A rose should be red: Part 1 - Secrets

by Akaku Red

  “Don’t make your own conclusions. That girl has a crush on me, that’s why she greeted you so poorly.”

  I just nodded, even though I didn’t ask for an explanation.

  “Were you jealous?”

  Jealous? I didn’t know … It’s true that I had … a feeling deep inside my heart, and that I didn’t like the idea of him fooling around with other girls.

  But he is a grown man; if he wants to have a relationship, I couldn't say anything against it.

  And … I also have no right to feel jealous about it.

  “Well, she is a beauty and I am sure you two would look good together. But I wasn’t jealous.”

  Tyler sighed.

  “In my eyes, there is only one beautiful woman.”

  The elevator stopped, and we got out on the sixth floor.

  “Only one woman … And it’s you.”

  He gave me a kiss on my cheek, before he guided me to a door.

  Again, I couldn’t think anymore.

  This guy was trouble - big trouble for my heart.

  But he was also mean, because he opened the door without warning me, and pushed me into a big hall.

  Tyler wrapped his arm around my hips, before I could fall from his playful push.

  I was mad but I didn't want to make a scene.

  That is why I distracted myself by looking around the room.

  The hall was adorned with white flowers, bejeweled, and full with dressed up people.

  The men were all dressed in black, the women had all kinds of dresses on, beautiful dresses, which were far more revealing than mine.

  I was the only one in red, but also the only one who didn’t show much of my body.

  Yet still, they all looked amazingly beautiful.

  I was just a little shadow against them.

  On the other side of the hall, there was a stage with a big screen — and chairs in front of it.

  But most of the people were standing next to the buffet, which was placed on the right side of the hall.

  They chatted loudly and laughed.

  “Tyler is here!”

  A woman noticed, while another person approached us. He shook Tyler’s hand and then he took mine, just to give me a kiss on the back of it.

  It made me feel uncomfortable, even though he didn’t seem like a bad person…

  “Welcome to my celebration, I am glad you made it on time! And you are even accompanied by a beauty.”

  Tyler smiled brightly.

  “Yeah, but I would prefer, if you wouldn’t touch her like this.”

  His grip on my hip tightened, as he pulled me away from the man.

  “Never saw you being so overprotective of any woman! I like that, but you are going to break a lot of hearts tonight!”

  This man said jokingly, as he let go of me and clapped his hands.

  “Ah sorry, I should have introduced myself first! My name is Peter Davids, but you can call me ‚Pet‘. Today I am going to celebrate my thousandth case. Please enjoy the night!”

  So, he was Tyler’s boss?

  “I am pleased to meet you. My name is Jenny Brown. Congratulation on your case!”

  I said with a little smile on my lips.

  “Thank you!”

  He bowed down a bit, before he turned away from us.

  “We should introduce you to the others. Don’t be shy, let’s go!”

  With only one hand he pushed us to the people who were gathered together in front of the buffet.

  The attention was now on us; they started introducing themselves to me and joked around … Well, there were too many names to remember, and to tell you the truth, I didn’t really listen to them.

  They talked in a friendly way and made jokes with Tyler, but I felt a little uncomfortable, since they were all people that I didn’t know.

  I just concentrated on Tyler’s closeness, and only answered shortly to questions when they asked.

  The important thing for me was to be polite, because I didn’t want the people to talk badly about Tyler, if I didn’t behave well.

  “So everyone please, take a seat!”

  The voice was coming from the speakers, placed on each corner of the hall.

  Peter was standing on the stage, holding a microphone.

  We all headed to the chairs and took a seat.

  I was sitting on one of the chairs, which was placed on the outside, so no one other than Tyler could sit next to me.

  Yeah … I was too shy around other people.

  “Thank you all for coming to my celebration! Well, you didn’t have a choice, since I’m your boss.”

  He said with a funny smile, which made the people laugh.

  “So, I am going to start with a boring story, but I hope you will listen closely … I started with nothing, didn't really know what to do with my life; I had a hard time building up my future, I was young and inexperienced, had no ambitions, didn't go to school… a real trouble maker …”

  He stopped for a moment, then he continued talking as a picture was shown on the screen.

  It was an old man with a sad smile on his face, he was in court and his hands were cuffed.

  “But then something changed my life and I found my path. I wanted to be a lawyer … because my dad was once falsely accused. People wanted to set him up as a murderer! And they even sentenced him to a lifetime in prison. My father was 10 years in prison, before a new lawyer opened the case again. He found out that a lot of false claims were made and that my father could have never been the murderer. So he fought! He couldn’t give my father the ten years back, but he helped him to get out of prison and to live a happy life again.”

  A picture of his father was shown again, he looked older but happier now with his family on his side.

  “That’s why I took this man as my role model. It wasn't easy, people looked down on me and didn’t treat me well! They all wanted me to give up, but I still fought for my dream, I wanted to help the people in need, people who were falsely accused and suffered from bad treatment. And after forty cases, I started to open up my own agency, with good-ass employees. I do have a good crew and now we are here to celebrate my 1000th case. Thank you all!”

