1. BEAUTIFUL AND COLD

“Ronald! Wait!” A woman’s urgent voice echoed in the perfectly lit, cold, and wide underground parking place, probably a block ahead from Anita.

It was hard to ignore thus successfully attracting her curiosity.

“What did you call me?” Anita heard a cold husky and deep voice belonging to a man reply at the woman’s shout that she uncontrollably flinched and her entire body trembled that her phone almost fell from her hand as if she was the one on the receiving side of the cold retort.

“Mr. Ronald I…I was just in a hurry. Sorry?” Anita heard the woman’s voice again which almost faded.

The woman’s reply though, moved her right brow in an upward arch. When she heard the cold reply earlier, she thought the woman had mistaken the other person. But now it seemed that the other side was not another person, rather he didn’t like it when his name was used with no honorifics!

What in the world! There was no one there…except for her.

“What do you want?” The man’s voice echoed in the parking place, cold that Anita felt another chill run down her spine raising her back hairs.

She was just on her way towards her boyfriend’s parked car but who would have thought that she would be witnessing or encountering such a situation in this cold place?

A fighting couple?

“Aren’t they afraid of the cameras?” Anita mumbled to herself, “Or their sound being loud in this empty place filled with only cars?”

Her voice was soft and lips felt dry.

“Mr. Ronald, I really love you!!” Anita heard the woman’s voice and this time it did not sound urgent but emotional, “ I love you so much!”

Anita felt her tears forming as her heart was so touched by the emotional voice of the woman that she remained agape forgetting to close her mouth.

So it was a confession!

To that cold emotionless man?

Anita couldn’t believe her ears anymore as the entire place felt more cold than before and she could swear she saw droplets of snow falling down from the concrete ceiling of the parking lot.

“So?” Came the reply of the other side causing Anita to gasp in disbelief and she hurriedly covered her mouth with her palm afraid her gasp might have exposed her.

“W-what?” the woman sounded like she was utterly shocked as she stuttered.

There was silence and the man did not reply.

“I said I love you Mr. Ronald! Since the first time I learned about you and you clearly knew of my feelings towards you when we met. I never had any friends except for you and you know the reason. Mr. Ronald, I love you!” The woman sounded very emotional as she tried explaining herself to the man.

Anita held her breath waiting for his response, but the same silence followed. Anita became restless and started tapping her phone with her middle finger rhythmically. She wanted to peek but she remembered her parent’s warning against peeking on other people’s matters and strongly acted against doing it.

Perhaps her actions were also influenced by the man for he sounded so damn intimidating. His tone seemed heartlessly cold and what seemed to be an emotional and sweet romantic confession, especially with the woman taking the initiative, sounded more like a misunderstanding!

It did not take long for Anita to hear the man’s reply.

“Are you done?”

Anita’s eyes that were naturally large, could not resist enlarging to the size of a fist.

‘So cruel! That’s so overboard!’ was all Anita heard her buzzing mind scream.

“I had asked earlier and I am not going to repeat myself. What do you want?”

“I’ve been your girlfriend for two years now and I have never heard you say anything about your feelings towards our relationship much less towards me Mr. Ronald. I… all I want is for you… I just want you to love me back. That’s all I am asking for,”

Anita could tell from the voice of the woman that she was now on the verge of breaking down and Anita could literally guess the cold man’s reply.

What she did not expect was for his voice to not even soften even a little bit after hearing the woman’s explanation. Instead, he sounded even more menacing than before as he responded to her.

“We are done!” the cold man threw his words nonchalantly without a care in the world. No trace of emotion or warmth could be felt from his voice at all.

“W-w-what?” The woman tried as hard to form a word.

“B-b-but, but why?”

“I don’t like repeating myself.”

“Mr. Ronald, what are you saying? This is not what your contract states. It…It clearly stated that I will be your girlfriend for three years! That’s what I signed! It’s barely two years and you are already breaching the contract. Mr. Ronald what do you mean-”

“Miss Wairimu… didn’t you properly go through the entire contents of the contract?” The man’s tone became even colder as he asked. Anita could tell that he was getting irritated by every second of that conversation.

At her end, she was receiving blows after blows of earth shaking news that even shocked her bones.

‘Contract!’

‘Did that mean contract girlfriend?’

Three years! Barely two years!

Contents of the contract?

Did the woman not read the contract and blindly signed it for love?

Love then was surely blind!

Anita felt her ears ring as she asked herself waiting in anticipation to understand whatever they were saying.

Were there people in this part of the world capable of entering a contracted relationship? That was a piece of foreign news to Anita.

