Page 7 of Robert

“She will want to meet you,” his expression hardened, “and she has to approve of my choice.”

“It’s not as if we are really getting married,” she reminded him with a shaky laugh.

“Nevertheless…,” he left the rest of it unspoken. “Shall we say seven?” Moving towards his desk, he picked up a silver card and jotted something on the back. “My address and mobile number.” Turning around, he handed it to her.

“Thank you.” She moved towards the door and then stopped.

“Robert?”

“Yes?”

“You haven’t told me why you’re willing to do this.”

“No, I haven’t,” he glanced at his watch, “I am afraid, I have a meeting.”

“I will never forget this.”

“I am sure you won’t,” his tone was clipped and enigmatic, sending shivers up and down her spine.

Stepping out, she closed the doors behind her.

He had lied to her of course. He had no meeting. Sinking down in the chair, he leaned his head back and expelled a shaky breath. He was mad. There was no other word for it. He had to be insane to be agreeing to this, but Jesus! He would do anything, barring none, to get a chance with her.

He closed his eyes and tried for calm. It was almost twenty years. That was a hell of a long time to be hung up on a woman. But he was stuck and hell he had tried to get over her. He had fallen in love with the most popular girl in that private high school – that damn place that had caused him so much hell and humiliation.

Of course, he would have had to be blind and totally immune, and he had a feeling that no one could ever be immune to her beauty.

His mind drifted back to the first day he had seen her. He had been attending Belair High, the prestigious Catholic school that had magnanimously offered him and several other downtrodden kids in the depressed area where he lived- scholarships.

He had a feeling that they had been trying to fill some sort of quota demanded by the state and somehow his name had made the cut.

The speech from the pompous asshole who had been the principal at the time had made it clear that they were privileged to be awarded a place in such an institution and to make the best of it.

The man’s eyes had drifted over them with barely disguised distress and distaste as he stressed the fact that they were to walk the straight and narrow.

“We do not tolerate the use of drugs on our hallowed grounds. Do your due diligence and try and make something of yourselves. You have been given a chance, I would advise you to always remember that.”

Robert had hated the elegant hallways, the snotty rich kids who did not waste any time in making them feel like crap. But he had been given the chance and it was a stepping stone to what he wanted to achieve.

He was determined to get out of the hell hole, he called home. He would keep his head down and do what’s necessary, even if meant enduring the ribbings and the scornfulness and pettiness from his classmates.

But they did not stop at words. They had to assert their powers as well, by beatings and snide little pokes every chance they got. Robert was a scrawny kid – too little food and too much energy. And the first time he was cornered by three of the most popular boys in school, he had been helpless.

They had beaten him within an inch of his life and managed to bruise several ribs. He went home limping, but never complained or said anything to his mother.

The next time was two days later, and he was rescued by what he thought was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. There he was, cowered in one corner, when the doors to the science lab burst open and she came marching in.

“Really? This is what we are doing now? Beating up on the weak.” She had aimed lethal dark brown eyes on the blonde asshole who had his foot on Robert’s chest. “I expect better from you, Jason, and if you don’t back off right now, we are no longer in a relationship.”

Apparently the threat had been enough, because all three of them had backed off.

Jason had tried to pull her into his arms as a way of being contrite, but she had shaken him off, leveling him with a cool look. “Just go away.”

Robert had somehow managed to ease his way off the floor, ignoring the blinding pain that was emanating from his sore ribs.

“Thanks.”

She had nodded. “My name is Sonya, and I would advise you to try and stay away from those three. I will ensure they don’t bother you again.”

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