“What?” TB shouted, “you can’t be serious.”
Athena looked at him, “I am, TB, listen,” she glanced at Sean, “I know you have good plans for me and I know you want to make me better but…there is no use. I’m fine here, I have been since I was born and also, this is my home, I have a lot of memories in this house, those with my parents, there are dear to me. I can’t just get up one day, pack my things and throw away everything. I belong here, and I will like to stay here.”“Oh,” TB looked at Sean who hadn’t said anything since Athena made her declaration.“Sean, please understand, there is no use tutoring me to become better and all that, Frank has broken up with me, I understand that now and what better way to get over him than to be where I will never see him? Frank hates this place, although during the time we were together, he never mentions it but I know, just like I know that nothing will bring him back here, ever. So, I will prefer to stay here, I will get over him sooneThe car stopped in front of the mansion and Sean got out, he offered his hand to Athena who placed hers in his and he helped her out of the car. TB came out of the house in the next minute and was rushing towards them, he hugged Athena and kissed her forehead, “I knew he would bring you back, believe me, no one can ever say no to him,” he rolled his eyes at Sean who ignored him. He turned back to Athena and frowned, “my, my, did you get thinner or what?”“Of course she did,” Sean answered, “she was working harder to raise money so she could pay me back,” he rolled his eyes.Athena looked away shyly when TB looked at her, “I had to, I hate being indebted to someone.”“It’s not bad to be indebted, I’m indebted to Sean for the life I am living now, he saved me and he made me this, now all those people that laughed and mocked me are doing everything they can just to sit with me and talk,”
Athena went down to join Sean for breakfast, dressed in shorts and top and barefooted, TB had told her he would leave early to the company because he need to make preparations for the models who would be leaving with them to France for some fashion show. She was happy when she found the dining room in one try and happily jogged to meet the already eating Sean.Sean looked up from his plate of breakfast and examined her; he frowned when he noticed she was not wearing any footwear, “didn’t Tobias show you the shoes I got for you?”“He did,” she answered, pulling a chair back and sitting down to dish out her food.“And?”“They are all heels, I can’t walk on heels, there is not a single flat something there so I said to myself, since it’s just breakfast, I could come down like this.”“First of all, it’s not just breakfast and second, barefoot is not allowed here,” he cautioned.
The next day, Sean brought Athena out with him to meet with a friend for lunch, when they were done, they walked out of the restaurant together but on their way to the car, he told her to go ahead and wait for him that he would be with her shortly while he left with his friend to his own car. Athena walked to the car and stood beside it to wait for him, she was dressed in skin-tight jean with a white blouse and wearing no makeup, her hair was up in a ponytail and she hung a black sunshade on her head. She was wearing a nude colored boot and standing beside the car made her look so hot and attractive.Frank just finished meeting a model who he was trying to get on his side, he walked out of an opposite restaurant and was about taking a call when he looked up and saw the lady standing near the car. At first he was amazed at her beauty but when she looked to her side and he saw her face, he stopped short, his phone nearly dropping from his hand. He couldn’t believe what he w
“Athena, wait,” Frank ran after her, “please, hold on.”Athena turned, putting down her phone, she looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “yes, Frank?”Frank heaved a sigh, licking his bottom lips, he gulped and looked into her brown eyes, the eye-shadow she had on was enhancing her eye color, making it irresistible not to stare at, “listen, I know you didn’t expect to see me inside nor running after you but if you must know, I have been trying to get close to you but the opportunity never presented itself, that’s why I am taking this chance now,” he blabbered.Athena raised an eyebrow, “alright then, you have me here, now what?”Frank chuckled nervously, “come on, Athena, you don’t have to speak to me in that tone. You have ignored me inside and I finally got you to talk, don’t be like that.”“Really? How should I speak to you then? I should slur when talking
Sean looked at the endorsement in his hand; he ran the faces of his A-list models in his mind, thinking of the best model to be given the job. A knock on the door disrupted his thought and he looked up with a sigh, “come on in,” he ordered, going back to the papers in his hands.“Mr. Brand, Mr. Jones is here to see you,” a beautiful redhead with a nice smile announced and Sean was forced to look up at her.A smile graced his lips as he wondered why Frank would be looking for him or is it another Jones? It won’t be the first time he had had such encounter. He cleared his truth and nodded at his secretary, “great, let him in.”The lady nodded and with a smile, left the office. Sean placed the papers he was holding on the table and leaned back on his chair, his eyes remained on the door as he waited patiently to see who was looking for him. Soon, there was knock on the door and he ushered the person in. The door opened and he was
