Chapter 62

Chapter 62: First Home Hearing his voice, Ms. Dave frowns as a quick look of awkwardness comes into her eyes. I suddenly feel a burst of courage, so I go answer the door before she gives me a permission. And there he is, standing outside the door and looking at me with a gentle smile on his face.

“You OK?” he asks in a low voice, lifting his hand to touch those scratches on my face. I nod and step aside, making way for him to come in.

Ms. Dave stands up from her seat and says in a cold voice, “Mr. Ramirez, I don’t see why you should come in here. Please wait outside till—”

“Till you blame everything on my sister and get her suspended? I don’t think so.”

He walks directly pass Ms. Dave’s table and takes his seat beside me. He is totally ignoring Valerie. I notice that Valerie’s face is twisting with anger and disbelief, which gives me an immense sense of pleasure.

“Carry on please?” Eason looks round the room. Ms. Dave takes in a deep breath and sits down with an icy face. She is probably weighing the situation and thinking if she should ignore Eason’s challenge to his authority.

Eventually, she speaks up slowly again, “As I was saying, based on the severeness of Miss Vale’s injury, I think it’s fair to give Miss Moore a detention this time”

Eason interrupts her immediately, “Severeness? She’s standing right there without a scratch, whereas my sister’s face is covered in blood. Are you not seeing this?”

Ms. Dave’s chest rises and falls quickly, as if she is trying very hard to contain her anger. “Miss Vale has a broken rib.”

“Is that so?” Eason lets out a cold sneer. “So if I drag her to down the hospital and do a medical examination on her to prove the injury now, she’ll also be fine with that?”

I want to laugh, but suddenly Valerie lets out a sharp cry. She springs out of her seat and yells, “Eason!

H-how can you do this to me!”

Eason stares at her up and down critically and chuckles, “With this kind of agility I’d say your rib is perfectly fine.”..

“I am your girlfriend!” Valerie screams, blushing furiously. “She is not even related to you! What on earth got into your head?!”

Eason stands up from his seat as well and faces her, “You are never my girlfriend Valerie. You know it perfectly well. I only chose to ignore your stupid act because I didn’t want to bother myself with all the screaming, hysteria and explanation. But now, I’m tired of it. We are done.”

Valerie’s eyes widen, as her body shakes like a leaf in the wind. She clenches her fists and murmurs hysterically, “No…no I don’t believe it. Everyone in the school knows…that we are a perfect couple! No one deserves you, except me!”

But no one is listening to her anymore. Eason turns to Ms. Dave and asks, “So?”

Ms. Dave sighs, “Fine. If Miss Vale doesn’t want to press this anymore, I guess you are free to leave.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

Thank God.

If Eason hadn’t gotten here on time, they would have skinned me alive for sure.

But Eason stands here still, “Ms. Dave, I hope you can get one thing straight. You and Valerie made a false accusation against my sister and hurt her feelings. I’m not letting this slip away this easily. You will hear from our lawyer within three days.”

What? Even I can’t believe my ears.

He is threatening the headmaster?? Is it even possible?

Ms. Dave’s face is contorted with rage now, “Eason, there’s no need to make a fuss about this and involve your lawyer.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Eason replies coldly and offers his hand to me. “Come, Nat.”

I immediately place my hand in his palm and let him take me away. Before we exit the door, he stops and looks at Ms. Dave again.

“Oh and just to remind you, Ms. Dave. Sometimes because of Natalia’s last name, people tend to forget that she is a Ramirez…but she is. So I hope you can treat her with the respect she deserves in the future.”

That is…so incredibly inspiring and touching.

My mind keeps replaying those words he said as he takes me out of the building “Wait,” I stop before we enter the parking lot. “Where are you taking me?”

“I don’t think you are still in the mood for school after this?” he looks back and smiles. “I’m taking you somewhere else, to cheer you up.”

I can’t help but smile with him, “And where is that?”

“What do you say,we take a quick tour to our new apartment?” “It’s ready?” I gasp, “So quick? I thought it’ll take you months to find a suitable apartment.”

“But we don’t have months, do we?” he holds me in his arms. “We’ll both go to college soon. And who knows how long we’ll stay here?” Oh yes. College.

My heart sinks a bit thinking about it.

My future hasn’t even settled yet, and I didn’t even ask him about his plan. Maybe he wants to go to Europe for college and that’ll leave us only a few months to be together. We have lesser time than we realize. But now hardly seems like a proper moment to launch such a heavy topic. So I swallow back my thoughts and follow him into his car.

