Richard's POV:
" come on. Let's start being the lovely couple from now itself. Think about it It's a good deal. If I show you that I am indeed a lovable person and make you fall for me, then broke your heart. If you show me that you're not this boring person I see everyday and make me fall for you, I am out of your life and you can the apartment for yourself and live with your girlfriend. It's a great deal , see." She tried to convince me .
" Why should I agree with you?" I asked laughing as she thinks it's a great deal.
" Oh come on, man . You said that I'd did these things and when I do offer you to know me better, you're hesitating. Why? You don't like me as you said. I will be honest with you in the relationship and open up to you" she answered instantly.
" My girlfriend is coming next month." I said while looking away.
" It will be even more fun. We will hide it and have fun."
" No, I am not having s*x with you." I replied almost immediately .
" In a week time, you will be begging me to have s*x. If not, I can find someone to have fun ." She said without any problem.
" If you are to be in a relationship with me, you can't go around and sleep with others " I said calmly .
" What you are saying is that you won't have s*x with me and I can't fick anyone else. How does it make sense?" She asked confusingly.
" You're not supposed to in a relationship . Also it's making love not f*****g" I emphasised love.
" Oh gosh, how can I not see it. You are old fashioned guy. Seriously Richard ! In a relationship you need to make love and also f**k to keeps it interesting and alive. It will be boring if you only make love. You're so naive." she said while driving the car.
" It's not even a day, and I am already regretting being in a relationship." She said while pretending to be upset. I find her expression as cute. I smiled at her.
" Besides being with me , will be great for you. Everybody wants to know who I am hanging out with ? My plus one. You wants to be a singer, right? I can help you with my connections." She sure has her way with her words.
"So what you're saying is you won't help me even if you have connections until I not agree to be your boyfriend " I asked her .
" No. I told Ben a week ago itself to inform you but he told me to do it myself. Everytime I came to tell you, we end up arguing"
" Ok. I get it. "
" In order to be in a relationship, we need to trust and talk about everything." I stated . She got tensed hearing that but replied" it depends."
"No depends. If we're gonna do this, you're gonna have to be honest about everything," I said looking at her, she tensed, and suddenly she didn't look so confident.
"Yes, but there are some things I do not wish to share. Some things I am not ready to share, so be patient." She said, and I felt my heart sink at her voice.
"Well you're supposed to trust me, you have to."
"But—"
"No buts. First question, have you ever been in a relationship?"
"Uh, easy start," She chuckled with a devilish smirk, letting out a relieved sigh, I didn't realised how nervous she was until I asked the question. "Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I had. His name was Daniel . Beautiful big brown eyes, he had the longest and prettiest eyelashes.
"We joined kindergarten on the same day that's how my parents and his parents meet, at the school. Ever since we met, Daniel and I were always together, always. We got married in school by a girl who had laces. Our relationship ended when my parents decide to move here. As a goodbye present, he gave me a teddy bear which I still have in my room. So my longest relationship lasted eight years. We lost contact over the years, you know... Growing up and such. His parents moved to England for some reason, and we connected again in Social Networking sites. I sometimes like his i********: pictures."
"Awww, you were a cutie ; what happened to you?" I laughed, feeling my chest warm up at her story.
"See, the thing is I grew up, and now people use the word hot instead of cute." She smirked at me, and I rolled my eyes. She just had to ruin it with her words.. "So I will appreciate it if you acknowledge the fact that you think I'm hot."
"You just had to ruin it, didn't you?" I tried not to laugh, and she smiled looking straight ahead at the road, she was still driving around. You "So, another question, do you want kids?"
"Really, Richard, that's the question?" She tried to pretend to laugh, but I saw the way she tensed. Did she have a secret child nobody knew about? I wouldn't be surprised... She sighed as she looked at me for a second with an uneasy expression. I could tell she was trying to decide whether to tell me or not. She then looked back at the road and began to talk. "Yes, I wanted ten kids, but along the way, I've reduced the number to four."
"How the hell are you going to keep 4 kids in line? Your house will be chaotic." I laughed whole heartedly. This is not what I expected from her. She did not look like a girl who liked babies or kids at all.
"Hey now, our kids. Remember, we're couple and in relationship, so right now ,for the time being, you're in my future. So it will be our children, our house, our chaotic happy place." I blushed at her words; I looked away so that she wouldn't see the effect her words had on me. She sure did know how to use her words.
"So let me get this right, your longest relationship was when you were six years old, that's not even a relationship, but I'm still just gonna let it slide... And yet you want a happy family and have a bunch of midgets running around. How are you going to do this if you don't find a guy and commit to him?
"Aren't you paying attention, love?" My heart skipped a beat at this, and I felt myself stupid for it as this was a game, just a game. "I said I wanted, past sentence. Pay attention silly head." She looked a bit uncomfortable.
"Why wanted? Don't you want that anymore?" I asked a bit sad and disappointed.
"I do want it; I'd like that very much yet I'm not going to be able to because I can't have children."
"What do you mean—"
"I'm having some issues with my uterus. It's weak. I am taking medication."
"Oh, Jennifer—"
"It is okay. I am over it. You know, girls my age don't really think about it much, kids or a future. And yet, that's all I ever did. I used to imagine what my kids would look like if they will lookslike me or my mum or my dad or whoever I marry and have kids with. But I don't know. I guess I've come to realise that I don't have a say in some things, you just have to deal with it."
