Chapter 7: Chapter 7

My eyes went wide as I kept to where I was sitting. I didn’t move an inch or say a word. My mind was blasting with questions. Questions like; what the hell Richie is doing? Why the heck is he doing this? Is this all part of a Mafia plan? What could they possibly want with me? When he said Rachel Green, was he referring to me? All these questions poured into my brain like a tidal wave.

Richie and I don’t even know each other- well I know everything about him and I’m certainly sure that he knows nothing about me. With all my research I can tell that Richie isn’t the marriage kind of guy so why did he propose to me?

I think I’m going to freak out. This is bad, this is very bad. I want to stop Richie but I don’t know how? Whenever I’m shocked, I lose myself just the way I’m losing myself right now. I feel like I’m paralyzed. My eyes were still locked on Richie’s eyes, he smiled at me and put the ring on my finger.

"You make me feel complete." He whispers to me and then presses his lips on mine. I could hear the crowd going on and off clapping, some were muffling whispers while some were making adoring sounds but that is my problem right now. My issue is that Richie Moranzino- THE Richie Moranzino, my greatest enemy just proposed to me. Why did he do that?

Pulling out of the kiss, he cups his hand on my face and looks at me with that same perfect-line smile he had on earlier.

"Say something," He softly told me.

I look at him, still shocked, and without saying a word I ran out of the hall- I know it’s quite embarrassing and weird to just run out of the hall but I wasn’t thinking straight and that was the least embarrassing thing I could think of because I didn’t know what to say to Richie, at least not yet.

***

"You want to do what!" Rebecca yells at me moments after I arrive home. I didn’t tell Rebecca anything about the proposal before she knew about it. She watched it on YouTube, It is basically all over the internet. Youngest Mafia King, Richie Maranzano proposes to marry a woman named Rachel Green.

The moment I walked into the house, Rebecca embrace me happily and was about to serve me champagne for celebration when I broke the news to her. I told her I wasn’t going to marry Richie and that the proposal was a mistake. A big one, actually.

"No, babydoll. No." She yells. I am very sure that I won’t hear the last of her words tonight but come on, what did she expect me to do?

"Babydoll please tell me you are kidding." She says

"I’m not," I yell into the armchair. I am sitting on the couch with my face buried in the couch armchair. I turned around to face her, she gave me that look that says 'you better start talking young lady'

"Jeez! Will you stop looking at me like that?" I groan burying my face back into the couch.

"Ohh no, babydoll, I will keep looking at you like that until you start talking." She says

"What? what the fuck do you want me to say and what did you expect me to do Becca? I was stunned." I say into the couch.

"Uhm- I don’t know." She shrugs sarcastically "Maybe something like, yes Richie I will marry you or you can simply smile at him since you didn’t want to talk but- no, you didn’t do a thing, instead, you ran out like a chicken."

Rebecca is now mad- in other words, she is disappointed that I ran out of the party hall. Turns out she only watched the part where he put the ring on my finger and kissed me.

"You are such a friend. I don’t know if I’m lucky or cursed to have you."

"Lucky is the best word to use." She says sitting next to me

I hummed my response rolling my eyes. One thing about being friends with Rebecca is that you should never take her words seriously. She’s a dumbass and that’s how she’s always been.

"But seriously, you shouldn’t have just run away like that. It was so-"

"Weird? Strange? Awkward?" I question

"Those words share the same meaning, you could have just used one word."

"Okay Miss English tutor." I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes. I raise my head to look at her

"You know what, let me ask you a question. Assuming your boss suddenly asked you to marry him, what would you have done?" I ask

"Easy peasy. I would have-" She halted the sentence as her eyes wandered around. She opens her mouth to speak but then clamps it shut.

"What will you do Becca?" I ask oblivious to her answer.

"Well, thinking about it, I would have run out too but" She points out "If my boss was someone like Richie, I would have said yes."

"You are crazy," I said slamming my head against the couch.

"Come on, even though you didn’t know what to say the least you could have done was nod. Or say yes, or say anything that will make him know your answer."

"The ring is on my finger so I’m pretty sure he has a thought going on in his mind." I say holding my hand up so she can see the ring

"Oh mine, that is a beautiful ring." She compliments

I rolled my eyes raising my head to look at the ring and then at her "It surely is beautiful but it won’t last long on my finger." I breathed out wanting to take the ring off but Rebecca instantly snapped my hand away.

"What the heck do you think you are doing?" She snaps at me

"What? I can’t keep the ring, I didn’t accept Richie’s proposal."