Half an hour later, he stops the car in a quiet and nice neighborhood and says, “OK we’re here.”

“This is it?” I look through the window, a bit surprised. He smiles mysteriously, taking my hand and leading me upstairs.

I’ve asked him not to choose an overly expensive apartment. But knowing his way of living, I didn’t expect him to follow my requirement faithfully at all.

Yet this apartment turns out to be exactly what I wanted: cozy, nice, not very large but is perfect for two people. I instantly fall in love with the living room, which has a huge glass window to allow enough sun light into the room. I can already picture us lying on the wooden floor on a lazy afternoon, falling asleep bathed in the sunshine.

“You like it?” he wraps his arms around my waist from behind, resting his chin on my shoulder.

“Oh my god…yes!” I take in a huge breath, nodding non-stop. “I love it. I absolutely love it!”

He laughs out, picking me up and carries me to the couch. I raise my head to kiss him the moment he puts me down. We sit there quietly and kiss each other. I’ve never felt this happy and peaceful in a long time.

After a while, he slightly detaches from my lips and whispers, “You know…I just realized that this is my first home.” “Nonsense,” I laugh. “You have lots of houses and apartments.” His long finger coils a lock of my hairs, “Yes, but those are like real estates, not home. Mom and dad grew apart for years, so our house never felt like home to me. I got more freedom after I moved out, but I felt lonely from time to time.”

I tease, “Not even with all your girlfriends’ accompany?”

His face darkens a bit, “I feel like you are going to use it against me for a very long time. Give me a number so that I can be prepared.” “How about ten years?” I giggle. He gives me peck on the forehead, “shorter than I expected. I can live with that.”

My heart swells with happiness as I lie on the couch side-by-side with him. I know he has been lonely for a long time because of his parent’s unhappy marriage. So I’ve always wanted to fix things for him, to make things right.

“You know…I have a confession to make,” I turn my face to him. “I asked the butler for the video.”

The gentle smile on his face immediately freezes, “…you what?”

“Please don’t be mad, OK?” I hold his hand, “The video you made for my mom’s anniversary party? You said something in the video to them, right? I wanted to show it to them, so I asked the butler to send me the video behind your back. I ruined the party, so I should be the one to amend it. Do you think we can find an opportunity to—”

“Have you looked at it yet?” he interrupts me.

“Hmm not yet but-”

He shoves me aside roughly and sits up, then looks at me with a set of cold eyes.

“Who gives you the right to do that!” he growls furiously. “You have no right to meddle with my business.

Promise me you will never do such things again!!”

I am so stunned and confused. Why is he so angry? I thought that he might be uncomfortable with this and that’s why I’m giving him a head – up before showing the video to my mom. But does he need to be so rude???

“What’s the matter with you?” I sit up as well, feeling embarrassed. “I know I shouldn’t have gone behind your back, but I was only doing this for you! If you are uncomfortable with it, I can just delete it. No need to yell, OK?”

His chest heaves and he closes his eyes temporarily to calm himself down. After a short moment, he opens his eyes again and says in a low voice, “You are right babe, I shouldn’t yell at you. I’m sorry.”

I’m still pissed. He sits back down and holds me in his arms, “My history with my parents is very complicated. And it’s going to take more than one video to fix our relationship. I need to take things slow.

And I hope you can understand and respect that.”

I bite my lips and nod, “I know…of course I respect you.”

“Can you delete the video then?” he asks.

I guess I can. I take out the phone and find the email from the butler. I hesitate a short second before deleting it, since I really want to see what he said.

“Not even for me?” I beg. “Please, surely I can see it.”

His jaw tenses, “Sorry babe. Please wait till I’m ready.”

I sigh deeply and hit “delete.” Now I regret not checking out the video first before telling him the truth.

His face lights up again, “Thank you. Are you hungry? You want something to eat?”

I nod, and then shake my head, “Yes…but I don’t feel like going out.”

“No problem. I’ll get a take-out and we can eat here,” he grabs his car key and kisses me. “I’ll pick up a few things from the penthouse and we can stay here for the night. Can you wait for me?”

I say yes and he leaves.

So except for the drama with Valerie and the short break out, today is aning really well. I stretch my body on the sofa and take out my phone.

Surprisingly, I find a weird message from Jenna: