Chương 9: 9. Too Sudden.
"You called me suddenly.." She sipped her milkshake. "Is everything okay? " She peered into his discomforting pale black eyes.
He laughed sarcastically. "Is it now sudden to call you? Huhn? " He answered rather displeased.
"That's not what I meant, I was on my work break. I've got just about twenty minutes here" She said.
"That's why I chose to come over and we are at the restaurant you always spend your breaks, I won't take your time" He said back.
"Okay" She smiled and took a longer sip.
"Have I done something, Rissa?" He rested his arms on the table. "Not picking my calls frequently, ignoring my texts.. " He added.
Rissa sighed and dropped the milkshake. "I can't give you what you want, Lawrence " She said calmly.
"The only thing I have basically asked for is-uhm-your permission to love you " He said holding his fingers. "That was all" He stated.
"Which I granted " She nodded. "I can't allow it anymore-I mean--I just can't " She wasn't sure how she was going to explain to him that the only man who caught her interest which was kind of annoying was Luke Maddins and after that crazy moment they had yesterday, she wanted more of it. They had not had sex but things had happened between and he kept all saying he loved her and she should always hold on to him which she didn't quite understand why he had said that but it didn't matter.
"Is it Luke? " He raised his brows in anticipation. "Is there something between you both?" Lawrence was really hurt and nervous at the same time.
How did he know that? "Uhm--what do you mean? "She stuttered.
"You should have seen him on Sunday, I dropped him off at your place, he couldn't wait to see you. I didn't know what to think" He said and his voice shook, he had thought he found the woman he was ready to love and quit all his bad boy ways for but it might seem not the case now.
"Oh" She tried to avoid his accusing eyes.
"Are you both friends?"
"Not entirely" She shook her head in disapproval.
"Are you a thing then?" He pointed his two index fingers at each other to explain the 'thing' part..
She almost laughed at the way he made his two index fingers touched each other was very funny.
"I wouldn't say that" She managed to reply, what kind of person was she trying to laugh at such a serious moment, it would be ridiculous.
"What are you then?" He seemed confused.
She actually could not answer that, they had done things friends wouldn't but they weren't dating either and it was certainly not friends with benefits at least not for Luke.
"You don't know?" He laughed, his laugh giving off mockery.
"See-" Her voice turned stern. "It doesn't matter, all I know is that I can't just continue seeing you" She stood up.
"Am I supposed to back off then?" He got up too.
"Yes pls" She pleaded.
"On one condition" He answered.
"What?"
"Do you like him?" He peered into her eyes.
Rissa felt great whenever she was with him. "Yeah" She nodded casually.
"Do you like Luke? I mean like him affectionately?" He asked again.
She couldn't answer that, she wasn't sure if the likeness she had would stay if they had sex or it wouldn't. The only way to find out won't happen soon because Luke might be against fornication.
"My thoughts too" He smiled satisfactorily. "Till you can tell me to my face that you love him, don't expect me to back down, Rissa" He stated.
Rissa sighed and walked out, Lawrence had every right to want to try and continue trying. The worse she could do was turn him down at every instances, she wouldn't blame him. She wasn't even mad at him but herself for leading him on knowing fully well that she felt nothing for him but if she thought about it a little bit properly, she had not initiate anything. He was the one busy making the first moves all along.
"Where have you been?" Lola said as she saw Rissa climb up the stairs looking lost.
"At Springles" She replied
"You said you were going to see someone, so you went to the restaurant without me and made me eat diet food here!" She gnashed her teeth.
Rissa smiled, at least if she felt down or if she lost Luke or anyone, she would always have Lola.
"I met with Lawrence" She said as they walked together.
"Oh?" She snapped. "Is everything alright?"
"I told him to back off but it looks like he made up his mind not to and he knows about Luke too" She explained.
"Whao!Girl " She only drooled.
"What?" She rolled her eyes at her.
"I envy you, two men are ready to fight for your love while we are still looking for a single one" She laughed.
"Shut up!" She laughed with her. "We were in that road together until I went to that church" The church had brought about a lot she had not expect to happen.
"Wait!" She paused in her tracks and Rissa stopped too.
"What is it again?" She watched her dazzled face.
"What if I go to that church too?" She smiled brightly at her. "Who knows?" She shrugged.
Rissa only laughed. "You are crazy, girl. I'm not sure you would love it" She said and continued walking.
"It doesn't matter" She hurried to catch up with her. " I would be there for the men" She teased.
"Let's hope the Lord accepts that" She glanced at her.
"I heard he's understanding, so he would get that " She said back and two friends laughed it off as they walked on.
They were in bed together entangled in each other's arms and stark naked feeling their temperature, he smelt really nice as he rested his head quietly on her head. "Stop staring at me like that" He said between breaths with his eyes shut. "Why not?" She smiled. "I want to look at you" She kissed his bare chest.
