Seven years.
That's how much older she is than him. But it didn't matter. From the moment their eyes met, Ricky knew he was doomed.
What started as a playful challenge quickly became something else entirely.
Before Adele, Ricky could go months_ sometimes even a whole year, without stepping foot into his father's company.
He hated that place.
Hated the expectations, the responsibilities, the weight of a future he didn't want. But after meeting Adele?
He showed up every single day.
It drove Adele crazy. She was the reason he went there. It drove her crazy because he never took her warnings seriously.
It drove her crazy because he was so irresistible. He would walk in her office like he belonged there.
She had work to do.
Unlike him, she had fought for her place in that office.
She had no time for his nonsense, no patience for his games. But he never let up.
Every day, he would find a new way to tease her, to get under her skin, to make her look at him just once the way he looked at her.
But she never did.
And yet, he didn't stop.
At first, she thought it was just another rich boy's game. That he would get bored and move on, like he always did.
But weeks passed. Then months. And Ricky is still here, bothering her, teasing her, claiming to want her like he has always.
She tried to ignore him. She really did.
But then came Trixie.
Adele had no one to leave her daughter with on weekends that she had to be at work, so she often brought her to the office.
Sometimes, on the weekdays when she had a lot of work and had to work over time, she would pick her up at school and go with her to the office.
Trixie would have to wait for her, sitting quietly in a corner with a book or coloring.
And that's when Ricky found something, or rather, someone, who actually wanted him around.
Trixie adored him from the start, she met someone to make her life interesting, rather than just sitting and watch her mother work. Colouring and sleep at times.
He helped her with homework, even when he didn't understand half of it. When they got tired of it, he taught her how to play video games, they played together. When they got tired with it, he told her false stories.
Some days he snuck out with her to buy her ice cream, candy, and toys_ things her mother would never approve of. And the worst part?
He told her to call him Dad.
And she did.
Adele hated it.
She tried to stop it, tried to keep Trixie away from him. But no matter how hard she fought, she couldn't undo what had already happened.
Trixie had liked him.
And maybe, just maybe… Adele was starting to, too.
Because no matter how much she tried to deny it, no matter how much she convinced herself that Ricky was too young, too reckless, too wrong for her…
There was no escaping the truth.
She had spent three months trying to push him away.
And in those same three months…
Ricky had made himself impossible to get him out of her mind.
_
"Adele I know I didn't have your Permission but I missed her, and I know, even if I asked for your permission you wouldn't allow me. But I'll always take good care of her while out there, because I care about her, I care about you too, so much." Ricky adds.
Adele's laugh is bitter. "Care about me? You've done nothing but make my life a nightmare. You're a spoiled, selfish, immature who has everything he wants, you never take anything seriously, there's nothing you can do right!" Adele snaps.
"Actually, there is at least one thing I can do right , I can love you right Adele. It's been fucking months , three months or so, I've been trying to tell you how I feel but you always think it's some kind of games , do you really think I would still be sticking around if I wasn't feeling what I've been telling you am feeling?" he says, his usual playful nature gone.
The words hang between them, heavy and suffocating.
She shakes her head. "No. You can't and you don't love me! I don't know how many times I have to say this to you! You don't know what love is. You're just a bored rich boy who_"
Ricky interrupts, his gaze piercing, his face really serious for the first time, "Bored?! You really think am bored?! You think I can lack plenty of fun things to do?!" He snaps.
"Then go do them, Ricky. Leave me and my daughter alone. I have a husband, am married! And you doing this... it's disrespectful!"
Ricky stops himself from cursing the man Adele is calling her husband. It pains him to hear her say that. But since saying anything about her marriage will just sound disrespectful to her, he stops. Swallowing hard.
For once he lacks even a word to utter.
And even Adele could literally tell that, what she has just said to him has pained him.
But Ricky is Ricky, he presses on, "Actually, I've been wondering after that kiss that almost happened. Why didn't you push me away immediately I leaned in? Why does it seem like if it wasn't for that stupid dad's secretary_ you wouldn't have pushed me away, why does it seem like you would have let that kiss happen!? It's got me thinking Adele. Is it that you don't love me back, or are you just afraid of what people would say about us?"
The question hits her like a blow. Her breath catches, her carefully built walls cracking under the weight of it. For the first time, she can't find the words to fight back.
"There's no 'us'! I've told you so many times, go play this games with people your age Ricky!" She finds her voice , slamming the door in his face.
"Adele, wait! So that is what you think of me?! Alright then! You wanna see beards on me for you to know that am an adult?! You wanna see me hold meetings, wearing suits and never laugh around for you to take me seriously?! Is that it? Alright then! Fine!"
Rickie storms back to his car , Adele's words singing in his head_ you are just a playful brat who cannot do anything!
And for some reasons_ he is now sure that Adele feels something for him, and for that reason, it has just fueled his determination.
~Before he start the engine of the his car, a knock comes on the window, opening the window, he sees a man_ a man that is looking at him with fury.
Ricky sees some features on this man that picture Trixie, and now he is clear on who the man is.
He is the man who has been mistreating the woman he loves.
The thought drives Ricky nuts, and he furiously open the door of the car stepping out.