Like No Other Man

Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning to Jonah jumping and singing on my bed.

I groaned, pulling a pillow over my head as he sang to Go Diego Go's theme song.

"Jonah." I whined,

Last night, I stayed up late finishing Mr. Barlow's plans and trying to figure out a way to help Gracie without my brother finding out which is hard considering they live together, and the news just loves to report every goddamn thing.

I rolled out of bed, glaring at Jonah, but he was too busy listening to Diego to notice.

I refreshed my mouth and face before getting into the shower. Once I was done bringing some energy and life into my skin, I stepped out and dried off.

Jonah was still in the room when I stepped out and I got dressed. I wore a light pale-yellow shirt, blue skinny jeans, and black pumps.

I took my hair out from its twist that I did every night and let fall down my back.

"Jonah, go get ready. We have places to go." I said, putting on my earrings.

He whined and groaned, reluctantly turning the TV off before going to his room.

I walked to the kitchen and began to make breakfast.

While I was cooking up some bacon, someone knocked on the door.

It was strange for me to get visits especially in the morning.

I walked over to the door and peeked out for the curtain on the side.

"Mateo?" I said out loud and opened the door to reveal my brother.

"Charli, hey." He said and pulled me into a bone crushing hug.

"I saw you yesterday bro." I wheezed out, patting his chest.

"Sorry." He said and pulled away.

I let him in and closed the door. We walked into the kitchen and I resumed to making breakfast while he leaned against the counter.

"I need your help, Charli." Was how he started off.

I froze, looking up to the window, but didn't turn around.

"What did you do now?" I sighed,

"It's not for me." He said, shaking his head.

I hummed a response and placed the bacon on a plate, eating one now.

I gave him my full attention as I turned around and leaned against the counter.

He took a deep breath before resuming.

"Grace... I know what's happening to her, but she doesn't know. Her professor is a rival of mine. I've asked a friend of mine to keep tabs on him and my friend found out that he's been harassing Grace. I want you to get information out of Grace for me." He said, looking around like a crazy man.

Grace and Mateo. What a pair.

"I think we need to have a talk. With Grace present, of course." I said, straightening up.

"No! She doesn't know that I know! She's trying to protect me by not telling me because she thinks I'd kill the son of a bitch." Mateo said,

After he said that we both shared a look.

"Ok, maybe she has a right from hiding this from me." He muttered,

"Look, I have things to do with Jonah, but I should be done by one in the afternoon. We'll meet at your restaurant and we'll discuss it from there together." I said,

Mateo was going to protest, but Jonah came running into the kitchen ready and dressed.

"Hi, uncle Mat!" Jonah said and quickly hugged him before coming over to me.

I handed him his plate of food and Mateo helped him onto the chair.

I poured two cups of coffee for me and Mateo listened to Jonah talk about learning to read.

We soon left the house, Mateo walking to his own car.

"Baby, go into the car. I have to talk to uncle Mateo." I said,

"Ok. Bye uncle!" Jonah said and they hugged before he got into the car.

"I still think we shouldn't tell Grace that I know." He objected,

"Look, you'll understand it all later today. Get in your car and go to work." I said sternly,

He rolled his eyes at me but got into the car after we said goodbye.

I got into the car and turned it on.

Mateo backed out my place first and then me.

"Ok, let's get to doing our list." I said, pulling my list of errands that I had in my bag.