I wanted to say something but what can I say ? Let's just say that the five minutes we've been 'getting to know' each other, I've found out things about her that I would have never even guessed.
"What about your parents; what did they do?"
Jennifer sighed and tapped the wheel with her fingers. She was nervous. "My dad and my mum weren't around much. They were always working, so it was pretty much Kayden and me. When they found out, they made me get the same test over and over again. Results are the same. By that time, I was fine with it. Kay helped me a lot."
"Kayden sounds like he was a good person, "
"He was. He was amazing, but he also had a lot going through." Her voice was not louder than a whisper, but her pain was there to hear. "Like any other person, he had.. thing too."
I couldn't possibly imagine what could have gone wrong with him. What could have gone wrong with him that ended up messing up Jennifer too?
"What was wrong with him?" I asked before I could stop myself.
"I'm not ready to talk about that and our talk is stopped until next time because we're here." She said as she parked her car. I felt a hint of disappointment; I didn't want this car ride to end, I wanted to keep talking to her, and get to know her better. I am so accepting this deal. Oh, if I wasn't sure before I am 100% convinced now.
"Where are we?" I ask her looking around, but I paused when I see her take out a little glass bottle where you keep pills. "Are you f*****g serious? I'm done with you, I'm taking a cab home, how can you be popping pills when you're with me? After you know, that is the reason why I don't like you in the first place." I angrily tried to get out.
"Calm down,man." She says taking two pills. I was going to get out of the car, but she locked the door again, and grabbed my wrist causing me to look at her. We're face to face now and I see her swallow in whatever it is she took. My blood boiled at the sight, how can she be so beautiful, so genuine only seconds ago, and so stupid at the same time to get high that too right in front of me?
"I have a medical prescription. I'm not a d**g addict, Richard, I-I don't do drugs, I do drink but not drugs, no drugs. I-I am told that I have depression and anxiety and these pills help me when I'm about to lose it or when my anxiety is getting worse. Sometimes when I enter crowded places, I feel suffocating and find it hard sometimes . These pills help me at that times. I don't like taking them either, and when I get better, I will stop taking them. I don't do drugs, but I don't hate people who do drugs like you."
"I didn't-" I am speechless at the moment. Who is this person and more importantly, who is been living with me for the past three years!? This is not how I thought Jennifer is.
"You didn't know me. There is still a lot you didn't know about me, now let's go inside the bar, so that you can try out as a singer at Rock n Roll's bar." She laughed as she unlocked the doors and walked out of her car, I followed her.
"Woah, woah, now?" I grabbed her arm and she turned back. Not actually believing we are about to do this. I mean it's Rock n Roll bar. City's most popular one. Many celebrities come here.
"Are you serious? Like, you meant everything you said with the music thing?"
"God,you are unbelievable.." she pinched the top of my nose with her fingers which made me frown at her.
"What if I refuse the deal? What if I don't want to do this relationship thing?"
"Then we don't do it," She shrugged with a smirk. "I'm not a total freak, Richard. I am going to tell you about this genuinely even before I came with this deal."
"How do you even know this Rock n Roll bar guy?" I asked her.
Jennifer sighed "The bar owners ,Carlos and his brother, Patrick, they are friends with my brother. After he passed, I stayed in contact with some of his friends. Carlos had a tattoo shop then, Kay used to help him plan out the whole business thing. Carlos drew my brother's first tattoo. He did mine too. My brother was scared of needles."
She laughed and it's a genuine happy laugh . Then I realised that I've never heard Jennifer laugh until now, just like I had never been to her room before that day when we made out for hours, and I've never talked to her for more than 5 minutes, never talked to her for any other thing than insulting each other. I never imagined that I'd be in some sort of relationship with Jen, much less that I'd be interested in getting to know her because it seems that everything I know until now has been a little wrong.
We made our way inside the bar and were greeted by two boys, twins. One of them was covered in tattoos, the other one had a clear skin.
"Patrick, this is Richard, my boyfriend," She introduced me to the guy without tattoos. I couldn't help but choke at the word. For a moment, I didn't think she would say that. I mean I haven't even said yes yet and here she was, introducing me like that.
"Oh s**t, boyfriend? And here I thought you didn't have that word in your vocabulary. I'm Carlos, nice to meet you." The guy with the tattoos greeted me.
Carlos and Patrick explained to me what they wanted . What kind of song to sing and not to sing, nothing racist or offensive stuff .one or two sad songs, They didn't want me to make people depressed. Also Some requested songs and if I wanted to sing their song then I could.
With that, I went up to the stage, the lights are on me and to be honest, I wasn't even nervous, I've been signing all my life, singing is what I've always wanted to do,. I took the guitar from the guy and sit in front of the microphone. Far away at the VVIP lounge of the bar, Jennifer and four other guys, along with Patrick and Carlos is drinking and chatting very lively.
She smiled at me, something inside me thumped . I had to look away confused because of what I felt.
I don't even like her!
Ignoring what I just felt at seeing her smile, I sing like I always did and then Patrick asked for another one, and so I kept on singing and singing while people are showing up, sitting down and drinking. Just like that, I had a new job... Once I finished I heard clapping, I looked over at the crowd there are a lot of people, but Patrick and Jennifer are still sitting in the same place, now there are more people with them. Everyone was clapping but she isn't, she just looked at me with a weird expression on her face, and it made me feel uneasy.
Did she not like it? What did she think about it?