Sean needed no one to tell him that he had learnt nothing from his story, he shook his head unbelievably and sighed, “The uniqueness and gracefulness of a woman is not calculated by what she wears but by what is inside her and what she portrays, the aura that seeps out of her. It was what the man had seen on the poorly dressed beggar and knew she was his. So what am I saying? All I have to say is that I am sorry, Frank but none of these drafts portrayed the three qualities and I told you that I will consider you a failure in the contract if you didn’t get those three qualities.”Frank sat up on the chair immediately, “no, no, no Mr. Brand, if you don’t like the drafts, I can make new ones, you don’t have to end the contract.”Sean heaved a sigh, “but how can you make a new design when you don’t understand the right perspective? You need to understand that the beauty of a woman is not in what she wears or where she lives
Athena was shocked at the reception she got from the lady before her, she looked behind her to see if Sean or TB was approaching and she was terrified when she saw that she was alone with her.“I asked a question, you know, and I demand an answer immediately,” Esperanza threatened.Athena turned to her and gulped, “um…I’m…I’m…”“What are you doing in Sean’s house? You are not one of those gold diggers are you?”“Of course not,” Athena defended.“Then who are you?”“I’m…”“Esperanza,” a voice interrupted behind them and Athena heaved a sigh of relief and turned to see Sean approaching, “how nice to see you again,” he smiled, walking up to her to kiss both her cheeks.“Sean,” Esperanza smiled, hugging him briefly. Athena was surprised at her sudden change of attitude, “you know if y
A glass been shifted to her made her look up to see that Sean had poured her a glass, she glanced at him and he winked at her before picking up his cutlery to continue eating like he hadn’t done something. Athena smiled, happy that he wasn’t angry at her and picked up the glass to sip her juice. She was about to down the entire drink when she remembered how elegantly Esperanza had taken her sip so she decided to copy her, how hard can it be anyway?She slightly raised her pinky finger and took a very light sip, she glanced at Esperanza as she was returning the glass to the table to know if she saw what she did and to tell her that she can do it too, but she didn’t know that the glass wasn’t balanced on the table yet and she let go of the stem. The glass fell on the floor, shattering to pieces and scaring her with the noise. She stood up immediately with a little scream just as Esperanza and Sean stood up as well.She looked up at Sean to see t
“Have you ever heard from your father?” Athena asked in the car on their way home.Sean kissed her knuckles with his ring on it, “do you remember the man I excused myself to talk to at the hotel?”Athena nodded; her head was resting on his shoulder, “yes.”“He is my father’s assistant. Turns out Amber’s illness was hereditary, he has been sick for the past ten years, nursing his health back with money but I guess the money can’t save him anymore, he is dying and his only wish is to see me.”“What for?” she raised her head to look at him.He kissed her forehead and made her rest her head on him again, “maybe to apologize? He has been trying to do that for two years now. His wife didn’t give him a child, they had adopted a boy and girl, I wonder why. Anyways, I guess he wants to make amend on what he did, but he made a mistake, my mother might have easily forgiv
Sean sighed but continued, “I took her back home to stay with Amber and I left in search of Leo, we went to my father and I told him about Amber’s case and he threw us out, saying he has no business with his past. Leo had told me we don’t have any other thing to do but the obvious, we had to steal. We attacked different stores that night and were lucky to escape without getting caught. On our way home, we saw a wounded man, we didn’t think twice and ransacked him, taking every cent with him but we couldn’t leave him there so we took him to the hospital and left him in front of it. The money we got wasn’t enough; I couldn’t go in and see mom’s disappointed face so we left. We stayed on the road, robbing anybody we could. We did it for days, five days I think, until I believed we have gotten enough that could take us to the city.When Leo and I got to the hospital, mom saw us and started crying, Amber passed on the previous night,
Athena smiled, “Sean, most of us have done things we are not proud of, but that doesn’t make us evil, I believe whatever it is you did, you did it for a reason.”He nodded with a smile, not looking up at her, “yes, for a reason.”“Well, you have my promise that I won’t judge.”He chuckled, looking up at her then, his hazel eyes shining brightly with the lights surrounding them, “I can feel that you won’t.”“See, even your heart believes in me.”He laughed softly then and closed his eyes, he sighed, “I wasn’t burn rich.”“I know that already.”He nodded, “I have a traumatic past. You see, my family was the perfect one when I was growing up. But then, my dad lost his job when I turned six and everything changed, he began drinking, wasting all his savings in gambling and alcohol. My mom would often try to understand him and w