It was in alphabetical order just like many other things. It was my way of order.

~~~~~~

Many hours later, we were finally done.

I drove to Mateo's restaurant, calling Grace and Mateo on the way.

I parked in an available parking space and got out.

I held Jonah's hand as we walked into the restaurant. The workers here already knew me so I walked in with ease.

I found Mateo and Grace sitting at the back away from the midday crowd.

"Jonah, go to Mateo's office. You know where it is, and I'll get you when I'm done here." I said, bending down to his height.

He nodded his head and ran off to the office.

"Ok, now let's get through this." I sighed, taking a seat.

"What happened?" Grace asked, playing clueless.

"Grace, Mateo knows about your professor." I stated blatantly,

Her eyes widened and I continued.

"He knew for a long time because he paid someone to stalk the man or something like that." I said,

"Mateo!" Grace gasped and smacked his arm.

"I'm sorry." He whined as Grace nagged him.

"Now, my friend. He's a lawyer, a good one to." Mateo said, changing the direction of the conversation.

"What's his name?" I asked,

"You don't know how him, but his name is Luca Derain. He's more of a private lawyer and he's a good friend of mine. I trust him and know he can help us." Mateo said,

"I told him to come here today, so he should be arriving any moment now." Mateo stated,

I shook my head and my cellphone suddenly rang. I excused myself from the table to answer Mr. Barlow.

"Charli Rose, you are a genius. A beautiful and spectacular genius. Famous Reporter, Asia was there, and she wrote about me in her news column. She spoke of how delighted everything and complimented you." He rambled off and I couldn't help but smile triumphally.

Another win another day!

"Thank you, Mr. Barlow. I'm just about done finalizing everything with us. I'm so glad that everything turned out great." I replied,

He thanked me again and shortly after we hung up. I walked back to the table, but this time another man was there. My eyes managed to widen a fraction before I caught myself and stopped.

Luca Derain was a sight to behold. He was tall, tough looking, and hot!

He had dark dirty blonde hair that hung loosely and messy on top of his head, dark cadet blue eyes, was tanned to a tone that suited him, and gosh his lips were wet and just so kissable. He wore a dark navy-blue suit that clearly showed all the muscles he had underneath. He smiled showing me two straight white rows of teeth.

As I looked closely, at the very top of his collar and below his hair there peeked dark ink, leaving the rest to the power of imagination. A lawyer with tattoos. What's hotter than that?

"Hello." I said as I reached the table they looked up.

"Luca, this is my little sister, Charli. She's a well-known event planner and is amazing at it." Mateo stated,

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Charli." He said, getting up.

We shook hands firmly before sitting.

"Mrs. Rose, I'm here to help you. Mateo here, asked me to dig up things on your boss, Demetrius Carlson and he's a dirty man that I'll bring down for your safety and many others." Luca said,

"Please, call me Grace. A friend of Mateo doesn't need to be so formal and I feel assured now that you'll succeed." Grace said, smiling at him.

We all talked about measures that could be taken and I pointed out on a lot of things.

"Mrs. Rose?" He said, referring to me.

"Ms. Rose." I corrected,

"My apologies, I thought you were married." He said, raising his hands in surrender.

"What gave you that impression?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He simply shrugged and unbuttoned his blazer.

"You seem very knowledgeable on Mr. Carlson." He said,

"I do my homework." I retorted and he grinned at me.

I shifted uncomfortable at his stare and cleared my throat.

"I also worked with him for a time, during his cooking events. His goal was to basically show off his skills and he's very picky with a lot of things. It was quite difficult for me to work with him." I explained,

"That's excellent information, Ms. Rose." Luca said, nodding his head.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to ask for your assistance in this case. Carlson is quite private and difficult to get close to and someone like you who has so much knowledge on him could be an advantage to me." Luca stated,

I was about to respond back to him but was interrupted.

"Mommy, I'm hungry. Uncle Mat is out of cookies in his office!" Jonah came whining,

He stopped beside me and looked at me as if I had food ready to eat.

"Mateo, go fetch us some food. My baby is hungry." I said, lifting Jonah onto my lap.

"Sorry for keeping you in the office for so long, honey." I said and kissed his cheek.

He immediately began to pretend that he was angry and pouted, crossing his arms.

"I don't know." He said,

"Please baby." I said and rubbed his back.

I gave him the puppy dog look which always broke the both of us into doing into what the other wanted.

"Well, there's a certain toy robot that just came out that accepts apologizes." He said casually,

I gasped at his antics.

"Touché, darling. Touché." I said but agreed to buy the toy he wanted.

"So, this is your child?" Luca asked,

"Yes. This is Jonah." I said, looking up at him.

"Nice to meet you, sir." Jonah said, waving at him.

"Nice to meet you too, Jonah. I'm Luca." Luca said, waving back at him.

Mateo soon came back with food for everyone. I pulled a seat up and Jonah sat down and ate.

"I'd like to help you, Luca so if there's any information you need, you can just contact me." I finally answered,

"That's good to hear." He replied,

"I'm so glad that you both will work together." Grace cheered while we simply stared at each other.

"Me too." Mateo agreed,

"Great, now I have to go pick Sophie up at the day care, so I'll see you all later." She said and got up.

We said our goodbyes and I got up with Jonah.

"Let's go, honey. We'll buy the toy on our way home." I said as we walked out the restaurant after saying goodbye.

I unlocked the door and Jonah got in. I was about to get when someone called my name.

I looked up to see Luca walking over to me.

"Yes?" I asked, looking up at him.

He smiled down at me and I watched as he ran his hand through his hair and briefly looked around.

"So, since we'll be both helping Grace out, I think we should meet up soon so that I can get the information." He said,

"Well, I'll have to see when I have a break because I'm finishing some work with a client." I said,

"Well, I'm sure you'll find some time to share with me." He stated and stepped closer.

My breath caught in my throat as I leaned against my car. He placed his hand on one side of my head before leaning down slightly.

"I actually love kids, I'm great with them. If you want, after finding some free time, I can take you and Jonah out for lunch. I heard Chuck-a-Cheeses has a new game." Luca said in a low husky voice.

I watched him lick his lips and glance down at my mouth that was parted.

"I-I... ok." I breathed dazed by his eyes.

"Great, my number is ******. I'll ask Mateo for your number seeing you're... a bit flustered." He said and pushed a strand of my hair back.

He stepped back and walked away, disappearing around the curb.

Once I finally came to my senses, I realized something. I think he was hitting on me.

It's been so long that I don't even remember when someone is flirting with me.

I took a deep breath before getting into the car and drove off to buy him the toy.