Chap.5*The New Girl In His Life*

The next two days were the same as before, neither Kathleen wanted to speak to Ryker nor did he care for her.

As a few days passed by, Ryker's attitude towards her changed a bit. It seemed like he had stopped annoying her purposely. Since he was busy with work, he didn't want to stress himself out with unnecessary brawls. He and Kathleen even started having lunch and dinners at the same dining table.

He had started a new business of Ker's Fashion, something he had always wanted to do since the beginning. He had many businesses but this one was going to be a game-changer for him.

"Yeah! Just a new face." Ryker walked out of the room to sit down with Kathleen, who had already started eating her food.

Despite them sitting together, they would hardly ever speak.

"I want a perfect model for my first fashion show for Ker's Fashion." He was speaking to his secretary on the call and Kathleen could make out that he was looking for some new models to promote his brand.

"Oh! Okay, lemme check." Ryker put the phone away from his ear and watched something in his phone, "What did you say her name was?" Ryker's sudden peak in interest got Kathleen's attention.

"Elosie Ball!" Ryker repeated with his eyes stuck in space, Kathleen could tell that this model has already captured his attention. It was just the nostalgia of how he used to make her feel special too in the past, was all of it just a game? did he ever even liked her? 

"She is new? Connect me with her, I want to meet her tomorrow." Ryker's voice was drenched in excitement.

Kathleen remembered how excited he used to get when she would express her feelings to him, good old days.

Sadly, Kathleen had to live with someone that she had once loved genuinely but now that person had moved on from her while she was pregnant with his child.

In the next few days, Ryker was too much busy with his work and inauguration of his brand while Kathleen just stayed behind, not doing much.

"So, this is my apartment and downstairs is my first ever boutique, the one that I've opened for my ex." Kathleen picked up Ryker's noise from outside the door, jingling keys to unlock it and get inside.

She was resting on the couch in the living room when Ryker got inside with a young, beautiful girl.

From the very first glance, Kathleen was surprised to see how gorgeous this girl was.

"Oh! Scarlet?" The girl asked very politely, her voice was melodic, and her body fragile like a barbie doll.

"Yeah! So this is my apartment." Ryker had his hands in his royal blue pants' pockets, showing her around.

"That is beautiful," The girl uttered, her eyes traveled from the walls to Kathleen and a mild smile covered her lips, "lemme guess, you are his wife?" she smiled very sweetly and went ahead to shake hands with Kathleen.

"Kathleen Mark!" Kathleen introduced herself, noticing the change in Ryker's mood.

"I'm Eloise Ball." that name sounded familiar to Kathleen.

That was the name Ryker was so excited about, Kathleen recalled.

"Congratulations," Elosie continued with her little perfect laugh, making Kathleen insecure, unintentionally.

"Thank you," Kathleen responded, noticing how Ryker was noticing the little details of Elosie. She didn't want to feel any type of way since he had done everything to break her heart, but yet she could hear her heart shattering every time she noticed that he had moved on from her.

"She is the showstopper for my fashion show." Ryker did the proper introduction and then told Elosie to join him on the balcony, the same balcony where it all started between Kathleen and Ryker.

Kathleen could still see them and even hear them giggling and joking around.

"This place has such a beautiful view," Eloise murmured, looking around.

"True," Ryker answered with his eyes glued to her face, "The view is indeed spectacular." He finished and Kathleen instantly felt a wave of goosebumps covering her skin.

A sudden force of tears decided to be formed in her eyes when a gust of memories shivered her body.

It was sad that she thought she had moved on from him, but then why did it feel so bad to see him showering Elosie with the attention he used to give Kathleen before?

All she wanted to know was that why did he stop loving her? If anything, she should have been the one to be angry at him, to hate him for all the suspicions she had on him about her brother's accident.

Ryker and Eloise spent the next few hours together and then they decided to prepare the dinner in the kitchen with Kathleen awkwardly working along. It was Eloise's idea to cook the dinner with Kathleen and Ryker just agreed to it.

"Have you ever cut the vegetables before?" Ryker stood close to Eloise, cheerfully teasing her as she rolled her beautiful eyes at him.

"I'm not that useless, sir," she responded with an attitude but that brought a smile onto Ryker's face.

Kathleen was secretly noticing every single detail of their interactions from her peripheral vision.

She once used to be his center of attention, so seeing another girl this close to him was hurting her or maybe it was just the mother of his child that was jealous.

"It's fine if you have never done that, I can teach you." Ryker rested his back against the counter to watched Elosie more clearly.

"Oh really?" Eloise snickered, "Kathleen, you better put a leash to your husband." She turned around to Kathleen and joked, walking away with the chopped vegetables.

Katheen, now that she was being mentioned, turned her face and made accidental eye contact with Ryker.

He was watching her!

Just scanning her with his eyes narrowed at her. Could he not see the shine in Kathleen's eyes? That shine was the freshly formed tears.

"Nobody has been born yet to put a leash to me," Ryker stated with a smirk pulling across his lips, he made deep eye contact with Kathleen. The tears in Kathleen's eyes seemed to lift up his ego even more.

During the entire dinner, Eloise and Ryker kept talking and making it hard for Kathleen to eat in peace. What confused Kathleen was the dynamic of their relationship, he did introduce Kathleen as his wife, does that mean Eloise wouldn't pursue a physical relationship with Ryker out of decency and respect for another woman, who was carrying that man's baby?

Thankfully, they finished the dinner before Kathleen could break down into tears out of frustration. Ryker accompanied Elosie downstairs and once he came back, Kathleen decided to speak to him.

"She is pretty, I'm happy to meet her," she said, her eyes watching him, slowly unbuttoning his coat. The energy he had in the beginning was no longer visible, it did seem like he was faking a smile and chuckles by the end.

"Really?" Ryker was facing Kathleen, staring her straight in the eye whilst slowly playing with his buttons before opening them, "Then why did you almost cry if you were so happy to meet her?" his words compelled Kathleen to quickly gulp the awkwardness down her throat and force a smile with the tears making an appearance at the same time.

"Stop pretending like it didn't hurt," He bitterly spoke once he finished taking off his coat and threw it on the couch.

Kathleen had no response to his statement. 

He noticed!