duarte need her? Without thinking twice, she decided to reply, asking what he needed. It didn’t take even a minute, and he called her back. She promptly answered."Hi, Rafa, sorry to bother you. You must be busy, right?" Tácio asked on the other end of the line."No, no problem. Actually, I was just packing my things. I’m heading home.""Are you going home at this hour? Do you have lunch there?""No, I eat near the company, but I won’t be working this afternoon, so I’m going home early.""Did something happen?""No. My boss just let me off early.""It’s nice you have a good boss," he said. "Since you’re free this afternoon, would you like to have lunch with me now?"The invitation caught her by surprise; she never imagined he would call at that time, much less invite her to eat."I don’t think it’s a good idea," she said. All she wanted was to
In the car, Rafa felt strange, sitting next to Tácio. It had been so long since they’d last spoken that she couldn’t bring herself to say a word. "Sorry for taking so long," Tácio said, breaking the awkward silence lodged between them. "You didn’t take long," she replied. "How could I not? You barely left work, and there was already a guy hitting on you." His comment brought a faint smile to her lips. "He wasn’t hitting on me. That’s my boss." "Really?" He glanced at her for a few seconds before turning his attention back to the traffic. "I thought he was some jerk bothering you. I almost got out of the car to confront him." There was something in his tone. Even though years had passed, Tácio didn’t seem affected by the distance between them. He felt like the same person as always, with the same familiar closeness. "Good thing you didn’t do that. I wouldn’t like it if you offended my boss," she smiled, joking. "Don’t tell me you’d take his side, Rafa. I was your boss
"I was foolish, wasn’t I?" she asked. "Hey, don’t think that way, I’m not judging you; I just want to understand." "We were talking in the kitchen, and suddenly he got close. It was so fast I couldn’t react." "I can imagine the tension you felt. That man is terribly irresistible. I bet you remembered you were already wet and weren’t afraid of getting caught in the rain again." "I don’t even know what I thought… I think I was in a trance and only woke up when you showed up in the room." "Sorry for interrupting." "It’s no problem; it was the right thing to do." "I’m not trying to meddle in your life or anything, Rafa; you know I’ve always been open with you about everything. But if you want to work with him and keep this pregnancy hidden, you need to stay away." "I know. It won’t happen again." "Your belly isn’t showing yet; it’s hard for him to suspect, but in a while, things won’t be that easy." "You’re right." She fell silent. Kate noticed her friend was quieter
It was Saturday morning, already past nine. Kate got out of the taxi after saying goodbye to Robert, with a taste of wanting more. They had planned to spend the day together, but unfortunately, a last-minute call made him change his plans.Robert was a cardiologist personally overseeing a patient who needed a heart transplant. This morning, he received a call saying that there was a compatible donor for his patient, so he needed to be there immediately.As much as she wanted to be with the man she liked, she was feeling happy, on the other hand, because she could keep Rafaela company, who had spent the night alone at home. Even though she didn’t say much, she was very worried about her friend, but she knew she couldn’t interfere in the decisions she made; she just had to support her in whatever she needed.She even agreed with the idea of not telling Ethan about the child; after all, he wouldn’t accept that child in any way. But what bothered her was knowing that Rafa would leave the b
"Hope you change your mind someday.""What would my change of idea affect in your life, Rafaela?" he asked. "Bringing a child into this world to suffer is worse than wishing they didn’t exist.""It depends on how you take care of them.""Enough!" he raised his voice. "You can ask me anything, but not about this."It was clear that Ethan didn't like to talk about this; something seemed to deeply trouble him."Sorry," she apologized."I'm the one who should apologize," he said. "I just don't like discussing it.""I promise I’ll never bring it up again," she swallowed hard."Don't think I’m a bad person, Rafaela. You just need to know that I’d never be fit to be anyone's father."That revelation gave her chills, filling her with questions. Why did Ethan think that way?"I believe you have your reasons, and I’ll respect that," was all she could manage to say.He looked at her and realized how awkward he had made her feel. Then he stood up and came closer to her."There are things that can’
It was the last thing she could imagine, of all the ways she thought her Friday night might end, having her boss sitting on her living room sofa was the very last scenario she would have envisioned.Her apartment's doorbell rang, and she immediately went to answer. It was the delivery guy with the pizza she had ordered."Thank you very much," she thanked the man, giving him a tip.Closing the door, she took everything to the kitchen and started setting the plates. While waiting for her order, she had prepared some juice.She was setting the table when Ethan walked into the kitchen."Your kitchen isn’t hard to find," he said, reminding her of his apartment's kitchen."Good thing you didn’t have to open any wrong doors," she joked."I wouldn’t mind if I opened a door and saw the same view you had at my place."Her face flushed in seconds. How did he have the nerve to say that?"Grab a slice of pizza, it’s still hot," she turned her back to him so he wouldn’t see her embarrassed expressio
