"What are you doing!" She half chided half laughed when Kevin followed her inside her apartment. "You said you were only walking me back home! It's late!"
"I'll just sleep over on the couch later. We are on a research mission right now!"
She tried to appear as if she did not understand what he was saying but failed miserably.
"Come on, Nati," he whispered enthusiastically. "I know you were itching to research the guy; I'm surprised you didn't do it the moment we left the metro station."
There was no point in denying the truth; Kevin knew her too well for that anyway.
"…I was going to search him up. It's true." She whispered back at him.
"You were going to search him up alone and then share the news with me only after I start a full-scale interrogation, no thank you."
She watched him taking his shoes off and making his way to the living room, he raised his arm up high and waved at her uncle.
"Uncle, looking good!"
"Sure, sure," Jack grumbled without lifting his head from the couch. "Planning to crash here tonight?"
"If you would lend me the couch, sure!"
"You can have it; I sleep in my bedroom anyway." He slurred in a tone that belonged to a heavily drunk man, "…You can carry me there when you want the couch."
"Oh, yes, sure. It would be lovely to carry you to bed, Uncle," he replied sarcastically, but Jack was already snoring by the end of that sentence.
Kevin turned around with a sour look on his face and eyes that asked questions about her uncle's condition, but Natalie just shrugged; it wasn't something that Kevin had not seen before.
"Come on, let's go to my room."
He tilted his head and grinned then rubbed his hands together, "Not without some popcorn."
Natalie giggled, "Are we watching a movie?"
"Oh, the drama in this house is better than a movie."
She couldn't argue with that.
"We have some chips somewhere in your cupboard."
Kevin gave her a thumbs up, "It's faster than popcorn and better. You'll probably burn them anyway."
Rolling her eyes, she made her way to her room and sat on the chair behind her desk while Kevin went to hunt down the chips in the cupboard. She opened her favorite search engine and typed the name that had been twisting and turning in her mind for more than an hour now.
Alonso Valois
Her breath hitched in her throat at the photo that popped up when she entered his name. It belonged to the same man she met for the first time in that coffee shop but the professional setting around him made him look even sexier. He was wearing an all-black suit and sitting down with an earpiece in what looked like a press conference.
Who is this man?
Like a teenager engrossed in celebrity research. She untied her hair and idly played with her scrunchie while shamelessly studying his features. He looked as if he was in his late thirties and had one of these faces that possessed a rugged handsomeness. Not a pretty boy at all. On the contrary, even in the stillness of the picture, his charismatic aura drew her in.
"Well, well, well."
Natalie was so deep in her observance that she didn't notice the grinning Kevin leaning against the door and wiggling his eyebrows at her.
"Someone is in too deep already?"
She threw her scrunchy at him, but he easily caught it before it hit him in the face.
"All right, his overall charms aside, look for some general information about him."
Natalie did not overlook the protective undertone in Kevin's voice. He was probably here because he noticed that she was interested in Alonso and wanted to be included in her decisions about him too.
"Have a seat," she said gesturing to the chair beside her then began clicking around for additional images. By the time Kevin had taken a seat and placed her scrunchie on the table, Natalie's eyes had become narrow.
The images that came after that first one had a theme to them; the headlines accompanying the pictures followed the same implications too.
Alonso Valois's New Girlfriend!
Caught with Another Blonde – Who Is Alonso Valois's New Lover?
Where Our Cameras Found Alonso Valois This Time!
Kevin let out a groan beside her when she closed her eyes and pursed her lips.
"I will be playing the devil's advocate here, Nati, but maybe these shallow search results are not what the man is all about, you know?"
She scoffed, feeling foolish for assuming Alonso was a decent human being.
"Natalie."
Her head snapped in her friend's direction with her temper on the rise.
"What!"
"Judging him solely based on the headlines in some cheap scandal magazines isn't fair," Kevin said with his mouth set in a thin line.
She couldn't believe her best friend was standing up for Alonso instead of cursing at him.
"The man owns a hostess club and his customers are trash. If these two things aren't red flags, then I don't know what is!"
Kevin grimaced, "He is a rich bachelor and his business looks legit."
"Legit?" She snapped, "He is a total player and a womanizer!"
A slow smirk appeared on Kevin's pretty face, "Are we a little upset and disappointed in here, or is this my imagination?"
A flush of heat tingled in her neck and ears as she retrieved her scrunchie then gathered her hair into a bun. She had nothing to say to that since it was a true statement, which was even more upsetting.
"Nati, we have some assumptions about his background now. It doesn't mean you shouldn't give him a chance; it just means that you should be careful. Don't let your guard down around him, that's all."
Taking control of her mouse, Kevin navigated back to the first image that had captured her attention. She scowled at the picture this time and her lips dipped down at the corners.
"You like him, and I'm sure he likes you too."
Leaning back in her chair with crossed arms, she took a moment to absorb Kevin's words. He had just outlined two very compelling reasons why she should not give Alonso a chance if he ever asked for one.
"...There's no future for a man like him and a woman like me, Kev."