TITUS REYES

Tiberius seemed to have connections in town because he was able to get me in for viewings on several new build properties the next day.

Ava, the real estate agent that had been kind enough to take me on in such short notice, had spent all morning and most of the afternoon driving me around town, showing me all the properties they had available for purchase. There were a few that I liked, but none that I had fallen in love with yet.

Ideally, I needed a place I could rent out while I was away, and comfortably stay in while I was back visiting family. But at the same time, I wanted a place that I could picture myself living in when I eventually retired from rugby, whether that was in a few months or in four years.

While I was away, I could make some money renting out the place and when I was here, it could be my sanctuary.

"I really think you'll like this one, Mr Reyes." Ava beamed at me as she stopped outside the last house on her long list. "It has everything you're looking for, and you can move in tomorrow if you like the place."

"You should have showed me this place in the beginning then." I chuckled and stepped out of the car. "It would have saved the both of us a lot of time."

Ava grinned at me as she pulled out her large set of keys. I had no idea how she knew which keys belonged to which house, or how she navigated the big metal mess on a daily basis.

"Sometimes you need to see things that you don't like before you figure out what you do like."

"Well, show me my dream house." I gestured for her to lead the way.

"Just you wait. This house is going to blow your mind." She grinned and unlocked the door. Stepping to the side, she pushed it open and gestured for me to head in first.

"Thank you." I murmured and stepped a foot into what would hopefully be my new home. Or at the very least, my favourite holiday home.

"The house, the porch, and the yard stands at five-thousand square feet. This is a two-storey house with five bedrooms and six bathrooms. That includes a bathroom downstairs, and an en-suite for all the bedrooms. There's one reception room, a dining room, an office and a kitchen fit for a family downstairs. There's also a cosy little swimming pool in the backyard, and a double garage around the side of the house. There's enough space to take your car into the backyard if you want."

"Wow." I chuckled, glancing around the spacious living that the house welcomed us into. "Is there even any point in checking out the house when you make it sound so great?"

"You haven't even heard the best part."

"I can't possibly imagine how things can get better than this."

Ava grinned, as if she couldn't wait to prove me wrong.

"As you can tell, this is a new build. It was completed a few months ago. It's finished, but we'll go through blue-taping before closing if you're interested in the place."

"Blue-taping?" I questioned.

"That's when you go around the house and blue-tape anything that needs repairing or correcting. This is mostly the paint work, but it can also extend to scratches and more. On top of that, since this was built by the CEO of a construction company, he's extended the good will of allowing you to change a few things. If you don't like the kitchen countertops, or the bathroom units, or anything reasonable like that, he's willing to change it for you. A contract will be drawn up to get it completed within the first three months of the property being purchased."

"I'll take it." I announced, not needing to think about it anymore. Honestly, it was one of the simplest decisions I'd ever had to make.

"You don't want to see the rest of the house yet?" Ava chuckled with an amused grin on her face.

"I do, but it's not going to change anything. I want this house."

"Then I'll sure that happens." Ava grinned. "Would you like to make an official offer before or after viewing the place?"

"Let's do it while you give me a tour."

Her lisp turned higher at the corners, mirth swimming in her eyes. "Oh, I won't be the one giving you a tour."

"I guess I can take a look around the place myself." I shrugged. "Where do you suggest I start? The kitchen?"

"No, I've got something better." Ava grinned and she turned to face the front door one exact moment before a knock sounded on the other side of it. "My Reyes, meet the construction manager that worked on this project." She mimicked a drumroll by slapping the imaginary drums in front of her before she reached for the door. "Salvadora De Leon!"

Sal had a beautiful, soft smile on her face as she stepped into the house. I watched as she pulled Ava in for a brief hug before she turned to me, the epitome of perfectly polite until the façade dropped as recognition dawned on her.

"You!" She was absolutely as she glared at me. "What are you doing here?"

Despite her harsh greeting, no doubt wishing she could send me six feet underground right now, my lips quirked into a large grin as I stared at her.

"It's nice to see you again, Sal. I was worried that we would end on a bad note."

"What are you doing here?" She repeated, seething more and more with each passing moment.

"I'm looking to buy this house. What are you doing here?" I shot back at her.

"I'm the construction manager that worked on this house."

My lips stretched into a slow grin. Oh, I was going to have so much fun with this!

"I'm assuming you're also the one that's going to give me a tour of the place."

"What? No." Sal denied, but Ava chuckled from behind her.

"I thought you'd be the best person for the job, Sal, since you built this place from the ground up." Ava said, leaving Sal without an out.

The woman in question pursed her lips, her eyes dark and angry as she stared at something over her shoulder. I was tempted to snap my fingers in front of her face to get her attention, but something told me I would live to regret today if I did that.

Sal was more of a spitfire than I remembered but then again, we had only spent one night together six years ago. That was enough to know a person in the most intimate way, but not know them at all.

"Fine." Sal hissed through her teeth, refusing to meet my eyes as she walked past me. "Let's get this over with."

"How are you ever going to sell me this house with that attitude?" I joked as I followed her into the kitchen.

