CHAPTER 36: RICHARD.
Kira was stunned to see the same person she had helped the other night in her sitting room. He briefly glanced at her and looked away while she tried to figure out how the hell he got in. She bent her head and took a deep look at her door, it wasn’t broken or anything like that…
“Excuse me, who are you?” She asked. He was cleaning the other part of his body. The man locked eyes with her and knit his brows.
“Do you have a slow brain? Or you are pretending to forget this face?” He asked mockingly and relaxed on the chair.
“Listen to me, Mister…”
“My name is Richard.” He interrupted as he watched her go all ‘angry bird’ on him but his countenance didn’t change. It seemed like he was about to start enjoying her going crazy.
“Richard or whoever you are, I don’t care. What are you doing in my house?”
“To thank you for saving my life the last time and also to seek refuge tonight in your place,” Richard responded.
Kira scoffed in disbelief, “Well, guess what? You are very much welcome. You can take your leave now.”
“Why should I leave if I am welcomed? I don’t see how that makes any sense.” Richard feigned a confused face.
“What…”
Richard stood up to confront her but staggered backward because of the pain, his face scrunched up and Kira rushed to hold him with a worried look. He looked at him while she cross-checked his injury.
“What the hell have you been getting yourself into? Last night there was an injury on your left side and now another on your right side, who is chasing you?” Kira asked as she helped him sit down. She went in and grabbed the first aid box and then sat beside him.
“I knew you cared for me,” Richard said with a grin and Kira scowled at him.
“I don’t want to be accountable for a stranger’s death.” She replied.
“A tough girl you are,” Richard commented. Kira didn’t bother replying to him, she helped cleaned the injury very well and applied whatever cream was needed. Neither of the two injuries was a result of a gunshot but a knife stab.
“Why were you stabbed?” Kira asked after a while. She stood up to pour the water beside her.
“Because I did something to someone,” Richard replied indefinitely.
Kira placed her two hands on her waist as she curled her tongue. She was now wearing a stern look as she faced him.
“Listen to me, Richard, you are a stranger that I shouldn’t even allow in here for security reasons but for the sake of humanity, I had to so you better answer every one of my questions if not you can just kiss my a*s and this house goodbye. Have I made myself clear?” She warned and Richard gulped before nodding.
“That’s better.” She eyed him, carried the bowl of water, and left.
“Damn, she is terrifying.” He mumbled. Nevertheless, he stood up again and went to join her in the kitchen.
“Have you eaten anything yet?” She asked.
“No.” He responded. Richard leaned over the kitchen desk which was empty at the moment and watched her handle the kitchen like a professional.
“What’s your name?”
“Richard.”
“Your full name?”
His eyes circulated his sockets when he heard this and he cleared his throat.
“Richard…Gulf.” He pronounced the last name in a breath and wasn’t audible to hear but Kira didn’t mind as she boiled some eggs.
“Age?”
“Why are you interested in my age?”
Kira cast a warning glance at him and he stood straight, waving his hands with a nervous smile.
“I will answer, just change your facial expression. It looks terrible…I mean terrific but change it.” He said in a rush. Kira turned around and folded her arms, placing them on her chest with her right hand holding a spoon. She squeezed her eyes a bit with her head bent sideways.
“Why do I feel like you are avoiding my question intentionally?”
“What? No, I will never.”
“What’s your age?”
“Nineteen.” He finally responded. Kira’s eyes bugged out and her mouth formed an ‘O’. She pointed the spoon at him with shock.
“You are nineteen?” She questioned with disbelief.
“Yeah,” Richard replied firmly. Kira’s eyes moved from his gorgeous face to his firmly built body then his lower region before they came back to land on his eyes, Richard also followed her line of view and saw where her eyes landed for a few seconds before looking at her.
“You are joking, right?”
“I don’t joke with my age, Kira.”
“How can you look like this and you are telling me that you are nineteen? Who are you kidding? Do you have any proof of your age?”
“I have my driver’s license with me.” He went to the sitting room to bring it and showed it to her. Kira blinked quite a several times before giving it back to him. He smirked at her reaction.
“But you’re only nineteen, why do you look like a…” She couldn’t finish her sentence when her eyes cast their invisible shadows on his lower region again and his biceps.
“Yeah, why do I look like a twenty-eight-year-old? I get that a lot.”
“My, my. Looks can be deceiving indeed. I thought…oh my goodness, do you know how old I am?”
“No.”
“I am twenty-four. You’re just like a younger brother to me.”
“But I am not. We are not related to each other, we are just individuals with different dreams but still humans.” Richard explained that part meaningfully but Kira seemed not to get a hold of the message that he was trying to pass across. She turned to her boiling…now overboiling eggs and picked them out of the water. She had in mind to prepare noodles as it was the fastest meal to cook at this moment.
