Chapter 39: Chapter 39

Chapter 39

"Can we get out of here now, I’m tired." I groan resting my hand on the counter. Rebecca and I are at the club, after I left the office, I went straight to Rebecca’s apartment and well, she made me come here. She says it will make me feel better, not that I feel bad or anything.

"Come on, we just got here. So relax, have some shots." She says handing a shot to me

I sigh and collect a shot from her. I down it in one go and bite into a lime immediately after. I keep thinking about it but it doesn’t make any sense to me; Richie and Angelina. I can’t believe this. How does he even know her? When did he meet her? What is going on between them? Is he in love with her? Does he want to be together with her?

All those questions pour into my brain like a tidal wave but I couldn’t figure out what is going on. This is just too much and I shouldn’t be thinking about it, I shouldn’t even be bothered. Whatever Richie does shouldn’t affect me, in fact, I should have expected something like this from him. He is Richie Maranzano, I knew from day one that he is a womanizer I just didn’t think he would cheat on me, and of all people, he cheated on me with Angelina; a friend of mine. I can not believe this.

I take another shot and gulp it down. I think about it over and over again, I didn’t see it coming. Angelina is someone I never thought I would see Richie with. I didn’t even know he knew who she is.

I take my third shot and gulp it down. The liquor burns my throat on the way down; I think I like the burn. The least Richie could have done was try to explain things but he didn’t do that. He didn’t even bother to go after me when I was leaving. He didn’t call, he didn’t text. He did nothing, I guess that’s what our relationship means to him; nothing.

I take another shot and as I gulp it down, I squeeze my eyes shut and then open them. Tequila really does the trick. "He doesn’t care at all." I found myself saying. I guess I am tired of keeping them in my mind.

Rebecca releases a breath as she puts a hand around my shoulder "This reminds you of Noah, doesn’t it?"

Noah is my ex-boyfriend. He is the only man I truly love but my love for him shattered the second I found out that he is a married man. "I understand if my relationship with Richie doesn’t mean anything but the least he could have done was try to explain, right?" I ask.

"Yes but maybe he’s just waiting for the right moment."

"Right moment." I scoff turning my gaze to her "You know what, even if he comes to explain. I won’t listen to him."

"Okay, but at least you should stop overthinking things." She says

I sigh "I am not overthinking anything." I gulp the last shot. I tell the bartender to get more shots and I rest my head on the counter. "I am starting to think it’s me. I mean, first Noah cheats on me, and now Richie. Something is definitely wrong with me, maybe that’s why they keep cheating."

"Nothing is wrong with you." She force me to lift my head "It’s not you and if it makes you feel any better, Noah didn’t cheat on you. He cheated on his wife with you."

I groan "It’s still the same thing. He never told me he was married." The bartender gets the shots and I am about to gulp another shot when someone grabs it before it reaches my mouth.

"Don’t drink too much, Rach." I hear Richie’s voice, and my heart sinks. Why is he here? He should leave, I don’t want to speak to him.

"Do you have a minute, Rach?" He asks.

I don’t respond to him or look at him. I grab my purse and stand up. "Let’s go, Rebecca." I turn to walk away, but Richie halts my steps by grabbing my hand.

"Rach, please hear me out. It’s not what it looks like." I didn't bother to look back at him, I just tug my hand out of his and continue to walk.

"Rach-"

"Leave me alone, Richie." I snap cutting him off. I walk as fast as I could so he won’t catch up with me.

"I can’t" He clasped my hand making me turn to look at him "I can’t leave you alone Rach."

I open my mouth to speak but clamp it shut as I notice some of the people's attention is on us. I don’t want to create a scene here. "Let go of my hand Richie."

"I won’t. Not until you hear me out."

"I don’t want to hear anything," I say. I don’t see a need to hear him out, he’s probably going to lie, I mean that's what all guys do when they cheat, right? I turn to walk away, but Richie halts my steps grabbing my hand.

"Rach, please." He begs; his voice suddenly softens. "Just hear me out."

I whirl around to face him "Fine." I say giving in. Let’s just get this over with "Explain yourself."

He releases a deep breath before speaking "It’s not what it looked like."

"Oh really? What was it supposed to look like?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest

His eyes soften a little as he tries to move closer to me but I quickly move away from his embrace.

He sighs "Nothing! Nothing is going on between me and Angelina. Trust me, she was here for something else."

"Yeah, she was here to sit in your lap and kiss you, isn’t that right?" I snap at him. Right now, I am very angry, I don’t care if my relationship with Richie didn’t mean anything, all I care about is that he cheated and I hate being cheated on. I was once cheated on, and I didn’t take it well. I don’t want to be in that position again.

Richie releases a breath as he rakes his hands through his hair. "No, Rach. She wasn’t there for that and I don’t even know why she came here."

"Ohh, so you didn’t tell her to come?"

"What! Why would I do that?"

I sigh "You know what Richie, I can’t do this anymore. Just tell me one thing; what’s going on between you and Angelina?" I ask the question that has been burning my mind all day.

"Nothing." He responds

"Then why was she there?" I inquire

He exhales "It’s complicated."

"I thought so too," I turn around but Richie halt my step by stepping in front of me.

"Rach please wait." He says.

"Why? You don’t want to talk about it so why should I bother to wait?"

With a sigh, he says "It’s complicated but I will tell you everything."

I don’t say anything and I cross my hand over my chest waiting for him to continue.

"Angelina is my ex-girlfriend. She and I had this thing going on between us but it’s over now. It ended three months ago. "

He’s lying. It can’t be possible. I know everything about him, I spent my last ten years figuring out what In the hell he is doing. It can’t be possible that I didn’t know that.

