I didn’t like going to parties but it was my close friend, Lisa’s Dad’s birthday party. She would be mad at me forever if I ditched. So I was present, in the only expensive thing I owned—a tight red dress and six inch heels, swaying slightly to the music and holding a glass of champagne. I just turned twenty one and could finally drink alcohol. What a relief!I met Lisa Lowe in college. She was the sexy IT girl and I was the girl who did not exist. We became unlikely friends from a group project that I actually did alone and of course, we got an A. Since then, I’ve been her plus-one and honestly, it has not been easy walking in her shadow. She was a sweet girl, but she could be mean sometimes and that had a lot to do with her bipolar disorder, which she was diagnosed with two years ago. So, I kinda have to put up with her.Lisa’s Dad was in his late forties and he was a multi-millionaire, another reason I put up with her. I'm telling you– Her family has a lot of money. This party was
My mom was diagnosed with leukemia the year I got into college. It got worse the year after, and she was admitted to a hospital, so she had to quit her job as a secretary. My Dad was not in the picture. He abandoned us before I was even born, so I may have some unresolved daddy issues– that's probably why I was into that older guy from last night.During college, I worked several menial jobs to buy her medications and started saving up for her treatment. I just graduated college, I worked at a small cafe downtown, and my salary was barely enough to feed and pay for my mom’s medical bills. I was always in debt, trying to pay off rent and buy the basic necessities. I’ve sent countless emails to companies for jobs, but none of them have given me feedback.Being friends with Lisa had its perks, but I never asked her for me, and now that I think about it, she never even offers!The world was a cruel place to me and my Mom, and we had to fight everyday to survive. She was the only family I
I sat opposite him and watched in nerve-wracking silence as he carefully sipped from the cup of latte he had ordered. He also asked that I make one for myself and sit with him.“Tastes better than the ones I have every morning in my office,” he told me and I smiled nervously, trying not to stare at him, but he was so handsome to the point that one had to take several glances at him to comprehend his attractiveness.Like seriously, how can one man look so damn good?“I’m sure you’re surprised to see me,” he said and I didn’t bother denying it. I nodded.“I would have been here earlier but I had a series of unending business meetings,” he sighed.He looked stressed, I could see it in his beautiful green eyes. I felt like somehow easing his stress.“Well, you seem like a very busy and important man,” I finally spoke, trying to appear calm, but my voice came out shaky.He stared at me for a moment and then, readjusted in his seat.“I remember asking you for a date.”I almost choked on my
“Shut up!” Kate gasped in surprise when I told her Eric Ferraro was in the cafe two days ago.“I’m serious,” I giggled and Kate screamed a little before slapping her mouth shut.“What’s going on, Ladies?” Mr Marcelo asked as he appeared from his office.“It’s ladies’ talk,” Kate told him and he blushed. He was down bad for her. Kate was very pretty. She’s blonde and slender, and her big blue eyes were captivating, not to mention that she's packing one hell of an ass behind those curves. She used to be a freelance model in college before she had Kendall, and after that, she retired.“Okay, just don’t keep my customers waiting,” Mr Marcelo said with a smile and returned to his office.“You know Mr Marcelo has a crush on you, right?” I told Kate and she blushed, “Seems you like him too.”“He’s nice and he's a cutie. What’s not to like?” She shrugged and we giggled. “So, about Eric Ferraro. Girl, I so wanna be you right now!”“But Kate,”“No, Buts. He wants you. He drove all the way fro
“Mr Ferraro, this is absurd!” I blurted out as I kept reading the document in my shaky hands. “Two thousand dollars every month for this?!” I almost shouted. “Plus a weekly allowance of six hundred dollars, to encourage your performance,” he added. He looked confident, like he was absolutely certain that I would like the idea. I actually did not. At the bottom of the document was a dotted line for me to sign. He actually expects me to sign this? I thought to myself. “I don’t think—” “Please, Olivia, don’t give me a reply now, just think about it. I’ll give you time,” he pleaded. “Why does it have to be like this? I could just be your girlfriend,” I told him but he shook his head. “It has to be like this. It’s a business. You perform a task and I reward you.” “What? I’ll be like an employee to you. That’s so strange, that’s not..,” Dare I say it, “That's not love.” “No one is talking about love. I want you sexually, and my house needs a woman to run it.”