Richard went back to the sitting room while she focused on cooking, not entirely though as her mind still couldn’t accept the fact that the gorgeous-looking man in the sitting room was five years younger than her. Was it even right if she called him a man?
‘Well, yes, he has passed the legal age and has a body, looks alongside a voice worth dying for. Just great, another pending doom and destruction.’ She wailed inwardly.
Her phone notified her of a message and she brought it out to see who had sent her. It was from Evelyn.
‘Hey, girl. Are you home yet?’ ~ Evelyn.
‘Oh, so you have snapped out of your dreamland? I was home about thirty minutes ago and you are just asking? I should consider myself as JAF [just a friend] when you get settled with Raphael. Get out.’ She replied and went offline.
Cooking noodles had many advantages in terms of how long it was whenever it was on fire. Within four minutes, she was done preparing it according to her taste. She dished the meal in two plates before bringing them over to the sitting room to eat.
“Have yours.” She passed him a plate.
“Thank you,” Richard responded.
“You can have this bottle of water too.” She gave it to him. Richard stared at her for a second before shaking his head.
“Don’t treat me like your younger brother.” He commented.
Kira’s eyes bore into his, “And what is that supposed to mean? Is giving you a bottle of water likened to treating you as a brother? You need water and you are injured, dude!”
“I know. I just said that for future purposes.” Richard flashed her a grin. It was now that Kira realized that he had dimples showing up on his face.
‘Just kill me already.’ She thought and looked away.
“So, do you want to tell me why you are being haunted?” Kira asked.
“I am involved in street racing.”
“Illegal street racing at night?” Richard paused in eating, his mouth was swollen as he had just put an egg into his mouth. He avoided her piercing gaze as he continued chewing. Kira shook her head while twisting her fork so it could capture the tiny long ‘strings’ into the middle of its jail line.
“Shouldn’t you be in school, studying at this time? Why are you involved in street racing?”
“Because racing is fun.” He shrugged.
“Yeah, I can see how fun it is,” Kira replied as she threw a meaningful look at his injuries.
“Come on, accidents do happen.”
“An intentional accident, huh?”
“Look here, Richard. I don’t know much about you and I still suspect you of being involved in criminal activities…well, illegal street racing is a part of it so…yeah but judging your appearance, you come from a well-to-do family and every family wants their sons to be the best version of themselves in every aspect. That is one thing that never changes. If your family is to find out that you are doing this, do you know how horrific and disappointed they will be?” Kira scolded non-stop.
“It’s something I love to do,” Richard mumbled and poked the remaining noodles with his fork as he was being scolded.
“Engaging in illegal street racing that will make your family disappointed and horrific is something you love to do? It doesn’t make sense.” Kira threw her hands in the air.
Richard dropped the fork and stood up. He approached the stand where he kept his clothes and started wearing them one after the other. Kira was dazed. Why was he wearing them?
“Where are you going?” She asked.
Richard didn’t reply and buttoned up his shirt. He grabbed his wallet and phone before heading to the other. Kira stood up urgently and blocked his path.
“Richard, where are you going at this time of the night? It’s really dark…it’s almost 11 pm. Are you offended by my words?” She asked.
“I need to go home.” He replied shortly.
“But you are still injured. How can you just leave?” She tried to change his mind but instead, he pushed her slightly out of the way. Kira gaped, still in disbelief at the current situation. Richard placed his hand on the handle.
“I know that we just met each other but please, don’t go on full-blast lecturing when you meet someone especially if you don’t know the depth of the situation they are in or the cause of it. You literally accused me of being a criminal, do you know how that hurts me?
I understand that I am a stranger but sometimes not all strangers are what you think they are. I am only here at your place not because you are worth it but because I consider it warm as a home to me that I can come to. You really hurt me tonight, Kira and I hope you realize this if you are yet to.” He opened the door and the next thing Kira would hear was the door being slammed against the wall.
Different emotions visited Kira as she went back to sit down. On the floor was his handkerchief and she picked it up. Did she really say anything that hurts his feelings?
“Just great.”
******
After Richard passed by a car, the car’s window was rolled down and someone’s head poked out to watch Richard walk away, furthermore from Kira’s building. He placed his phone on his ear and as soon as the call connected, he started speaking.
“He already left the house…I am surprised why though, maybe it was just a brief greeting. Hmm, okay, ma’am.”
He gently pushed his head back in and rolled up the window. He waited for a little while before leaving.
.
.
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Do you consider Kira’s words to be too harsh on him? Give your thoughts in the comment section, please. Thank you for reading.
TBC…