Chapter 6

Isabella's pov;

"This fits very well."

I tried on the outfit which Mr Martinez bought for me while I was sleeping. A pink crop top with white shorts. He knows my preference well. Did he wake up before me to get this dress? Where did he get it? Did he go shopping? Haha. Even thinking about Mr Martinez shopping for girl's clothes makes me laugh. I wonder how others looked at them in the shop. While i was giggling in little,

Mr Martinez said, "If you're done, let's go."

He was dressed in casual wear, blue and white striped shirt with white pants. I wonder how he looks handsome in every outfit he's wearing.

Every time the light reflects off his hair, it's a masterpiece of beauty and charm. He is gorgeous, with his hair being combed back to his head and his piercing red eyes that can take your breath away. His body is perfect, muscular but still slim, perfectly formed from all the training he does each day. How did he do that?

"Where?" I asked him when he asked me to go with him.

"Breakfast. Are you planning to go to the beach with an empty stomach?"

"I thought we'll be having breakfast in the room."

"We can do that. But, the view of the beach from the poolside dining is good."

"Oh, okay. Then, let's go."

When I tried to open the door, Mr Martinez put some cloth over me. It's a netted shrug. I checked out my outfit by standing in front of the mirror, "Wow! It looks good with the outfit."

He gave a nod and patted my shoulder saying, "Let's go." And he walked out of the room. I took another look in the mirror and thought, 'I like his choice.'

"What are you doing?" I heard Mr Martinez's voice coming from the outside.

"Coming." I closed the door and walked after him.

In the restaurant,

I said, "I thought the dining area would be near the beach."

"I mentioned poolside dining."

"But I remember you saying something about the beach. Well, What should I order?"

"Anything you like."

"I mean... Since we're at the seaside, should I have seafood?"

He gave a nod and said, "Go on." And looked into the menu card in his hands.

I noticed that Mr Martinez has been avoiding looking directly in the eyes since morning. It's because of yesterday, right? I'm not going to ask him about that.

Mr Martinez ordered grilled sandwiches along with salads. I ordered crab Louie, Californian clam chowder, cioppino( Shrimp as their main ingredient)

After the food arrived, I started digging in. Mr Martinez looked like he was uncomfortable. Should I ask him or not? No, I shouldn't. Why are you putting me in this kind of situation?

I placed my fork on the plate and asked him, "What's wrong?"

He avoided my eyes again while saying, "Nothing." And continued eating his salad.

I took his spoon from his hand and said, "Look at me."

He looked at me and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Is it because of what I said last night?"

"No." He took the spoon back from me and made a smirk while saying, "It's not like I'm hearing that for the first time."

"I can't believe you get upset so easily."

He didn't give a response back and continued eating his salad. Fine. Let's behave like nothing happened.

After finishing the breakfast, we walked along the shoreline being silent.

I asked him to break the silence between us, "I heard there's a spa and massage centre. Have you tried it?"

"No, Do you want to try?"

"I would like to try the massage centre. I have never been to one before."

"Let's go there."

"Really?"

"Yes."

After a while, I walked out of the massage centre and stretched my hands in the air saying, "Woah! It felt so relaxing. Now I know why people are rushing to the massage centre. Their massage therapy gave me relief and relaxation. For a moment, I felt like sleeping too. Hahaha. Mr Martinez, why didn't you try it? It's so good. You should try it out too."

"I don't like being touched by strangers."

"Too bad. You lost the wonderful experience."

While I was talking, my stomach growled.

"There's French cuisine around here. Let's go there." And he led the way.

"Wow! French cuisine. What are we waiting for?"

In the French cuisine diner,

"Mr Martinez, which cuisine do you like the best?"

"I can eat as long as it is edible."

I leaned forward and said, "Shhh. Don't talk like that while you're in a diner. What if someone heard you? Actually, you need to talk politely when you're in a place like this. If I was the owner of this restaurant and heard you talking like that, I would kick you out of the restaurant already."

Someone wrapped his hands over Mr Martinez and said to me, "I want to kick him out too but I can't do that since he's a friend of mine." A guy in thirties. Dressed as a cook.

That guy said to Mr Martinez, "It's been months since I saw you around here. How are you doing?"

Mr Martinez replied, "I'm doing good. How's your restaurant?"

"Look around you. It's pretty busy here. Can you see any empty tables around you?"

Mr Martinez took a glance around the place and pointed at a table saying, "There's one at the corner."

Suddenly, that guy smacked Mr Martinez's shoulder and said, "You never change. By the way, who's this? Aren't you going to introduce me? Okay, I'll do it myself."

He turned to me and introduced himself, "Hi, I'm Joey, head chef and owner of Joey's diner. It's nice to meet you."

I bowed and said, "I'm Isabella, it's nice to meet you too."

Joey asked, "You look pretty young. Are you his new secretary? What happened to the old one, Noah?"

"No, no. I'm not his secretary..."

