Matriarch Alessandra POVAs Andrew looks at me with his heartwarming eyes, I smile again. I am already comfortable with him, so I answer his question.“Well, I am just a very shy person. That’s what the media won’t tell you.”Andrew exclaims, “What?”Of course, no one is going to believe that I am a shy person, given how often I appear on TV, how often I go for pre-recorded interviews, and all the other things I do on screen. My public persona is so different from my private self that it’s almost like I’m leading a double life.“You are shy?” he exclaims again, and I just laugh.“What about you?” I ask him. “What are the things people don’t really know about you, but you know are true?”“Well, I am an extrovert.”Lol. It is funny to hear that a person who doesn’t talk much and likes to keep to himself calls himself an extrovert. That’s why I continue to smile, and I am so glad that Andrew is such a gentleman to be with. He has this calm, collected demeanor that makes me feel at ease.H
Brandon’s POV Noting Sandra’s correction, I begin to create conversation. But Sandra is not making it easy. With all the "hello, huh, huh...” I sounded, she fluttered her eyes like she was uninterested in my conversation and only corrected me to try again. I immediately wonder if it will be just as hard to talk to Matriarch Alessandra.“Calm down, Brandon. It is not that hard, okay?” Sandra says this, seeing how I am beginning to sweat. She then takes her right hand to the table where my right hand is and suddenly begins to rub her hand on mine gently.Sandra is always like that toward me. Anytime she finds me in distress, she tries as much as possible to comfort me in one way or another. While she is doing this, she says again, “Just look me in the eyes and say, 'hey!' Say it brightly with a cheerful smile, then ask me how my day went.”When she says this to me, she takes her hand off mine, and I try to do exactly what she told me to do. I smile brightly as I say, “Hey!”“How did
Matriarch Alessandra POVBeing a foodie could be such a cute thing for others, but for me, it is something I do not even like the sight of. And as such, I do not even know it is another day for me to experience this thing that I so detest. Like the other day, I woke up from bed and did all the necessary things that made me look so elegant, refined, and beautiful, just as the wealthy and simple woman that I am. Robert passed me his tab, and I saw this guy’s picture. He looks so young, and his hair is longer than Brandon’s. Well, he looks like he is going to be cute, but then, personality over cuteness, right? Arriving at this restaurant, even before 9 am, just as usual, Robert made sure that no one was in the restaurant as it is fully booked as a VIP for me and this guy. To my surprise, unlike the other two I met the day before, he is not there yet, and this makes me wonder if I am too early? Well, it is not a bad thing to wait, yes? After all, it is our mutual want or need to hav
Brandon’s POV I don’t know if I should call myself a coward, but this feels so wrong. I don’t know why Sandra suddenly wanted this, but I cannot do this. The anxiety in my chest grows with every passing second, making it hard to breathe. “I am sorry,” I say to Sandra, my voice trembling slightly. Her eyes narrow, and I can tell she doesn’t believe me. She places her hands on my shoulders, her touch both familiar and foreign, and leans her head forward, wanting to lay her lips on mine. But again, I move my lips aside, avoiding her lips from touching mine. Her breath is hot and desperate, and it sends a shiver down my spine. “We cannot do this,” I say to her, my voice firmer this time. Her response is immediate and insistent. She peers into my eyes, searching for something, perhaps a glimmer of compliance. I can then see the lust in her eyes growing more intense. She wants it so badly that she licks her lips, slowly and deliberately, before beginning to caress my hair with her fing
Matriarch Alessandra POVRising to my feet and leaving the restaurant, I enter my car and take a heavy breath. I can see Robert looking at me in the rearview mirror. Of course, he knows that it is another bad blind date and that saying anything about it is useless.“Maybe we can return home, and you can shift every other appointment you have for today to tomorrow.”“Thank you, Robert. That is so needed. But how many appointments do I have left?”“You still have about ten men to meet, ma’am,” Robert says, looking at me again from the rearview mirror.I can sense why he looks at me again. He wants to know if I am obviously tired of these meetups and talks, and he is right. I am already tired of this lifestyle, and I just wish I wasn't looking for love or anything of the sort.“Or maybe I will just forget about everything and make myself happy.”This thought suddenly came to me. But then, “Brandon!” His thought interrupts my other thought as I pick up my phone and scroll to Twitter while
It was our wedding night, the weather was cold and crisp. He wrapped his hands around my body and whispered words that kept me warm: ”Every day for the rest of our lives, I only want to look at your face and admire how beautiful you are.”Little did I know that those tender vows spoken in the chill of that night would soon be drowned in the icy silence of betrayal, and I’d be ready to serve karma on the silver plate.It all started one late night. The weather was the same as it was on our wedding night only that this time, he was not there to keep me warm. I covered myself with a blanket to shield myself from the cold, imagining him to be by my side as I never suspected that he might be somewhere else keeping another woman warm. I kept myself entertained with a popular TV show while scrolling through my WhatsApp chats simultaneously. Suddenly, I got a text from Jasmine, my younger sister, who was the happy bridesmaid on my wedding day. “Hey, Alda, where is Tyler? Is everything okay
The next morning came like an unwanted visitor, as I heard a persistent knock on the door, its loudness echoing through the quiet house like a drumbeat of unwelcome news. It was terrible enough that I hardly got any sleep throughout the night. Now, incessant loud knocking on the door again, even at 6 A.M.?As I walked to the door with my defeated feet and sad face, like a wilted flower bending under the weight of an unexpected storm, “Hey!” said Diana the moment I opened the door. “Move out of the way, you donkey honk,” she added, almost crushing me to the floor with her weight and size, like a bulldozer clearing a path through fragile emotions.Diana was Tyler’s mother, who never liked me even before Tyler and I got married. She was that wicked witch who decided to haunt me even in my own house just a few weeks after our wedding.I understood the fact that Tyler’s family was going through a period of bankruptcy, and they needed every help they could get. And as his fiancée, I worked
It was funny how Diana claimed I was as useless as a flashlight with dead batteries. If I were to be useless, as she claimed, would she see a house to move into when they faced bankruptcy? Would her son even have a job? But, of course, anything she said did not matter to me, and I only waved it aside.“The rice is ready, and I will be serving now, Diana,” I said suddenly from the kitchen, like a conductor announcing the grand finale of a culinary symphony.“Great! At least I won’t die of hunger, as you made it seem. And I hope it is not poison you prepared again." Diana said.“Well, Emily and Olivia will definitely make sure of that,” Diana blurted.As if they waited for Diana to complete her statement, I saw Emily and Olivia making their way down the stairs like monsters descending from the darkness and exploding in their wicked laughter. Emily and Olivia were Tyler’s younger sisters. Even at sixteen years, their mouths were sharper than blades and their behavior was as rude as thei