"Excuse me" She scoffs folding her arms above her chest. She pinned her gaze on me waiting for a response but when none came she scoffs again.

"For the love of God tell me you are kidding." She says

"Uhm- no I’m not. I told you this already, the moment I walked into the house."

"Ohh, but I thought that was just a joke." She says

I was about to speak but I groan as I heard my ringing tone. Richie’s proposal must have made me so popular that my phone is ringing at midnight. No one calls me by this time. I didn’t pick up the call as I groaned into the couch. I knew working with Richie would turn out to be my worst nightmare but I didn’t know that the nightmare was a twisted one. I grabbed the bottle of wine and began gulping it down but my actions instantly halted when Rebecca grabbed the bottle from me. She never gets tired of being in my business.

"Seriously, girl?" I raised a questioning brow

"Too much alcohol is bad, especially for someone that has work tomorrow."

"Holy shit!" I groan "I forgot about that. I don’t think I will be able to go." I say

With that proposal video and my cowardly actions of running away, I don’t think I will be able to face my coworkers or worst, be able to face Richie.

"Oh babydoll, I know-" She halted mid-sentence as she hissed at my phone ringing for the fifth time in a row "Will you just pick up the call," Rebecca says

"I don’t want anyone." I say pushing the phone to her side.

She takes the phone and looks at the screen "Rachel."

I hmmm my response

"It’s Richie." She says

I nearly choked on my lumps. My gaze instantly turned to her as my eyebrows furrowed

"Richie?" I questioned and she nods. Just then, a soft knock came in from behind the door.

"Do you think-" Before I could complete the sentence Rebecca nodded showing me a message sent by Richie and it says ‘can you please open the door. I want to talk to you’

"No!" I say, my voice barely below a yell. I stand up from the couch and pointed at the door "I can’t, I just can’t."

"Shh!" Rebecca hissed "Will you quit yelling? He’s behind the door. What if he hears you."

"I don’t care okay, I don’t." I say.

Rebecca was about to talk when the knock goes again.

"You gotta meet him. Like it or not." She said

"No, absolutely not. I can’t do this Becca"

If I meet Richie, I might freeze again and there’s no way I am going out there to talk to him.

"Stop talking like I’m telling you to go meet a ghost or Annabelle doll. It’s just Richie, and you are damn lucky that he is here to meet you." She says

Rebecca is saying this because she has no idea how Richie makes me feel. She doesn't know that when I hear his voice or see him, my heart always skips a beat. And that always makes me feel disgusted, it makes me hate myself because I don’t not for a single minute want to like anything that has to do with Richie Maranzano. I hate him.

"Now go. Just go talk to him." She says

I nodded in agreement. She’s right. I have to talk to him even if it’s slamming his face with rejection. God- that’s gonna be amazing. I forced Rebecca out of the living room by slightly pushing her away. I tug my hair behind my ear before I took a deep breath and opened the door.

"Hi, Rachel," Richie says with that perfect line smile on his face.

Once again, my unfaithful heart snapped at his voice. He calls my name perfectly. "Hi!" I respond

"Listen, I have-"

"I understand." I cut him off "I will just give it to you." I say wanting to take the ring off but Richie instantly halts me from doing that

"What do you think you are doing? Why are you taking the ring off?" He asks

"Don’t you want the ring back?"

"I don’t want it back, I didn’t put the ring on your finger so I can take it back." He says

"Well, If you are not here to take the ring then why are you here?"

"I’m here because I want to talk to you." He says

I nod waiting for him to continue the sentence.

"Look Rachel, I know everything is fast and I know that you are shocked. It was unexpected and maybe inappropriate to propose to you in the public. I know you don’t like being the center of attention and I’m so sorry for that. I also apologize for making you feel uncomfortable."

"I never said I was uncomfortable," I say

He smirks and puts his hand on mine, "You don't have to say it. I can read it in your eyes."

He steps closer to me and his ocean-blue eyes were locked on mine. "I know what you are thinking about."

"What am I thinking about?" I say; my voice barely above a whisper and my eyes were still locked in his.

"You think that I’m messing around and like other guys, I’m trying to use you. But I’m not, you just gotta trust me."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because I’m the only person that reads through you. I know you more than you will ever imagine, Rachel." He says

"And I just want you to think about it. You can give me an answer tomorrow and I will surely respect any decision you make."

I was still standing in that position lost in his eyes, and at that moment I didn't know what to say. He takes another step closer to me and pecks my cheek. "Goodnight. See you tomorrow."