Getting to know Him

CHAPTER 24

She checked her wristwatch and realized they have been driving for twenty minutes, silently. She had no idea where they were headed. She had only gone to his room earlier that morning to tell him she has finally decided to agree to his suggestion, why wouldn’t she? She had absolutely nothing to lose. She had carefully thought about it the previous night and realized, she was just given the opportunity to write the best book she has ever written and she was determined to make it worthwhile. She has always known Debby to be who she is, as slutty and ambitious and selfish. Determined to get whatever she wants at any cost, regardless of who ever get burnt as a result of this.

 It is a collateral damage.

 Now, she has the chance to know Francis, to get close to him so see the reason why he succumbed to be used in this manner. It will go a long way in building her plot and she can make it as realistic as possible. She was having a great feeling about this and she knew everything was going to work out as planned and who knows, perhaps, she may become a Bestseller or not. Either ways, she gets to graduate and to be published. 

This morning, she had only told him after cleaning his room and the next thing he said was to follow him and they had got into his car and they were still driving. She was at the front seat.  He had said nothing and she had said nothing for the past twenty..plus minutes.

She sighed as her phone vibrated for the fourth time and Luke’s face came up on the screen, yet again she pressed the red button.

“You might wanna get that”

He spoke at last, in an husky voice. She was surprised. He finally said something.

“Its nothing” She replied with a total lack of interest.

“He is been calling you for the tenth time”

“It’s the fourth time and he?” She frowned, facing him.”How did he know he‘s a he?”

He shrugged. “Just a hunch.”

“He will be okay.” She replied. She knew she was being cruel to Luke, she hadn’t been picking his call since the for some weeks now, since the day she left him at the café.

“By the way, where are we going?” she asked, changing the topic.

“We are almost there.”

“We have been driving for twenty minutes..” She continued

“Do I seem like a kidnapper?”

“Francis Nicholas, the Billionaire’s son kidnapped a lady’ does make a great headline, 

don’t you think?”

Francis laughed. She hadn’t expected him to laugh. She wasn’t trying to be funny.

“You are crazy, you know? But, remember you work for me now, I can take you anywhere I wanna take you and I don’t owe you any explanation for that.” His face looked dead serious.

She was getting pissed off. “What happened to you? You used to be nicer, a perfect gentleman and now you are just being mean”

“You never knew me Rosa, you are getting to know me. This is the real me so keep quiet and stop asking questions..”

They were distracted by a car behind theirs, that was flashing its headlights. It was a red BMW.

Francis  frowned as he check his front mirror, then he pulled the brake slowly and parked the car to the side of the road.

The BMW parked behind them and a lady stepped out of the car.

Black hair of wool on a head held high. She was shorter than average and certainly larger than  catwalk model. Skinny jean, white Calvin  Klein T-shirt, red heels. She looked quite simple but in her ordinariness, she was attractive. Something radiated from within that made her so irresistible to both gender.

Rosa and Francis looked at her from Francis’s side mirror, they must have said “WOW” at the same time.

As she drew nearer, he pressed a button which rolled down his window and the lady’s pretty face came into view.

“Hi Francis”

She said in a sing-song voice, totally ignoring Rosa.

“Hey” Francis replied. “I apologize, I don’t seem to remember you”

She leaned closer, so that her whole body was resting against the car. There was a rich scent of lavender in the car.

“I know you Francis Nicholas.” She replied seductively. “I saw you on TV, with your father and I must say you look even more beautiful in person”

Now Rosa could get a better understanding.

“Okay. Thank you for the compliments miss..” Francis started but the lady cut in-

“Call me Tracey and this is my card, call me anytime  for whatever you need” She leaned closer that Rosa almost expected she was going to kiss Francis but she only stressed the word “Anything and anytime. It will be my pleasure. Francis Nicholas”

Francis nodded with a fake smile and a fake thumbs up. She seemed satisfied, handed him her card , blew him a kiss and walked back to her car.

Neither of them said anything as the lady drove beside them, rolled down her window, winked and laughed, then drove away.

Francis passed her the business card.

She collected it.”What do I do with it?”

He shrugged as he turned on the ignition key. “Whatever you think’

Rosa read the inscriptions on the card. The lady was Tracey Coco and she owned a fashion line called CoCo.

“Super.” She grimaced and tucked the card in her purse. Now she is keeping records of ladies that make a pass at Francis. Just great!

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She must have slept off the rest of the journey . she had no idea how far they had driven after the encounter with the lady. She woke up After some as the car came to a halt.

Rosa looked around, they were parked beside a tree. Actually there were several rows of tall trees in a vast land. It has a space that could accommodate ten bungalows which could each be fenced differently and still have enough spaces within each compound. It was a large area of land and each corner was flanked by tall trees and beautiful flowers.

“We are here” Francis said to her as he unfastened his seat belt. Curiosily, she did likewise and stepped down from the car.

She followed him as he walked down. She could notice some men were working on the land, a part of the area was covered with marbles and there was a marble headstone just at the center of the area enclosed with marble. Someone was writing an epithet on it.

One of the men recognized Francis and came closer. They exchanged pleasantries and Francis walked with him to the tombstone. Rosa watched  curiously as he kept on pointing out something to the man working on the tombstone.

Afterwards, he came back to meet her.

“Rosa, this is my mother’s tomb.”

She looked surprised. “Your mother is dead?”

He nodded. “so many years ago. She died shortly after giving birth to me, I never knew her. But my aunt buried her here, so I bought the land for her last week, I am going to decorate this whole place with flowers to honor her. I will do the same to my aunt’s grave . It’s a shame they never made it till this moment when I could have given them the world ,,I will honor them in death”

Rosa had never seen him so sad. He looked just like the same old Francis that she knew then before he travelled. She had liked that Francis perhaps, he is still the same.

“I am so sorry about your aunt and your mother. I have no idea.”

His head hung low and she felt sorry for him. Though she had lost her own parents too, she felt sorry for him and she put a hand on his arm to console him.

“I lost my parents at a tender age too, so I understand how you feel”

This made him look up, he gave a weak smile.

“Thanks Rosa. I was bringing you here to tell you where it all started. There is a diner somewhere close, I bet you are hungry, come let’s go.”

Together, they walked back to the car.

THIS WAS REALLY THE LONGEST CHAPTER YET I THINK. SO ANOTHER CHAPTER IS COMING RIGHT UP. ROSA BEGINS TO LEARN ABOUT FRANCIS' PAST TO HELP DEVELOP HER NOVEL..HMM IS IT JUST FOR HER NOVEL? I MEAN, STAYING WITH SUCH A CUTE GUY AND SPENDING THE ENTIRE DAY WITH HIM..I AM JUST SAYING OH..BUT I'M SURE YOU ARE PONDERING WHAT I'M PONDERING. LOL.