"Promise me something Marissa" He raised her head to look at him.
"What is it? You literally own me now"
"Promise to always do whatever makes you happy with or without me? And I will forever love you" His eyes were blazing with compassion.
"What are you talking about? I'm always happy with you" She seemed caught of guard by his words.
"Just promise" He insisted.
"Ok fine" She smiled.
He pulled her into him and kissed her tenderly on the lips.
He got out of the bed still naked.
"Where are you headed?" She sat up. "Naked?" She licked her lips teasingly.
"I love you" He smiled and walked out of the room.
Why was he behaving strange? She thought to herself. She grabbed the blanket and got out of bed, stepping out of the huge room, she looked along the hallways but he wasn't there. She stood above the down floor holding on to the railing but he wasn't there also, the house seemed really quiet.
"Luke!!!" She called now getting scared. She only heard her own voice, nothing more. Suddenly the lights went off, "Luke!!!" She yelled again as the tears crowded her eyes.
Her heart was beating so fast, she let the blanket drop, being naked she ran downstairs. "Luke!!!" She called louder but it all echoed back...
Rissa swung out of sleep panting really heavily like she had ran a marathon. She grabbed her phone off the dresser's desk. "Past two" She muttered. "What sort of dream was that?" She wiped the bead of sweat off her forehead with the back of her palm.
"I'm not the dreamer type" She said to herself. "Do I like him that much to dream of him" She said again.
She sighed and laid her hand on her chest, the way her heart was still racing was shocking. Why did she have to see Luke in her dream? What did the damn dream mean? He left her or what had happened? She truly wasn't into dreams, she would probably wait till the day breaks and ask her Mom about it because it really troubled her.
She dropped the phone back on the desk and fell her head back on the bed, trying to catch some sleep again ...
"Did you sleep well?" Rose asked as she nibbled on her spoon, she could see the eye bags and her eyes were so pale and red too. She wasn't even putting any make-up to cover the hag face she had woke up with.
"Not entirely" She cut into her two layer pancakes.
"Why?" She dropped her spoon.
"I don't even know if it's a nightmare, I dreamt and when I woke up. I couldn't sleep no more" She wiped her face lazily.
"Oh" She smiled, Rissa wasn't the likeliest person to have dreams. "What was it?"
"I dreamt about someone close to me and in that dream I was probably having a conversation with the person then I didn't see the person anymore" She didn't want her mom to know she was busy dreaming about Luke.
"I see" Rose seemed to be thinking it through. "It only means two things that I am sure about" She said gently.
"What and what?" She asked.
"The person left you without you knowing it" She said squeezing her eyes.
"Second?"
"Death" She seemed to question her own answer, why would Rissa be having such dreams.
Rissa was taken aback. "Death?" She felt really paranoid.
Rose noticed and took her hands. "Some dreams aren't even true, you probably dreamt of the person because it's in your mind, that's all" She hoped that consoled the situation.
"Huhn?"
"Some dreams are just there to mess up with our day, it's alright" She patted her head.
"You think so?" She asked. "I was really scared" She admitted.
"It's alright, darling" She got up and wrapped her hands around her neck. "It's nothing, hopefully " She kissed her forehead.
Luke was pacing around the house carelessly with a mug of coffee in his hand, he was think about what had happened between he and Rissa and it dawned on him that he didn't even regret it one bit and he was happy with the fact that she considerate with the fact that he might not want them to have sex yet even though he wanted to do that so desperately, with her, nothing virtually worked well except his heart and his hormones.
He had the thought of Brazel, he was yet to contact his personal manager. He just wasn't sure if he would take the offer, he didn't want to regret it later on, he stared at the wall clock and he went into his room realizing he had to be somewhere important for now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's nice to finally meet you" Steve shook hands with Luke. "I always called Rose and she had said someone was making my daughter feel butterflies" He smiled like a proud father.
Steve looked like he was in his late 50s, he looked really built with his muscles protruding at such a age. Was he a fitness guru or what? The little wrinkles only added to his elderly face but he looked healthy and so was Ms. Howly. Her family just had the gene of looking good and she had gotten her blue eyes from him though his were dim.
"Nice to meet you too, Mr Oteo" He smiled. He had picked an open bar to have a sensitive conversation with Rissa's dad.
"You are the Pastor guy?" He pointed his index finger at him. "Luke Maddins?"
Whao! Guess there wasn't much introduction to be done. "Yes sir" He nodded.
"Great" He seemed really high spirited. The way Rissa had portrayed Steve, one would think he was the devil himself but he was the total opposite.
"How about you meet Rissa and get to talk to her?" He began taking a mouthful of the black Guinness.
The man smiled off sarcastically and also took a drink. "Do you think I haven't tried?" He waved his hand to throw away the idea. "She detests me"
Luke watched his eyes change from casual to hurt but he was seriously trying to hide it with those fake smiles.
