Paula Rouco has just finished putting on her dress after Angelo ran up the stairs with the custom-made electric piano in her arms.
Estrella Berrocal walks out the door and almost collides with a furtive Angelo.
As soon as Angelo saw his future mother-in-law, he had the good sense to greet her with a quick, “Hola Tia Estrella!”.
Estrella Berrocal was happy for the child Angelo and knew he had come to see Paulita.
“Paulita is in her room.”
“Hello, how nice. Thank you Aunt Estrella.”
Angelo came in carrying his electric piano, “Paulita, come help me, this custom made electric piano is heavy.”
Paula Rouco ran over and together they assembled it.
Angelo smiled and said, “You try it.”
Paula Rouco sat down in front of the electric piano and tried the intonation first.
Angelo asked proudly, “How about it, not bad?”.
Paula Rouco played the Happy Birthday song, and the tone of the piano was really accurate, as good as any expensive piano. “You’re good, what a good electronic piano, where did you get it from?”.
“That’s right, who am I, the little prince of the instrument world, okay?”.
Paula Rouco gave him a look of contempt and sniffed deliberately towards the piano, “It really smells like the stench of capital.”
“Nonsense, although I have contacts and money at Imperial, this custom instrument I bought with the money it cost me to earn working in a bar, and I almost skipped lessons to go to work.”
Angelo added fuel to the fire, looking at the pretty and friendly white face of the girl next to him, he approached her handsome face and said with an ungainly smile, “Paulita, for the fact that you work so hard, can I have a kiss?”
Angelo playfully reached over and slapped her on the right side of her face and pushed her up.
Paula Rouco slapped his face away, “Don’t play pathetic. You’ve got a bunch of admirers up your ass who want to kiss you at least halfway around the world, if not the whole world, and you’re still missing a kiss?”
“My Paulita, you are so ruthless.”
Not even a kiss on the cheek, that’s too much.
Paula Rouco tasted the piano and got up saying, “Come on, let’s go downstairs for the cake.”
The two of them went down together and Angelo reached out and casually slipped his arm around her shoulders, his eyes seriously fixed on her full red lips and made a new discovery.
“You’ve painted your lips today, Paula Rouco? you’re doing it!”.
Paula Rouco growled slightly and let go of his arm from her shoulder, “Don’t pull me, then my father sees you and I’ll beat you up.”
“What’s the matter, you won’t let me kiss you, you won’t let me hug you, you’re getting stingy as a big boy! Am I still your hairdresser and your best friend?”
Angelo reached out and tugged on her long hair, Paula Rouco turned her head, “Angelo, why are you still pulling girls’ hair being so old?”
“It’s just that I’m stalking you, when I start La Universidad Santa, I won’t have to fly back and forth to see you so often, we’ll form a band at La Universidad Santa, you’ll be the pianist and I’ll be the guitarist…. ”
Before Angelo could finish his sentence, Paula Rouco was stunned and asked, “What did you just say, that you volunteered for La Universidad Santa in your entrance exams?”
“Yes, what’s the matter, that you don’t welcome me to study at the same university as you?”
Paula Rouco almost choked up, “That one … I put in the Imperial University.”
“… what did you say?”
Angelo looked at her with a black eye, calmed down for a good while, speechless and chagrined, “I thought you said Uncle Adam and Aunt Star didn’t want you to be too far away from them? I volunteered from Imperial to The Holy City, and you volunteered from The Holy City to Imperial University, Paula Rouco, you did it on purpose!”
“It really was a mistake, I thought Uncle Montrelle would keep you at Imperial too, I really didn’t mean to.”
Angelo looked at her with a genuine expression, even though they had both missed the same school with the volunteering thing, but seeing her attitude made Angelo’s heart sweeten again.
Reaching out, he tugged on her soft, fluffy hair again, “So what you’re saying is that you’d also like to go to the same college as me?”
Paula Rouco nodded rightly, “Of course, when we were little we agreed that we would go to the same university when we grew up.”