“Greta!” The girl screamed as I tried to understand the entire situation of Eric having a daughter! Why didn’t he tell me?“Isabel…”An old lady called, entering the scene. She must be Greta, the lady Eric had told me would settle me in. She looked nice but her expression was guarded, her grey hair was in a short curly bob.“There’s a stranger in our house!” Isabel told Greta, giving me a dirty look.I was lost for words, I couldn’t say anything.“You must be Olivia,” Greta said after assessing me briefly.“Yes,”I nodded.“Who’s she?” Isabel frowned.“A… friend of your Dad’s” Friend? That was far off from what I was to Eric, but it was better than calling me his mistress in front of his daughter.“That’s a lie,” Isabel folded her arms, “She’s another one of them, right?”What? What did that mean?“Isabel, go to your room, now!” Greta ordered and Isabel snarled and stomped away.“I’m Greta, the head staff,” Greta introduced herself.“It’s nice to meet you,” I told her, nervously. I w
“Did you forget my birthday!?”Lisa snapped as soon as I picked her call. She has been calling non-stop since morning and the incessant buzzing of my phone had woken me up.“No, Lisa. It’s tomorrow, I didn’t forget.”I groaned, feeling a headache already as I sat up and scratched my itchy eyes.“Where are you!?” She asked, suspiciously. I never spoke to Lisa about Eric and I had no intentions of ever doing that. Aside from the fact that the contract stated strict discretion, Lisa would be very mean about my decision to be a contract mistress to Eric.“At Kate’s,” I lied quickly.“And why didn’t you tell me you quit your job at the cafe?”“How did— I didn’t want to bother you with that.” I told her, hoping she would buy it.“Whatever! I’m heading out in a few minutes to Queen’s Mall. I need you to come with me and pick out my dresses!”Not again. She was the most indecisive person I knew, she would spend the whole day at the mall!“Lisa, you’ll have to go without me. I need to be at t
What would I do now? Isabel was being kissed by her therapist! A grown man! Do I go in and stop this or just walk away?. I contemplated for minutes with a racing heart and eventually, I decided to walk away and talk to Isabel later about it. It wasn’t the best idea but it was what I could settle for. Dr Reynolds informed me of my mom’s surgery procedure, I held her scaly hands with hope because she was finally getting her treatment! I couldn’t wait to see my mom all better like I promised her! Against my initial plan, I texted Lisa to meet up at the mall, when she didn’t reply because she was still mad, I bought her favorite soda and went ahead to the mall to apologize to her. “What are you doing here?” She frowned immediately she saw me approaching her on the jewelry aisle. “Lisa— I tried to apologize but she held her hand up, shutting me up. “I forgive you.” She said, like I had actually offended her. “I got you your fav soda.” I smiled, handing the soda
A Vacation. That was what I needed. Not a father/daughter relationship with a man that abandoned me before my birth and went ahead to have a family elsewhere. He sacrificed my happiness for his and that was honestly not easy to forget or forgive. I’ve refused to see him after the test and didn’t even wait for Eric to book me a flight before booking one with Lisa. I had sent a short text telling him I would be gone for a few days. Lisa had suggested a one week stay in Utah, she had a very rich Aunt who was a fortune teller, she was once married to a prince in Africa but they had no kids, she got all of his inheritance after his death and relocated to Utah. I just needed to get away from the everyday drama. “Isn’t Eric upset you travelled without his knowledge?” Lisa asked as our ride made a turn towards an estate. “He’s not the boss of me.” I sighed, looking out the window. “I know but he’s kind of like your… Daddy.” I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to cr
“What if I made a mistake?”I asked Lisa as she greedily ate one of my vanilla cupcakes . I just reopened my bakery and was still contemplating on fully moving in with Eric.“About moving to California with that jerk? Nope.”She replied, casually.“I don’t know, Lis, I feel like things might be weird between Eric and I again.”“Things like what, Liv? Do you know how many girls would kill to be with Eric? By the way, you know I’m launching my own show next week so I need Eric as my launch guest.”“Eric doesn’t do things like that. He hates publicity.”I told her.“Oh please, he’d break all the rules for you.”She winked at me and I held back a wide smile.“I’ll think about it.”“Thanks bestie. Now, can I have another of your wonderful cupcakes ?”She asked and I shook my head as I handed her another.“I’m meeting Anson today. Eric wants us to discuss the DNA test.”Lisa looked up from her phone, a bitten cupcake held to her mouth.“Do you want the test done?”She asked
I got a call from Lisa that she was sick and needed me to drive her to the hospital so I hurried over to her place.I was driving towards the city hospital but suddenly, she asked me to pull over at a restaurant to get some food which sounded weird at first but then I had to.“Happy birthday, Olivia!”I was startled by a few familiar faces that greeted me as I entered the restaurant which was decorated in a pink birthday theme.“Oh my God.”I gasped, greatly surprised.It was a surprise party! For me!I had forgotten my own Twenty second birthday!“Kate!”I squealed, excited to see her after weeks. She was present amongst other few friends.She smiled, hurrying towards me and we hugged.Mr Marcelo was present too!“Happy birthday, Olivia.”He told me with one of his gentle smiles. He was really a good man for Kate as they both were glowing together.“Thank you, when did you guys arrive?”“This morning, we stayed at a hotel until Lisa called us here to surprise you!”Ka
