Chapter 2
1005 Words
Catherine
After Ricardo picked me up from school, he treated me to dinner. He took me to a family restaurant. I was the one who forced him to because he insisted to take me to fine dining which I refused. Not just because it was too far but I felt my clothes were not appropriate to enter the place anyway. And I bet the price was too expensive. I didn’t want Ricardo to spend money for me. I was happy though but I didn’t want him to use the cash he received by working at his father’s company.
The Williams Group.
Ricardo’s father-Jared Williams was the owner of the group. Their company was big and they dominated almost half of the companies in the state. The scope was quite large, from restaurants, celebrity agencies, airlines, and many others.
Sometimes I still couldn’t believe Ricardo was my childhood friend and I could be so close to him. His family moved to our neighbors when I was seven and my father by any chance knew Ricardo’s father.
Since long ago, Jared would always ask Ricardo to play with me and Jason while our fathers were talking about business. A very typical of what parents would do to their children when they were having business talk with their partners. But when Ricardo became a teenager, we rarely to play together again because Ricardo had started to meet many business partners of Jared and learn more about business because no matter what, Ricardo was the only heir of the company.
It was not like Ricardo wanted to refuse too because he never protested to his father. And he loved businesses. Said it was in their blood.
And now that he was an adult and worked together with Jared, it was just a matter of time before Ricardo had them all.
Sometimes I was rather annoyed with him.
Why? Because Ricardo always treated me like a child. He was five years older than me and sometimes I felt terrible about the fact.
Was it because I was younger than him so Ricardo never saw me as a woman?
Maybe I was different from the women who always clung themselves around him. Pretty, mature, great proportional body, and possibly…knew how to work in bed.
Ricardo was popular. He was kind to everyone. Women fell for him on a daily basis. Although some of them only wanted him for his money and status. To secure their future. Ricardo also never thought about them seriously. If both of them were already bored, their relationship ended at that time. None of them said let’s break up or we’re done. Nothing of that. I wonder why? Was that how adults ended their relationships? I don’t know. Maybe to an eighteen-year-old kid like me, it was difficult for me to understand. I always thought both sides had to talk about it when they wanted to start a relationship or to end it.
I remembered I got mad at him once because he never ended it with those women normally. Honestly, I was just wreaking my anger to him because I loved Ricardo Williams.
Two years ago, when I got accepted to my current school, I wanted him to know first because I managed to enter the school as the same as Ricardo’s before. I ran inside his house because he always said I could enter anytime I liked. His house was mine too, that’s what he said. I wanted to surprise him by suddenly entering his bedroom like I used to. However, what I saw in his room broke my heart instantly.
Ricardo was kissing someone I didn’t recognize.
He saw me and immediately pushed her away but I ran out and returned to my house. Ricardo didn’t even bother to chase me. He never came to knock on my door and apologize. Why I was hoping for him to apologize? But at least say something because there should be something when he pushed that woman away because he saw me. Or he didn’t want me to know what he was doing behind my back? Because I was still a child?
“Cathy?” he called as I blinked and looked at Ricardo who was staring at me confusingly. “We’re at your house.”
“What?” I saw outside and as he said, we’d reached my house. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize. Thank you, Ricardo,” I said and opened the door.
I was about to close the door until he called me, “Cathy!” I looked back at him. Showing me his naughty smile which I liked. Instantly hammering my heart. “You can still call me Richie like you usually do. Having you calling me Ricardo is kinda…weird.”
“Oh… Okay.” Actually, I was trying to avoid calling him Richie because I didn’t want him to consider me as a little girl.
“So, when do we start?” I wrinkled my eyebrows with his question.
“Start what?” He mimicked mine as well.
“The tutor, of course. I’ll be watching your study. Remember?”
“Oh, right. I, uh, I’ll just follow your schedule then.”
“How about every Tuesday and Thursday? How’s that sound?”
“Sure.”
“Or every day?” Huh? I wanted that but I knew he was teasing me. Just by looking at him trying to hold back his laugh to boom, I already knew.
“No way! Are you going to blow my brain again?” He immediately exploded with laughter.
We did this once when I was still in a secondary school which ended up with me having a fever for four days. Doctor said I was just tired and didn’t get enough sleep. I remembered Leah-Ricardo’s mother was heavily angry at her son.
“I’m just kidding. I don’t want to be blamed because you’re sick again,” he joked. “So, see you tomorrow, Cat.”
“Bye.”
And his car went off.
- Writer
