Scarlett and Nelly were just coming out from their first class of the semester when Nelly stopped walking and turned to face Scarlett, smiling widely.
“Have you heard?” Nelly questioned. Scarlett, who seemed uninterested, was busy on her phone. She looked up with a perplexed expression and shrugged.
“Heard what?”
“The football team is hosting a welcome back party at their house tonight.” Nelly happily announced.
Scarlett shook her head slowly, “I didn't know about it. You know you're always up to date about everything happening in school.”
“That's right.” Nelly giggled. “So are you going?”
“Nah, I don't think so. I have a lot of work to do tonight.” Scarlett replied, and Nelly looked sad.
Vivian's secretary, Rachel, had sent the month's summary to Scarlett. It contained everything that had happened in the last month, including the finances and different deals. So she wanted to take her time to go through everything and take note of what had been going on, especially due to her mother's frugal ways.
“Wouldn't your boyfriend be sad that you aren't coming?” Nelly questioned.
“Who? Ethan?” Scarlett rolled her eyes.
“He's not my boyfriend. We're not dating.”
“I thought you said he asked you out.” Nelly wondered.
“He did, but I turned him down, I prefer us to be just friends,” Scarlett answered.
“Oh..” Nelly bit her lip and then shrugged. “Well, don't worry, I'm going to tell you everything that happened at the party by tomorrow.” She beamed and hugged Scarlett tightly before running off.
They went their separate ways, and Scarlett drove back to her penthouse. As soon as she got home, she took a shower and then fell into the bed to get some rest. She opened her laptop to start going through the files when a call came into her phone.
Her heart missed a beat when she saw that the caller was Adrian. She was always excited to answer his call, even if she knew he didn't feel the same about her.
“Hello?” She placed the phone on her ear.
“Hi Scarlett, how are you?” His voice always gave her chills, and she couldn't help but kick her feet in the air as he spoke. She didn't want him to know how excited she was to be speaking to him, so she had to cloud her excitement.
“I'm fine. Is there a problem?” She asked.
“Not really. Your mother said you forgot an important artwork, and she said you cherish it a lot.” Adrian said, and Scarlett wondered why her mother would care about some artwork. It was totally unlike her.
Even if she wanted to tell her that she forgot something, why didn't she call her directly and tell her about it? Did anything happen to her phone?
“What artwork is that?” She asked.
Adrian went ahead to describe the artwork, including what it was about and what it looked like. Even some little details that someone would barely notice. Scarlett was shocked at how well Adrian knew the artwork and wondered how he got to know so much about it.
“Oh.. that one. I remember now. I can't believe I forgot it.” She said, and Adrian sighed over the phone.
“I will bring it to you tonight.” He said, and she shrugged.
“Okay then.”
She hung up and put the phone away, and then she continued with her work.
~~~
Back at the football team house, the party was in full swing already, and loud music was playing through the speakers. Students were dancing, drinking, and having a good time. Some of them were making out and touching themselves. Meanwhile, Ethan was by the bar, gulping down drinks and getting himself drunk.
He was still frustrated about the way Vivian was treating him. He had tried to reach her several times but it was very obvious that she was no longer interested in him. He couldn't take it. Who did she think she was to discard him like that?
He blamed himself for falling for her charms. He should have just carried on with Scarlett. Now he had put himself in a huge mess. What if Vivian decided to tell Scarlett about them?
Just then, his friends approached him, and they all exchanged greetings before Mike decided to ask him a question.
“Dude, what about Scarlett? It has been three months now, have you fucked her yet?”
The others agreed, everyone wanting to know if he had succeeded in getting Scarlett to sleep with him.
“No, nothing yet.” Ethan casually responded and continued to drink.
“I'm sure she rejected you too!” Mike laughed.
“You thought she was like the other girls that you fuck within a few days of getting to know them.” Marcus chipped in, mocking Ethan and his big ego.
“He was so full of himself, thinking he could achieve the impossible.” They continued to mock him but he continued to drink, not sparing any of them a look.
“Is she coming tonight? I haven't seen her.” Mike asked, looking around for any sight of Scarlett.
“Her friend is over there, but I don't see her.” Marcus pointed out. They called Nelly over and asked her if Scarlett was coming.
“No, she's not coming tonight. She's busy.” Nelly answered and excused herself.
Mike Marcus and the other guys continued to mock Ethan, reminding him of how much he bragged about being able to bring Scarlett to her knees.
“You should just forget about her and date Mabel instead. She's already telling everyone that you're dating so you might as well make it real.” Marcus teased but Ethan had heard enough from them. They had mocked him enough and he had to prove them wrong.
“You all really think that I can't get Scarlett to fall for my charms, huh?” He asked but they burst out laughing.
“We know you can't! Face it, bro!” Mike told him.
“All right then. I'll fuck her tonight and I'll bring you the evidence.” He said to them and they cheered him on as he walked out. He got into his car and drove to Scarlett's penthouse in his drunk state.
As soon as he got to her parking lot, he called her to inform her that he was outside. Scarlett was surprised to hear that he was there but she still went downstairs to open the door for him.
She was wearing just a pair of shorts and a bra top and he couldn't get his eyes off her gorgeous body when she opened the door.
“What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the party?” She asked, letting him in.
“You weren't there so I wanted to find out why.” He answered and dropped his phone on the table. He told her that he wanted to pee and then entered the bathroom.
Suddenly, Ethan's phone started to ring and Scarlett curiously looked into the phone and saw her mother's name boldly displayed there. She was in shock and wondered why her mother was calling Ethan. Could it be someone else bearing the name Vivian?
The urge to know more pushed her to pick the phone up and luckily, it wasn't locked. She went straight to his messages and saw his dirty chats with her mother. She confirmed it was her mother when one of the texts had her name in it. Her mother was asking if she was dating him.
She saw their recent conversations and was shocked to see how Ethan was desperately trying to reach her mother. Scarlett was in shock over what she had just seen.
Just then, she heard Ethan coming back into the room and dropped the phone instantly.