Sinners and Saints II

Chapter 11

"I'm really sorry we had to do this when you've barely settled in from Italy."

Tony closed the door after Rafael the moment they walked into his home office, Rafael's gaze buried in his phone like he was trying to search for something.

"But this Korole mining case is making me do a lot of inconsiderable things this week, and since you already have a lead on it, I was hoping you could share it with me before some other news company takes the glory for it."

He watched Rafael sit slowly on his desk, his eyes still glued into his phone.

"Everything about the case is in a USB drive, in the top left drawer of my desk." Whatever Rafael was looking into had to be important. Tony could see that but he didn't mind. He didn't mind getting the drive himself.

"Thanks man." He hurried to the desk as fast as he could.

"Anytime." Rafael replied as he heard the cracking sound of the locker door. He must have found it already. It wasn't like there were a lot of things in it anyway. Right beside the USB, Tony could see a tiny brown box. He slowly reached for it, a look of surprise on his face. He knew exactly what it was without even opening it.

"Woah."

Rafael paused the second he noticed Tony was still at his desk. That was taking longer than he had expected. His eyes widened in surprise the moment he remembered the USB wasn't the only thing he had left in his locker. He quickly turned, his eyes meeting the box in Tony's hands as he tried to open it.

Rafael hurried as fast as he could to Tony before he did anything else and then grabbed the box from him. Tony quickly turned to him, a wide smile appearing on his face. Rafael cleared his throat and then rolled his eyes.

"Don't say anything stupid Tony." He told Tony as he turned back to his locker. He gently placed the box back in, closed the door and then locked it.

"Is that what I think it is?"

He ignored Tony's question, throwing the tiny key into the pocket of his shorts. He hurried back to the front of the desk with Tony following him.

"Dude, you're really going to propose to her aren't you?" Tony chuckled. "I never knew I'd live to see this day."

"I never said I was Tony." Rafael sat back on the desk, raising his phone back to his face, pretending to look inside.

"What are you talking about brother?" Tony asked him. "That's an engagement ring. Why else would you have an engagement ring in your locker?"

Rafael didn't say a word. He didn't want to.

"You're really going to ask Olivia to marry you."

Rafael rolled his eyes and slowly dropped his phone from his face. He stared at Tony for a second.

"Keep your voice down Tony." He looked towards the door to make sure no one was coming. He turned back to Tony. "Someone might hear you."

Tony gasped in excitement as he walked closer to Rafael.
"So it's true. You're really going to propose to her then?"

Rafael stood from the desk and placed a hand into his pockets as he walked towards the large window.

"To be honest Tony," he leaned on it, slowly turning to Tony. "I don't know ".

Tony scoffed jokingly.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Tony spread his hands to gesture. He wish he understood what Rafael meant. "You're not sure you want to marry her?"

"That's not the point." Rafael cut him off. "Of course I want to get married to her. I love her."

"So," Tony took a step to him. "What are you so unsure of? Why haven't you asked her yet?"

Rafael exhaled. He really wasn't sure he was ready to go into details on everything inside his head. Why did Tony even find that ring in the first place? He knew he had to explain himself now.

Tony squinted his eyes. He sure knew how to read Rafael like a book.
"Are you scared?"

Rafael raised his gaze to meet his. He exhaled. Tony was right. He really was scared.

"You're scared she's going to reject you? That she'd say no?"

Rafael scoffed . There was a tiny glitch of doubt there. Rafael had thought at some point about popping the question "Would you marry me?" right in Olivia's face, especially since he knew she wasn't really over what had happened in her last marriage in the past. It wasn't really a good idea but that wasn't entirely the reason. It wasn't the reason he was holding back.

"That's not it." He assured Tony. Tony stared at him harder.

"This is about Constance and Kamsi again isn't it?" Tony asked and Rafael let out a soft chuckle. "Man,"

"Look, I know what you're going to say." He cut Tony off before he could say anything else. "You're going to say I'm supposed to have moved on and be concerned with the present and let the past be in the past."

"You should."

Rafael sighed.

"Ralph, it's been a long time and you let us believe you let go of all those hurtful memories months ago when you promised Olivia you'd do better by her. You even cleared their things. You're supposed to move on."

"And I have." Rafael cut him off, looking into his eyes. "Believe it or not, I have. Now don't get me wrong, a future with Olivia and Grace is all I want. It's all I've ever wanted, I've never wanted anything more but this is not about Kamsi or Constance or Olivia or Grace, this is about me."

"About you?" Tony took another step closer. "Brother what are you talking about? Are you scared you're going to hurt them? To let them down? " He looked into Rafael's eyes . "You're scared you'd neglect them like what happened with Constance and Kamsi?"

"I'm just scared of making the same mistakes I did five years ago." Rafael admitted. "I close my eyes and I see it happen again, this time, to Olivia and Grace and I'd rather die than lose any of them because of my selfishness in giving this job my all, and guess what? My selfishness is something I have no control of. What if I neglect them or put their lives in danger again? What if five years ago happens all over again? "

"It won't."

"You don't know that-"

"I know Olivia is different from Constance. I know she's not going to stop you from doing what makes you happy," He took more steps to Rafael. "This job makes you happy. It was the only way you were able to save her in the first place. I'm sure she'd want you to use this gift, your gift to save a lot more like her. I know she loves you and she'd do all she can to make you just as happy as you've made her and I know you'd never do anything that could ever hurt her or Grace . I know you'd protect them with your life. "

"What if I screw things up?"

"Then you try again. Then you try to make things right, try to make things better. That's the point. "
Now he was stopping right in front of his best friend.

"Rafael, life is too short to hesitate in doing the things that could make you happy, that could bring you peace and that's Olivia by every definition. And you my friend," he placed a hand on Rafael's shoulders. "You deserve to be happy, forever happy, with the woman of your dreams. You deserve to start all over, to be a better man in ways you weren't five years ago. So go be a better man."

He tapped Rafael's shoulders.

"You knew she was the one you wanted to spend the rest of your life with the moment you bought that ring. She's the one. That's all the affirmation that you need so by all means, fulfill the usefulness of that ring or I'd help you. I'd ask her to marry me and we'd make beautiful babies together."

Rafael scoffed. He chuckled a little bit.

"Get out of here man."

Tony chuckled and then spread his hands wide.

"I told you so." He laughed.