“My friends were here. Two of them decided to crash, and I lost track of time, and sleep’s long gone now. Anyway, what are you working on?”
“Economics. My head hurts,” I told him.
With that, a short phone call turned into a full-blown conversation. I continued talking to Keith while working on my assignment. By the time I turned off my laptop, the call still hadn’t ended.
It felt nice. For the first time in forever, the two of us weren’t fighting or bickering or thinking about our families – just talking like two normal people.
“So, after that, he just decided to leave,” Keith continued his story.
“Brady sounds very dumb – no offense.”
I heard him laugh. “Oh, trust me, he is. But he’s a good guy,” he replied.
I got up and laid down on my bed. “I get that. He sounds like Will – as much as I love him, he’s kinda—”
“He’s a dumb fuck,” Keith supplied.
“Hey! He’s my brother!” I shot back, making him laugh once more.
“Sorry, but it’s true. But I have to say, Eloisa Castillo, that you’re a lucky girl. Your family really loves you.” Keith sounded so genuine and sad. For once, I really felt bad for his relationship with his father.
“I guess, but they don’t trust me well enough, and I’m still not talking to any of them,” I replied. “What about you?” I asked carefully.
“There’s no one to talk to, except for Luca, who called last week.”
I wanted to ask him about his mother, but the last time that topic had been brought up, a shootout occurred, and Nate Carson ended up in a coma. “I’m sorry,” I blurted out as fast as I mentally slapped myself.
“It’s not your fault,” Keith uttered. “It’s not like I wait by the phone for a call. Besides, my father and I never had that kind of relationship. Power struggle just made it worse.”
I pursed my lips together, not sure what to say. “You know what we can do?” I said after a while, trying to lighten the mood. “We can take a picture together and send it to them. It will be enough to make them cry,” I joked, giggling.
Keith laughed before clearing his throat theatrically. “What kind of picture are we talking about here, Eloisa?” he asked, teasing me.
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “See? I almost felt bad for you, but you’re acting all douchey again.”
I felt like I was back in high school, talking to the guy I really liked and laughing and smiling like crazy at everything he said.
“No, I’m curious,” Keith insisted. “We’ve never really talked about the dynamics of our relationship now, have we?” he teased.
“What do you have in your mind?” I asked, playing along.
“Well, what I have in my mind is a little bit more detailed than a picture. A video perhaps—”
“You’re awful. You really are awful,” I replied, not wanting to hear the end of his sentence. “Your head is filled with evil notions, and I cannot understand you.”
“I don’t know about you, but some girls really – and I mean really – seem to like these evil notions,” he countered, laughing.
“Maybe, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re actually an awful person,” I said, pouting.
“Everyone seems to love that. You’re going to as well,” Keith uttered confidently.
“We’ll have to see about that,” I joked, stretching my arm as I rolled over.
“Are you in bed already?” he asked.
“What do you mean ‘already’? It’s 3:30 A.M. already.”
“Wow, I really need to do something about my sleeping pattern. This is bad,” Keith muttered.
I could only hum in reply as I was starting to get a bit sleepy. “You really need to because I’m probably going to drift to sleep any minute,” I managed to say a few seconds later.
“Didn’t you just have a coffee and bagel?”
“I had a waffle, and I know!” I replied. “I just can’t stop feeling sleepy. Maybe it’s because you’re boring,” I continued teasing him.
Keith scoffed on the other line. “I’m definitely not boring. As a matter of fact, this should go down as the longest call I’ve had. I don’t do calls.”
“Neither do I.”
“If I were to be myself with you right now, maybe you wouldn’t be on call anymore,” he uttered.
I smirked. “Oh, really? Then, where would I be?”
“At my apartment.”
“You’re so sure of yourself; it’s nauseating,” I replied as bluntly as he had spoken.
“So, are you saying that I’m not good enough?” Keith inquired.
“You are, but it takes a little bit more for me to be there with you. I definitely will not be a booty call - that I’m sure of.”
“I like that about you.” That wasn’t a response I expected at all. Keith continued, “If I’m honest, Eloisa, I don’t think I’ve talked this much about myself with anyone. It’s not that I didn’t want to, you know. It’s just that the conversation never flowed with anyone like this.”
“Yeah, I really don’t take you for that,” I responded. “I know I’m not.”
“Have you ever had any serious relationships before?” he asked, catching me off-guard.
“I don’t know about that. I mean, sure, I’ve been in a few relationships, but there’s nothing that I look back on,” I uttered moments later.
“Nothing serious?”
“I’m single right now, aren’t I?” I replied sassily, earning another laugh from Keith.
I lost track of how long the two of us continued talking and how many topics our conversation shifted to until we eventually fell back to business.
“Have you told your father about this?” Keith asked.
I bit my lip. “No, I haven’t really talked to him, remember? Besides, it’s just going to make a normal life here very difficult for me.”
Keith went on to tell me something about himself, but I was already too sleepy. As much as I tried to keep myself awake, I began to doze off.
