Murder To Excellence

15.

George had been absolutely euphoric when he found out Rose and Raphael were done. So euphoric, that he started to dance and April had to tell him to stop since it was making Rose sadder. 

Right when Rose was done packing, she went back to her parents’ place. Raphael and she hadn’t spoken while deep down inside, she hoped he would at least try and call her. 

“Sweetie, don’t you want to eat?” April noticed Rose’s appetite was non-existent lately. 

“No, I’m full,” she replied, it being more like a whisper. She shifted her scrambled eggs from one side of the plate to the other with her fork. 

April was about to protest since Rose couldn’t be full; she had barely taken a bite. 

“I got to go,” Rose said before her mom had the chance to say anything. 

“What do you want to eat for dinner, sweetie?”

“I don’t really mind,” she mumbled back. Her and Raphael not being together anymore was way tougher on her than she initially thought it would be. As much as she hated it, she still wanted to be with him and the feeling was inevitable almost. They used to be together almost every day without getting tired of each other and to be without each other all of the sudden was weird. 

“You shouldn’t mind your dad, alright? I already talked to him several times, he just doesn’t seem to understand.” It was soft to say that George was kind of cruel about the break up. He didn’t mind at all and now that they weren’t together anymore and Raphael wasn’t there wherever Rose was, George felt the need to voice his not so positive opinions about Raphael. 

As much as Rose just wanted to hate Raphael and side with her dad, she couldn’t. She was the only one who actually knew him and knew how he could be so she knew almost everything he did was because of his façade, she just didn’t know why he had it. So all the bad things George said about him, Rose just knew weren’t true, also because his façade somewhat faded around Rose. She knew a side of him that no one else knew, that only making it harder on her to dislike Raphael with her entire heart. 

“I’ll call you to let you know when I’m coming home,” Rose dismissed and took her mother’s car to head to the store. Thankfully, she didn’t have to be around a lot since they had employees for practically anything. Of course the most important things had to go through Denise, Hazel and Rose first. 

“Honey,” Denise started. They sat in their office all the way in the back of the store. “Hazel and I were thinking…” 

“Yes,” Hazel added. “We’re making way enough money to pay rent and still have enough profit. So, only if you like,” she emphasized, “you can tell Raphael that his help is no more needed. I mean, I can only imagine how weird and awkward it is for him to be financing this as your… ex-boyfriend.”

“Only if you want to!” Denise quickly jumped in. 

“Yes, I want to.” Rose wanted to distance herself from Raphael as much as possible. Now that they had broken up, people had been following her a lot to ask if it was true and to ask why. It was kind of overwhelming. Not only that, but since the guy really owned a lot, he was practically everywhere, making it harder for her to forget him. 

“I’ll go now,” she said after a little silence. 

“You sure, babe?”

“Yes.” Rose got up and went back home to go change. Somehow, she wanted to look her very best for him even though she wished his opinion about her wouldn’t bother her. 

A huge cart-box blocked her sight almost completely. Everyone had to help her, going from opening doors to pressing buttons. 

When she was finally upstairs, opening the door to his office was a serious task. Not only because of the box, but also because she was really nervous to see him.