4 - Noticing

Eugene's POV

The first thing I noticed when I stepped into the foyer was a family of three. A man, who I assumed was Dominic Crimson, father's good friend, was standing to the right whilst two women stood on the left side of him. The one I could tell was Clementine Crimson because my sister has her whole clothing line in her closets, and Melissa has shown me a few photo's of her to give me a heads up about the Crimsons'. The other woman was standing with her head bent down, but as I was looking at her, she lifted her head and looked into my eyes. She looked very much like Clementine and a little bit like Dominic, and then it hit me. Father never mentioned that the Crimsons' had a daughter! What have I gotten myself into? She looks like one of those girls who will follow me around the whole time. Still, that doesn't help the fact that we are staying with them for a few weeks! I'm going to lock myself in my room and never come out to avoid her.

While I'm battling with my thoughts in my head, Dominic approaches me with an outstretched hand to greet me. I take his hand into a firm greeting, and he begins to speak.

"Welcome to Paris, Eugene. You look as excellent as your father described you. Not to mention you are also as good as he is in business, maybe even better. I'm Dominic Crimson, but I'm sure you knew that already."

"I did," I say confidently. There was nothing I didn't know about the man standing in front of me. Father made sure I knew his friend well. "It's nice to finally meet my father's good friend. He's told me a lot about you and your way of doing business. Excellent work you do, if I do say so myself."

"We'll thank you, Eugene," He says, flattered by my statement. "I think we'll be good business partners as soon as you start working in your father position."

"Why, thank you."

I give him a gentle smile and stop shaking his hand. He gives me a nod and walks towards my father, and start to talk. Hmph. Businesspeople are always working, never stopping.

Clementine walks towards me and greets me with a beautiful smile before she greets me with a gentle handshake.

"Bonne journée monsieur. I'm Clementine Crimson. It's nice to make your acquaintance. I hope you enjoy your stay here with us."

"Thank you, madam. I'm sure I will."

Clementine gives me another smile before she turns and walks towards my mother to talk about her latest fashion line, I assume. I look away from my mother to notice the daughter walking towards me. She is beautiful, no doubt about that, but I don't like women like her. They only follow you around because they have nothing better to do, and they only want to get into your bed. Just the thought of it makes me dislike her even more.

As soon as she was in front of me, she looks me dead in the eye and stretches out her hand to greet me. I take her hand gently and almost thought I didn't take her hand. Her hand is so soft and delicate. I fear I will break it if I touch it any harder.

But enough of that, I still don't want to touch her.

Before I could even think about removing my hand from hers, she removed her hand quickly from my grip and started to speak.

"Bonne journée monsieur. I'm Rose Crimson. You needn't worry about me. I won't bother you even if you wanted me to, but I hope you enjoy your stay here with us. There's a library to the left of the stairs, the first door. You can help yourself to it then."

She smiles at me, I couldn't help but wonder if she forced it or not, but she turns and leaves the room in a natural way up the stairs.

What the hell was that? Was she disgusted about me just now? No girl has ever been disgusted about me. It's something new, but I can't help but feel a little bit pissed about it. I don't even like her, and I didn't even want to see her. So tell me, why do I feel so angry that she rejected me like that? And how did she know I like to read?! Only my family knows that. This girl is something else. I underestimated her.

I stood there standing in shock, I don't know how to describe how I felt, but I could hear Melissa snicker beside me. I turned and looked at her to see that she has that evil grin on her face. She only grins like that when something happens to me that she finds amusing. I knew it was because she witnessed everything that happened just now.

"What are you giggling about?" I ask, annoyed.

Melissa shakes her head before she speaks.

"I knew I liked her when I saw her."

"What did you tell her? How did she know I like to read?"

Melissa holds her hands up in surrender. "Believe me, Eugene, I would like to know that as much as you, but you've got to admit. She is different from the other girls you know. She rejected you on the spot. That, you don't see every day."

I look at Melissa. She has a point.

I look back at the stairs where Rose went up. She is different.