***
Back in the kitchen, Jovita and Izzy was still with Snow, when Snow noticed that Dove wasn’t back yet.
“Why isn’t Dove back yet?” Snow asked
“I will check up on her!” Jovita stood up from her seat and went upstairs.
Snow’s eyes fell on Izzy.
“Why are you looking at me, Ma’am?” Izzy asked.
“Something is eating you up, right?” She asked.
Izzy slowly shakes her head.
“It’s written all over your face that you are sad about something. I’m a mother, I might not be your mom, but I can tell you are sad”
Izzy took in her lips.
“You’re right, ma’am. I made a terrible mistake, though I won’t have regret it if he was nice to me, but I am going to get over it”
“Is it hard for you to spit it out?”
Izzy looked at Snow and nodded her head, allowing her tears to flow.
“No one is above mistakes, Izzy. All you have to do is learn from your mistakes. If you finally decide to open up, your friends are there for you, likewise I too” Snow smiled.
Izzy returned the smile, cleaning her tears.
***
“Can I?”
“Can you do what?” Vincent asked, unaware of what he was doing to her.
“Can I touch…. Your Chest?”
After realizing why Dove was hiccuping, Vincent gave out a slight smile.
“You wanna touch my chest?” He asked maintaining the baddie smile on his face.
Realizing what she just said, Dove slapped her cheek.
“What was that for Dove?” She asked herself and looked at Vincent.
“It’s not what you think,” She said in a low voice.
“What should I think then?” He asked, walking closer to her, and Dove walked backwards.
“Just…just forget about what I said”
“How can I forget what you just say, Dove? You cut tiles with me, and the next minute you’re in my Aunt’s house, and you asked if you could touch my chest” He said, still walking close to her.
“Well I…” Dove stopped talking cuz her back touched the wall.
Vincent placed his hands on the wall caging her in between.
“Why are you here?” He asked in a low voice.
Dove was about answering his question, but her eyes went to his tempting chest, and she swallowed hard.
“What’s going on here?” Jovita asked.
“You know her?” He asked.
“Goodness! Put on a shirt!” Jovita said, and threw a pillow at Vincent.
“I just came out from the bathroom, Jovita!”
“I don’t care, don’t flirt with my friend!”
“Dove is your friend?” Vincent asked, he looked at Dove, but Dove buried her eyes on the ground.
“Yes she is! How did you even know her name”
“He is the boss I told you about,” Dove answered in a low voice.
“Vinny?!”
Dove nodded.
“So you ate dinner with this flirting cousin of mine? He might own a popular company in Washington, but he is a bad boy”
“Don’t spoil my name,” Vincent said.
The way he said it was so funny, and it made Dove smile, but she smiled secretly.
“Aren’t you a bad boy anymore?” Jovita asked
Vincent frowned.
“My friends are sleeping over, I don’t want you to flirt with them”
“Who said I was going to do that?” He asked.
“I know so, cuz you don’t resist anything that wears a skirt”
“Jovita!”
“Let’s go, Dove. He is handsome but do don’t fall for his charms, he is a player. I can testify to that because I am his cousin”
“How about I cut that mouth of yours?” Vincent walked up to her.
“Try and touch me, and I will pull off your towel, and post your Ďïčk online”
Vincent halted his feet after Jovita said that.
“Both of you leave” He said pointing at the door.
“Why? I really want to see it” Dove said with a mocking smile.
Vincent threw a sneaker at them, Jovita and Dove ran out of the room, laughing.
Vincent quickly put on his clothes.
***
Jovita and Dove came out downstairs laughing. Dove had pee already.
“What’s so amusing?” Snow asked.
She was setting the table with Izzy.
“Vincent made our night”
“You already met my handsome son?” Snow asked, directing the question to Dove.
“Actually, I have met him before today,” Dove said.
“Really?”
“Yes mom. She works for Vincent’s company as a supplier, right?” Jovita asked, sitting down.
Dove nodded, sitting down as well.
Izzy and Snow did the same.
“What is my son like?”
“A jerk, right?” Jovita chipped in.
“I wasn’t asking you, parrot”
Jovita frowned.
Dove smiled before replying to Snow’s question. “He is a jerk like Jovita said, but he is kind of nice and funny” She smiled.
