CHAPTER 3 - MISTER COLD

Four hours after all that traumatic experience, Flight QR1211 finally landed at Xi State.

However, Enoch wasn’t able to forget how that 5 foot 8 Flight Attendant looked at him. It was as if she wanted to tell him something. Her deep blue eyes and red hair makes her stand out in the crowd. Her smile brightens the mood but her raspy voice gives chills to the people around her.

Her light makeup didn’t hide her freckles from her right cheek across her small pointy nose to her left cheek, and that thin heart like lips that he wanted to kiss. “To kiss?” Enoch chuckled a little when he thought about kissing Nuala’s lips.

“Sir, excuse me but we’re here.” said the smiling flight attendant. He just gave the lady his signature cold gaze and a nod before unbuckling his seatbelt. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice that all the passengers left the cabin. He shook his head but when Nuala’s face popped in his mind again, he smiled. He stood up to get his bags and left. “Mister cold.” said the blonde flight attendant.

He didn’t miss what she said but he ignored it.

As he was walking through the passenger boarding bridge, he suddenly remembered something. It wasn’t his luggage he forgot, but Nuala’s contact details. He took one step forward and two steps back, battling whether to go back to see Nuala or not. After a few seconds of thinking, he decided to go back, but before he could walk near the plane, he came across the attendant who called him “Mister Cold”.

“Hi, sir. Did you leave anything behind?” she asked in surprise.

Enoch scratched the back of his neck to hide his embarrassment before talking, “No, actually, is Miss Nuala still there?”

The woman smiled, “Oh, I’m sorry. She already left. Do you need anything from her?”

His shoulders dropped, ‘I knew it.’ he told himself. “No. Never mind.” He said, then he left without looking at the woman; Enoch didn't want anyone to see him a little dejected.

Enoch arrived at his father’s house 2 hours after he left the airport. It was a simple four bedroom two-storey bungalow house with a garage and a small garden. His father has kept his mother’s mini garden even if she had passed for nearly a decade.

Thinking of how much love his parents had for each other made him smile. He shook his head in amazement when he found his father planting white roses, his mother’s favorite. After all these years, he’s still doing the promise he said to his mother.

“Hi dad..” he crouched down to meet his father’s eye level.

Henry Smith, his father didn’t look at him but replied, “How was your trip?” Wearing a brown gardening apron, a pair of brown gloves with a small garden shovel in his right hand while the flower is on the other hand.

Enoch brushed off the usual emotion he felt when he remembered the unfortunate event that happened earlier but smiled a little when he remembered Nuala’s face. “Dad, I met a girl today and this one is different.” He said, helping his father to steady the rose bush.

Henry looked at him in disbelief, “How many times have you said that?” Enoch, saying those words is nothing new to his father, in fact, he has had two girlfriends in the past but both didn’t end well. The first one was when he was 20, it was when he got into the military. They broke up because it was a long-distance relationship. The second one lasted about 2 years but the woman got pregnant by someone else, it happened when he was 25.

Now Enoch is 30 yet he still says those words. “No, I’m serious, Dad. Nuala’s different.”

“How is she different?” his father asked, picking up the gardening tools laying on the ground. By this time, they are done planting roses.

“We met in an unusual way..” Then Enoch started telling his father about the hijacking fiasco, how Nuala cared about humanity and how she offered legal help to the perpetrator.

Then and only then Henry understood how “this girl” is different from the other women his son has met. It seems like Enoch has found the girl version of himself. But something is odd about “this girl” or maybe he’s just thinking too much.

A few hours later, the father and son duo had their dinner and talked a lot about Enoch’s training and about his father, Henry’s new book.

His father is a well-known romanticist, author, and Literary professor. He has written 8 books in total, 4 about European literature, 3 romantic novels, and a book that no one has ever seen except his mother, Beetha.

Enoch’s mother, Beetha asked Henry, Enoch’s father, if she can read that book as her death wish. Whatever is written on it, no one knows.

It was already 10 in the evening when Enoch went to his room. There, he turned on his personal computer and searched for a name. With the keyboard tapping sounds, he typed the name he’s looking for. “Nuala Kawolski..” he mumbled. Since he wasn’t sure about the spelling of her name, he almost gave up until he saw a photo of a little red-haired girl with deep blue eyes standing in a healthy vineyard.

He clicked that photo and he stumbled upon an article dated 11 years back, with the title of “The Simple Princesses: The Simple Multi-Billionaire Daughter of Enya Riggs”. Then he started reading the article silently.

There he saw some photos of Nuala when she was 5 years old riding a bike with ribbon laces, her smile is pure and innocent. When she was 11 holding a bouquet of flowers from her father as it was valentine’s day, when she celebrated her 16th birthday and when she graduated college.

The more he sees her pictures, the more he falls for her. In one of the paragraphs of Nuala’s mother’s interview says, “People say that princesses tend to grow entitled, but I say, it depends on how you guide them. My husband and I wanted her to grow upright, nice, and kind to everyone, and we want her to care for the other people..”

“So she was brought up by her parents just like the way her parents were brought up.” Then something hit Enoch, “So she’s not only a rightful person, but she’s also a princess. I wonder..”

Enoch was too consumed by reading the article about her mother and looking at her photos, he didn’t hear that someone opened the door behind him. “What’s up!” said the man behind him.

He jolted in surprise and accidentally closed the browser. “Hey! You startled me!”

The man laughed as if Enoch said a funny joke. “You looked so funny! What are you doing?”

“Nothing!” he exclaimed.

“Come on, I understand. Women are not allowed in your work so I totally get it.” the man mockingly said.

“Fuck off!” he whispered, fearing that their father might hear them.

“Is this how you greet your older brother? You know I missed you.” he said. That man is Flynn, Enoch’s twin brother; he’s 15 seconds older than Enoch.

Even if the two are identical, you can clearly distinguish who is who as Enoch has a rugged, rough, and tough image with a cold and snappy personality, while Flynn on the other hand is more like a clean-cut, neatly dressed, goofy, and easy to get along with persona. But there is one thing that they are similar, they are both animal lovers.

These two had a love and hate relationship but got along well when they reached adulthood. Enoch pursued his dream to serve their country while Flynn became a Veterinarian, he put up his own animal clinic and helped a local organization to rescue animals.

And one more thing, they had fallen in love with the same girl when they were 16 years old but neither of them got the chance because the girl went after the president of their student council. Because of that, they promised that they will never fall in love again with the same girl.