CHAPTER SIX
Keith
I did not know why I dialed Eloisa’s number. Maybe I just wanted to talk to her; maybe I wanted to see how she would react since I was real mature with her.
When we started talking, though, I forgot the time. I began telling my life story to Eloisa. I mentioned a lot of things that I had never even told anyone. I could not recall the last time I actually talked about something other than business with another soul, and Eloisa talked about herself as well.
It didn’t feel like a forced conversation at all. I assumed that Eloisa missed me. I certainly did not feel like avoiding her, but I had to give her some space after I stupidly told her that I wanted to kiss her in class. I never acted that way before, but I just couldn’t help myself whenever I was around her.
I was about to say that it was already too late so that Eloisa could get some sleep, but I guess she was already too sleepy since I didn’t hear anything from her. Instead, I heard soft snores coming through the speaker, and a small smile made its way on my lips. I was acting like a fool, but I honestly did not care. There was something about Eloisa that made her so fucking precious. The more I talked to her, the more I lost my fucking focus.
I decided to cut the call as I walked back to my room. It felt toasty in there, and that’s only when I realized that it was freezing on the balcony where I sat for three hours, talking to Eloisa.
Three fucking hours.
The only time I’d ever put up with a girl for three hours was when I’m having sex with her. But with Eloisa Castillo, we did not even talk about a lot of sexual stuff.
“What the fuck have you been doing out there?” a very sleepy Kyle asked, lifting his head from the floor that he had been sleeping on.
I told him to go back to sleep, which he did. Groaning, I fell back on the bed, thinking that I was probably too fucking far over my head with the entire plan of messing with Eloisa to get the throne and her fa
mily’s alliance. This girl was like a fucking goddess; she had been the only girl I had been thinking about for a week.
I sounded like a stupid dude, and I honestly felt like one, too. Still, I just wanted to be around her more. That’s especially true since we had made progress and gotten to know each other. Soon, perhaps I could even introduce Eloisa to the distributorships and storage areas. But as much as I wanted to do it all immediately, I did not want her running for the hills.
I wanted control of Bilbao as much as I had wanted Eloisa. The two meant equally important to me, but I wanted to focus on her a bit more than on the other.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Eloisa
I wondered not once but many times about how everyone could be good at different things. Growing up, I wasn’t really taught anything but family values, how my father had built an empire on his own from the ground up and how he expected all his children to do everything to keep it intact.
With loyalty, love, and respect among each other, my father believed that there is no way a family business could be powerful if the relationships in that family were powerful.
I was only five years old when my mother passed from cancer. As much as it hurt me, I hardly remembered anything about her. I only saw her pictures and heard stories from my brothers. Thus, I always wanted to get my father’s approval. Not only was he a good father but also a mother to me. No matter how much I tried to justify my growing friendship – or whatever it was with Keith – I couldn’t.
The two of us talked for at least three hours last night, and I fell asleep while doing so. That never happened to me before. I couldn’t remember talking to someone this long without being forced into the conversation.
That’s what really scared me. I was terrified by how comfortable I was with Keith Carson. If someone had asked me even a few weeks ago about what I thought about him, I would’ve told them how he was the only person that I loathed so much on this entire planet. But here we were.
After successfully submitting the last-minute assignment, I slept in for another hour, catching up on all the sleep that I lost last night. Gladly, Friday was the only day that I had off since I completed most of my credit hours over the previous four days. Now that I was in junior year, things had eased up a little.
I didn’t feel super fresh even after sleeping in, though. In truth, I felt dead, and the only thing that could help me right now would be some great coffee.
Hmm, should I get something nice to eat instead? I was pretty sure that Jona wouldn’t give me any coffee at the moment due to the bags under my eyes and my paler-than-usual skin.
I decided to clean up first, realizing that there was a party tonight, and I still had to be there. But should I go or not?
That question remained in my head from the moment I had woken up. Was I cheating on my family with such great closeness with Keith? Knowing how they would react to it, they would not be happy.
Grabbing my stuff, I made my way to the showers. Once I was done, I decided to head out to eat. Allison was nowhere around since she had a different schedule, so I left the campus with my laptop, bag, and car keys and ended up at Jona’s, already starved.
“I want everything on the menu!” I exclaimed as soon as I opened the café door, earning a few weird looks from the customers.
Jona shook his head at me. “Pancakes?” he asked.
“I’ll be at my table,” I replied instead before plopping my stuff down at the table closest to the counter. It was past the rush hour, so it was empty. I took a seat and fished out my phone while waiting for my laptop to start.
I often liked watching outside the window at this angle. Right now, everything was bright and clear, and the people walking by would probably think I was a weirdo if I stared too hard, so I decided to focus on my phone instead. I went back to the call logs, a small smile creeping on my lips as I saved Keith’s number in my contacts, reminiscing on our last night’s conversation.
A voice inside me kept telling me to keep it together, and I was trying but continuously failing miserably at it.
“Here is your food. I also added a milkshake,” Jona said, interrupting my thoughts.
I looked up at him. “I love you,” I uttered, grinning.
