Resisting The Billionaire

29. Green Energy

Diana sat on a makeup chair, pushed in between the large bouquets that Adrian had left behind for her.

All the lights of the makeup studio, inside which Diana was were turned off and the only once left turned on, were the ones on the mirror, that were bright and encircled the entire shape of the mirror, in which Diana was forced to look at her own reflection.

The entire set up seemed to be that of an interrogation in which Diana sat looking in to the mirror, as if she was guilty of a crime and the evidence with were the large bouquets were placed on each of her side.

She gulped hard and turned her chair around, to find Tony and Gloria standing in front of her.

“Care to explain what you have been up to behind our backs?” Gloria c****d, brushing her caramel highlighted blond hair, away from her stunning heart shaped face.

“Wow, you look really pretty. The honeymoon tan is so evident on you.”

Diana chimed, clapping her hands in excitement and Gloria couldn’t help but appreciate the fact that no one except Diana noticed her tan from her honeymoon.

“Awww! Thank you.” she blew a soft kiss at Diana, who had always been gentle towards her and even gave her a nice and expensive gift on her wedding, while no one from the salon even bothered to show up at her event.

“Hey! Don’t forget that she is trying to distract you.”

Tony reminded Gloria, who also immediately straightened up and got back in to action.

“Oh Yeah! Do you think you can distract us? No, you can’t. now tell us what have you been up to behind our backs?”

Gloria inquired and Diana only shrugged at her.

“I wish I had done something for all of this to happen and I swear I would’ve been in less pain and wouldn’t be this bothered.”

“What do you mean?” Tony c****d at Diana, “Don’t act innocent as if you don’t know why a rich guy just showed up at the salon and is now sending such big bouquets. Gloria!” tony called out his partner in interrogation and attained her attention, “Stephano married you! so, why don’t you tell me if he has ever gotten this big of a bouquet for you?”

Gloria shook her head, “He only got me flowers for our first valentines.” She stated sadly.

“And gave you two beautiful children by the next one.” Diana added and Gloria couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction.

“Yes! He is a sweet heart and takes real good care of children while he also works so hard. Do you know, he is thinking about starting his own startup. It is a tech company that he is planning with his friends but he is only running low on sponsors.”

“Owh! I hope he finds some good sponsorship soon.” Diana motivated Gloria and the two got busy talking about life in particular but Tony immediately clapped his hands and pulled Gloria back and out of her daze of always getting lost in random conversations, something that Diana knew of and was taking advantage of to the fullest.

“Gloria! Wake up and realize that she is taking advantage of your talkative nature and is distracting you from the fact that the mystery guy is showing up and giving her big bouquets.”

“Oh yes!” Gloria immediately pulled herself together and straightened up as she began chastising Diana.

“Now stop distracting me and tell me the truth. What is going on with you?” she inquired, becoming dauntingly straight forward and Diana only gulped hard.

“I don’t know what is happened with me, okay? I wish I knew. So that I could explain it to my own self.”

“Really? So the guy is just showing up with a reason?”

Diana shrugged, “I believe that he does have a reason but it is only oblivious to me.” She confessed.

“Wait! How do you know him again?” Gloria added the question that was much more to ponder upon.

“Yeah! Didn’t he say that he knew you by your original surname?” Tony investigated and Diana only took in a deep breath, heaving a sigh in defeat, knowing that there was no point of hiding the truth and the past from her friends anymore.

If Adrian was going to keep up popping at the salon or at different places unannounced, it would only mean that more questions would be raised and that she should clarify it to at least those people who mattered to her and in her life.

“You guys remember that Adrian Sarmiento guy I told you about?”

“Huh? Who?”

Asked both Tony and gloria entirely lost and only wondering who Diana was talking about.

“The guy who I used to have a huge crush on in New York. Whom my father used to train.” She added and both Tony and Gloria nodded their heads as they immediately remembered whom Diana was referring to.

“That douchebag who you used to love like crazy but he only found you pesky and annoying and at his prom night he…”

Tony gasped in the middle of his explanation, as the remembrance of who the ‘Adrian’ guy really was hit him.

“Oh my God! Is he that Adrian Sarmiento?” Tony asked with his eyes bulging out of his sockets and his face showing it clearly that he was totally out of his wits.

Diana nodded back at him and Tony gasped out and loud, making Gloria look between Tony and Diana.

