Alisha didn't notice the loving stare of Bryan, instead she found it somewhat creepy, she remembered his gaze from her previous life. He used to look at her as if she was his entire world, and perhaps she was for a second, but at some point his world revolved around clipping her wings. Yet, the way he looked at her never changed, thus she was fooled by the 'love' in his gaze, tricked into believing it was love when it was just a deep obsession.
However, her bias clouded her judgement to his stare of love, pure love that hadn't been tainted by the world, and she saw it as obsession. The more he stared the worse she felt, she wanted to punch him but she held it back. Richard glanced for a second at the pair but had to double-take as the look in Bryan's eyes was so pure it warmed his heart. He hadn't seen such infatuation in a long time.
"You look wonderful tonight." Alisha complimented him in her usual careless manner, but Bryan's cheeks burned up slightly. He didn't know why he felt such a connection to someone he barely knew, in his heart he felt like she was the entire world.
"Not as wonderful as you. Beautiful… um, I mean you look beautiful." He babbled, trying to form a sentence but having a tough time doing so. He was in awe of Alisha, how could someone be so put-together. "Do you enjoy these parties?" He asked, he himself hated every party as everyone was so predictable, but today he was truly enjoying himself.
Alisha immediately knew the answer, she had been married to the man long enough to read him like a book. "I usually despise the party scene, everything is so boring, but tonight is pretty good." She flashed him a smile, not realising how deeply infatuated he was to her. "Freddy is here tonight too, and Susanna… you've never met Su, I wonder if you'll like her." Bryan gulped, he knew all about 'Su', he knew that this friend that Alisha had wasn't the best at being a friend. She had a gold-digger personality even though her parents were loaded, to be fair they weren't as loaded as any of the other members of the group except Freddy. He didn't want Alisha around someone like Susanna but he knew it wasn't his place to say anything, at least not yet.
"I've heard about Susanna, to be honest I researched all your friends a little bit. I couldn't help myself, I wanted to see how you've become the incredible woman you are, to be honest, she's my least favorite." Alisha smirked at his comment, Wait till you bang her, she thought. She stopped for a second and realised he probably wouldn't get the chance to bang Susanna in this life unless fate was to repeat.
"I can't fault you on that. She's a bit of a gold-digger if I'm being honest, only friends with those richer than herself, always flirting with men with money. Honestly, I feel like it's been an entire year since I last saw her but it's only been a week. What a week!" Seeing Alisha chuckle slightly made Bryan feel his heart in his ears, badum, badum, badump! He had the urge to kiss her soft, plush lips but practiced control.
"Why stay friends with her then?" He asked, not wanting Alisha to leave.
"She still has some uses… that gold-digger will dig me some gold one day." Bryan laughed and found the sadistic manipulative side of Alisha rather cute, which made sense because he too was a manipulative asshat.
"Wow, I'm sure she feels special." He shook his head and found himself feeling much more comfortable around Alisha yet much more shy too, they both were leaning on the rim of the balcony, so he managed to put his arm around her without her noticing. Well, she noticed but stayed silent about it, she knew that she had to win him over. For some reason Alisha had never felt closer to Bryan, she felt like she was with someone she hadn't known in her last life. She felt comfortable too.
"Alisha, do you wanna try dating? I think we could work really well together." Alisha blushed, she was shocked too, in her last life they had jumped straight into marriage. Dating seemed like an alien concept to her, she had never dated and had rejected most people that had suggested it.
"W-wha-? Uhhh, um, yes! Yes I'd love to date." Bryan chortled at her shock, and pet her head. She felt like his hand was warmer than before, he was more human to her.
"I think we'll have a fun time Ms Richards." He kissed her hand and winked at her. She felt a new feeling surge up her throat as she blushed.
"I hope so, Mr Martinez, I really do." She smirked at him and waltzed away. She glanced back and winked at him and he went crimson to his eyebrows. He sighed in awe, how was someone so beautiful dating him? He could still feel his heart pumping crazily, his hands clammy, a huge smile decorated his face.
It's weird, she thought, he's so different. He wasn't the same Bryan he was, but she still had a goal. It might not be revenge, but she knew she had to free Maria Crews, if she didn't then she wouldn't be able to live with herself. Yet, she felt like she couldn't hurt him, it would be like hurting a puppy. As a normal human, she couldn't hurt puppies. We'll just have to wait and watch, she finally said to herself, there was nothing else she could do.
Fred waltzed to Alisha, his arms linked with a handsome man, he winked at her and she grinned back at him. "Hey Freddy, who's the date?" She teased as she shook hands with the handsome man.
"This is my boyfriend Henry, Henry this is Alisha Richards, I work with her, well at least I pretend to." He chuckled at his joke and Alisha shook her head.
"No, no, he does plenty. Nice to meet you Henry." Henry was more shocked at the fact that the Alisha Richards was shaking his hand. He had had no idea that his boyfriend was friends with one of the richest women in the world.
