His Ex Wife

Chapter 11: Coffee with Iyan

Flashback

Time went slower when you had a friend in this strange place, UK was just so cold and lonely ever since Mariella came here and her father was barely visible at home and she was grateful for that, she’d chose to be away than in his company at any moment in time.

Mariella’s father was amongst the richest men in London at that time, most bear witness that he had worked extremely hard to get where he was. His power was known to all; competitors had to think twice before even thinking about laying a finger on him- he was even rumored to have risky tie-ups and deals with the Russian Mafia.

But for Mariella, he had only been Mr Rupert John Lewis, she could not even utter the word father for him, he meant nothing to her, she had thought of that very vehemently at times when she was all alone. She hated him and the more time passed in this strange country with these strange and unfriendly people, her hatred grew worse, not only towards this new place but most of all her father, whose presence made her tremble like a leaf.

Things had been different back in Italy before her mother died, both her mom Lucy and Mariella were a big happy family, or so they used to think. Her mother had been a beautiful British woman but her roots had been Italian. She had never told her why she had brought her away from her father and nor did Mariella ever ask. She was happy to have just her. Working as an administrative clerk for the local school, they did well to make ends meet and lead a peaceful life but her mother had withheld the fact that she had leukemia from her daughter.

The cancer had been eating her up since 4 long years, her mother had stopped responding to treatments much recently and Mariella had no single clue about that, she did notice her mother get tired easily those days but her death had really brought to her the harsh and merciless reality of life.

After her death, she found out that her mother had already known she would not live long and had thus arranged for her to live with her friend Jane only till she became an adult. But fate had another plan for her, Rupert Lewis had somehow taken official custody of his only heir alive and had specifically come to fetch her all the way to Italy after the death of Lucy.

Since then she had lived with Rupert in his grand mansion but she had been nothing more than a lifeless body. What happened to her was restricted to only 4 walls of that ill-fated mansion.

She did not even have the permission to step out of the home her father had brought her to, she could not even muster up the courage to do so, it would kill her, more likely, he would kill her. Her father was a notoriously dangerous man and just so much more than that.

She missed her family when they had just her mother and herself, Mariella’s father had long left them right after her birth. It would be safe to say that he did not even exist for her and now his existence made her even more ambiguous.

Now that she had decided that she would enroll in school and give her exams, she had taken a firm decision that she was not going to let him control her life. She would study, graduate, get into college, have a degree, stand on to her own two feet, have a life and a happy one, just like her mother had always wanted her to have.

Sometimes though, she used to think about how things could have been different had her mom still been alive just like she was thinking now, waiting at the café for her new friend, Iyan.

“Always so serious….” Iyan touched her shoulders from the back startling her, but Mariella flinched fearfully at his mere touch as he sat down next to her.

“It’s you!” she heaved a heavy sigh of relief, an expression of fear evident on her face.

Though he had meant to only surprise her, she had been startled, as if she had been unexpectedly scared by a ghost.

“Are you okay? You almost jumped up when I touched your shoulders…” He asked concerned as he sat down in front of her.

The café was buzzing with teenagers mostly their age and college students. It was the closest café to the school. Instead of the library, Iyan had thought Mariella being the shy and reserved type of a girl would be much more comfortable to interact with him in a place full of people, where she wouldn’t feel alone and more secure with him, compared to the library where there would be just the two of them…

“Yes, yes I’m alright, it’s just I’m not used to this,” she made up, a bit embarrassed to have behaved that way.

“You seem so fragile to me, like a glass doll you know,” he observed trying to cheer her up, “on second thoughts not that, much more beautiful than a doll,” he said the last part with a smile, meaning the words.

This was practically the first time she had heard a compliment that she had liked and approved of, she immediately had butterflies in her stomach and a small pink blush formed on her cheeks.

Looking down she said, “I have problem with Math…probably my weakest subject.” Her notes and the book had already been on the table but she had been far too distracted to focus thinking about her broken past.

“And my strongest!” Iyan flashed a smile, confident.

“You’re the teacher then,” she said smiling and added, “All other subjects remain fairly manageable for me…oh! And also Literature, I just haven’t finished the stories, that’s practically the first exam and I don’t even know what to write…”

“Hey chill out dude, literature’s even easier, it’s like reading a book and then giving out your opinion along with some constructive criticism,” he added.

“Wait…I’m a girl, not a dude,” she eyed him, confused.

Laughing, he added, “It’s a gender-neutral term Mariella, I do that to most people because I’m not really good with names.”

“Oh! but you remember my name, you just said it,” she said with a sarcastic smile.

“I can’t forget your name, I love it, specifically even more after knowing what it really means,” he winked in a friendly way, “it’s not easy forget things you like knowing the value they hold,” he smiled.

“And what does it mean now?” she asked, intrigued.