“Back off, woman,” he responded and went back to the counter, laughing.
I began eating with one hand and scrolling through my phone with the other hand as I gulped down the milkshake without touching the glass.
“It looks like you’re not so sleepy now,” someone spoke from behind.
I stopped chewing for a minute to turn around. Great, it’s Keith, and he looks very hot.
“Hi?” I answered sheepishly, sitting up straight, taking a smaller bite of my pancake so that he would not think that I always ate like an animal.
“Hey.” Keith chuckled as he dragged his seat from the opposite side and placed it next to mine. His bag, which was slung over his shoulder, sat on the ground. “Don’t you have any classes today?” he asked afterward, leaning back in his seat.
“Uh, no. You?” I was unsure about what was going on. Was he joining me? Or—
“I didn’t go,” Keith supplied. “I had to make some business calls.”
I nodded, taking another bite of my pancakes. “I’d offer you some, but I’m starving, and I don’t share food,” I uttered matter-of-factly.
He frowned. “That’s absolutely awful – you’re mean,” Keith joked.
I shrugged. “It’s not something that you already didn’t know.”
“I know, and I don’t really like these,” he said, nodding his head towards my pancakes.
“You’re sick,” I retorted, digging in.
“I just don’t see what the hype is all about, that’s all.”
I shook my head.
“You have a really awful taste. You know that, don’t you?” I took another large bite before turning to him.
“Not really,” Keith responded, a foreign look in his eyes.
I cleared my throat. “Anyway,” I uttered, trying to change the topic. “Whipped cream is nice,” I finished awkwardly as I put some more on my pancakes.
“That’s not so bad.”
“So, you do eat pancakes.”
“Sweetheart, what makes you think whipped cream is for pancakes only?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
I almost choked, rolling my eyes at him. “I’m trying to eat here. Can you not do that?”
“I don’t care. You know that, right?” Keith leaned in slightly. Something I noticed about him was that he would lean his face towards me when trying to mock me or say something mean – as if wanting to see me flustered or something.
“You’re coming to the party tonight, right?” he continued.
“I was thinking about it,” I replied, wanting to mess with him.
His face dropped slightly. “So, you do think about me.” Keith nodded his head thoughtfully.
I couldn’t help but smile. “I said I was thinking about the party,” I corrected him.
“Yeah, but you see, it’s at my place, and since I’m the host—”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” I said, cutting him off. I began drawing a smiley face on the plate with the whipped cream.
Keith scoffed.
“What?” I shot defensively.
“You see, Eloisa Castillo,” he drawled, leaning forward as he pulled me back by my arm slightly, taking me by surprise, “It pains me to see you do mediocre things like that.” Keith motioned towards my smiley, making my nose scrunch up. “There’s so much more we can do with this. Perhaps I’ll show you soon,” he finished.
I almost choked. Oh, okay. Well, then. My stomach dropped, and I pursed my lips, unsure of how to react to that. My brain wasn’t cooperating with me; I couldn’t immediately come up with something witty. “Do you always have to be like this?” I ended up saying.
“I think you’re smart, so you know that this thing,” Keith uttered, motioning between us, still holding onto my arm, �
��Isn’t normal between casual enemies interacting.” His eyes flickered to my lips.
He had done this before, but it was different this time. Not only was he gentle, but it also made me feel like I did not want him to let go. I was in too deep, wasn’t I?
“Stop doing that,” Keith said darkly.
I hadn’t noticed that I was biting into my lip until I saw that his eyes were fixated on it. “We’re friends,” I reasoned, sitting up straight as I cleared my throat.
“No, we’re not,” he stated.
I frowned, turning to look at him once again.
“I don’t want to be your friend. I’m definitely not settling for that,” Keith clarified.
Does that really mean what I think it means?
“You think that just because we’re not in Bilbao, it changes the fact that I’m a Castillo or you’re a Carson?” I asked.
“Fuck being a Castillo. Fuck being a Carson,” he responded bluntly, making me laugh.
“This,” I began, talking about the two of us, “Has already escalated way out of control. Even if something were to happen, do you think you could handle my father and my brothers?” I asked.
Keith rolled his eyes. “I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again – I’m not scared of your brothers. I respect your father, but I don’t fear him.”
I took a deep breath. “And I love him too much to hurt him,” I replied honestly.
Although his face was devoid of any expression, I could tell that I pissed him off. “Maybe friends is fine,” Keith said after a while.
I nodded. “This way, it doesn’t affect our families or businesses.”
He shrugged. “Speaking of business, did you know that your father has taken upon our east woods routes? It’s all harmonious between us now,” he joked.
I felt a little hurt by this news. Something this important had been decided, and I was still thinking that I would hear about it from my father.
“I did not know that,” I uttered softly.
Keith didn’t ask any more questions. “My father didn’t tell me that either. One of our suppliers did,” he replied.
I nodded. Then, I asked him a question that I had been thinking about for a while. “Why drugs?”
Cruel Hearts : An Enemies to Lovers Mafia Romance (Ruthless Legacy Book 2) Page 4
