After meeting with Candy in friendly term for months, Neal found himself following the same path his cousins had walked on. He started to fall in love to Candy too. Of course, he realized that his life was a sharp contrast to hers. He's just a small book seller while her father was a tycoon. She's an aristocrat while he's a commoner, her house was a mansion while his was a hut. Realizing the slim chance he had to be with her sometimes made him mad or somber or mixed of the two. Refusing to surrender, it spurred him to use all brain power he had to reach success. He didn't want to be stuck to be a street vendor all his life!
Meanwhile, Aaron's health had improved and insisted on going to the store daily. While Aaron waited for customers in the store, Neal used his freedom to go outside trying various new business ideas. Some approaches were brilliantly successful. Neal could even hire workers now to cover his works for minor clients and to carry heavy loads for Aaron. However, all were just in early stages. It still didn't give him the confidence in future's success especially if the woman at stake was a tycoon's daughter.
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One day, Candy came to accompany Neal to sell books in the market. Neal secretly was very happy to have her as his companion. Candy was excited too. She loved to spend time with him. She wore her most ordinary clothes for the special day. While Neal was working, Candy sat and watched how he worked. She noticed how attractive he was when persuading customers to buy. He looked exceptionally convincing when talking, many got persuaded to buy. She's very happy whenever he sold books successfully.
Around noon they moved to another place. Along the way, they came across a very big mansion. Neal suddenly got an idea to talk to them to sell his new business service idea. He told Candy about his plan and asked her favor to watch his books while he's away. Candy gladly agreed.
Neal took from his carriage the special clothes he brought for special business occasions. He wore the special attire on the outside, arranged it neatly, carefully combed his hair, and made himself looked neater and presentable. Then, he left. Candy was impressed on how mature and charming he was.
What a man, she sighed with a smile to herself, he's very dependable, responsible, capable, hardworking, hot, ... Running out words to describe his excellent quality, she giggled to herself.
Neal went to the big mansion and did the best possible marketing talk in his life. Fired up by the desire to success to win Candy's love, even he was impressed by himself. When he's done, he's back to Candy right away. She asked how the talk was.
"I think I charmed them, they promised me to notify their decision on Wednesday night," said Neal while taking off his outer business clothes.
"Wednesday night?" confirmed Candy. Neal nodded with a big grin glowing with confidence.
Neal told her how the talk went. Candy was so impressed by the man. She's so proud of him. Neal was so excited. If he got this big business project, he'd be confident enough to ask Candy's permission to be her date. He'd hire more workers, ready to bring his business to a new height. He smiled to himself. When she's not looking, he stared at her for a long time thinking about all happy things he'd have with her in the future.
While sitting there, surprisingly Candy observed Neal had many friends from his village who stopped by to chat with him. Intriguingly enough, many were girls. She tried to be cool and ignore them. She reasoned, He talks to so many people everyday why can't he talk to girls?
Until she saw this...
Neal was busily loading unloading his books when Candy saw a girl came to approach him. She's Hilda. Candy saw her stop by and examining his face. That day was exceptionally hot, the busy Neal was sweating profusely. Hilda saw it. She then took a piece of cloth from her bag, bent down in front of him and used the cloth to wipe his sweat with the utmost care. She patted his face with the gentlest care as though she's afraid that the softest stroke would hurt him.
"Oh,... no need, ahem... I'm fine," stammered Neal surprised at her sweet gesture. He stood up right away, trying to politely decline her generosity. He smiled awkwardly, wondering what Candy would think if she saw it.
Hilda bashfully avoided his eyes but she kept doing it. Throughout, she gave a pure smile of a girl who happily doing what her heart commanded. Her body language clearly showed how much she adored the tall young man who's standing in front of her.
Hurriedly from the corner of his eye, Neal looked at candy to see if she's looking. She did. In fact, Candy was caught of guard seeing a girl did something that sweet to Neal. She almost gasped loudly in surprise. She never saw a girl did something sweet to him, ever. She felt in rage and angry never before she experienced. She tried hard to calm down.
After not a drop of sweat left unwiped, Hilda asked, "It's hot today. Do you want to drink?" She smiled shyly. Candy could even swear she saw the girl blushing.
"Thank you, but please keep it. You are far way from home. I have plenty here," said Neal, courteously smiling back at her. "It's very hot now, you could wait here until it cools down." He offered her some nice gesture too in return.