“So, I looked up your name after we met yesterday and it translates into Star of the Sea, coming from a combination of Danish and Latin. I thought your parents must have been very thoughtful when they were choosing a name for you.”

“Mother!” she clarified spontaneously, “Not my dad. Only my mother chose my name,” she said melancholically, as she thought of her father and then feeling Iyan’s eyes on her, she changed her tone, “I am no star though, my mom had always been fascinated by the color of my eyes, maybe that is why,” she said stating the obvious.

“Your eyes are indeed the prettiest I have ever seen,” he noticed looking into her eyes. © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

Her blush grew deeper and her cheeks turned a deeper color of pink.

She ignored the compliment and asked him instead, “So who else do you have in your family? Siblings?”

All smiles and good humor vanished from his face within a second. He did not want to talk about this.

“A brother and parents,” he managed to quietly mention however so she wouldn’t notice anything awkward.

He instantly took up the book she had on the table and started jotting down the chapters that were going to be covered in the upcoming exam. “Logs, quadratic equations, differentiation, circular measure…” he muttered slowly while he scribbled at the back of the book. She watched him as he wrote all the chapters, he was so serious in studies maybe, but that was a thing Mariella liked in guys.

She had not really been involved in having crushes for too long, back in Italy, she had a busy life with the household chores and her mom and school work and all but in the opposite sex, she was attracted to intelligence and maturity, she was indeed a sapiosexual. She was too mature for her age herself, but that could be blamed on circumstantial crisis that she faced as well.

“We start with quadratics first today, easiest of all,” Iyan mentioned, flipping through the pages of that chapter, “By the way let us see how much help you need, if you do well, then good otherwise we might have to dedicate more hours to this.”

“Oh I assume so…” she said reluctantly, she could not be out of home for too long when her dad was in town. He wanted her at home. She felt sick to the core thinking of that but tried to distract herself nevertheless.

--

The one and a half hour flied in Iyan’s company. Mariella was beginning to understand the concepts in a much more clear manner now, probably because his explanation had been really the best of all the ones she had previously had. All the while, she felt grateful for a helpful and nice friend like him.

“See? Now you just replace all the values of the constants in the quadratic formula, by the way, you can bring a calculator for this paper so don’t waste your time if you can’t make out the sums faster, time will run by super fast once you’re in that exam hall,” he explained, pointing the pencil in his hand to the quadratic questions.

She nodded with understanding. Iyan had been explaining and making her work questions on the chapter all along, that clearly aided her and with much practice, she could catch up with all the chapters she had missed before joining school.

“Got it,” she said confidently when she finished the last sum that involved an exponential equation.

Iyan smiled, teaching brought him satisfaction, in fact that is why he used to go tutor on all weekends to orphanages. But today his satisfaction had been different than that. He was happy to have gotten to spend time with her but he wanted to know her more, know her personally.

She looked up, her eyes sparkling with joy as she got that sum right too.

“You should have told me it’s that easy!” she said happily.

“Oh should I have?” he raised an eyebrow, smiling back at her.

“Kay now let’s have some coffee, I’m tired with all this,” she got up- satisfied with the studies- and turned to go order for their coffee when he pulled her hand; his skin was soft on hers hut his grip was equally tight.

Butterflies rose in her stomach as she felt his soft hand on hers.

It was more than just that however, he got up too and forcefully made her sit back with both his hands on her shoulders. Though she resisted to sitting, she could not help, Iyan always wore clothes that did

not exactly reveal his body, covered up with cardigans but in actuality the way he pushed her to sit again made her realize how strong and muscular he actually was.

“You’ve done enough, now sit back and relax and tell me what you want,” he spoke softly, his face close to hers while the café buzzed with more customers. His hands were placed gently on her shoulders, holding her back from moving.

“Cappuccino, latte, mocha, hot chocolate?” he asked removing his hands now.

She was still blushing but determined not to show it, she replied, “A hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles and marshmallows on top- suits the cold weather!”

He smiled her at her childish order. “Right away ma’am!” he saluted and got lost in the long coffee queue.

She smiled to herself and then thought back to Kathy, this was her first friendly hangout since she had left Italy….and Kathy.

Both Kathy and Mariella used to have so many of such friendly dates when they hung out together. Kathy was her best friend in the whole of Italy, her only moral support after her mom had died and suddenly, a surge of guilt took over her for what happened with Kathy.

The street outside the café was in a solid jam, cars honked while the traffic jam grew dense, it was when office time got over…she immediately glanced at her watch: 6 pm!

She panicked thinking what would happen if she didn’t get home in time, she had been so lost in her own little world that she had gotten distracted from her tragic reality; she gathered her books and notes and quickly threw it all in her bag and instantly hopped out of the café.

Few minutes later when Iyan came back to the table where Mariella had been, the other half of the table was already empty.