"Pleasure's mine ma'am. I'm a huge fan of your articles and such, I go to the same university as you. That's actually how I met Freddy. I can't believe I'm actually here…" Henry began to ramble and Alisha chuckled. She had met Henry in her last life and he had had an identical reaction.
"It's okay, you can drop the formalities Henry. I know who you are too! Your business speculations caused riots in our offices, they were so spot on. My cousin Annabelle called you a genius on par with her; they were that perfect. I'd love to get you involved with our company." She always knew how to poach an unsuspecting and awed person. You're welcome dad, she thought.
"Yes! I'd love to! Really? You're really not kidding?" How cute, she wondered how long it had been since she saw someone so excited at anything. Henry and Fred moved away and ventured to Annabelle after some brief conversation, Alisha followed them with her eyes, they were glazed slightly as she recalled the past.
Fred was going to get married to Henry when he came back, they had planned it to the T. In her lives the biggest mystery was how Fred died, how it was orchestrated so that no one noticed until after Fred was gone. Perhaps if Richard was alive he would have deduced it, he was always the most observant of the lot. Henry had broken down after, he didn't sleep for days, he partied until he had to have his stomach pumped again and again. Eventually he died of alcohol poisoning. He lost everything and he had so much potential. It was so hard for everyone to watch, but nothing helped him. I hope I can avoid this tragedy, Alisha promised herself, I hope I can avoid them all. She turned to Bryan to see him talking to Richard, she had hope for some reason, hope for her husband in another life. Am I an idiot? She wondered.
Susanna tapped Alisha's shoulder, which didn't surprise Alisha in the slightest. "Su, I feel like I haven't seen you in a year!" Alisha forced a grin as she hugged her friend whilst balancing a glass of champagne.
"I know! Who's the hottie you were looking at? Look at those biceps!" Susanna fawned over Bryan as Alisha glared at her, her expression changed to her usual one when Susanna turned back to her. How was she so oblivious to her vindictive friend? She sighed internally as she stared at the hollow shell of a human before her.
"You should go talk to him Su, tell him I say 'Have fun', his name is Bryan Martinez, networth of around one-thirty billion I think. Have fun Su!" She waved her friend off and stood at a distance to be able to hear the conversation but couldn't be seen by them. This would be entertaining, she thought. She caught Richard who had just left Bryan and dragged him with her.
"I sent Su to the devil." She whispered in his ears with a cheeky giggle. Richard giggled too and they both snuck to the terrace next to the pair.
Bryan was shocked to see Susanna throw herself at him. "Hi Mr Martinez, I'm Alisha's friend Susanna, she asked me to tell you, 'Have fun' whatever that means." She kept a distance between him and herself, she knew that he wouldn't like her to be too forward. She bit her lip slightly and had lowered her dress a little more to show more cleavage. Any unsuspecting man would have been taken aback.
"Hi Susanna, you already know my name. Uh, what brings you to me?" He knew that Susanna was also a beauty but in his eyes she was another speck of dust glowing because of the light that the Sun Alisha burned. He sighed thinking of her smiling face, it was angelic. He turned back to Susanna, he knew that she wasn't here to be friends with him, and before he did have plans for her but now he knew he couldn't.
"I'm just socialising. I like to be up with my friends' lives so it makes sense to talk to someone new. It's such a wonderful night." She flashed him one of her practiced dazzling smiles, and for a second he was shocked at the similarities between her smile and Alisha's. This was actually done on purpose, she had a photo of Alisha's natural smile which she'd practiced everyday for the last two years. She had seen the effect it had had on men and women, it was like a drug. It was also part of the reason why Bryan had put up with her for so long in Alisha's last life, Susanna was willing to look and act like Alisha. He felt like he possessed a version of Alisha through Susanna.
However, in his life the smile disgusted him a little bit. The same smile on someone who wasn't Alisha's face made him mad, he wanted to burn it off Susanna's face. He felt goosebumps seeing it, he didn't like the copycatting. Alisha tried to listen in, but they weren't talking, he was staring into the sky because the smile and Susanna had creeped him out. Richard and Fred had also had the same reaction, they were less creeped out and more mocking Susanna, they were trying to hold back their laughter. Especially Fred… he had never had an interest in women, which Susanna didn't know until three months ago, so seeing Susanna's 'man-killer Alisha' smile killed him. It was too much.
"Tonight is really a wonderful night." Susanna was in awe of the handsome man next to her, he seemed to have been constructed by a Greek God… how could someone be so perfect? Her heart felt a pang, she thought of Richard, she always did when she thought of perfect men. She'd always loved Richard, but she knew that he had eyes for another girl. If she couldn't have Richard she'd take someone better, someone richer, someone better looking. She couldn't bear anyone lesser than Richard, she had to prove that he made a mistake by not being with her.
She unconsciously began looking for Richard whilst leaning against the balcony rim, she couldn't see him anywhere, she could usually spot him just by his hands so she was sure. Richard felt awkward hearing their conversation, he felt like they were oddly silent. Bruce stared at the two pairs on terraces next to each other, Bryan and Susanna thought next to each other were looking for other people.
Love is so difficult, he thought.