Accept My Baby

“I was but when i got that email you sent about this party I was on the first plane back. There was no way I was going to miss this.” She looked around and smiled. “You really have outdone yourself this time around, haven’t you?”

Rafael shrugged.

“Well, to be honest, I kind of got tired of the same old sh*t with the same old people.”

“That’s why you had the video vixens from Brazil?” she asked and he forced out a laugh.

“So you noticed them too, huh?”

“Are you kidding? Everyone noticed them. I mean, they are beautiful women with Kardashian butts that were serving drinks.” She rolled her eyes. “The term Brazilian wax is not just thrown into conversation for fun, Rafael. There is a point to it.”

“I thought it would make the party a little more fun,” he said.

“For the rest of you guys. For us women it just makes us want to pull longer hours at the gym.”

“So, I did do everyone a favor, then? Didn’t I?”

Isabella smiled as she looked up at Rafael.

“Are you trying to say that the women you know are overweight? In so many words?” she asked and he forced a smile. “So, why are you out here and not in there where all the action is?”

“I think I have had quite enough of the party tonight,” Rafael said sighing loudly.

She looked in the lemonade pitcher and raised an eyebrow over the other.

“Yeah, no kidding. Are you having lemonade at a party? Your party?”

“Like I said, I’ve partied enough for the night. Maybe for the entire year,” he said in a soft voice. He looked at her and wondered what she was after. She would not have come over to talk to him just for the sake of it. And after the whole thing with his family a few days earlier, all he could think of was whether or not it was a good idea to have her there. She had something up her sleeve. He could almost smell it in the air but he could not understand why it was taking forever for her to get whatever it was off her chest.

“What are you doing here, Isabella?” he finally asked and she shrugged.

“Like I said, I came out here for a party.”

“I don’t mean here as in my house, I mean here. By the pool.”

She took a long deep breath and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“I was looking for you.”

He wanted to say something. Maybe ask why or something of the sort but for some reason, he could not bring himself to say it without sounding sarcastic. He knew that the look in his eyes said everything he was thinking.

“You know, when my parents began hinting at marriage, I was afraid they were going to suggest some oil guy in the United Arab Emirates but when I found out they had been talking about the two of us…I was stoked,” she said and he shrugged. “Wait, you don’t know about this?”

“Oh I know about it, alright.”

“And?” she stressed.

“And?” he asked and she raised an eyebrow over the other. “There is nothing to tell. All I know is that is not something I am willing to do.”

“What are you talking about? We have chemistry Rafael,” Isabella said. “And I know you feel it too because you and I both know that. I mean, all those trips to London, Sweden, Milan, Las Vegas…” her voice trailed off.

“Are you going to mention every single place that the two of us have been?”

“Why are you acting like this? We have had so much fun together,” she said. “I mean, you don’t take a girl for all those holidays if you don’t have some kind of deep connection with her.”

Rafael sighed and forced out a laugh.

“Isabella, I won’t deny that we’ve had fun together but that’s just it. We had fun.”

“So, you are trying to tell me that we have no future together?” she asked and he shook his head.

“Not one that I ever thought of.”

“Are you trying to give me the whole ‘I am not the marrying type’ speech?” she asked and he shook his head.

“I am the marrying type, Isabella but I am not the kind to get set up by the parents.”

“But we took the time and had our fun and…” she shook her head. “Did I mean nothing to you at all?”

Isabella was starting to get on his nerves. He wanted to have a stiff drink at that moment. That was what Isabella did to him. She drove him to drink. Probably that was the only way he could manage to deal with her. When he was intoxicated.

“Isabella, we had fun. But that was it. I do see myself getting married but definitely not to you.”

He began walking away and Isabella reached for his hand but he shrugged it off.

“Don’t,” he said as he looked at her. He noticed her lips part as if she wanted to say something but he was quick to shut her up. “Just don’t.”

“But we need to talk about this,” she said and he shook his head.

“You have your own life, Isabella. Don’t let the Benassi name take that from you,” Rafael pointed out.

“But I do want to be with you,” she said, sounding a little bit sad and desperate.

“Isabella, I…” his voice trailed off before he sighed. “Don’t let your parents determine your life,” he managed to say before he walked away.