章)ETHAN CARTER
When your angry girlfriend forgets to splash champagne on your face and instead splashes wasabi.
And just down the ridiculous meme was my face turning red from the wasabi that accidentally got in my eye.
When you mistake guacamole for wasabi
And again my face popped up, my eyes having been edited with even larger ones.
There were other ridiculous memes surfing on the web with my face on it and I got angry just knowing the fact that everyone in the city was making fun of me just because of her.
A woman I barely knew. A woman who in one day had angered me more than any of my employees.
I needed to find her correction I was going to find her. And when I did God so help me because I wouldnt be able to contain myself.
She poured wasabi on me, on my face! Crystal had to wipe the dang thing off my face before my eyes turned all red.
The romantic dinner I had carefully planned for Crystal went down south and like a ten year old, tears couldnt stop falling from my eyes.
It was humiliating for me to cry, in public. When I got home, I immediately called my optician to come and check on my eyes. Luckily there was no permanent damage and I was grateful for that.
I was on the treadmill listening to Counting stars by One Republic as I scrolled down my phone even further.
People were actually making fun of me without no shame!
I was scrolling down the last meme which had a poop emoji on my face when the phone screen changed.
Mom was calling.
I groaned, sliding my finger on the screen to the green call button.
"Ethan! What happened yesterday? Who did that to you? Are you okay?" Mom asked worriedly over the phone.
"Am fine. Its not as bad as it looks like", I lied.
It was bad. It was really bad. It was like having your body malfunction. The pungent smell of the wasabi had made my brain sting, my throat drier than usual and my eyes sting.
"Ethan Ive seen the pictures on the web, you look like you are choking on hot chili peppers"
"Wow, mom. Thanks for reminding me"
"You know I love you but all this could have been avoided if you had a wife to cook for you instead of going out to eat at restaurants"
Ooh hear we go again. And in the next five seconds, she would start talking about the benefits of having a wife and why I should propose as early as now.
"Mom. We were having a romantic dinner date before it got interrupted perhaps I can cook for myself, you know"
She stayed mute but I knew she was there due to how heavy she was breathing.
"Ethan, am not getting any younger. I want to see you happy, to see you settled, to have grandkids",she said in a sullen tone.
The same sullen tone she used on me when I was a kid to get me to eat broccoli.
I remember her asking me, Dont you want to be strong to protect mummy? and I would immediately gulp the disgusting vegetable down my throat for her.
"And you will have grandkids, just not now, mom. I have a lot of work to do, so Ill call you later?"
"Fine. I love you",she said with a resigned tone.
"I love you too, mom. Take care", I replied.
I get that she was lonely because I was now a man who wanted to be independent and she had no one by her side but still- children? Now?
My mother and I, we had always been together. Lisa and Ethan, she would call us. I never met my father, my mother said he died a few months before I was born so I never knew the guy that well. My mom was my soldier, both a mother and a father to me.
After I finished my workout, I took a quick shower heading downstairs to find Jai already dressed and reading the morning newspapers.
"Whats up or should I say wasa-boss?"
"Haha very funny", I fake smiled tightening the cuff links on my wrists.
"Ill get the car",he stood up and I dismissed him with my hand.
"Ill drive the Porsche today. Why dont you take a day off to reflect on your silly jokes?" I patted his shoulder taking the car keys from off the coffee table in my penthouse.
"Well you have to admit it, the pictures were funny"
"I thought as my friend you should be helping me find the scoundrels who are making fun of me on the web"
"Am a human being, Ethan. Laughter comes first before friendship"
"Right. Am starting to rethink this whole friendship thing. Anyway Ill see you later"
I left the house, taking the porsche panamera for a quick drive.
After what happened yesterday, it was safe to lay low for a while until the whole thing blew over.
I called one of my IT guys from the company, instructing him to bring down the sites writing about my incident with wasabi yesterday and the pictures.
I also instructed him to get me the IP addresses of each person who kept posting that wasabi crap, if I needed to threaten all of them, then I would.