Angelo looked at the girl’s pretty, innocent face, her eyes darkened for a moment and her tone became serious. “Just because of the promise you made when you were little?”
Boom.
At that moment, halfway across the courtyard of The Rouco Family, a sky of fireworks exploded, colorful, pyrotechnic, beautiful.
Paula Rouco’s eyes and attention were drawn to the fireworks, pointing to the sky and exclaiming, “Angelo, look!”
On the walk, the little girl watched the glorious fireworks in the night sky, while Angelo, turning his head to look beside her innocent, sweetly smiling face, was even more beautiful than the fireworks.
The birthday party, soon after, began.
To the delight of a group of family and friends, Paula Rouco wore a birthday hat and Adam Rouco took his daughter’s hand, cut the birthday cake with her, blew out the candles and made a wish to the applause and cheers that filled the courtyard.
Then the adults socialized with the adults and the children played with the children.
Roberto Rouco, who has spoiled his granddaughter since she was a toddler, ordered a huge nine-tier cake, even though Mr. and Mrs. Adam Rouco had requested a less flashy nine-tier cake with a cute little girl sitting at the piano in a princess dress on top of the cake.
Paula Rouco was surrounded by a crowd of people, her little face all smiles of happiness.
Three or two waiters, not far away, couldn’t help but gossip.
“This princess of The Rouco family is celebrating her 18th birthday with more pomp than a normal wedding.”
“Yes, I heard that the nine-tier cake cost 100. 000, if it were me I couldn’t eat it, look at those little boys and princesses, they’re smashing the cake all over the place, smashing their faces.”
“That’s extravagant. But the people who are here tonight for the birthday party of the little princess of The Rouco Family are all respectable people. When do you think people like us will get ahead?”
Severo Laris listened to her gossip word for word with little interest.
Lastra, the coworker next to Severo Laris who had come in to work part-time with him, touched Severo Laris’ arm with her elbow as she served the rows of drinks.
“Severo, did you ever think we’d be so rich once we took over the business?”
Severo Laris looked down at the task at hand without raising his head, without gossiping, and replied coldly, “I never thought so.”
Lastra smiled and said, “You haven’t thought about it, or are you afraid to think about it? But I think you are a talented student in the finance department at Imperial University, and even your tutor is impressed. When the time comes, don’t forget your wealth and prosperity.”
Severo Laris smiled slightly with the corners of his lips and handed him a bottle of red wine, “Work hard, you and I won’t be able to afford it if it spills on these customers’ clothes.”
Lastra leaned closer and whispered gossipily, “I hear that little princess from The Rouco Family, who just took her entrance exams this summer, has gotten into our Imperial University.”
When Severo Laris looked up, his gaze passed over the young woman who stood not far away, surrounded by a group of bright and shining people, whose smile was sweet, pure and untarnished by the light.
Lastra’s gaze strayed to her, rubbing his chin in admiration, “This little princess The Rouco family is truly pure and lustful, if she were older, she would be the best on earth.”
Lastra asked his friend, half seriously, half jokingly, “Severo, seriously, are you interested in this future schoolgirl?”.
Severo Laris narrowed his dark, dark eyes.
Not far away, under the glare of the crowd, there was a handsome teenager standing beside her, and between the two of them, the teenager had wiped the cream off his fingertips and smeared it mischievously on the girl’s pretty, white cheeks.
The girl, slightly annoyed, picked up a piece of cake and slammed it down on the boy.
After a long moment, the boy took advantage of the girl’s distraction to give her a quick kiss on the cheek.
The girl looked at the teenager with very teary eyes and reached out to twist the teenager’s arm.
The golden boy and the girl were as good as each other.
Lastra also saw the scene and said, “Looks like this little princess, La familia Rouco, is not ours to chase. She should have known that there is only room for one prince, not for us grassroots gentlemen.”
Severo Laris withdrew his gaze indifferently, his eyes calm.
Their worlds were separated by a crack in the sky.