To Love A Maiden: An Enemies To Friends To Lovers Romance ✓

Chapter 2 - New Flowers

Cristiano scratched the side of his head as he tried to hide the amusement in his face. 

This is what you get when you break up with your girlfriend out of the blue.

He cleared his throat and lowered his head slightly to Shontel who looked like she was getting ready to punch someone in the face. 

And then he was gone.

~~

"How's the project going?" Angel asked Mel who was sitting at the dining table directly facing the kitchen of her parent's house. She was busy cooking for the weekend, as Melinda's parents were mostly busy running their grocery/fresh produce store just a few blocks away from the house. 

Mel raised her head, a black ball pen held between her teeth at the corner of her mouth. She looked a little exhausted.

"Good. It's going good. I think -" She placed the pen on her left side closest to a textbook. "I think I'm almost done, so, I can help you with that."

Angel frowned a little bit and came close to the dining table after adding some seasoning salt to the beans.

"Nah." She began. "I'll be done in about an hour or so, so there'd be no need. Besides, you need to go to sleep early so you can be well-rested for work tomorrow."

And Mel smiled. 

"You're an angel. No wonder that's really your name. Even though you're a fierce one, you're an angel regardless."

Angel shook her head as she turned back around. She hardly believed she was an angel. When her mother died, she'd struggled. The street life was all she knew. One year of struggling and fending for herself made her who she'd become. Mrs Kingsley was the angel she'd needed. And Melinda? Melinda was the big sister she never had.

"I appreciate the compliment, my dear best friend." She turned to Melinda slightly.  "Now finish up and get some dinner and go off to bed." She called back from the kitchen.

"Yes, ma'am." Mel said, a smile tugged at her lips.

~~

Cristiano got out of his BMW and began to make his way towards the entrance of the mansion he grew up in. The security guards and drivers were still trying to wrap their minds around the fast way the younger Kingsley drove the BMW into one of the garages.

The expertise and confidence oozed from him as he alighted from the vehicle. They were still in a trance when suddenly Cristiano turned around just before he turned open the main door. Then one of them blinked, nudging the other man standing beside him and turning his head towards Cristiano to motion for his coworker to follow.

The man quickly made his way to where Cristiano was. He remembered his face from two years ago, although some of the other drivers and security guards had no idea who the visitor was.

"My apologies, Mr. Kingsley."

One of the drivers, Richard, began to say. And the other men, with wide eyes, came jogging to where Richard was.

"We're sorry, sir. We had no idea who you were." A security guard said.

"What's your name?" Cristiano asked. He'd never met this one before. 

"Lenny." The younger man said.

Cristiano nodded and suppressed a smile. Of course they wouldn't know who he was. It wasn't like he was his father's favorite. Add to that the fact that he hadn't been home in more than a decade. Well, he did visit two years ago when he needed to attend an out of state conference and finalize a project for his company.