First Encounter

For the umpteenth time, Fredrick’s phone persistently buzzed while he was driving causing a slow irritation on his features. Fredrick Houghton was known to be strict and uptight, he was a man of principles and he genuinely believed in rules.

Answering a phone call while driving was a self made rule, he loved to focus and complete a task before moving to the next one, in fact, he was a perfectionist. As the phone buzzed on Fredrick glanced at his car screen, it was his grandma. When Grandma Jojo wanted to be dramatic, she knew exactly how to do it but today’s charade was questionable. Fredrick contemplated a possible situation that could demand such pertinence, his mind swerved at the possibility of an urgent situation and he immediately went to grasp his phone, forgetting the dangers of a bending corner. Just then, he noticed a blonde figure on a bicycle almost colliding into his car, he abruptly slammed into the brakes while his opposition driver tried to veer off course to avoid their little crash.

He watched the tiny figure fall off her bicycle and landed on the ground, both of them terrified about the impact the accident would’ve had if he wasn’t swift enough to hit brakes in time.

Fredrick flung his phone away and stepped out of the car to help the other party. It was a girl.

“are you okay?” He said extending a hand to the girl on the ground.

Avery sat on the ground trying to make sense of what had just occurred, in her core, she knew she was in thought and had lost sight of where she was going. She looked at the extended palm in front of her and decided against taking it. It surely didn’t matter if she took it or not.

“I’m fine” Avery replied.

“Obviously not!” Fredrick retorted, taking a good look at her features, he noticed a few bruises. He was grateful that she wasn’t badly injured but he needed to do his part and take her to the hospital.

“Get in the car, you need to get checked at the hospital” he added.

Hospital?! Who goes to the hospital for bruised knees? Avery thought. She already had a remedy for her bruised knee; a cotton cloth dipped in ethanol to clean the wounds and then little plastic tapes to protect the skin.

Going to the hospital sounded too grand for bruises but then again, this was the man from the morning, everything about him spoke wealth. His status was obvious and he clearly had enough to spend.

“I can take care of myself! I’d like to settle instead” Avery blurted out before putting much thoughts into her words.

Fredrick was taken aback by her boldness. “Settled? Can you afford the damages on my car?” He said taking an estimated amount of her worth.

Avery was indeed surprised. He didn’t expect him to turn this to his favor, but she stood her ground.

“There are clearly no damages on your property” she retorted, “but you can see mine, look at my bicycle…and my book!” Avery yelled, enraged at the sight of her “Wish, Willow” comic book. It looked irreparable, the new covers were badly screeched on the ground. Avery couldn’t believe her eyes, her very new book was distorted without her reading it.

She averted her gaze from the book to the man towering over her. She found herself garner strength as she stood up to face the rude man.

“I demand compensation!” Avery said almost stumping her foot. Her fury was evident on her face.

Fredrick busted into a hysterical laughter, everything was coming together now. This girl was trying to extort money from him, how dare she?!

“You clearly are at fault here too, what bicycle rider uses the main roadway without checking for safety first or was this your plan all along? Get hit and extort money from people? That’s a cheap trick, too cheap for me to buy” Fredrick said angrily and took a stance to leave Avery to her fate but Avery wasn’t having it either. How could a man so rich not even consider asking her for the amount she wanted. She wasn’t even going to ask for that much, she just wanted a thousand dollars, instead this man was making a fuzz and calling her cheap.

“What?!” Avery exclaimed, clearly pained by his accusations.

“You were the distracted driver who drove in front of me, now you accuse me falsely so you can escape compensation.”

Fredrick wasn’t done with having this conversation, it became obvious to him that Avery was just desperate for the money.

“Here, my card.” He said handing her a card.

“I’ll be ready with my lawyer when you are.” With that, the sleek man entered his car and drove off, leaving Avery awfully quiet and unable to comprehend the horror she had just met.

“What rich man could be that strict with money? Or maybe he was broke and was only flaunting expensive things” her thought were conveniently backed up by the fact that he couldn’t even pay for the order he made this morning. She took a look at the card and promised to get at him.

Fredrick Hughson got to his presidential residence at White Avenue, an area reserved for the top one percent of Greenville. He still hadn’t gotten over the incident he had just experienced, there was something about Avery that he could not understand but her audacity stunned him above all. He had given her his card and mentioned a lawyer to see if she would still have the audacity to call.

His thoughts were abruptly changed by the same buzz that drove him to insanity few minutes ago. It was Grandma Jojo.

“Hello nei-nei” Fredrick said as he finally answered the phone.

“Finally!” Grandma Jojo cried.

“Have you been avoiding me, Freddie?” she asked in the most soft voice.

“No nei-nei, I’ve just been busy, really busy. And you keep calling at the wrong time” Fredrick replied feeling guilty and apologetic to the only family member he loved.

“You can’t keep using work as excuse Freddie. You’re now the CEO of your company, no?”

“Yes nei-nei” Fredrick replied feeling defeated.

“Then you should learn to live like one, take a break, go on a vacation, fall in love”

Fall in love. That’s the one thing Fredrick dreaded nei-nei would say.

“Freddie?” Grandma Jojo called out after a few seconds of silence.

“Yes nei-nei” Fredrick replied.

“How is Claire doing? I heard she’s returned from Asia. Will you bring her to dinner on Friday? I’m tired of eating alone.” Grandma Jojo said.

Who the h*ll was Claire?! Nei-nei had a collection of his flings more than he did and if he could remember correctly, Claire and he was dead business from like forever ago. He just didn’t know how to tell her that she had cheated on him severally with different people so they were no longer together and he wasn’t interested in anybody else for that matter, but he had to tell her something. Hearing her ask of Claire every time she called was beginning to cause an upset in his stomach.

“Nei-nei, Claire and I are not together anymore” Fredrick said groggily.

“Jesus!” Grandma Jojo exclaimed.

“Since when?!”

“almost three years now!” Fredrick said, he knew what was coming next- an earful of advice and nagging from nei-nei.

“Oh poor Claire! What did you do? Let me guess, You were too busy to spend time with her?”

He couldn’t bring himself to say what really happened, in fact, he himself had not moved on from the incidences that l led to their breakup. Every time he thought about it, he broke down in tears and cried for the first and last love he ever had to give.

“Yes nei-nei, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it work.”

“Well then, let me help you. Bring her over and I’ll help you win her over again”

“No no no, that won’t be necessary nei-nei…I uh…”

“I have someone else now!” He blurted without thinking of the consequences.

“Goodness!” Nei-nei squealed excitedly,

“When were you going to tell me?!” She said like a happy child.

“Make sure to bring her over to dinner. What’s her name? Where’s she from?”

“Nei-nei you’ll find out for yourself…”

“I can’t wait!”

By the end of the call, he had somehow promised to introduce his grandma to a non-existent girlfriend in two days.

“What’s with these women?!” He exclaimed.