The Contract

"Why didn't you tell him no?!" Cindy asked frustrated

"I can't, if my dad hears that I said no, he will kill me" Ruby said.

"I am not going back to a second date again, ever"

Ruby falls to her knees and starts begging. "Cindy please, remember I already paid you…. You didn't scare him away like I told you, that was what I paid for"

"What do you mean? I vomited all over the man, who the hell will come back after that?!"

"Maybe he is a creep…"

"So, you want me to go out with a creep?"

"No, that's not what I mean, just meet him one more time, wear very heavy make up, and chase him away for good , just meet him one more time, wear very heavy make up, and chase him away for good this time" Ruby said with puppy eyes, "Pleaseee"

  "What time is the date?"

"He said it's this evening"

"Move it to tomorrow morning, today is David's birthday, I already have a date with him today."

"Oh!" Ruby gasped with a smile, "Are you finally going to tell him you like him today? You've had a crush on that guy throughout high school."

Cindy blushes, "Maybe, I might tell him."

  It's seven O'clock pm, Cindy walks into a salon holding a big birthday cake wearing a big smile on her face. David, a young man of 24 walks out from the back, he has a very athletic body, his face was like the face of an actor, smooth and spotless. He rubbed his hand together as he walked towards Cindy, all the veins in his arm popped out, wired like the roots of a tree. The scent of rose mixed with vanilla oozed from his body. Cindy trips on the feet of the table and falls, David leaps forward to catch her, he does but the cake fell to the floor, face first, it spattered all over the place.

"Noooooo" Cindy screamed as she watched the cake fall to the floor, "I spent nearly half my salary on that!" Cindy cried. "Don't worry, I will refund you." David said as he helps her back to her feet. David said as he helps her back to her feet. "Don't worry about that" Cindy said as she sat down on the chair. David walked into the room behind and came back out with a wine bottle and two tumblers. "We can make do with this" David said as he dropped the wine on the table, he uncorks it an pours in wine into the two tumblers. "So how have you been?" David asked while looking Cindy directly into the eyes.

"I am doing fine, how is your business going?" Cindy asked beaming with happiness. "It's been pretty great, investors started coming in"

"Really? Congrats!" Cindy smiled. "There is something I want to tell you" Cindy said while trying to avoid eye contact. "That's interesting; there is something I also want to tell you" David smiles. The salon door opened, and a young woman walked in. Helen, 22, slender, and a pretty French model, she had a smile as she walked in holding a rectangular wrapped parcel. On seeing her, David instantly stood up, walked to her and pulled her into a hug. "Happy birthday" Helen said with a big smile, "Thank you" David replied as they pulled out of the hug.  "I got something for you" Helen hands David the parcel she's holding. David gasped; "No you didn't!" he starts unwrapping it. His jaws drop as he pulls out a wrist watch from the parcel, "How much did you buy this? This looks expensive!"  David starts admiring the watch and Helen watched with a smile. "It's a hublot watch!" David exclaimed again, "No, you have to tell me how much you got this.". "Cindy right?" Helen asked immediately their eyes met. "Yes, my childhood friend, she is almost a sister to me" David replied Helen, then he added, "Cindy, this is my friend Helen."

"Hello, nice to meet you" Cindy replied in a low tune.

"You said you wanted to tell me something?" David inquired.

"No.. no, later, later" Cindy stutters.

  The three ordered for dinner, they ate, sang David a birthday song then they said their goodbyes and after which they went to their individual homes. Cindy drops into her bed to sleep, her phone beeps, she opens it, it was a message from Ruby, it reads; 'The date is by 9 am tomorrow; hope you finally chase him away this time good luck, and ily.' Cindy gets goose bumps all over, after reading that text. What if her boss finds out who she is, what if the man wants revenge for what she did. 

  The next day, by nine in the morning, Cindy sat in a restaurant facing Ryan with bags under her eyes, still she wore a makeup so heavy it was difficult to tell that she was the person behind them.

"You are quite earlier today" Ryan said as he sipped the cup of coffee on the table.

"What do you want?" Cindy asked with a frown

"I am interested in you, miss Ruby, right?" Ryan drops the mug he's holding on the table.

"You are, after all I said and did to you on our first date, are you a weirdo? Or are you trying to get back to me somehow, I am sorry about that, can we just end this and never see each other again"

"You are misreading my intentions miss Ruby, if I wanted to harm you, believe me I would have done that already. You see, women, whenever they see me, they put on a mask and try their best to impress me, they play so many games to get my attention to get me to like them. But you, you were different, you didn't care if I liked or hated you. It's the first time I am experiencing that through my whole life, someone actually being completely honest with me."

"Um, okay, what do you want?" Cindy said praying in her heart that the man just ends things with her.

"I want you to be my wife" Ryan said with a straight face. Cindy's eye popped out on hearing that, "What? What do you mean?"

"It will be under contract, I need to spend more time with someone, but she rather I spend that time with strangers. So what do you say?"

"I take marriage very serious, I cannot possibly do that, so no"

"I will pay you."

"I do not care about your money!" Cindy yelled furious. "You think you can buy me with money?"  Cindy stands up to her feet, "Please don't call me again" As Cindy turns to leave, Ryan stands, grabs her hand and pulls her closer to his heart while staring into her eyes. Cindy's face turns red instantly and her heart starts pounding, "I won't call you again, but if you do change your mind, do not hesitate to call me." Ryan slips his business card into Cindy's back pocket, he then let's go of her, turns and walks out of the restaurant majestically.

  Cindy walks into the her office shared with her three team members, "Why are you late?" Amos inquired immediately he saw Cindy walk in. "I only answer to my boss" Cindy replied him as she walked to her table to seat down. "If that is the case, I am your immediate boss, so tell me why you are late."  Rebecca asked while swinging her chair around to get a better look at Cindy. "Why are you all always so interested in what I do with my time?"

"You meant to say, what you do during work time... huh?" Amos remarked

  The office door opened, and Debbie ran in. Debbie is Cindy's third teammate, She's 25, plumpy and wears purple glasses. The four of them are the marketing team of Ryan cosmetics, together they have generated the company millions of dollar in revenue with the many marketing strategies they've come up with.

"There's big news!" Debbie yelled enthusiastically then she bends supporting her hand on her knees trying to catch her breath.

"What news?" Rebecca swings her chair around to face her.

"The CEO is coming here tomorrow!"

  Cindy's jaws drop in shock.