I couldn’t reject the sixth date request from Sean plus I was already feeling guilty about how I spoke to him the last time he was here and I couldn’t even pick up his incessant calls or reply his texts. Accepting this date was the best way to apologize to him. “I cannot wait for you to move to California with me, there’s this really nice sea food restaurant around my office, you’ll love it.” Sean told me as we ate lunch together in a nice peaceful restaurant. “When are you moving back there?” I asked him, sipping from my drink. “Uh, couple weeks.” He shrugged. “That’s enough time for you to pack up right?” He asked and I paused for a moment. “I think.” I replied, unsure. “You do want to move to California, right? It’s a really good place for you to start again and I’ll be there to— “Sean, I’m still thinking about it, alright?” I said, quickly as I dropped my cutleries. There was a small scowl on his face before he forced a smile back. “You
The look on Eric’s face was similar to the one he had when I told him about Isabel and her therapist, Edwin. He was super mad, his attractive features all tight and forbidding. He must have gotten the wrong idea of the situation.I opened my mouth to explain but he smashed the bouquet to the ground and spun around, stomping away.“Eric, wait!”I called after him.“What the fuck, Liv!”He shouted, angrily.“Eric, it’s not what you think!”I held his arm, turning him around to look at me.“Who’s he? Your new man? Your new Daddy? You replaced me?”He spluttered, his eyes red and glassy.“Calm down, it’s not like that!”“Fuck!”He muttered, pain painted hardly on his face.“Eric, listen to me, look at me..” I touched his hard face, trying to calm him down.“He’s just a friend, we didn’t have sex, it’s not what it looks like.”I assured him and his eyes slowly softened.“Liv, is everything alright?”I heard Sean ask.“Yes Sean, everything is—I was interrupted by the swi
When I was little, I would draw imaginary pictures of my Dad, wondering what he looked like, if he had blue or green eyes, if his hair was black or brown or blonde. My mother never spoke about him even when I asked, all I ever wanted was to meet him and now, he was right in front of me.“Olivia, you’ve grown so much—“Stop!”I snapped, halting his movements towards me.He could be lying, I’ve never met my Dad, I didn’t know what he looked like and neither should he know what I looked like because he left before I was even born. He shouldn’t even know my name but then, there was this unexplainable familiarity I felt between us.“How do you know my name?”I asked, scowling deeper.“Because I’ve been trying to contact you for months now, I only just met an old friend of your mom’s and I—He stopped, his bright hopeful eyes turned dull with sadness.“She’s dead.”I told him, almost choking on my words.“I know.”He nodded, looking to the ground, his expression regretful.“Wel
Everything I did, I did for her, now it was all for nothing, pointless. My mom died, after everything, she died.Kate had to cancel her honeymoon flight to attend the funeral which by the way, was a brief one and the tears were unending.We returned to my apartment to pack up my stuff, I couldn’t live there anymore, memories of my mom were everywhere, I had to move.“Liv, someone’s here to see you.”Kate told me a few minutes after I settled in.It was Sean.“Sean.”I called, receiving his hug.He felt so nice and warm and his cool cologne tickled my nerves.“I’m deeply sorry for missing the funeral, my flight was delayed..”“It’s fine. I promise.”I told him, reflexively splaying my hands on his chest.We couldn’t take our eyes off each other for seconds until Kate faked a cough.“Okay, I’ll go make dinner.”She winked at me and left.Sean and I chuckled and went ahead to sit.“So uh, how’s California?”I asked, trying to start up a conversation.“Nice.”He shrugged.
When I got to Eric’s house, I met him in the gardens staring at the roses with so much attentiveness that he didn’t know when I was directly beside him.“Eric.”I called and he jumped a little before turning to me. What was he thinking about?“Just three days and it felt like three years.”He muttered, his eyes taking in all of me.I noticed his eyes were sad and had dark circles around them like he hadn’t slept since I left. In fact he looked thinner and a bit pale.“You didn’t call or texted so I assumed you didn’t want to see me.”I shrugged.“Why didn’t you call me to pay for your bakery reconstruction ? You spent so much of your money doing that.”He asked.“I wanted to do it myself. I had the money thanks to you.”I told him.He looked at me for a moment and then exhaled.“Let’s go inside.”He said and held my hand. I hesitated for a moment before following him.We sat in the lounge in different chairs and I kept looking out for Isabel’s appearance but it didn’t c
In about five hours, Eric was in Las Vegas and there was an immediate search for Isabel. It was dark and raining outside as we stayed in doors hoping for the best outcome of the search."Any news?"I asked Eric who has been dead silent since he arrived. He sat alone at the diner deep in thoughts and that made me feel really unsettled, coupled with the fact that Isabel was missing, everything was a mess."None."He muttered, clenching his jaw."Baby, I promised, she'll be found..""When?"He asked, turning to me, his gaze was harsh."Soon."I assured him. He exhaled and shook his head."If only you had listened, if only you would just respect the boundaries I set for the safety of my daughter none of this would have happened." He told me and those words left me speechless for a few seconds."Eric, this isn't my fault." I told him."Then is it mine?"He asked, his eyes red rimmed. His attitude was beginning to scare me."You know what? It is actually mine, I let you dictate