“Wait, is it Vincent Moore?” Izzy asked, speaking for the first time.
Dove nodded.
“I thought you said Niko….”
“The food smells so delicious!” Dove said, cutting eyes for Izzy.
Izzy already knows about Niko’s warning.
Izzy got the message, and kept quiet.
“Jovita, inform Vincent that we’re about to eat”
Jovita frowned and was about to stand up, when Vincent came downstairs.
He was wearing a big black hoodie and loose pants.
Dove stared at him, but when he looked at her, she quickly looked somewhere else, coughing.
“Let’s eat son” Snow smiled at him.
Vincent smiled and sat in a chair that was facing Dove, which means that anytime they raise their heads up from their food, their eyes will meet.
“Hi, I’m Izzy, Dove’s best friend,” Izzy introduced.
She is slowly getting out of her sadness.
Vincent nodded and continued eating with his eyes on Dove, but it’s so obvious that Dove is avoiding to look at him, cuz she kept her eyes on her food.
He noticed that she loves eggs, so he took the boiled eggs that were inside the bowl and gave them to her.
Dove looked at him.
“I don’t like eggs” He winked at her.
Dove smiled and focused on her food.
Snow saw the way Vincent was looking at Dove, a smile formed on her face.
***
Dove and Izzy kept laughing as Jovita cracked jokes for them.
They were in her room, and both Dove and Izzy were wearing Jovita’s pjs.
It fitted Izzy, but it looked awkward on Dove.
Since she was so small in nature, and Jovita had more body than her, it didn’t fit her.
“Seriously Jovita, you should become a comedian,” Izzy said.
“Maybe I should”
Dove chuckled. “Seriously, I didn’t know you’d be fun to be with. You were kind of annoying when we first met”
“Copy that,” Izzy said.
“I tend to act annoying and sometimes crazy. I’m two faced,” she said.
Dove and Izzy laughed cuz of the way she did her face.
A knock came on the door, and Vincent entered with a tray containing a glass of milk.
“That’s so sweet of my cousin, he brought me a glass of milk” Jovita said, trying to take the glass of milk from him, but Vincent flicked her forehead.
“Ouch!”
“It’s not for you,” He said.
“Is it for me, then?” Izzy asked.
“No!”
Dove looked at him, and he flashed a smile at her.
“For me?” She points at herself.
“Awww, so sweet” Jovita said, but Izzy didn’t say a word.
“Thanks” Dove took the glass of milk from him.
“Jovita”
“What?!”
“What’s your relationship with Jayden?”
“Jayden? Who is Jayden?” Jovita asked.
“That’s good to know,” Vincent smiled and left. He has no plans on giving the cheese-balls to her.
Dove keeps smiling as she looks at the glass of milk.
“Does Niko know you’re here?” Izzy asked.
Dove dropped the glass of milk and quickly took her phone from her bag, she gasped when she saw fifty missed calls from Niko.
“Excuse me, I need to make a call” Dove rushed out of the room.
Izzy sighed.
***
“Is she the one?” Snow asked Vincent.
“Huh?”
“I saw the way you were looking at her? Is she the reason you have changed these past few weeks?”
“What are you talking about, Auntie?”
“I’m not slow-witted and you know that, Vincent. Do you love her? She told me she is a supplier at your company”
“She terminated her contract with my company, but it’s true I love her… I love her so much”
“Wow, my bad boy is finally in love!”
“Stop teasing me, Auntie. Don’t put your hopes high, I won’t date her”
“Why? You love her”
“She has a boyfriend, Auntie, and from the look of things, she loves him a lot. I don’t want to impose my feelings on her”
“Then what about you?”
Vincent let out a sad smile
***
Dove stands near the pool talking to Niko.
“I’m so sorry for not picking your calls, it was on silent”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at Jovita’s house”
“Who is Jovita again?”
“Izzy”
“The other friend that bears Izzy?” Niko asked.
“Yes. Her name is Jovita too”
“Alright, just be safe, okay, we will talk tomorrow” He ended the call.
“He’d ki|| me if he knows Vincent is here as well” She muffled, taking in her lips.
After a while, she turned to leave, and she saw Vincent, he was walking towards the pool.
“Vinny” She called him, but Vincent said nothing.
***
Dove kept folding her hands as she watched the stars with Vincent.
Both were sitting outside.
