The Return Of His Ex Wife
Chapter 24: Rejection

Chapter 24: Rejection

Tara’s POV

"I still don’t think this is a good idea, I mean, doesn’t it make me weak and, I dunno...cheap?" I was still trying to find proper ways to lay down the conversation to Arlo. Ella and I were waiting by the door expecting him now.

"I’ve told you, damn it girl. I gave a speech thirty minutes ago and you’re still doubting? Just let him know about everything going on, and if he still wants to be part of Richard’s life, he should help out by saving us all from Derek’s greed. No one else has to know anything, just leave out guesses that you might be seeing someone, and it is not Derek, your ex husband."

It would feel nice if Derek sees that I’d moved on and wasn’t waiting for me to crawl back under his feet.

"No one would ever suspect Derek is the father. And that’s good news for us." Ella added. "If only there was a way to delay this even more until Richard is like, graduating from college or something!--"

"--okay, that’s enough now." I stopped her there. "Eventually, Richard has to meet Derek. I just wish he was a little matured by then so he’ll stay by my side and not Derek’s. I cannot have him turning out to be such a selfish prick like his father." I made up my mind, but this was only a wishful thinking. I would try everything to protect Richard for however long I could.

Just then, the doorbell rang. "It’s him, he’s here." I went forward to open the door. Arlo was always handsome, but for the first time, I couldn’t help but notice a bit of stress clouding in his overall features. His eyes were a bit dull, as if he could do well with a good sleep, then strands of hair messed up his dark black hair giving him a slightly rough look. But he smiled and made all of these stress symptoms disappear with his handsome face brightening up so fast.

"Hello," he said in a charming manner. I was forced to grin like an idiot. "Hey Ella,"

"He remembers my name! You remember it!" Ella screeched, forgetting she was supposed to be a full grown adult.

"Of course I do. It’s a pretty casual name to remember." Arlo teased, he was inside now.

"Oh he’s so funny. Haha! By the way, before you go up to visit Richard, Tara has something to say to you."

I frowned as I scolded her. "Ella! Keep it together, will you?" Was what my eyes told with my fixated gaze on her, and she happened to have understand me.

"Excuse me, Arlo." She actually purred before turning to leave.

"She’s a funny one," Arlo said to me. I didn’t know how to react to that so I kept my face straight and glared at him without saying anything. I didn’t want to make it seem like I was shipping him and Ella together or anything. Boys were stupid, especially hot ones. Before you knew it, he would be inviting Ella over to his apartment at night. And I loved Ella, but I wasn’t about to just ship her with Arlo! It wasn’t like I loved him or anything...

"You wanted to see me?" He said, robbing me off of my thoughts.

"Please, come with me." I led him up the stairs straight to my room and shut the door. Behind me, he looked around quite confident than I’d expected. I kinda wanted him to be shivering with just the idea of having to be alone with a hottie like me--I was a mother, but in my head, I still rocked being a hottie!

"I have something to say first." Arlo said out of the blue.

Oh, okay. You go ahead then." There was a comfortable sofa in the room so I led him there and we both had our seats.

"So today, I may have done something stupid, I’m disappointed in myself, Sunflower." I winced as he called me that stupid nickname, but I wasn’t going to stop him. He would definitely grow bored of it soon and stop.

"Well what did you do, Arlo?"

He heaved in a heavy sigh, "I saw your ex husband today and may have bragged a little about something that was beyond my reach."

"What? You saw Derek today?? Where?" A part of me wanted to ask now he knew that was my ex husband, but if there was one thing about Derek, it was that his stupid ass pride would always precede him.

"At the school. He was at Richard’s school, and although maybe he was there to apologize to my brother, being an Hernandez, or threaten him like he threatened me as well--"

"--hold up, he threatened you??" He nodded in response. Damn it, Derek! What an idiot!

"Anyway..." His phone rang out and he checked the name on the caller ID. "I’m sorry," it seemed like it had taken him a lot of effort but he ignored the call and went right on with his confession.

"Was that important?" I knew it would be none other than one of his girls. That was the thing with these rich guys, always thinking they could--

"Yea, it’s work stuff." His words slapped me hard in the face.

"Work?"

"I have an important meeting and that’s just my PA checking up on me. But it’s fine, I’ve rescheduled with the board of directors. Anyway, as I was saying..."

I didn’t wait to hear the rest. It didn’t make sense, I had never canceled any of my business plans just to see someone, not even my dad. Not even Richard. But here he was leaving a meeting just to be here because I’d asked him to come. Although he had claimed he was here to see Richard since he was down with a little fever...but still!

"You need to leave now. It must be important," I got up. I wouldn’t be the girl who hindered his career, no way.

Arlo got up too, "in a nutshell, Sunflower, I realized this man wasn’t as friendly as I had hoped he would be, so I kinda got angry and lied Richard wasn’t his son. Maybe I had committed myself by saying the three of us were one big happy family? Although, I didn’t confirm that exactly....you know what, it’s fine. You can hit me, I deserve it."

"Hit you? Oh God no, Derek’s a dick. And this is why I have been so afraid he would just take Richard from me once he finds out the truth." I confessed.

"And I don’t blame you. Really."

"This is why I wanted to talk to you. Will you be my fake boyfriend for a while...maybe one month, ten months? Honestly I don’t know--"

He fixed his gaze on me for a long while that I had to shut up and wait for his response. Finally, the words came as a shock to me. "No. I can’t do that."

I blinked, waiting for the end of his response but got nothing! "Wait, what do you mean by ’no’?"