Before I finished, Mr Martinez said to him, "We're dating. She's my girlfriend."

Joey broke out into laughter and said, "I can't believe you're dating this guy. It's hard to pull words out of his mouth. How do you handle that? Let me give you some advice, run away from him."

I looked around and whispered to him, "I already did that, but he brought me back."

"Wait, are you serious? Are you two really dating?"

Mr Martinez said, "Why are you getting shocked?"

While Joey was looking at both of us, I asked for an excuse and came to the restroom.

I washed my face and looked into the mirror. The person who was supposed to be in shock was me. But I couldn’t do anything else than stare at this stranger in front of me. It wasn’t the first time that something like this happened, but it did feel a little weird. My mind was screaming at me. Why does his friend give an expression like that?

When I came to the table, Joey said, "Enjoy the food." And left with a smile.

I asked Mr Martinez, "Why did you say that?"

"Say what?"

"About dating. When did I become your girlfriend? I don't remember anything like I'm accepting your proposal. Why did I do that?"

"Aren't we on a date?"

"Huh?"

"I thought we're on a date."

"Date? Duh! You took me out of my concern. It's clearly not a date. And, this is not how a date should be."

"Then, how should it be?"

"Why do you want to know about something that you couldn't do?"

"Because I want to take you on a date."

"You can't do those things even if i said it."

"Why? Is it difficult?"

"You're surrounded by paparazzi all the time. You can't go just like that in the streets. Why did you bring me here in the middle of the night? You could have done it in the morning, why didn't you? Because people are watching you. Plus, Your photos will be all over the headlines the next day if you're spotted."

"It's not like I've never been the hot topic."

I stood from the table and said, "But I don't want to be."

Outside the diner,

While we're walking to the room, Mr Martinez apologized, "I'm sorry for saying that we're dating. I hated it when he looked at you like that."

"Like what?"

"He was ogling his eyes all over you."

"Did you get jealous?"

"Wasn't I supposed to get jealous when a guy ogled at my girl?"

I let out a chuckle and said, "My girl, heh?"

"I should have bought you clothes that cover your entire body."

I removed the shrug and threw it over his face and said, "Catch me." And started running on the shoreline.

Mr Martinez was running after me holding the shrug in his hands.

I stepped into the water and called out to him.

He stopped at the shoreline and looked at the water. I walked over to him and tied our hands together using the shrug and whispered, "Hold on to it." and took him into the water.

"But…"

"It's fine. Look into my eyes and walk together with me."

As I stepped back in the water, the warm and cold water between the legs felt relaxing.

When I looked at him, he was staring at the water like he's seeing it for the first time. The water level was upto his waistline.

I stopped going further and stood a few steps away from the water and said, "Don't worry. I'm not going to push you into the water. We can enjoy the water while being here."

He was still looking at the water so I splashed some water on his face to make him wake up from his thoughts. He gave a shocked expression when I did that to him. I continued splashing water on him which made him do the same to me.

We played in the water for a while and got soaked from head to toe.

“Come on, we gotta dry off!” I said, tugging at his arm. He looked down with a sigh as he rubbed away at the dirt that had clung to him. It was dark now, but we still had light left. It's like the whole world is bathed in red, with the light filtering through the clouds in the distance.

Mr Martinez and I lay on the beach side by side and looked at the sky together. The wind blew gently and made us feel warm and safe. We were laughing and talking for a while where we felt a sense of peace and contentment.

I said while looking at the sky, "I never thought I'd be lying beside you and watching the sky together with you. Even though we had a little fights here and there, I had a great day. Thank you, Mr Martinez."

"I had a great day too."

He held my hand and intertwined the fingers and said, "I know how to swim."

"Huh? Then why did you act like you don't know how to do it?"

"I didn't act. I was scared to step into the water."

"Did it bring any bad memories?"

He gave a nod and said, "I fell into the pool and got a cramp in my leg. I couldn't swim and drowned at the bottom of the pool."

"How did you fall into the pool?"

"You like hearing stories, right?"

"Come on, tell me."

"Someone pushed me."

"What!? Who did that? Did you see who pushed you?"

He shook his head and said, "I didn't have time to look at the face of that person."

"The swimming pools have security cameras, right? Did you check it?"

"I didn't."

"Do you want me to look into it? I bet Olivia was behind that too."

He let out a chuckle and said, "It's fine. It's been years."

"Even though it's been years, it made you scared of water till now, right? That's horrible."

"It's fine. Did you know something, I didn't get scared when you held my hand."

When I looked at our hands, I remembered that I still didn't remove the shrug. I tried to untie it but he stopped me and said, "Let it be like this for a moment." And return back to looking at the sky.

I nodded and continued looking at him instead of the sky.

We returned back to the room and got showered. With the in room dining, we ate the food while being in the room.

While we're on the balcony enjoying the cool breeze after finishing eating, I said, "Tomorrow, we're going back to the same old routine. Waking up late, rushing to the college, attending boring and sleepy lectures, returning with a tired long face, doing my homework, and fucking up my sleeping schedule."