"She doesn't!" He countered. "She detests the fact that you abandoned her" He added.
"Buh- I didn't!" He said sharply now clearly hurt.
"Where were you during her college years?" He asked back.
"I was granted access to my child but she didn't want to see me, everyday I called Rose how she was going about her college then she told me she got admitted into University of Houston, every day I was at the school to just get a glimpse of my daughter or if anyone would try bully her or something since she didn't give me the chance to teach her how to protect herself but my daughter was very strong. She fought her own battles and I watched from a distance. I was so--proud" He held a smile and sniffed, he took a long gulp from the beer.
"You are a great dad" He seemed impressed. He had not been given a chance to meet with his dad, he didn't know how it was to be a son to a father but he hoped to be a good one to his kids, at least.
"She doesn't think that" He said folding his hands and feeling the chills of the weather.
"You aren't giving up, are you?" He asked watching the man look disappointed in himself.
"How could I?" He snapped. "She means the whole world to me even my wife knows that. I don't regret my marriage with Rose, it was an eventful sixteen years with her and I had Rissa, of course. It was great" He said this time smiling genuinely.
"I'm sure she would come around soon" He tried to sound assuring.
"She won't listen to you, so don't worry yourself " He said nonchalantly.
"Who says I was going to say anything? " He shrugged.
"What are you going to do then? " He said back.
"That's up to me" He smiled really confident of whatever he had in mind.
"I'm gonna keep hopes optimistic then" He stood up. He placed his hand on his thick shoulder. "It was great talking to you Luke but I have to run along now, I have to go pick the boys from kindergarten" He smiled.
"Sure-sir" He also stood up. "It was nice talking to you" They both shook hands and Steve went away, walking really brisk.
He went into his car and drove off at the start of the engine.
Luke sat back and picked his phone off the table, he paused the recording. He had been recording his conversation with Mr Steve Oteo, he knew it was wrong to do that. It was the least he could think of to make Rissa come to terms with her dad and probably give him a chance to talk to her if she heard how much the man loved her, he sent it to her on WhatsApp and hoped it helped the father and daughter situation between the two of them.
Rissa returned from work really exhausted because today she had about two long surgeries and emergencies had popped in at occasions, all she wanted to do right now was eat some snacks and sleep till dinner. She dragged her legs up the stairs and into her room, her mom wasn't home. Probably, she had gone to see some church friends as always.
She pulled off her outfit and threw them into the laundry basket, she stepped into the shower ready to take a chill bath even though the weather wasn't friendly. Immediately the water hit her head she smiled in satisfaction, grabbing her body soap from it's place she began rubbing herself. She made sure every part had it's own share of the Rose-milk scented soap, then the water kept washing it off. Once she was done, she pushed her fingers through her hair massaging her head, it all felt good. She had woke up awfully and didn't get to do this, once that was done and she had washed her feet. She stayed in the water for a bit longer before turning it off, she grabbed her white towel off the rack and stepped out, took another towel and bandaged her wet hair with it.
Sitting in front of the dresser, staring at herself, she grabbed her phone off the dresser. Luke had dropped her a message, he had not called which she had actually forgotten but at least he left her a message, she clicked into his DM and it turned out to be an audio.
She had been still for about five minutes after she had listened to the whole audio, she was struck shut. She held her head in her hands as she thought of the whole thing, she could not believe that she had been too hard on her father, who was trying so hard to get close to her and she had put him at arm's length, she was actually the selfish one and the fact that she had just admitted that was quite painful, she wouldn't say it was entirely her fault. She had every right to feel and act that way especially someone she looked up to and loved but it looked like she had not given the man a chance to at least explain himself, he wasn't wrong. He loved her which she knew very much, the hot tears all flooded down her face as she thought about everything.
She picked up her phone, hoping she still had his number. Well, fortunately she still did, she dialed his line with shaking hands and sniffing really hard. He picked it on the first ring like he had been waiting for her to call along, maybe he had been, she couldn't tell.
"He--Hello" She managed wiping her eyes.
"Rissa?" He sounded like he had seen a ghost.
"Uhm--I-I--"
"Are you okay?" He was worried now, she could tell.
"Can we meet and talk sometime?" She sumed up all the strength she had.
"Yes sweetie" He replied immediately but she could sense the excitement in his voice.
"Weekend? At the park?" She asked again.
"Definitely" He said back.
There was a quick five seconds silence before she spoke again.
"I have to go now"
"Sure-sure, bye"
"Bye" She disconnected.
Rissa felt really relieved as she made that call with her dad, it was all because of Luke Maddins. This man being doing things she didn't expect to happen in her life and she felt really grateful for it.
What does that dream scenery mean to you? ; )
When you have dreams, do you take them seriously or it's just your fascination?
How long have you waited for the reconciliation of Steve and Rissa? I waited forever. : )
Don't forget to Like, Vote and Comment, thank you so much..
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