  We all started to cheer.

  Hearing his story, made me feel truly touched.

  He had a great reason; but still, there were always good and bad people, his father was falsely accused but there are other people out there who may not be innocent.

  “I wanted to thank you all for coming here tonight and for working with me! I really appreciate you all.”

  He bowed down a little, and then he talked about the recent cases he was working on.

  While he was speaking about a very exciting case, Tyler lifted his arm, just to put it around my chair, and let it hang over my shoulder.

  At first I didn’t react, but then he started circling his finger over my bare skin.

  I got goosebumps and shivered, as he slightly laughed.

  He was messing with me, enjoying my reactions way too much.

  I really tried hard to concentrate on Peter, since he talked about thrilling cases, he even mentioned the bad people that he needed to defend.

  But Tyler didn’t stop; even as I tried to slide to the edge of the chair, he still followed me.

  He did this on purpose!

  I leaned over to him.

  “You should stop touching me, before I slap you again.”

  Whispering those words made him smile even more.

  He got closer with his face, looking daringly at me.

  “You wouldn’t do that.”

  I gasped and raised a brow.

  “I would!”

  Pressing his forehead on mine, he started stroking my arm.

  “You know, I wouldn’t even get mad if you did that. It’s just that I can’t control myself from touching you.”

  “Err … Mister Williams, I know that my words aren’t as interesting as the woman next you, but you should stop flirting and give me some attention
!”

  The voice made me startle, and I began blushing hard, as I noticed all eyes on us— and even some laughing among the people.

  Tyler lifted his hands acting all innocent, while I was dying out of shame.

  After all, it was a bad idea going out with him.

  “Thank you… Tonight, I didn’t want to only talk about me. I also wanted to thank a special person.”

  Peter pointed at Tyler.

  “Mister Williams started young, as an intern - and now he is already working with us as a lawyer. I know he is still young and new, but in those years with us, he’s already taken over 150 cases. He does his work strictly and with a lot of passion. Sometimes he reminds me of my younger self. Well, not that good looking but I am talking about the job. I really didn’t make it easy for him, and he still handled the stress like a pro. And because of that … Would you please come over here.”

  He said and winked at Tyler.

  At first Tyler didn’t seem to realise that he was the one Peter was talking about, but as I patted his shoulder and encouraged him to go up to the stage, he smiled and got up.

  I clapped happily as he got on stage.

  I felt glad that his hard work was acknowledged.

  Since I had known him, he had always really loved his job and he worried a lot. He didn’t talk much about his cases though, but I could see that his job meant a lot to him.

  I didn’t stop clapping, even though I noticed some envious looks from his coworkers.

  “Thank you for all your hard work! I would like to give you a little present.”

  Peter handed him a little package over.

  “You should open it at home and please don’t have high hopes. It’s just a little present.” He warned.

  Tyler took it with a teasing smile on his face.

  “I’d have happily accepted pay checks or more holidays.”

  “Well, I am afraid that this will destroy your dreams.”

  “I will tell you later, if it did; but right now, my reality is better than any dream.”

  As he said that, some girls started moaning over his words.

  Peter glimpsed at me and smiled for a second, before he turned to face Tyler again.

  “I can imagine, but I really mean it! You even worked through your breaks and you never failed to impress me with your work.”

  Tyler seemed touched.

  “Your recent case was a hard one, and nobody wanted to take it, but you. And you did your best, even though it made you suffer a lot! This is one of the bad sides of our work. Because if there is a real culprit who did bad things, you still need to leave your feelings out of the case. You did a great job!”

  This time everyone cheered him on.

  And so did I, even though I didn’t know about this case.

  “Now everyone, eat your hearts out and have fun tonight. My boring speech is over, I have nothing more to say.”

  Peter said and received a loud kudos.

  Everyone got up, the music started playing.

  I was still in my seat though, because I didn’t know the people and I couldn’t walk in those shoes.

  Tyler was held up by Peter, but I noticed his gaze on me— which made me more shy.

  I tried to distract myself, by listening to the music; but suddenly a familiar voice brought me back to the occasion.

  “I never thought that a boring event like this, could turn out to be so surprising and refreshing.”

  Dean was standing next to me and stared at me with a surprised expression on his face.

  “You look different, but I would always recognise you.”

  His curly black hair was straightened and slicked back. He wore a black suit with a red tie on— he looked like a star, even the women around us looked at him with sparkling eyes.

  “Why are you here?”

  “Ouch! You could have just greeted me normally.”

  He leaned a little bit over to me.

  “But to answer your question, my dad was invited to this party and took me with him. You know… to acquaint myself and make new connections.”

  As he spoke he sighed and shook his head.

  “I hate this … but I am pleased that you are here too.”

  He pointed at the buffet.

  “Don’t you want to grab something to eat?”

