Alfred liked Amalia right away from their first meeting. She was pretty and smart, he told Levi.
She opened up about her life and he learned about her past relationships.
"I don't think I'd ever want to marry a macho man, not again," she quipped. "All that they ever boasted is their own …. Hmm …" Both of them laughed over a cup of coffee.
"How can we live with only their … hmm…?" Alfred laughed again, asked how she managed to quit from them.
"I had to be tough like them. I'd throw bombshells in your fence, how else to get what I want?"
He laughed again.
"How?" he asked.
"Blackmail," she chuckled.
Why she was able to open up maybe was because Alfred was nice and she thought he was a "gay" according to Isabella and being a gay meant being like women one can open up oneself. People also thought he was. But the truth was Alfred had his own story. Maybe the feminine traits were strong and that was because he grew up with a single mom but inside, he was as masculine as any man, financially responsible, thoughtful and caring especially with women and that was partly due to his background—the difficulties that he went through being fatherless. He loved women. He was determined to succeed in every aspect of his life. He could not afford to fail.
He said he liked women who were assertive, who knew what they wanted, who were not afraid to take risks. He was again sub-consciously thinking about his mother and maybe Amalia who was in front of him.
How he hated his dad every time he thought of that stormy night when they almost lost the roof of their house and his mother did not know what to do, how she was going to shield the four of them from a storm. There were rescue teams who came, good riddance.
Interestingly, many of his points-of-view about life were strikingly similar with Amalia's own points-of-view. He was tender to her and "a perfect gentleman" which was what Amalia needed given her past circumstances. Amalia had told Isabella that she also liked Alfred.
The two would have dinner dates every now and then after the party at the mansion.