“No way, he is that Adrian Sarmiento.” Tony stated once again and Diana only shrugged in defeat.

“He is.”

“Which Adrian Sarmiento, exactly?” Gloria asked, lost in the translation and Tony pulled her aside and reminded her of the incident that Diana had told them about and Gloria also ended up screaming in complete surprise, once she remembered the tragedy from Diana’s past.

“Gosh! That asshole, how did he even dare to show his face in front of you and not just that, what is he trying to do now by showing up like a shameless brat. You should’ve given him two good slaps on his face, kicked him in the shin and thrown him out of the salon. How dare he show up like this and what the hell were you doing all along?” Gloria turned towards Tony, exhibiting the epitome of pure Latina female rage.

“He showed up with twenty big guards.” Tony informed Gloria and she raised her eyebrows at that statement.

“Really?”

She looked at Tony first and then turned towards Diana and both simply nodded in agreement, confirming that fact.

“Damn! Okay! I get it you guys couldn’t fight him but you should’ve chased him off.” She told Diana, who shook her head.

“I did just that but then later that night, he showed up at my house.”

“What?”

Once again Gloria and Tony were left flabbergasted.

“What is wrong with this creepy Ted Bundy?” Gloria asked, mostly rhetorically and Diana took in a deep breath as she further explained her situation.

“I had no plans of talking to him but then my Aunt and Polly told me that the guy is probably after me for some ulterior motive of his.”

“Really? What could he want from you? Except he wants to bang you?” Tony suggested and Diana shook her head.

“No! that could not be it. Do you think he wouldn’t get to bang any girl hotter than me?”

“No!” Gloria also agreed with Diana and as she turned to look at her along with Tony, they both found Gloria lost deep in her thoughts.

“Did you ask him what he wanted and why he showed up?” she asked and Diana then narrated the whole incident about what Adrian said the night he showed up and what he said in the morning when he booked the entire coffee shop for Diana, across the street from the salon.

“So, first he lied that he wanted to fulfill a promise that he made to your Dad and then he said that he loved you. that also after you told him that you knew your father would never make such a promise.”

“Yes.”

Diana confirmed to Gloria’s question.

“Damn! He is slimier than I thought he would be. He is lying through his teeth. He is after you for something else.”

“I know but what could it possibly me and it is driving me nuts as well. And to top all of it, he is playing these stupid games with me. He first begged me for my number and then when I finally gave it to him, he didn’t even text me and showed up bluntly without informing me beforehand. He is acting so contagiously. I don’t even know what to do. His moves are so abrupt and rash. At one end just like how Aunt Emily and Polly is telling me to do, I am doing just so because even I am curious to find out what he is up to and at the other end, I am just scared that Aunt is only pushing me to go for him because he paid for her VIP room and not just that, she knows that he would bring many perks along.”

She told her friends, who shared a skeptical look amongst one another and knew that Diana was right. With the kind of the person Emily was, she would definitely want a piece of all those perks that Adrian would bring in.

“Well… Emily wouldn’t ask you to back out.”

Toni admitted and Diana looked at him with an obnoxious look on her face.

“You don’t say.”

“But honestly, even I am curious, why he wants you.” Gloria rose her hand and Diana couldn’t help but slump her shoulders down in defeat.

“Everyone just wants to know that, now don’t they?” she complained and the door to the studio flung open, making the trio turn their heads towards the entrance of the makeup studio, where Emily stood gawking at the three.

“Don’t you two have hair to cut?” she told Gloria and Tony, as she daunted inside the studio and Diana stood up straight from the chair and turned the lights of the studio on.

“No need for the big lights. The mirror ones are enough and I can see in them clearly. So don’t waste money… I mean energy by turning on the big lights. It’s earth friendly to use as less electricity as possible.”

Emily scoffed as she walked inside the studio and slumped down on one off the chairs, all the while keeping her scrooge behavior at peak. The trio only shared skeptical looks, holding back their amusement over how much of skinflint Emily was. Even in a state where she had just gotten out of the hospital she was only worried about saving money on bills.

“Aunt, what are you doing here? shouldn’t you be resting at home? I thought you wouldn’t come to work, so I came in early. you should not be here and instead you should be resting at home.” Diana tried to knock some sense in to her Aunt but the woman remained indifferent.