My car came to a halt infront of Jitters coffee shop. I came here with the purpose of finding the redhead and put an end to her obsession with me.
It was barely noon and the place was packed to capacity. The smell of freshly ground coffee beans wafted in the air accompanied with the smell of scones and biscuits.
I took my seat at the table marked twelve scanning the room for the redhead. She had ginger hair that would stand out in any room and I didnt get a glimpse of her in the coffee shop.
I sat in silence as I watched a skinny girl come towards my table. The two buttons on her dress were undone leaving room for her rack of boobs to be seen.
"Can I take your order?" She asked with a high pitched voice that made me squirm.
She battered her lashes, not once, not twice and certainly not thrice. Frankly if someone were here with me, one would have thought she had an eye problem.
"Actually am looking for someone, you might know her", I started and that seemed to peak her interest in me.
"Does she have brown hair perhaps? A nice smile? A rocking body?" She flirted and it took few seconds for me to understand she meant herself.
"No. Quite the contrary, she has ginger red hair, know her by any chance?" I asked.
Her eyes widened slightly as if she could somehow remember her,
"The new girl? You are seriously asking about the new girl? She got fired, apparently she threw herself at this super rich guy and he wasnt interested. Talk about desperate measures, am I right?"
Desperate measures? I felt the need to ask..She was also standing infront of me making sure I saw her cleavage and she was talking about desperation?
"Do you know where she happens to live by any chance?"I asked impatiently.
"Why look for her? Am available. Ill do anything you want me to, baby",she winked ridiculously.
"Whats your name?", I roared.
"I can suck your cock, if you want",she whispered.
"Well Ms I-can-suck-your-cock, am not interested!"I boomed standing up and walking towards the blad guy from yesterday.
He was the manager of this place.
And what was it with the girls of this place?
I gave him a few dollars in exchange for information on the address of the ginger red haired girl.
Half an hour later, I was driving into a rather scrappy neighborhood searching for Bill Flats. Had he given me the right address to begin with?
I asked around only to find Bill Flats just around the corner. No wonder ginger red haired girl wanted me. This place was a dump.
I parked my car infront of the building walking inside.
I pressed the buttons on the elevator waiting for the elevator doors to part.
"You are in the wrong side of town, rich boy. That elevator hasnt worked in years", a drunk teenage boy stumbled past me.
I took the stairs having no other choice. The redhead who I now knew went by the name of Aliya Maria Fernanda Torres, lived on the third floor in the room 36-B.
Few minutes later, I was in the third floor staring at the endless hallway infront of me.
What are you doing, Ethan?
I asked myself. I would find the girl, then what? Would I threaten her? Scare her? Or really call the cops on her?
I was in the middle of my inflicting thoughts, when a shrill cry caught my attention.
Help me!
S-someone help us!
Mom. S-someone.
The voice began to dim down as I heard sobs fill the hallway. Like any man in my situation, I ran towards the cry of help.
On the left side of the hallway was an open door, the place where the noise came from.
I stood by the doorway getting shocked to find an unconscious fifty something old woman on the floor and a younger woman shaking while she sobbed.
"Help me, s-she she cant die"
At this point, I was confused not knowing whether to help a crying Aliya Maria Fernanda or to turn around and leave at the situation.
But she was crying? There an unconscious woman on the floor.
"Ill call an ambulance", I said with haste taking my phone from my pants and calling for an ambulance.
The ambulance came by ten minutes later and the woman was carried into the vehicle.
"Hang on, mom",Aliya said getting into the ambulance.
I stood by my Porsche not really sure what had happened in the past few minutes. I helped her but any man would have helped had he been in the same exact position, right?
Yet despite of me helping her, I wanted to do more than help.
I wanted to know that her mother was okay.
I shouldnt have cared yet here I was five minutes later following the ambulance through traffic.
I needed to talk to her about what she did yesterday, I needed to tell her to back off from me or else I would file for a restraining order but why did I forget about all that, the instant I saw her emerald eyes glisten with tears?