  I looked down on my heels; I wasn’t really hungry, I was just thirsty, but I couldn’t walk.

  “Oh … Don’t tell me, your boyfriend doesn’t allow you to talk to men?”

  Boyfriend?

  Did he mean Tyler?

  “What? No! He isn’t my boyfriend— and I can do what I want … it’s just …”

  I stopped; the embarrassment was creeping up to me again.

  “So… he isn’t your boyfriend? Haha, good thing to know.”

  He followed my gaze and laughed.

  “You have another problem, but this can be solved.”

  He offered me his hand.

  “You can hold on to me! I promise, I won’t let you fall.”

  Since he was kind and because he helped me out the last time we met, I took his hand.

  He helped me up and we slowly walked to the section were the drinks were placed.

  As I took a glass of juice, I let go of his hand.

  Again, normally I would never have accompanied any guy, because I still felt uncomfortable around men.

  But Dean was a person who I wasn’t afraid of.

  Okay … we didn’t have a good start, but somehow his nearness was familiar.

  I took a sip of the juice and stared at the people around us.

  All were in their own world. They chatted loudly, they didn’t care if others heard the conversation or not.

  “So … How are you?”

  Dean looked at me with a pleased expression.

  “I am fine. And you?”

  He drank his drink in one shot before he placed the empty glass back on the table.

  “I am better now.”

  I was confused by his words.

  “Don’t look at me like that. I am just glad to see you!”

  “Thank you.” I muttered, though I felt bad.

  He was saying these words so easily and perhaps he really meant them, but I couldn’t think the same way as him.

  “The next time that we meet, I am going to tell you about our past, so that you can remember me…”

  He let his hands slide into his pockets, looking sassy.

  I nodded to his words, but I didn’t know if this was a good Idea.

  “Even though I can’t remember … you’re in front of me now. So… we could get to know each other better by talking?”

  Dean was surprised by my suggestion, but he smiled it off.

  “You know, for me it is a little different, since you haven’t changed at all.”

  “That’s not good to hear, because … I really wanted to change.”

  He took my glass and emptied it.

  “Hey!”

  I said, pushing him slightly.

  “That was mine.”

  “See! You haven’t change at all, but I mean it in a good way. Well, of course you’ve changed; you have grown up, you can talk again and you are stronger. It’s just the little things, that didn’t change. Like your behaviour. You are still polite, caring and you don’t have any ulterior motives — you are just a kind girl, with a big heart.”

  He smiled.

  “And just for you information, this was an indirect kiss.”

  Pointing at my glass; I felt the heat rising, but it crawled back, as I saw two certain people.

  My eyes widened in surprise.

  The Judge and the lawyer, which were once present on my court day, were now standing at the end of the hall.

  They chatted peacefully, they didn’t seem to notice me.

  My two … enemies!

  “Are you good? Did you see a ghost?”

  Dean asked, but I was too focused on those two people.

  The memories flashed ba
ck; I nearly allowed myself to be lost in them, yet I fought back.

  I tried to look somewhere else, to distract myself, but it wasn’t possible.

  My body moved backwards.

  I wanted to increase the space between those two and me, more and more.

  Oh god, I even started to panic.

  This was bad.

  My heel twisted my ankle, as I stumbled back.

  Before I could fall down, Dean grabbed me and held me in place.

  “Carful lady! I don’t want you to get hurt!”

  He sighed gladly, as he made it on time.

  “Are you okay?”

  I nodded, trying to gather myself together, but my eyes were glued on the lawyer.

  Dean tightened his grip on me, and followed my gaze.

  As he saw what I was afraid of, he sighed.

  “So, you do remember my dad and the stupid lawyer; but you forgot me?”

  I managed to look at Dean, but I was shocked that this Judge was his father.

  “He is you father?”

  “Yeah … I know he is strict and a harsh person; but yes, he is my dad.”

  I couldn’t answer him, the news me speechless.

  “Hey, stop looking so shocked! I am not like my father. I know that you dislike him, but don’t feel the same for me.”

  He touched my nose with his finger to distract me from everything else.

  “We still need to get to know each other better. Don’t we?”

  The way he panicked, reminded me of something, but I couldn’t remember it clearly.

  Yet still, his words made me smile a little.

  “How about you take your hands off her!”

  Tyler’s deep voice made me startle.

  He placed himself in front of us, and looked down at the hands which were on my body.

  His blue eyes flashed a strong glare.

  He looked as if he wanted to rip Dean’s hands off my body, but not in a gentle way— as if no one else was allowed to touch me like that, just him.

  Dean had a teasing smile on his face, but eventually he let go of me.

  “And you are mister ‘not her boyfriend’?”

  Pointing it out, made Tyler’s eyes look furious.

  And I was left speechless!

  I didn’t understand why Dean needed to say it.

  “His name is Tyler! Why are you talking like that?”

  “Yeah, yeah … I do know Mister Williams. I know him pretty well, I just wanted to lighten up the tensed mood.”