“Yeah, I can see how under your control the whole salon is. The hair dressers are cramped in the makeup studio, hiding away from doing their job and why does the studio look so small and cramped what is this…”

She complained, turning her eyes towards the two big obstacles that made the studio look small and her eyes landed on the big bouquets and she gasped as got back on her feet and limped towards the bouquets and touched the exquisite flowers on the top, finding it quite hard to reach to the center most flower of the bouquet.

“Gosh! These flowers are pretty and so many… they must have been so expensive.” She cooed, making it hard for the three standing behind her not to laugh.

Suddenly Emily gasped and turned around, as she walked towards Diana, who stood in the middle of Toni and Gloria.

“Adrian must have sent them, right?”

Diana agreed with her, “Yes! Umm… actually, he came to deliver them himself. I mean, his men…”

Emily cooed in excitement and clapped her hands even more loudly with joy, “This is so great! He came on his own just to give you flowers.”

Diana rubbed her ears, as her Aunt’s loud screeches seemed to be doing a number on her eardrums. “He didn’t hand it over to me on his own but…”

“Of course he wouldn’t! it would not suit a guy like him to do such a thing anyways. He is Adrian Sarmiento after all. Did you know that he is also a member of the board of directors of the hospital where I was admitted and after he paid a personal visit to my doctors, they came in twice yesterday just to check up on me.”

“Really?” Tony butted in and Emily chimed back at him.

“Yes! The guy that Diana is seeing is no small talk. Just his name is enough, as it alone carries so much weight and impact.”

Emily bragged further on about Adrian and his newly developing presence in their lives. As much as embarrassed Diana felt, Emily didn’t feel an ounce of shame and instead, she boasted shamelessly, making both Tony and Gloria look at each other in amusement and catch up on to the fact that Emily was definitely enjoying the bragger that she was going to receive at the hands of Adrian.

Tony pulled Gloria aside and lowly whispered in her ear.

“I can see her selling poor Diana off to Adrian, if he would offer her money.”

Gloria couldn’t help but snicker and their little mumbling caught Emily’s attention. She could tell that just like the usual routine, the two were whispering amongst each other, something against Emily.

“Don’t you two have jobs, that I pay you two for?” she scolded the two, making them straighten up but Diana was quick enough to jump between them and Emily, preventing them from becoming a target of Emily’s havoc.

This was Diana’s usual routine. She knew how vicious her aunt could be at times and that’s why she always made sure to protect her friends from her Aunt’s torment and burdened Emily’s tortures all alone.

“Aunt! You should not be at the salon and you should be resting at home.” She grabbed Emily by her shoulders and began dragging her out but Emily only resisted and remained steadfast inside the studio.

“Wait! At least tell me what did Adrian say to you when he came?”

Diana held herself back from pushing Emily out, knowing that her condition was fragile and she should not be pushed in a state where she was already bruised and weak.

“He asked me out on a date tonight.” Diana told her and the smile on Emily’s face was brighter than any light that the entire salon could possess.

“Oh my God!” she screamed in joy and all the three other persons in that room, placed their hands over their ears, trying their best to protect any damage that Emily could potentially cause.

“That is so great! So, what did you say? Don’t tell me you said no?” Emily’s daunting expressions were enough to inform Diana that she should not even think about disappointing Emily and she knew just how to please her aunt.

“I said yes to him.” she stated keeping it brief and the once again the laughter and the chime that came out of Emily was entirely surreal and over the moon.

“Gosh! If only scientist could see how bright your smile is Emily…” Tony retorted at her, “… they would get the perfect source to make green energy.”

Gloria couldn’t help but buckle in with Tony and roast Emily, “If only the world knew that the secret to create green energy would be your niece going out with a rich guy, who would get you many perks.”

Diana couldn’t help but snicker at their comments but just as she noticed her Aunt throwing an obnoxious look at the two and then at Diana.

She immediately reprimanded herself and stood up erect.

Emily decided to ignore the two sassy hairdressers and turned her entire attention towards Diana, since there was nothing that could hold her back and bring her down.

“Gosh! You are going on your first date tonight…” she commented, gently patting her face and Diana immediately reminded her Aunt.

“First date with Adrian. Not the first date of my life. I dated Kevin! Remember, Kevin that college boy?”