"If it ended three months ago then what the hell was she doing in your office?"

"I already told you, I don’t know. I have no idea why she was there."

"Ohh really?"

"Yes, and why are you even making it a big deal." He sighs in frustration. "Seriously? It was nothing, It wasn't like I was kissing her or anything!"

"But you'll love to right? You'll love to kiss her right? You wanted to, but I interrupted."

"What!" He let out weakly. "No, never. I didn't have any intention of kissing Angelina okay? I don't love her- it's you I lo-"

"Don't say something you don't mean!" I say cutting him off

His expression looks like I just gave him a hard slap on his face. "Why are talking like this, Rach."

I sigh "I don’t have time for this." I say not wanting to continue this conversation. I have been in this situation before, I know how it goes; with lies and so many lies. "I gotta go find Rebecca. Goodbye, Richie," I say realizing that Rebecca isn’t by my side. I think she stepped out to give us some privacy.

I am about to leave when he grabs my hand making me turn to face him. "Call Rebecca to come in but you shouldn’t go out there. The paparazzi are outside."

"So? So what if they are outside…. Ohh, I get it, you don’t want me to go outside because you are afraid I will ruin your reputation. Do you think I will tell the whole world what happened? Well, you shouldn’t worry about that because I will not be saying a word."

"What? No Rach, I don’t care about them or my reputation. Right now I only care about you. They are gonna ask you a lot of questions and I know you don’t like that."

"I don’t like a lot of things but it doesn’t matter because things will happen and-" I trial mid-sentence as Richie crushes his lips against mine. I try to pull away, but he won't let me go. Eventually, I give up and kiss him back. The taste of him fills my mouth and makes me lose what little sense I have left. God! I don't want to admit it, but I liked it. My hands wind around his neck as I stretch up onto my toes so I can reach his lips. He wraps a hand around my waist, pulling me flush against him. The warmth from his body passes into mine, and my heart soars to life as he continues to invade my mouth with his tongue. He kisses me until I am out of breath and only releases my now swollen lips when someone pushes us to get to the spot at the bar we've been blocking. Breathless, he rests his forehead against mine once again, our chests heaving in the same fast rhythm.

"I’m sorry." He says

I am about to give in and forgive him when I begin to think. This man has hurt me in several ways, I shouldn’t just forgive him. "Get your hands off me," I say

"Rach-" He trails off when I push him away from me. He looks at me with a hint of shock on his face.

"You are such a womanizer, Richie. After kissing Angelina, you kissed me? And now, who are you gonna kiss?" The alcohol in me rants

"What? Don’t talk to me like that Rach."

"How else will I talk to you? You’ve hurt me for so many years and you think I can just easily forget you?" Right now I am not even talking about Angelina. I’m talking about my mom.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m saying," I grunt

He releases a breath "Look, Rach, You are too drunk I need to get you home." He comes to hold me but I push him away. I nearly lost my balance as I did that

"Don’t touch me. Fucking leave me alone!"

He closed his eyes and opened them as if he was seeking calmness. "Rach-" He reaches to hold me but I slap his hand away.

"I’m leaving," I say

"Oh my god, you are so difficult, Rach. I have been trying to explain things but you are making it so hard. Why can’t you just listen to me?"

I don’t say a word as I continue walking.

"You know what, you should go away. In fact, I am sick of explaining things to you because you won’t listen anyways. No one listens to a womanizer, right?" He yells

As I reach the front door, I turn around to face him. I can’t just leave without giving him a last word. "Fuck you!" I shove my middle finger into his chest. The door bangs loudly behind me as I walk out, I have never been so pissed off.

God! I hate him. I hate you, Richie Maranzano.

Tears formed in my eyes as I walk to my car. The paparazzi surrounded me which only made me feel worse because they kept on asking me questions about what happened. I didn’t respond to any of them, not because I didn’t want to but because if I open my mouth to speak I might end up crying.

As the paparazzi continue attacking me with questions, I managed to get into the car with the help of Brad. I don’t know where he came from but I am so glad he came because if he didn’t, they would have occupied me with so many questions that I would be stuck in the middle.

"Is everything okay, ma’am?" Brad ask once I settled inside the car.

"Yes." My voice came out low and soft. "Brad, please get me out of here," I tell him as I noticed that paparazzi are still clicking photos of me.

Brad nods and begins to drive out of the driveway. I sigh resting my back on the seat. I seriously don’t know what is going on in my head, why am mad at Richie, I shouldn’t be mad at Richie. Angelina was just sitting on his lap and that doesn’t mean anything does it? Even if it doesn’t mean anything, do I really have to be this angry? I shouldn’t even care if he’s cheating, it’s none of my concern. It’s not like I like Richie or anything.

But Is this about liking Richie or not? I mean, he cheated which clearly means that he doesn’t value our relationship; he thinks of it as a joke.

I shake out of my thoughts when the car suddenly pulls over. My brows furrow and I look through the window, we are in the middle of the road; an unfamiliar street. "Why did you stop the car, Brad?" I ask

He takes a moment before he turns to look at me. "I am sorry." Before I could say anything he immediately covers my nose with a handkerchief. I claws at his hands, trying to get it off my face but it didn’t work. Instead, he pressed the handkerchief harder against my nose. I think something is on that handkerchief because I am suddenly feeling dizzy and It's getting difficult to keep my eyes open. What is going on, why is Brad doing this? My thoughts come to a halt when the car seat swayed beneath me. The last thing I saw before the darkness consumed me completely was his wide-eyed, innocent face.