“Athena, please….” Frank called back her attention and she stared at him, seconds passed as everyone waited to know what would happen. Sean could feel his heart breaking into a million pieces by the second. Leo and Gloria walked out to witness what was happening and Gloria gasped.“What the heck, is this guy stupid?” She muttered to Leo who said nothing and glanced at Sean, he knew about Sean’s proposal tonight but what he couldn’t understand was why he would just stand there and do nothing. He glanced at Athena, silently reminding her in his heart about their deal and that he would not hesitate to carry it out and he would make sure that she and Frank lived in wretchedness.What happened next shocked everyone, Athena took a step forward to Frank and Sean closed his eyes, he knew that would happen, guess he wasn’t more important than her mother’s wish. He was contemplating on how to walk out of there in his shame w
Reporters clustered the hotel that would be used for Fashionista’s fall, all of them speaking in front of their cameras to explain what was going on as they waited for the celebrities to arrive. With each car that stopped in front of the red carpet, fans would go wild with screams if it was their idol that arrived.It was explained that nothing brings the celebrities together like Fashionista’s fall, because even those that were on vacation always come back for it and some celebrities comes from other countries to attend the show.Different types of cars stops to discharge different people, all arising shouts and screams from the onlookers that were being held by barricade not to jump out and cause a mess, although securities would hold back those who tries to escape. A white car stopped and Esperanza emerged with her escort, her fans went wild for her and cheered her on. Sean had been merciful to her, in as much as she had thought that he would put her off
Three months has passed since the fire incident and everything has gone back to normal, the photo shoot took place two months ago and Athena was brought to the limelight. It didn’t help that Sean introduced her as his girlfriend at the dinner party that Brand Entertainment always host after the release of their new face. It wasn’t long and news about her started coming up but there was nothing against her except the fact that she was Frank Jones ex girlfriend, but rather than mock her, a lot envied her because she was the one that finally caught the heart of the famous Sean Brand.Happy with herself for making the right decision and following her heart, Athena had pleaded with Sean to talk to Leo about giving Frank his job back, which she had explained her reason as it was better to settle him and have him out of her life for good for she won’t rest well knowing that he was out of work because of her and that fact was bound to tie her to him because whenever
Sean stood tall and handsome in the white shirt he was putting on, his hands tucked in the pockets of his sky blue slacks, his hair neatly combed and slicked back and his hazel eyes shining brightly with intelligence. He could see them fidgeting and he sighed, then he took slow but calculated steps towards the table. When he dragged out a chair, he saw they flinched and rolled his eyes, he found himself praying they should not wet themselves with him still in the room. He knows why they were like that, they might not be afraid of the cops and could say whatever they want to say, but in an option to be questioned by him, they would choose being locked up in a jail than to face him.He sat crossed legged on the chair, his eyes never leaving them and they hadn’t looked up at him for once since he stepped into the room. He cleared his throat and began, “who still want to be a model?”The two ladies looked at each other and then at him but they looked down
It’s been a month and two weeks since the day of the fire and Sean’s wounds was healing, thanks to the honey and his medications. Enclosed in a room for one month sure has brought him and Athena closer than they were before. At least, they now do what they want without wondering how the other would react to it, since knowing about their feelings for each other.Sean had agreed to Leo’s and TB’s pleading that it was time they return to the city. He has been putting them off for over a week now and Athena had been secretly happy about that, back in the city she won’t have him to herself every single day; he would have to go to work, sometimes work over time at home, and would have divided attention. But even though she was secretly enjoying their unplanned vacation where she was his nurse, nursing him back to health, she knew they really do have to go back to the city. There are some things they need to take care off. Especially since Leo had found
Sean couldn’t take it anymore and immediately turned to face her, putting his wounded back out of her view. He pulled her into his arms and placed his forehead on hers, “it’s just body wounds, it would heal.”“If…if you hadn’t run in after me, if you hadn’t…” she was hyperventilating in no time, “I’m so sorry,” she paused, trying to steady herself but it was so hard to do when she was crying so hard and breathing so quickly.Sean quickly cupped her cheeks in his hands, “Athena, look at me,” he ordered, “look at me,” she finally did, “If I am to repeat that action a thousand times, I would do it without blinking an eye. I don’t care about the pain of the damages; the most important thing is that you are right here, standing in front of me, breathing and fine. You think I would rather save myself but let you die in that fire? If that had been the case, I wi