“Huh! don’t remind me of that broke drowned in student debt Kevin boy and spoil my mood. I never liked him for you…” Diana couldn’t help but feel saddened over how quickly her Aunt shunned the boy. Even though Diana couldn’t help but agree with Emily, since just like everyone else in her life, Kevin also disappointed her and broke her quite badly, making her lose any remaining interest that she had in dating. But she wanted her feelings to remain in a place of respect for him.

“I always knew that a beauty like you deserved someone rich and exquisite and Adrian is just the right guy.”

“Really?” Gloria mumbled in to Tony’s ear, “She was mad the last time a rich guy tried to make a pass on her niece because of her beauty and till this date she shows her distaste towards Diana for this.”

“I know right?” Tony whispered back and complained, “Talk about double standards. Just because this time, her ego is not standing in the way, Adrian is suddenly the perfect guy.”

“Now come on, let’s get going.” Emily picked her purse back up from her seat and strutted towards the door of the makeup studio but paused and turned around when she noticed that Diana was standing static to her spot.

“Why aren’t you coming with me?” she asked her niece, who lifted her shoulders in a questioning manner.

“Where do you want me to come with you? To home?”

“Yes! We will go there but for now we need to take you to a mall and shop and buy you a dress that would make you stand out peculiarly and make Adrian go crazy.”

She leaned forward and grabbed Diana’s wrist and began pulling her out and once she was by the door she stopped and turned around, looking at her two employees with quite the daggering gaze.

“You two, now get down to work and by five come by my house.”

“Why?” Tony inquired, curious at the order that Emily had decreed upon him and Gloria.

“Because we have to get Diana ready. It is her first date…”

“With Adrian!” Diana added and reprimanded Emily, who ignored her niece’s words.

“Whatever! But we need Diana ready and looking her best and weren’t you two her ‘friends’?” Emily made air quotes around the word ‘friends’, deliberately in order to influx pressure on Tony and Gloria to come down by the house and help Diana get ready.

“Yes! And that’s why we think that…”

Tony was about to speak up against Emily and tell her off how she was using Diana only get perks and privileges extracted from Adrian but Gloria held back his hand and prevented him from speaking any further.

“We will be there.” Gloria told Emily, who grabbed Diana with her and pulled her out of the studio and finally the salon.

“Ugh! Why didn’t you let me speak up to her and shove the truth in her face that she is a greedy woman.” Tony complained to Gloria, who simply shook her head.

“Don’t you think Emily knows what is doing? We shouldn’t say anything because it is a private matter between Diana and Emily to begin with and also when was the last time Emily was acting so nice and loving towards Diana? If Emily is doing it because she is greedy then let her. at least, she is acting nice towards Diana and didn’t you see the look on Diana’s face, who happy she was when Emily was being nice and loving. Let them be like this for a while and let’s just mind our businesses and besides, you just heard Diana – for now at least she is going out with someone.”

“Yeah! But he is Adrian the same guy who…”

“It doesn’t matter. Diana’s life might be changing for the good. I am tired of seeing her being so dejected and low all the time. She doesn’t go out with anyone and Emily also torments her after everything that happened back then. It is for the best to find out at first what the guy wants and once it is clear and Diana would be able to judge her own feelings at once, then only we should be jumping to conclusions.”

Tony couldn’t help but remain silent at Gloria’s interjections and her logic which to him seemed to be quite reasonable.

He turned around and his eyes landed on the large bouquets.

“Fine!” he sighed in defeat, “But if the guy hurt Diana, I will use my own scissors to chop his d**k off.”

He strutted and walked out of the studio, with Gloria walking behind him and closing the door of the makeup studio.

They left the large bouquets that they only admired for the beauty but little did they know that someone else admired those flowers for a very useful task that they fulfilled and it was via the small bugs that they had implanted in those flowers – ironic, isn’t it?

Listening via that bug, sitting inside his Range Rover, in the front passenger seat and the drivers’ seat were Adrian and Jared respectively, both of the two had one earpiece each fitted in their ear and the wires of that headphone connected to a small device that was provided to them by the men that Jared had given the task of planting the bug in those bouquets.

Adrian took off his earpiece and threw it down on the cupholder, smirking to his own self that he had been rightly able to guess things about Diana.

He only gritted his teeth in agitation and hissed as he pondered deep on his toughts.

“I f*****g knew it.”

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