Chapter 2 The Meeting

• “Rico, my son, please be cordial when you are dating women being introduced to you. Please treat them with care.”, it was Rico’s mother.
• "But mom... I can't just force myself. I don’t like them.", Rico answered.
• Mom, I still love Alice. It will never change., Rico thought on his mind.
• "Just this once, my son. Please meet Dina. She is the daughter of your dad’s best friend. Please don’t disappoint him. Please give even just a little effort.”, his mom persuaded him. Rico looked at his mom, she is old already, and worry is evident all over her face. Rico thought his mom was worried he might never get married, and he had been contemplating on ending that way unless Alice came back. But seeing his mom’s worried face and her gray hairs, he felt guilty.
• “Okay, mom… but just this once.”, Rico unwillingly agreed. Just the thought of dating another woman than Alice makes his heart heavy but seeing the relief and happiness on his mother’s face somehow eased his burden. He likes seeing his mom smiling happily.
• “My son, I am not telling you to forget Alice, but please don’t close the door of your heart for other women, son.”, she said. Rico just nodded to prevent further arguments with his mom. Rico doesn’t want to get into heated discussions with his mother.
• After work, Rico, with his heavy heart and footsteps, went to the restaurant where he was supposed to meet his blind date, Dina Ortega, his father’s best friend's daughter. He sat in a corner where only a few people could see them. He doesn’t like crowded places and prefers to be in a quiet ambiance. He orders a cup of coffee while waiting for his blind date. For Rico, time is extremely vital. He doesn’t want to waste any time on nonsense things.
• Moreover, he doesn’t want OTHER people to waste his precious time… like now. He is really disappointed with how this date turned out to be. His blind date had no sense of time. That Dina is already 15 minutes late, and since he had his word with his mom that he would give a little of his effort to pursue this date, he patiently waited to become gentleman enough for his blind date. However, the 15 minutes have become 30… then 40… and now, it has been already 50 minutes since he had waited for this irresponsible woman! Ten minutes left, and he had been waiting for almost an hour already. It was the first time his time was wasted like this!
• “Mom! She is late for an hour already! I won't meet such an irresponsible person, mom! I feel so insulted, and my precious time is wasted! You know how important my time is to me, mom.", Rico complained to his mom while talking to her on the phone.
• "I'm going home now!", Rico said with his final decision of going home on his mind. He is already irritable and feels offended because he was forced to attend this blind date, but the nerve of this woman for not meeting him instead.
• "Uh, e-excuse me... are you Rico Ballestros?", a beautiful woman suddenly approached Rico and went beside him. Rico was not attracted to the woman’s beauty. Her flirty charm is not working too; instead, he felt annoyed. She looks pretentious and high maintenance. Her face is full of make-up, and for him, the colors weren’t evenly matched. Her skirt is too short, Rico thought he wanted to put her flesh on display, and for him, these kinds of women are attention-seekers. He doesn’t like these types of girls; he wants Alice. Alice is simple, demure, and prudent. Even though she was simple, her beauty still outmatches other women.
• "So, you are Dina Ortega?!", Rico asked sarcastically.
• "Uh, no, no. I am not Dina. I am Sunshine Ortega, Dina’s younger sister. Dina is my elder sister.”, She said flirtingly, which only made Rico cringe in silence.
• "So?", Rico made her feel he was uninterested.
• "What so?", Sunshine probed since she didn’t get his point.
• "So what? What is it to me if you are Sunshine? Where’s your sister, and why are you here instead? Don’t you know how precious time to me is? You and your sister have wasted my time! You are insulting me even now that she is not here.”, Rico was obviously mad.
• “My elder sister is at her basketball tournament. She is a basketball player at our university and today is the finals. Whoever wins today qualifies for the championship. She is currently playing, and she can’t afford to lose this game. However, she doesn’t want our dad to know that she didn’t go to meet you on your blind date. So, she sends me instead… you know, if it’s okay---“, Sunshine turned on her flirty charm but was interrupted.
• "You talk a lot! Straight to the point, will you?!", Rico was being sarcastic again.
• "What I want to say is, I’ll become my elder sister’s substitute… and we are asking you favor not to tell our dad that she didn’t go out to meet you. That’s why I am here. So please---“, Sunshine was interrupted once again.
• "No. I don't tell lies. I'm going home... And this? This insult I have received from both of you and your sister will definitely reach your father. That's for sure.", Rico angrily said. Sunshine was taken aback and was not able to say anything. Everything happened so fast. She wanted to argue with him and fight him, but he had already hurriedly left the scene. She was left alone now. Sunshine is fully aware of what will happen next… she and her elder sister will get scolded by their father. She will also be implicated since she tolerated her elder sister’s wrongdoings and went up to connive with her into playing basketball behind their father’s back. Their father is totally against Dina playing basketball, but here she is, secretly helping her sister cover up her playing basketball. She wasn’t wrong with her expectations. Everything happened the way it was supposed to be just a few hours when she and her elder sister arrived home together.
• Rico was leaving his law firm office when someone barged to his front. He was interrupted by a thin and petite boy. The youngster’s height was just below his ear, and he was wearing a cap; his shirt was too big for his size. He was wearing jeans, and he had very long hair up to his waist.
• “Are you Rico Ballestros?” the youngster asked him in a very unfriendly tone. Rico was surprised to hear the youngster’s voice; he looked at him intently and realized that the one who interrupted him on his way was actually a woman and not a teenage boy. She looked at him, and Rico saw her beautiful face. She seemed gentle even though her tone was threatening. Rico thought it was funny how he was deceived into thinking that this pretty woman was a boy earlier.
• "Yes.", Rico simply answered.
• “You insulted my little sister.”, the woman said. Rico was wondering. He doesn’t know anything this woman says. He doesn’t like her tone, and he doesn’t want how his time is being wasted like this once again.
• "Who the heck are you?!", Rico annoyingly replied. He dislikes her tone.
• "Dina Ortega.", she answered while threateningly ogling at Rico. Her answer rang a bell on Rico’s mind. So this was the woman that she was supposed to meet the other day.
• "Ah... so what brought you here?", Rico sarcastically asked, making himself ready in an upcoming word war with this woman. Dina just stared at him intently.
• “You know, I really want to beat you so bad now. You are indeed ill-tempered. Just like what my sister told me---“, Dina was interrupted by what she was supposed to say.
• "Straight to the point, will you?! Not everyone has their free time as you do---", Rico was interrupted by a sudden punch on his face. He was so shocked while Dina was unable to control her anger. Rico’s talkative mouth is getting on her nerves.
• “I was not done talking! Were you always like that? Don’t you know how to respect people? Listen! We were kindly asking you a favor. Sunshine was polite when she was persuading you not to tell our father that I could not meet you on our date due to my basketball tournament. It was just a simple request that we thought you would understand. You don’t know what you have done!”, Dina retorted.
• "The heck no! Why would I care, anyway! And you know, I could sue you because you physically assaulted me---“, Rico was once again interrupted on what he was about to say when Dina punched him again.
• “The punch earlier was for your ill-manners toward my little sister. And that punch is for our polite and simple request that you turned down. You were deaf, and because of that, this… this is for…”, Dina angrily expressed while heading on to Rico to punch him again, but he prevented it. Rico caught Dina’s hand while she was about to land her punch on him. Because of this, Dina used her other hand to punch, but Rico could catch it too.