Ten days later in San Francisco
Rafael, Eddy, and Aaron were at Rafael's mansion to watch a football game.
The family home is split into several interconnected villas with separate kitchens and entry exits. Ruhi's family was on the west side when they stayed for the wedding. Rafael's dad was more or less in the middle, grandma was in the south and Rafael lived on the far east end with Ruhi.
"Woah, that's a lot of plants. I thought we were in the wrong part of the mansion for a second." Aaron pushed a large palm leaf out of his way and headed toward the living room.
"It's all my little wifey's doing. She has taken over my space and turned it into a tropical jungle. And don't call them plants. They all came from her Florida home over the last one week, and she frowns when I don't use their proper names. This is Dracaena, the one that looks like swiss cheese is Monstera, and that one over there is called my ass!"
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"Hell no!" Rafael said without blinking twice. He was sure he would do something stupid and she will stay mad at him for eternity. Ruhi gulped in fear when she saw him shirtless. Now she understood why he wanted the heater blasting so high in such cold weather...so that he could roam around almost naked. She frowned at how low his waistband was before looking away. They fought indirectly more than twice last week about how cold she wantedher room to be because she liked to bury herself underextra thick blankets. The maid conveying the messages for them went crazy and called in sick the next morning. "Please... I don't want your bed. I just need you in the same room." The sky rumbled some more, and she looked at him with puppy eyes, hoping he would let her sleep on the extra foldable bed that she saw in the closet once when she was moving some of her stuff to his bedroom to confuse the maids. To cope with t
"We are a conglomerate firm with the headquarters in New York. We have twenty-seven satellite offices and fourof them are in California." Ruhi nodded to the friendly brunettewhose name she forgot already out of tension.She wasn't sure why this lady seated in front of her was explaining things to her which she had already found outthrough her Google search."Would you like some coffee?" Another woman walked in to interrupt them. "We have some flavored hot chocolatetoo. Trust me, the raspberry dark chocolate one is awesome." She winked at Ruhi and left."That's Janet. She talks a lot. So avoid her when you have a lot of stuff to do." The brunette continued.Ruhi was confused whenthis person was talking to her like she was already hired. She was pissed for a second, thinking Rafael had something to do with it.There was another knock on the door and a tall blonde with blue eyes walked in."Hi, I am Caitlyn. Are yo
Rafael was sitting at thedesk inhis Berlin office, looking out the window at the frozen ground sparkling in the winter sun. A little boy and his mom were standing on afaraway sidewalk wearing woolen hats. Each time ice crackled underfoot, the little boy's face lit up, and he kissed his mom's hand in delight.A gentle knock on the door brought Rafael's attentionback to his computer screen. He checked his watch and resumed typing. His personal assistant, Khloe, set his coffee on the desk and took some files with her to the conference room where Rafael was headed to in a few minutes.'Dry and bitter, just like you.' Ruhi's words rang in his mind when he took the first sip of his morning coffee.It hadbeen two days that he flew into Berlin with Khloe, and he mentioned Ruhi to her at least half a dozen times without knowing.When eating sushi at lunch the other day with his associates, he was thinking about Ruhi's&n
Rafael's heavy jet, with elevenpassengers, took offthe brightly lit tarmac in Berlin two days earlier than it should have. As the engines roared and the strongwinds buffeted before the storm hit, his mind was racing with excitement.He watched the sun go down andlooked at his watch, wondering what Ruhi must be doing. There were thousands of miles to go before reaching home.It was around this time yesterdaywhen he realized it was soon going to be thirty days from the day he met Ruhi.'One month down and eleven more to go. Only eleven more,' he thought.The last four weeks went by in the blink of an eye. If time was going to run so fast, he wanted to make the most of it."I don't want to be in Berlin on the 30th. I can't be." He told his managing director and got everything canceled or delegated out of the blue.'Can't go a minute without thinking about her.' Admittingdefeat, he acknowledg
Antonio looked at Ruhi with a scrutinizing gaze to see if she knew what he was talking about."Y-you are rivals with them.But they k-kill...They go to kill? I mean, I'd have never imaginedthey would go to the extent ofkilling someone." Ruhi was so uncomfortable she couldn't form a proper sentence when she felt her father-in-law suspecting her involvement in the foul play."YOU WANT TO GET US INTO AN ACCIDENT TOO?!" Antonio yelled at his chauffeur for jumpinga red light and almost getting T-boned by a Mazda CX-5. "No one asked you to speed like that. The chopper is still in the air."Ruhi, who was already very embarrassed about her sister's in-laws, wondered if Antonio wanted to yell at her but was using the poor driver to vent out.He had reasons to be mad. First, it was her dad striking a deal with Adira's dadagainst his business interests, and now, with them attacking Rafael, she was sure he was regretting this allian
Ruhi was in the kitchen within minutes after checking the recipe to get an idea. The new chef got all the stuff ready for the dessert while the old chef was whipping out delicacies, one after the other."Ooh!! Garlic wine shrimp, braised short ribs, Cajun blackened fish, and what is this?" She pointed to yellow rice that smelled different from what she was used to."Geelrys. It's South African yellow rice which the bossloves.""Of course." Ruhi wondered if Alisha introduced it to him. She ignored feeling jealous and focused on the task at hand.While she was caramelizing the sugar in a saucepan and stressing about how she was going to get it all done in under three hours, the dogs ran out to the front door, going crazy with excitement."Crap! Don't tell me he's here already!!"She tucked the wandering strands of hair behind her ear and straightened her skirt. As the cake required at least seven distinct layers, baked one by one, she ha
Rafael got up to follow Ruhi and kiss her until she melted in his arms, but there was something else that bothered him ever since he returned, his grandma's complaint about the housekeeper's behavior.He had known her all his life, and she always had a solid reason to like or dislike people.After talking to the housekeeper and finding out that Ruhi was in her dad's room two days after he left town, he called his security unit to get a hidden camera installed in his dad's living room. He had one in his living room already because he never trusted anyone who helped around the house. His dad hadruled it off as unnecessary when Rafaelsuggested it to him several times.The housekeeper mentioned that it was on January 25thin the afternoon when she saw Ruhi coming out of his dad's room. It was either the same day or the next day that some information about tender responses and proprietary methodologies got stolen from his dad's office and passed on to
"Oh finally, Mira! Fifteen minutes before 7 PM." Nikki passed the drinks menu to Ruhi. It took Ruhi a week to make them stop calling her Amber because Mirambika was a mouthful. The guys still called her Ruhi because she accidentally told them, but no one really recognized who she was and that’s all she cared about."Did you know that the Beacon Enterprises has finally opened for outsourcing their consultation services?" Ava said as Ruhi's drink arrived."What? No! I mean, that's awesome," Ruhi replied in a panic. That was one of Rafael's companies she deliberately avoided applying for jobs at."Yup. We will try our luck from tomorrow before some other company swoops the deal. And can you imagine how awesome it would be to bag such a big client?""I guess..." Ruhi prayed that she never has to go to talk to their boss about her company's consulting services. Rafael would make her go through a lot of torment and humiliation before making the offer.&nbs