Chapter 02

Rayka

“Now let's talk about something else, Rayka what are your plans for these days?”

“My father is preparing a delicious barbecue by the pool for today.”

Like any good Texan, my dad loves a barbecue, so he built a gourmet area in the basement of our house, with a heated pool for us to use in the winter.

“And I thought we'd go out to the farm early tomorrow, drive around, and come back at the end of the day for the party.”

“Oh, no Rayka, you know I want to take these days to be with Bryan.” Liz says.

Of course, she wants to, I look at Ness and shrug, we both know that Liz will insist on it.

“As for that Liz, Bryan is not coming to Amarillo, he decided to spend the holiday in Arlington.” Ness speaks up.

“I can't believe he did that.” Liz speaks up, I look through the rearview mirror just in time to see her wiping away a tear.

“Don't cry Liz, he doesn't deserve your tears, if he was worthy of them, he wouldn't make you cry, come on, hold your head up, you are a strong woman and you deserve a man by your side who admires you and makes you feel even stronger.” I speaks.

“In theory this is beautiful, but it turns out that I love Bryan and it is with him that I want to stay, all I need is to be patient with him.”

Love really does blind people, as a friend, all I can do is give my advice and let her choose the best for herself.

“If you think so, I will respect your choice, but as someone who grew up being his neighbor, I say that Bryan and dating do not go together in the same sentence.” I speak the truth and hope she changes her thinking.

“Who are you to talk about this? You haven't had a serious relationship for years out of fear, since the last one wanted to have several mistresses just like your father.”

Liz's words hurt and anger me, not because of what she said about my dating, but because she put my father in the middle, because she knows I don't like my father being referred to that way.

I know that his love life is not what you call common, he is married to my mother and both are happy, my mother says she does not mind my father going out with others and even proposed an agreement many years ago, among the rules, are that my father cannot have a child with any of them, for that he made a vasectomy and every four months, he does an exam to make sure everything is right, he also cannot go out with anyone in our city or bring them to our conviviality.

Seven years ago, my father went to Brazil for the World Riding Cup and also to talk about the Iron Cowboy project, which started in 2010 and that was when he met Nicole and started a serious relationship with her. My father has always been sincere with Nicole, saying that he is married and that he does not intend to leave his wife and she accepted to be able to stay with him only when he was in Brazil and so they have been dating until today. Over time, I have become friends with her, who is a kind person and a great designer, and it has even been agreed that she will do the project for our office.

I know Liz is upset and I can even accept her attacking me after what I said, but that doesn't justify involving my father and his agreement with my mother. In order not to cause an accident, I pull the car over and turn around in order to answer her looking into her eyes.

“First of all, if you want to attack someone, attack me, but don't talk about my father, because, you know well that Nicole is his girlfriend and not his lover, so don't refer to her that way.”

Lover to me is a person who just wants to destroy a relationship and has no real feeling there.

“Secondly, if I don't have a boyfriend, it's because I don't want one, I'd rather be alone than be made an object by a clueless guy and I will wait until I find a man who respects me to have a serious relationship.”

I just don't know where to find one.

“And as for your question about who I am, I am your friend with whom you have shared a dorm for over 6 years, I am someone who cares about you, who does not want to see you suffer for having your feelings hurt by someone who does not value you. And last but not least, I ask you not to take your anger at Bryan out on us, because we are not to blame for what is happening, given the time you have been with him, it is more than enough to know that he does not intend to change.”

As soon as I finish talking, I turn around and lean on the steering wheel, if there is one thing I hate is fighting with the girls, it is not easy for us to live together, where each one has a different personality, but we do our best, and so when we have a problem, we sit down and talk until everything is resolved.

“Rayka.” Liz calls after a while and I turn to her. “I'm sorry for what I said.”

I know we'll have to talk about this at some point, but now is not the time or place for that, not to mention that I know Liz is fragile about her situation with Bryan.

“Let's just forget this story and enjoy these days before going back to Harvard, okay?” I says with a smile.

“Okay.”

I start the car again and continue driving home, not knowing how to lighten the mood.

“You wouldn't believe who called me this afternoon.” Ness speaks.

“Who?” Sarah asks.

“Definitely a woman, you are too pure for a man to call you.” I say laughing and making everyone laugh together.

Of our group, Ness is the only one who has not yet had her first time, because she wants to wait for marriage for the love of her soul mate. I, when I was younger, even though the same as her, but I changed my mind after dating Kaleo for two years, I really liked him and for that reason I gave myself up. Our relationship didn't last after the end of high school, I went to Boston, and he went to Austin, it became difficult to see each other due to the distance and the amount of subjects we had to study, and then I discovered the betrayal, and everything ended.

It was even your older brother Kaneki, an excellent cowboy, who works on my father's farm, who taught me how to ride bulls, I was very good, but as this business is extremely macho, it was always just a hobby of mine.

“Very funny of you. It was Anne who called me.”

Anne is an assistant at the law firm where we all do our internships. She is an intelligent woman, but very strict when it comes to work, demanding perfection from her trainees.

“What did she want with you?” Liz asks.

“She's doing an inventory of all the cases the office has had this year, and she called me to tell me that the report I did on case 2016.1110-95, is unsatisfactory because it was not very detailed.”

“Did she want a report or a transcript of the case?”  Sarah asks.

“I don't know, I think she wanted me to write the crime accurately.” Ness speaks.

“What was this case anyway?” Liz asks.

“It was the murder of the author Julia Ashley, a girl named Layana Rayssa, freaked out after the author killed her favorite character in a book and then broke into the woman's house and killed her the same way the character had died. The jury found the crime to be premeditated and she was sentenced to life in prison.” Ness recounts.

“At these times I am grateful that I chose to be a lawyer and not a writer, these readers are crazy and lose their minds because of a character or because of a book.” I laughs.

Finally, we arrive at my house, I park the truck and we enter, we go towards the stairs so that the girls leave their bags in my room and put on our bikinis.

As soon as we enter my room, I find Mrs. Jaqueline, she works for my parents since they got married and became my nanny when I was born, for me she is like a second mother, and I have a lot of love and affection for her.

I notice that she is finishing making the bed, my father exaggerated by buying a gigantic bed with almost four meters wide. Because of his extravagance, when the girls come, we all stay in my bed.

“Good evening, girls, and welcome.” Mrs. Jaqueline speaks.

“Thank you, Mrs. Jaqueline.” Ness speaks.

“Rayka, your father asked me to tell you that he's waiting for you in the cave.” Mrs. Jaqueline informs me.

“Okay, let's just change and we'll be right down.”

She leaves the room and I go to the closet to get a bikini; I end up choosing a light blue ruffled model, and as soon as we are all dressed, we go down to the cave, which is how my father refers to the internal gourmet area.