CHAPTER 65: CHASING AFTER HIM

"I’m sure that you’re going to be busy planning for both the engagement ceremony and also the wedding," my mother said, trying to switch the conversation into a more positive direction.

I could tell by the way that Rosabella’s eyes lit up at my mother’s words that she was also looking forward to preparing for her engagement and wedding. It seems like my mother was such a genius at managing people and their feelings, a skill that I always knew that she had, but I never thought that it would come into such good use.

"I’m sure that I’m going to be busy, but I also think that it’s going to be so much fun," Rosabella replied before letting out a small laugh.

"Abby helped me a lot with the preparation for my wedding and everything. I feel so thankful to her," my mother replied smoothly.

"Is that so? Well, if you don’t mind, it would be great if you could help me out with the preparation for my engagement and wedding as well. I’m sure there’s so much that I can learn from you, and I also think that it’s going to be more fun if we do it together. After all, we’re about to be family," Rosabella said before she smiled her beautiful, enchanting smile my way.

It felt like someone had turned on multiple spotlights and had pointed them in my direction as I was put right on the spot. I forced myself to smile, praying inside that my smile looked natural enough. I understood that it was my mother’s intention for things to turn out this way, so I couldn’t bring myself to pin the blame on her. I also reminded myself that my mother didn’t know the real situation that I was in and my relationship with Raphael, so there was no way that she could have known that she had put me in quite an awkward position.

"Of course, I’ll be more than happy to help you out. I’m not sure how useful I’m going to be, but if you need help with anything, feel free to let me know," I replied, trying to sound friendly and supportive.

"I don’t want to rush things, but I think that I want a very simple and warm engagement ceremony. It’s probably just going to be all of us and a couple of other family members and some close friends. So I was thinking that we can do it sometime next weekend?" Rosabella suggested with a bright look in her eyes as she looked at all of us with clear anticipation and excitement.

"I’m sure that we can make ourselves available," Bennett said after a very short moment of pause.

Next weekend?

Isn’t that a little too soon?

Once again, I was so shocked by how fast matters were progressing. I took another glance at Raphael to see that he was lost in his own thoughts once again. I wondered if he really was fine getting engaged next weekend just as Rosabella had suggested. Suddenly, Raphael turned to face me, and then his lips curved into a very beautiful and charming smile that made me feel like tight knots had formed in the pit of my belly.

Does he really want to marry her that badly?

...

**A few days later**

"I’ll take over that from you," I offered help to one of my colleagues.

"Are you sure? Organizing for this event is going to be tough work. The guest list is also so long, and some of them are very picky," Amanda said before pulling a face.

"Don’t worry about it. I’m not so busy right now so I can help you out," I replied without any hesitation.

And then she made a slightly confused look before handing me the longest list for one of the upcoming events that she was working on organizing.

"Thanks," she said with a bright smile before walking off.

I looked at the guest list in my hand and sighed as I wondered why I was taking on extra workload without really having the need to. It was true that I wanted to help Amanda out because I had the bandwidth, but to be more honest, I knew that I was doing it because I wanted to keep my mind from wandering to even more troublesome issues.

Ever since that day that we visited Rosabella and her father at their mansion, I ended up exchanging numbers with her, and she had been contacting me every day. Every message she sent to me was a reflection of her bright and lovely self, and I could feel her friendly intentions. Although at first, I thought that it was a bit much for her to reach out to me so often given that we only met twice before, I found it quite easy to keep our conversation going.

At first, Rosabella asked me about very common things, and then she asked me about what I was up to. I could see her interest in me grow even further when I told her that I was working at Hayes Corporation as Raphael’s personal secretary.

My phone vibrated on the table once again, and I realized that I had just received another message from Rosabella. By that time, I was no longer surprised to receive messages from her, and I also wasn’t surprised regarding its content, which seemed to be asking me what Raphael was doing. Although she was supposed to be contacting me to ask about her engagement and wedding preparations, she ended up asking me more about Raphael than anything or anyone else.

‘He is in a meeting right now...’ I replied to her message.

‘Do you know when he would be done with the meeting? What time does he get off today?’

My phone vibrated again when she texted me back. At first, I didn’t think too much about it, but as the texts came pouring in day after day, I began to wonder why Rosabella did not contact Raphael directly.

Did they get into a fight or something?

Their official engagement was already coming up this weekend, so I didn’t think that the two of them had an argument.

–To be continued...