A Wife for the Billionaire
Chapter 64: SOFIA

Chapter 64: SOFIA

For a day that held such stakes, it was beautiful.

The sky was arrayed in a gorgeous display of white fluffs over an endless stretch of startling blue.

The air smelled of new beginnings, hope and various corporeal wafts like that of coffee, freshly baked confectioneries, blooming flowers, fresh paint, even stenches of exhaust pipes, dogs shit and waste as I made my way to Charlie’s Vet.

Dressed in what I hoped was corporate enough, a blue flare-sleeved shirt, tucked into a gray crepe skirt. A pair of Mary Jane’s on my feet. My hair pulled up in a tight bun, accentuating my faded gold earrings.

The same earrings I had on yesterday. The same ones I had on the day I was

dropped off at the Blake Mansion.

It was a gift from my mom, Joan. It just occurred to me that this is actually the first time I’m stating her name here.

I kept the earrings with me even though I want to hate her, even though a part of me wants to be rid of it.

I wear them as a reminder that there was once a time my life had been perfect. A time when someone had loved me.

Most times like today after dressing, I finger the earrings affectionately, reminiscing on the happier days.

It had been part of my seventh birthday present. The second to last birthday celebration I had before birthdays became a personal ritual of wishing myself a ’happy birthday’ and going about the day like every other day.

Simon, my father had missed it. So, it was just me, mom, friends from school and a few neighbors.

It had been a joyous occasion and I don’t remember being happier than my eighth birthday party.

Out of all the presents I received that day, those earrings were my favorite. It had been wrapped in a blue Cinderella box and Mom had shopped for it online from the Disney store.

Joan believed in fairy tales. She believed in love and I guess that was what landed her in such a perilous life. Perhaps she thought she was Rapunzel who changed the criminal, Eugene, by the power of love.

Except she didn’t realize that such transformation requires both parties being in love. Mom had fallen blindly for the man I was unlucky to call father, Simon Reed. Who due to my discovery with the Blakes, he never really loved her, at least not fully and not as much as my mother loved him.

The bestselling author of the book, Mercy, Jodi Picoult in her book, made the reference of someone loving more in a relationship.

And I fear that’s true. No matter how much two individuals love each other, there will always be someone who loves more.

Love equations between people in love can never be a 50-50 ratio. It’s usually a fraction without any equality between the numerator or the denominator.

And between my parents, I think the percentage rate was about;

Joan - 80% and

Simon - 20%.

Hopefully if she’s still alive, and I really hope she is. She would have learnt her lesson just as Alicia surmised,

Love is stupid. Love is for fools and love will only hurt.

Shaking off such painful memories, I rang Charlie’s bell and ushered myself in.

"Hello gorgeous"

"Hey handsome" I chirped, waving back at the auburn haired guy who stood talking to an old lady - Mrs Holman at the counter.

"Good morning, Mrs Holman" I called to the silver-gray haired woman, who had her spectacles rimmed eyes fixed on the computer screen before her.

"Good morning, Heartbreaker" she called back, sparing me a glare before returning her attention to the screen.

"Ouch." I said, feigning hurt, "You wound me, Mrs Holman"

"If only it was as much as you did this handsome fella." She pointed at Charlie.

Charlie had on a green apron with the brand mark of his vet - the profile of a dog with a stethoscope on his curly neck, printed boldly at the chest.

"Okay, that’s enough" he clapped, embarrassed. "Run those numbers and get back to me, Mrs Holman." He dismissed, walking towards where I still stood by the entrance.

The muffled yapping of a dog echoed from the closed door at the end of the reception.

His other staff, patrolled in the same

green aprons as Charlie’s, moving in and out of that door with the sign "Strictly for Employees".

A woman sat on one of the metal benches, petting a rabbit while whispering something that sounded like prayers.

"Will be with you shortly, Ms Gabby" Charlie said, after bending down to give the rabbit a rub and a hand squeeze for its owner.

"What brings you here, Sofia? Thinking of adopting a pet or what?" he asked, removing his green rubber gloves.

Charlie was mildly handsome, with a wiry build, a freckled face that toned well with the color of his hair, kind sea green eyes and a captivating smile.

He had tried to date me several times, especially after he opened his vet two years ago. With my firm resolve towards love, I’m sure you can tell how that panned out.

I was open to flings, with little to no emotional feelings attached. More like friends-with-benefits kinda vibe, mostly if it has to do with oral and anal sex, especially since I was yet to engage in coitus.

I don’t really know why I had such a rule, especially when I allowed fingering and tongue rimming, but I have never quite felt comfortable with a man inserting his rod in my crevice.

Maybe because I once read that copulations can trigger intimacy and what’s intimacy if not love?

Besides, don’t people often refer to the act as love making?

We had met after Frisk developed a

malady that had almost taken his feline

life. Or maybe it did take one of his lives, since cats are believed to have nine lives.

Then Alicia and her twins had distanced themselves from the creature and I was the one mandated to take him for his daily check ups and treatments at Charlie’s Vet. Not that the devious creature appreciated it or even remembered since he still abetted in making my life miserable.

Since I’m not really a fan of love and its niches, I prefer to say, we had hit it off than the old-fashioned cliched ’love at first sight’.

We had a steamy section on the third visit and that was how it started. Nights of sneaking out to meet him, intense sections at the garden under the cloak of the night when he manages to sneak into the Blake Mansion’s yard, after visiting the vet, was no longer an option since Frick’s recovery... more like revivify.

It lasted three months before he wanted more. Before ’the secrecy and sneaking around didn’t sit right with him any longer.’ Those were his exact words.

I remember the night he told me that he loved me.

We had been minutes in on our steamy rounds of mouths devouring, tongues engaged in a battle, body pressed against each other as if we could merge into one another. The only space between us, our hands, stroking and rubbing each other’s sex.

He had been worshiping my bun with his tongue and lips, when he suddenly paused and said, looking at me like a man intoxicated,

"I love you, Sofia"

My head previously thrown back in thrums of pleasure, had jerked downwards so fast that my neck cracked.

I had felt my crevice close up immediately and like a quick unplug, my libido died off totally.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed our fun rounds, but I wasn’t going to make the same mistake my mom made.

"Is something wrong?" He asked as I uncrossed my left leg over his head.

"Did I say something wrong? Did I do something wrong?" I ignored him, pulling up my undies and jeans.

"You know I don’t expect you to say it back now, if that’s the problem. I just wanted you to know how I feel about you, that’s_"

"You don’t expect me to say it back!" I had barked. "But isn’t that what you had expected? Isn’t that what people expect to hear in return when they make such baseless confessions?"

"Wait what? Wh... what are you talking about?" He stuttered, his erected dick still standing in the moonlight.

"You know, I really thought you understood what this was, but it’s clear you don’t. Love... you love me, how pathetic" I scoffed, hanging back my bra.

"But I really do love you, right from that first day you walked into the vet. I had known it, but these past few days that I find myself laying awake and thinking about you, it’s clear as this sky above us that I really do."

My heart had broken at his words. After Jake, I used to think one’s heart can only be broken when your partner cheats on you, unrequits the affection you shower or when a partner leaves, and I think most of us also think so.

But it was that night, under the stars and awashed by the brilliance of the full moon, did I realize that the heart can also break by the force of the other person’s love. A love so strong that it can break the heart with the lesser feelings.

To be continued.