And she could tell that the situation was getting worse but before she could think much, she heard the man continue,

“Collins, would you like to do the honors of reading Miss Wairimu, the conditions she did not read? And be quick, we are not here for the night!”

“Sure!” A new voice joined in the conversation. Probably this Collins guy.

Anita had her heartbeat slow and all she could think of was which way to leave here but if she moved…wouldn’t she be discovered?

How will she explain herself for having listened to them uninvited?

What will her boyfriend’s family take her for if they learned about this?

But she now had no choice as she could only stay hidden and listen even if she didn’t want to.

“I should have carried my headphones,” Anita regretted the decision of leaving her headphones at her boyfriend’s home.

“Miss Wairimu, here is the part of the contract that you signed. It’s the two conditions,” the other man, Collins, started talking. “The contract girlfriend can demand anything except for one thing, Love.”

Anita felt her heart sink.

If those were a condition in a relationship then why enter in the first place?

“Once the contracted girlfriend developed affection and demands to be loved back,” The other man, Collins, continued reading the contents of the contract, “The contract will automatically become null and void.”

When the voice ended, Anita could not control her curiosity and took a peek at them from behind the pillars of a named block of the parking lot. She couldn’t believe that there was a woman in this part of the world who was courageous enough to enter a contract like that. That was so outrageous as to be allowed to happen in real life. It was absolute madness to someone like her.

‘Crazy!’ She cursed inwardly.

But in the next second after she peeked, her mind stopped functioning and eyes round as fists. When she saw the lady, her expression couldn’t help but change as her hands flew to her mouth.

‘Isn’t that Bilha Wairimu? A renowned and famous actress?!’

Anita’s mind was now blank and she couldn’t believe her eyes. Why would a beautiful woman like Bilha Wairimu beg for a man’s love? More importantly, their relationship was a ridiculous contractual one?! The beautiful diva, Bilha Wairimu, was some ruthless heartless man’s contracted girlfriend?!! Who would believe that?

The entire entertainment world would be shaken to the core, crumbled, if they found out about this!!!

The internet will be flooded by comments that the owners of these APPs will really make a fortune in one night!!

Anita’s fist large eyes then shifted to the man but she couldn’t see his face because he had his back to her. All she captured was how tall he was. She also did not get to see the third person, Collins, from where she was.

‘Too bad,’ she thought to herself and slight disappointment crawled her face. It was too bad she couldn’t keep still as the man broke her thoughts.

“ I warned you long ago, Miss Wairimu. I don’t do love and never will I fall in love. And you of all the people should already be well aware of how I deal with anyone who breaks any of the conditions of the contract.” Anita clumped her mouth tightly as she watched Bilha Wairimu fall to her knees in a plop sound. The sound of her knees dropping to the floor made Anita’s heart skip a bit.

The beauty that every male and female including some of the actors and actresses and every creature out there coveted and praised now looked like all the blood was drained dry from her as she heard him.

“And for the record miss Wairimu, not only you fell in love with me once they learned about me!” The man added.

Then without even looking at her, the man signaled someone and Anita saw Bilha Wairimu being dragged away by a bulky man in red towards another car. The red suit the man wore glared danger and Anita felt an urge to run for her life!

When the car where the actress boarded was gone, Anita finally came back to her senses and quickly hid herself again.

However…

“Come out here this instant! NOW!” The man ordered and she was frightened that Anita froze for a long while and she felt like she was frozen in an icicle and the pillar that she hid behind was as clear as glass and she could be seen by the other party. She couldn’t remember being this nervous and scared by anyone before in her entire life. She was incredibly nervous.

“Are-” but before the man could finish his second command, Anita had stepped out.

He did not like repeating himself and Anita was not going to be a victim of his scary tortures that were unknown. The fear of the unknown was something that gripped every creature's heart. So she had to step out of her hiding place.

Also, that bulky man that had ‘escorted’ Miss Bilha Wairimu, with his red suit that went against the known typical men in black for a security team, had left an unprecedented fear in her heart.

“Come closer,” the man commanded and Anita slowly held her breath, walking two steps closer.

She lifted her face and the man too turned to her.

As soon as their eyes met, Anita was stunned agape, almost drooling with the sight in front of her. The man before her was so good looking. So damn handsome that she couldn’t describe it despite the mathematical theorems and scientific research she did at that second after appearing in front of him. His beauty was undeniably magnetic to the eye.

Anita has never seen this grade of beauty in this world, much less this part of the world!

So, how is this grade of beauty in this world and unknown?

And where did actress Bilha Wairimu find him?

She was reminded of his sentence to Miss Wairimu by the people who love him as soon as they learned about him and she totally agreed. She even forgot all her fear.

He had the looks to justify his claim of being the apple of the eyes of women.