He let out a chuckle and said, "If you want to have a weekend like this, we can go to different places every weekend."

"Do you have that much free time?"

"If it's for you, yes, I do."

"Are you planning to spend every dollar on me?"

He patted my head and said, "Why is your hair still wet? Didn't you dry it well?"

I touched my hair and said, "I did. Some parts are left out I guess."

He held my hand and walked back into the room, made me sit and started drying my hair.

I asked him while he was drying my hair, "Is this how it is supposed to end?"

"What?"

I looked at him and said, "I saw a nightclub while I was walking past the massage centre. Shall we go there?"

"It's past midnight."

"Duh! That's why it's called a nightclub. Come on, let's go. It'll be fun. We should enjoy every last bit of this day, right?"

After he nodded, I dragged him out of the room to the club.

Alexander Martinez's pov;

Isabella brought me to the club she mentioned. As soon as we entered the club, the music was so loud that it could damage our eardrums.

We were surrounded by sweaty bodies and flashing lights.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked her.

She shouted, "I couldn't hear you. What did you say?"

I moved closer to her and said, "It's loud."

She shouted, "Yes! It has to be. Come on, let's find the table." And walked into the club and I followed her behind.

We sat at a table and she began ordering drinks for her. She looked excited.

"What do you want?"

"Beer. One glass."

The service was good inside the club. The staff looked friendly and helpful even though the people were dancing and jumping on the floor like crazy ones. There was this man who was trying to get a girl's attention and had his arms around her, but she kept pushing him away. Why is he being like a douchebag?

Before I finish my glass of beer, Isabella is already done with five shots of drinks.

I said, "Don't get wasted. It'll be tiresome to take you to the room."

She stood from her place and shouted, "Who asked you to take me? I don't need any assistance, I can do that on my own."

I held her hand and made her sit down and said, "It's enough. Let's go to the room. Wait for me."

I walked to the stand and paid the bill. When I came back, Isabella wasn't there. I got nervous seeing an empty table. Where did she go?

I looked around the club for signs of her. Maybe she'll come back to this same place? No, it can't be that.

The staff asked me while I was looking for her, "Hello sir, would you like to order anything?"

I shook my head and looked around and shouted her name among the crowd. I walked among the people and looked out for her. I got mad since I couldn't find her anywhere.

Suddenly, I saw Isabella amidst the crowd. I let out a deep breath after seeing her. When I looked at her closely, she was dancing with someone else on the dance floor. Who's she dancing with? It's the guy who forced a girl earlier.

I held Isabella's hand and put it over my shoulder while saying to him, "I'm sorry but I have to take her with me."

The guy who was dancing asked, "Where are you taking her? She said she came alone. Who are you?"

"I'm her boyfriend."

I left the club along with Isabella and walked to the room. I took a look at my phone and saw the time. It's 1 pm.

In the room,

I made her lie on her bed and covered with a blanket. I stared at her sleeping face, feeling all the emotions coming to my mind and it was so difficult for me to keep my distance from her. I couldn’t stop looking at her soft features, her long lashes, her pink lips.

Isabella came to my bed and laid beside me. She curled into the crook of my arm before I tried to wake her.

"What are you doing? Go back to your bed."

Isabella put her hands around me and said, "I want to sleep with you."

"It won't be comfortable for two people."

"Why are you chasing me away? Do you hate me?"

"When you get drunk, you become a totally different person."

"How different?"

I put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to my side, so she could be as close to me as possible.

"The point where I can't control myself around you."

She moved closer to me and placed her face near my cheeks and whispered, "Kiss me."

I turned my head and looked at her. Her face was a few inches away from mine. She pouted her lips like she was ready to accept a kiss from me. I couldn’t resist seeing her being seductive.

Suddenly, She pressed her lips against mine and kissed my lips and moved back. I wrapped my arms around her waist. My body heat melted into hers.

I asked her, "Why are you doing this to me?"

"I haven't done anything yet."

I let out a sigh and said, "Don't regret this in the morning."

I moved closer to her and started kissing her moist lips. It tasted like a mixture of beer and vodka. As I was kissing her, I began to feel like I was the drunk one here.

The feeling was like nothing I had ever experienced before; it wasn't a bad feeling, not in any way, just something I had never felt before and I would have loved to feel it again.

Isabella looked beautiful, as per usual even when she's wasted. She was reeking of alcohol.

When I broke up from the kiss, She held my head tightly and made me kiss her again. We kissed again, but this time she broke away a second while we're kissing and breathed heavily against my face. Her hot breaths made me move closer towards her and kissed her lips again. She kept doing it, kissing me harder and making me kiss her back, until the moment when she pulled me out of my thoughts to say, "I feel warmth around you." And wrapped her hands around me and hugged me to sleep.

I patted her head and asked, "What am I going to do with you?"