“How long have you been friends with Jovita?” He asked, breaking the silence between them.
“Well, for a week now”
“Okay, Dove”
“Dove?” She asked and Vincent looked at her.
“You always call me Dovey, what changed? You called me Dove earlier, too”
“Does it bother you?”
“I’m just curious to know why”
“I want to give you the boundary you ask for. I figure out that I might be the reason why you’d have issues with Niko”
“If you were going to set boundaries between us, why did you add more eggs on my plate and bring me a glass of milk?”
“Because it’s so hard for me. I wasn’t joking about my feelings for you. If you know how this bad boy right here is craving for you, you’d have run away from me”
Dove laughed.
“It’s not funny, Dovey”
“Finally, you called me Dovey. I like it when you call me Dovey”
“Really? I thought you h@ťěd it?”
“No I don’t”
Vincent smiled, and Dove stared at him.
“Let’s do it”
“Let’s do what?” He asked.
“Let’s be friends”
“What about Niko?”
“Let’s say this is the first time I’d be going against him”
“You always do what he says?” Vincent asked.
“Yes I do”
“Then why are you going against him?”
“I dunno,” Dove answered, staring at his beautiful gray eyes.
“You looked awkward in these PJs” He said, mockingly.
“Are you laughing at me?”
“Yes I am. Where were you when God was giving people height and body?”
“I was busy obtaining beauty,” Dove said, flinging her short hair.
“Yeah, beauty with a flat chest”
“Hey, Vinny,” She said with a laughing voice.
Vincent also laughed.
******
•NEXT DAY•
“Did I do something wrong?” Dove asked as she walked with Izzy.
They already left Snow’s house.
“Why are you asking?” Izzy asked in return.
“Because you’re not talking to me”
Izzy sighed said; “I saw you and Vincent last night, you both were talking and laughing”
“We weren’t doing anything wrong. We were just talking”
“I know, but Niko won’t see it that way. He told you to stop talking to Vincent, so why are you talking to him?”
“We’re just friends, Izzy. Haven’t I done enough by terminating my contract with his company”
“You already know what Niko is capable of doing when he is angry. I’m not a good liar, Dove!”
“You don’t have to lie about anything, cuz Vincent and I aren’t doing anything wrong”
“I’m just worried about you,”
“I will be fine. Niko might have anger issues, but he is not capable of hurting me”
“I hope so”
*****
Candy smiled when Niko entered the restaurant.
“So you are Candy?” He asked.
“Yes. Why? I’m so segzy, right?”
“Why did you call me?”
“You love Dove, right?”
“Yes. Was that why you called me out here?”
“No. Since you love her, why don’t you put a tracker on her”
“Why?”
“Don’t be dumb, Niko! Putting a tracker on her means you’d know the people she meets and interact with, for example, Vincent”
“Dove already terminated her contract with Mint-More, and she is not on talking terms with Vincent”
“Terminating her contract with Mint-More, yes, but how are we sure she is not talking to Vincent?”
“Dove never disobeys me”
“Vincent is an irresistible sweetheart,” Candy said.
“That’s for you, and not Dove. I trust my girlfriend, who I don’t trust is Vincent. I can’t put a tracker on Dove, if you want Vincent that badly, earn him yourself. I won’t work with someone like you”
“You’re definitely going to lose Dove, that’s for sure. Let’s work together on this” Candy said.
Niko stood up.
“Don’t ever in your remaining days on earth call me again” He leaves.
Candy bangs her hand on the table, angrily.
“Why can’t he just work with me?!”
******
Jayden sits in a chair inside a VIP room in a restaurant patiently waiting for someone.
Just by looking at the way he was dressed, you’d know he is on date, and probably waiting for his girlfriend.
He is the cutest one among his friends, and Washington best romance writer.
He had a smile on his face as he patiently waited for his girlfriend to arrive. He was holding a bouquet of roses in his hand.
The door of the VIP room opened, and expensive red pencil-heels were first seen, slowly it showed the black-silver color gown she was wearing, then her red Louis Vuitton bag.
Then her face was shown next, revealing her to be Jovita, Vincent’s cousin.
“Babe!” She said, rushing to hug him, and Jayden welcomed her warmly in his arms.
“I missed you so much, Jovi” He kissed her.
……
TBC