"I don't think that's the right question to ask now," he said, touching his eye and noticing blood on his fingertip. "Come with me," she said, worried about her boss. Ethan followed her to her apartment. Once they entered her home, she asked him to sit on the sofa, saying she’d get the first-aid kit. While looking for the kit in the bathroom, she tried to calm herself, considering what had just happened. Finding the first-aid kit box, she took a deep breath and returned to the living room, finding Ethan standing in front of the shelf where the framed photo of her and Tácio was placed. "Come here, let me see how the cut is," she requested. He turned and walked over to her, sitting on the sofa. "Your boyfriend seems violent," he said. "He's not my boyfriend," she revealed. "No?" He looked surprised. "What are you doing here?" she changed the subject. "I was just passing by when I saw him grabbing your arm." She remained silent as she started cleaning the small wound
Seeing once again that Tácio was getting carried away, she stepped away."I’m going inside; I think you should go back to your place," said Rafaela, turning to leave."Rafa, why are you acting like I’m a stranger to you?" he asked."And why are you acting like you can control or have an opinion about my life? Do you realize what you just said?""I only want the best for you. I don’t see good intentions in that man’s eyes, and I feel like if you stay there, you’ll end up getting hurt.""It’s none of your business what happens to me; you can’t just show up here and talk about someone you don’t even know.""Why are you defending him again?" he asked nervously."But I’m not. It’s you who’s making your own assumptions.""Do you think I’d say anything if I didn’t notice what was going on?""Then tell me, Tácio, what’s going on?" she got closer to him. She knew that Tácio was a well of inconvenience sometimes, and saying whatever was on his mind was quite common."I think you could get hurt b
"I am enjoying it. And you should too, when a guy like that shows up for you. Don’t waste your time overthinking. Girl, we live in downtown Manhattan, we have good jobs, we didn’t buy apartments here to marry just anyone.""Wow, I didn’t know you had such a gold-digging side.""It’s not gold-digging; it’s investment," she joked. "Look, I’m going to get ready because I’m going out with Robert, so don’t expect me to sleep here.""No problem, I’ll embrace my solitude and turn it into serenity."Kate left the living room, and a few hours later, she emerged from her room with her red hair brushed and makeup perfectly done for the night."Robert is waiting for me outside. See you later, girl. Take care." Kate left, leaving her alone.Rafa liked what was happening with her friend, but at the same time, she felt that this time of year was terrible for staying home alone. Christmas was almost here, and the city was beginning to get busier. Rafa spent every New Year on Fifth Avenue, close to her
It was already night when Rafa was sitting on the sofa in her apartment's living room. With the remote in her hand, she was flipping through channels, searching for something interesting to distract herself. Her mind was racing, thinking only about what Tácio Duarte had asked her.How dare he ask that question? Even though they had already been very close these years, it didn’t justify asking something like that. What kind of person did he think she had become? This was just another confirmation that he also couldn’t find out about her pregnancy. If he knew the child she was carrying was Ethan’s, he would definitely give her a moral lecture, as if he were the voice of reason. That was his flaw, thinking he could weigh in on everyone’s life just because he thought he had the right to do so. The apartment door opened, and in came Kate, as always, looking cheerful. Unlike Rafa's situation, Kate’s love life seemed like a bed of roses. "Why do I feel like you're a bit restless?" K
"I even tried to answer no, but you ended up showing up at the right moment. Really, I think they got the impression we were choosing rings for ourselves." "Can I be honest with you, Rafa?" he asked seriously. "You know you can." "I did it on purpose, wanting them both to think that." He revealed. "I think his fiancée is jealous of you. Thinking you’re dating someone else might make that feeling go away." "I don’t think Eva feels that way," she replied, laughing. Eva was beautiful; she looked like the model Gisele Bündchen in her younger years. Why would she feel jealous of someone like her, someone with such an ordinary appearance? "Trust me, Rafa, some people are just like that," he insisted. "And as for your boss, the fact that he couldn't take his eyes off you while we were choosing rings made me a bit uneasy." "I think you’re just catching wind." "How long have you been working for him, Rafa?" he asked, intrigued. "It’s almost a month, why?" "Has he ever disre