Solitude

Roman

          Roman Alaric was born on the 4th of August as an only child. He never went to public schools, he didn't like anything remotely sweet. He spent most of his childhood on the outskirts of the city, where the luxurious houses reside.

" The thing I remember the most about that house was its garden. My mother, bless her soul, was the one who tended to it with no reprieve. Sometimes I imagine that the garden was my little sibling with how much care my mother put on it to make the plants grow."

His parents were Henry and Solana Alaric, both were the heir of their respective prestigious families. Their marriage was arranged as a way to ensure the prosperity of both families, hence the name Roman.

" I'm supposed to be the most prosperous." He stated. " In a way, I did, and then I don't. My mother's family company merges with my father's, it became a subgroup of the enterprise you now know. When my father retired, I took the buissness"

He got a master's degree in economics, MBA qualification, and vintage liquor as a hobby—something he admitted as the only thing he took from his father other than business prowess.

He didn't have that many friends growing up and did not trust people easily. The few people he trusted could be counted on one hand, " There's Cameron Kingsleigh, a junior from my college. Thomas Steidd, we met on a brawl in a bar downtown. Kenneth Seire, my distant cousin. And Mielle Renner."

Mielle Renner was his fiancée. That was left unsaid, but the weight of those words somehow almost stopped her hands from writing.

" You did not include your parents." A question, not a statement it tried to be.

His smile was so secretive, almost like he knew some private matter nobody does.
"Parents lied to you more times than you can imagine."

-------------

In their next session, Tag brought him coffee in a vacuum flask.

" I processed it myself." She said as she poured the contents to two mugs she borrowed from the security by bribing them with a box of donuts. " Today is pour over, I can make you a French press next time if you prefer."

The coffee was good, Roman Alaric learned that Tag used to work as a barista before.

" That was the best coffee I've had in a while. Feels like it has almost been 10 years." He joked.

That was also the day Tag learned that coffee was a part of his morning ritual; " I could never truly wake up without coffee. It's not a good thing. Here, I tried to cheat it off by going to bed earlier, but it didn't work. So I opted with faking awakeness."

Tag punched her chest several times as she coughed up her coffee. " How do you fake awakeness? That sounds like a very hard skill to master."

Apparently, faking awakeness wasn't the only skill Roman Alaric had. He had firearm license, his ability was of professional level. He's also trained in numerous martial arts and could take men twice his size. If Tag was a barista, young Alaric worked as a bartender. He claimed it as a skill he learned so he could bribe his father with self-made drinks.

" I can speak several languages aside from English. Among others, my favorite would always be French."

" And why is that?" By this time, the vacuum flask is already empty, and so did both of their mugs.

" Suck ups around me were always trying so hard to be 'the only one'. They'd try to attract my attention with anything and everything. But once, a business partner of mine came all the way from France to attend a gala. Since he's a fan of my Greek culture, he asked me to escort him around. He couldn't speak  greek at all, so of course, I conversed with him in his language. That night, when we went to this charity gala, we talked in French, nobody came near us. That was a first." He paused. " Do me a favor and don't write that part, though."

She let out a hearty laugh. " It would have worked the same if you were talking in slavic, or German, or Dutch!" Tag countered.

" Maybe, but that one night was almost too good to be true for me, so I locked it in my memory." At that, Tag made a noise while nodding her head vigorously. " You agree with me?"

" Sometimes..." Tag started. Her hands were already busy cleaning up their previous mess. " The most precious memories were never of something grand. It had always been the tiniest detail that made everything all the more memorable. As an example..." She took out a bag of roasted beans from her messenger bag, took five beans out of it, and handed them to the older man's palm " Your genuine, unguarded expression when you were enjoying the coffee I made would forever be ingrained in my mind, Mister Roman."

After that, the room always smelled like freshly brewed coffee once they're done.