"It's not my job to sell you the house. That's what you have Ava for." She snorted, sparing me a deadly glare over her shoulder as she moved to stand around the other side of the large kitchen island, trying to put as much distance between us.

"You two seem to know each other." I mused aloud, leaning forward to rest my elbows on the countertop. I couldn't deny that I was more interested in the construction manager than the house she had been in charge of building.

It helped that I had already made my mind up about the former.

"That's none of your business." Sal answered, quick to change the subject as she started pointing out all the impressive features and aspects of the kitchen. It was clearly state of the art and everything was in pristine condition not that it mattered much since I was a terrible cook. Though I was sure the cook I hired would have fun cooking here.

Sal only spoke to me when completely necessary as she guided me through the rest of the house for the remainder of the tour.

The house appeared to have been built to the highest standard, and there was nothing that I wished to change. It was designed better than I could have done myself, but any adjustments would increase my interaction with Sal which was what I wanted. I still had yet to get to the bottom of why she hated me so much.

"I see there's a lot of things that I'm going to need to blue-tape." I said, pointing out some chipped paint on the wall behind the king-sized bed in the master bedroom. It must have happened when they were moving the bed into position, and it was the only 'flaw' that I could find in the house, but I couldn't resist pointing it out to her. I just knew it would grate on her.

Sal pursed her lips, her nostrils flaring as she exhaled deeply.

"Feel free to add as much blue-tape as you want. We'll have it all fixed in no time."

"Ava mentioned that I can change the kitchen countertops if I want."

"You can."

"I'd like to do that."

"Do you know what you want to replace them with?"

"Not yet, but I'll let you know once I've decided."

The truth was that I quite liked the kitchen countertops. It was a creamy off-white, looking clean and pristine against the grey glossy cabinets, but I knew getting them changed would ensure more time spent with Sal. Though it saddened me that she clearly didn't want anything to do with me?

Why did I live by that stupid rule? Why didn't I just call her the next morning and beg to see her again like I wanted to?

"Well, that's the tour done." Sal announced as she headed out of the guest bedroom on the very right-hand side of the house, the last stop on our tour.

She didn't wait for me to follow before she began for downstairs, but I didn't mind so much as it gave me the perfect, unobstructed view to her plump, juicy ass in those tight jeans of hers.

"I didn't realise that your apprenticeship was in construction." I said, following her down the stairs back into the living room where we had started our tour.

"How could you? It's not like we know each other." Her tone was harsher than it needed to be for such a simple answer, and I couldn't help but wince at her answer.

"Don't say it like that." I frowned, hating the sadness that laced my voice.

"Why not? It's the truth. It was just a one-night stand."

My frown deepened. "You make it sound dirty."

"Isn't that what I am? Your dirty little secret?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came out.

My dirty little secret?

Sal's eyes widened and regret washed over her face. She looked she could take back those words, but I was glad she had said them even though it didn't make any sense to me.

I wouldn't be able to fix things between us if I couldn't get any information out of her. If she didn't tell me why she hated me so much.

There was an awkward clearing of a throat, and the both of us looked around to realise that we had an audience.

"I didn't realise you two knew each other." Ava said, a confused yet humoured smile on her face as she glanced between us both. "If I knew you two knew each other already, I wouldn't have bothered with all the formalities."

"We don't know each other." Sal was quick to deny with a scowl, moving toward the door but her friend, the realtor, was quick to intercept her path.

"You know what, Mr Reyes? You look like you're in very good hands here, so I'll leave you both to it to discuss all the little details. I'll be waiting outside in the car so come out whenever you're done." A smirk played on her lips as she flitted her eyes back and forth between us once more, a knowing glint in her eyes as she reached for the door handle behind her. "Or not."

Sal watched the door as Ava slipped out and closed it shut behind her, and I watched her watch her friend leave. Her back was tense, and her shoulders were slumped in defeat until finally, she decided she couldn't ignore me any longer and turned around to face me.

"Don't pay any attention to Ava. My friends just love to torture me." Sal sighed. "Is there anything else you wanted to discuss or are we done here? Believe it or not, I don't have all the time in the world to give a personal tour to a football player."

"Why do you say it like that?"

"I was just telling you that I was short on time." Sal shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

"You're making it sound like an inconvenience."

"It is an inconvenience on me, don't you think?"

A sad frown played on my lips, and my heart ached in my chest. Not just because of the blatant way she was brushing me off, but something more I struggled to describe and decipher.

There was clearly something between us, there just had to be, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"I don't understand. What's going on between us? Why do you hate me so much?" I asked, wanting to get to the bottom of things and deal with the thick, uncomfortable tension between us, but little did I know about the can of worms that my question had opened.

Sal's body tensed and she paused for a moment before slowly turning around to face me. If looks could kill, I would have died the other day I caught her at the end of her date.

"You're seriously asking me that?" Sal scoffed, as if she couldn't believe her ears. "You're seriously asking me when I hate you so much? You really don't know what you did wrong?"

"No." I whispered, shaking my head. "Tell me what I did wrong so I can fix it. Please."

-

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