Chapter 2: Getting Her

Riccardo POV:

I heard someone burst out laughing and I swore to God that laugh belonged to Cassandra.

"Cassie?" I spoke again. But the other person on the line was silent. I stared at my phone screen and checked it once again. It was clearly Cassandra who called me.

"Hello?" The call was not dead yet, but why did no one was talking?

"Get it closer to her. Let her talk. Cassie, talk to him. How ridiculous. How the heck did he know it wasn't you?" I heard some random people speak indistinctly, so I waited patiently to grasp what kind of situation this was.

"Hello?" A woman's voice finally talked again. I knew this voice. This was certainly Cassandra.

"Is this Cassie?" I asked, wanting to confirm it.

"Yes, this is Cassie. Cassandra Moore! The ex that you dumped seven years ago!" She proclaimed with a drunk voice.

"I didn't dump you, Cassie. We agreed to go on our separate ways," I responded calmly.

"Yeah... right... that's just another term you would call it. Go on our separate ways... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bother you. But this was just a mistake. My friends pranked me and... they hugged me so tightly that I can't even move my body right now..." A little laughter from several people was heard in the background.

"You sounded drunk, Cassie. Where are you? It's not safe to come home alone this late." I asked again because her situation concerned me.

I didn't want Cassandra to be stranded in some random nightclub and got taken home by a stranger. I knew she had a car but I didn't think she would be able to drive right now, not in that drunken state.

"And so what? You're going to come here and take me home?" She laughed as if my concern for her was some kind of a joke.

"She's at Emerald Nightclub!" A guy shouted and I could hear it clearly.

"Shhhuuusshh! He was just joking. I'm not at Emerald Nightclub," and I heard Cassie talk again. With her denying statement, it was confirmed to me that she must be there.

I cut the phone call promptly and got up from bed, putting on a plain white tee-shirt with a pair of jeans. Then, I took my car key and headed downstairs to the first floor. I went straight to the front door and left the house. I took a glanced at the clock on the wall before I exited my three-storey mansion. It was past midnight. Why would Cassie drink so much tonight? She needed to report to the company on Monday, basically the day after tomorrow.

I knew it had been seven years. But it never stopped me from loving her. After we broke up, my life felt empty. It felt like she left a void inside my heart. Back then, there was some issue regarding my family and it was dangerous for me to meet her often, so I rarely came to her campus to meet her after I graduated college. She got mad about it and probably slipped her tongue on that one particular day, mentioning a breakup with me. So, I went along with it, thinking that it was the best thing for both of us at that time.

After the breakup, I followed every new story about her, checking her Instgr*m or Facebo*k every day, and sending some men to check on her if she didn't update her social media accounts in three days. I knew she dated a few guys, and then ended up breaking up with them. I knew what type of car she drove, I even memorized her plate number. I knew where she lived and I also knew where she went for vacations and how she celebrated all her birthday parties for the last seven years.

I knew it sounded like I'm such a stalker, but I never went overboard with all the stalking things. I never once approached her or tried to mess with her life. I never once appeared in front of her face. I left her be, doing whatever she wanted with her life. For seven years, I was invisible to her eyes. I was just a man she never knew existed, watching her from afar. I had accepted that it was just going to be like that forever between me and her. And I still thought that was the best for us.

But then, a week ago, the HR manager of RX Corp gave me the candidate list for my future secretary. Funny how the universe worked, she was actually one of the candidates. Was that what people usually called fate?

Five candidates, I just needed to choose one. Easy task, wasn't it obvious? Of course, I would choose Cassandra. After seven years of eyeing her from afar and now I had the opportunity to make her work for me and made her be in my sight five days a week. Why would I waste that chance?

I drove my black Lamborghini heading to the city, to Emerald Nightclub to be exact. The night sky was rumbling with slow thunders as if giving a sign that it would rain soon. So I drove even faster, making sure I arrived at the club before the rain caught me. Half an hour later, I reached my destination.

I went into the nightclub without delay, scanned around and even asked the employees there if they saw Cassandra. An employee brought me into a private room and there she was, lying unconscious on the green velvet sofa with all her friends still drinking and enjoying the night like there was no tomorrow for them.

None of them noticed my arrival and none of them seemed to care about Cassie. She was just there alone and I wondered what kind of things they let her drink for her to be that drunk. Slowly, I approached Cassie and tried to wake her up but she was totally out.

"Do you want to sleep here?!" I talked to her with a loud voice hoping she could hear me a bit, but believe me, the sound in that private room was louder.

Her friends were having karaoke at that time and they sang with their voices at the top of their lungs. My God, this was madness. Why would Cassie get involved and befriended these kinds of people?

Cassie gave no response so I carried her body over my shoulder and took her out of there. I paid the bill for them and even left a bit of money to the club employee, telling him to use it to pay for the taxi and made sure all Cassie's friends got home safely.

I shove Cassie into the passenger seat of my car and tried to wake her up again before I drove home. I was planning to get her back to her apartment but then it would be considered trespassing if I go in there without her consent, right? So, should I take her back to my home instead?