With sour heart, Candy waited for her to leave which seemed like hours. She wondered if she would stay throughout the afternoon like what Neal offered her or leave. If she stayed, then I'd leave, Candy thought angrily to herself. Her head almost exploded seeing the two chatted, laughed, exchanged smiles and courtesy to one another. Hilda didn't stay long though, she left soon since she's busy at home. Candy immediately got up ready to talk to Neal about the girl.
"Who's she?" asked Candy as soon as Hilda left trying to look calm. "You have managed to attract quite a number of fans already, haven't you?"
"It's not what you think," Neal said with a serious face. "She's Hilda, daughter of my parents' best friends."
He told her the story about his father and his friends.
"You are very popular in your village, aren't you?" Seeing the many girls who stop by, she couldn't help not to make comments. She still couldn't believe what the neighbor's daughter did to him.
"It's not me. It's grandpa Neal. Our village is little and crowded with lots of people similar like us. We live closely to one another, it's hard not to know the neighbors. It's different than living in a mansion. It's fun in a way." He grinned.
"Of course you like it," said Candy cynically.
Neal only glanced at her but didn't answer and just continued doing his work. Candy wondered what exactly he meant by "fun". Was it fun to have friends or fun to be surrounded by girls.
"Does she like you?" Candy asked.
"I don't know," he answered shortly while kept on working.
"Do you like her?" asked Candy almost choked by suspicion.
"Come on, I don't think about that, I am busy. I have a goal in life and I will fulfill that first. That can wait," he said while non stopped working.
He wished he could tell Candy that it's her that he loved. If only she was not Sir William's daughter and just a regular commoner, he'd have done that long ago. His heart hurt thinking about it. He hid his sadness by being silent and continued doing his work.
Candy was looking at him. She wondered if she was jealous just now. He was sweating, the clothes was wet. He looked really charming when he's working. He definitely was different. She never saw him sweating in the past let alone working. She wanted to wipe his sweat too and gave him water but then she remembered what that girl did so she changed her mind.
I don't want him to think that I am competing with her, Candy thought to herself.
Candy sat there fighting with her own feeling wondering what happened to her. How come she could just sit and ignore the man who was working so hard without lifting her finger to help. Her mind was so clouded like tangled threat when his voice called her.
She heard Neal saying, "Thanks for your help. We sold quite a numbers of books. Let me buy you some bread first then we go home."
Candy refused. She saw how hard he worked to earn his money. She felt guilty thinking awful thoughts about him while he wanted to spend what he earned arduously for her. But Neal insisted. Without waiting for her reply, he ran quickly to buy a loaf of bread. He took her to ride the carriage and looked for a little creek to eat the bread. They drank directly from the creek. The clear water from the creek was cool and refreshing. To her, it tasted much better than any wine she ever tasted. She felt she never had a better meal in her life. Undoubtedly, her blooming heart made the simple bread and water tasted extraordinarily better.
Neal ate quickly. After finished eating, he asked Candy to keep eating slowly while he picked up some wild flowers. She saw him arranging the flowers nicely to make a bouquet. After it's done, he gave it to Candy. She was very happy. Not even the bouquet in the palace could surpass the beauty of bouquet he made for her. As though that's not good enough, he also made a tiara from wild flowers for her.
"How did you learn to do this?" asked Candy stupefied.
"From my current mother. She does this often to neighbors' little children. After a while I started to learned how to do it," he said with a grin.
Candy pricked at the word "neighbor". Suddenly the thought of him with the neighbors' girls clouded her brain again. She wondered what he's doing in the weekend with all these girls. She almost exploded with curiosity which burned inside her. She knew for sure that she's jealous this time, no doubt about that. She wondered what he thought about her. She looked at him who was still busy making the tiara. His face looked so innocent, she wondered if he knew about her feeling or he was totally oblivious like what his face was showing.
This time, she couldn't help to not ask him about it. "Do you do this to neighbors' daughters too?"
"No," he said shortly and seriously. His hands were still busily making the tiara. "If I did this to a different girl each day, how would I have the time to work and make money? You know how busy I am."
Candy felt happy to hear his answer. It's like a ton of burden was being removed from her jealous heart.
"Here, try this on," he said with a school boy smile.
"It's beautiful, really," said Candy with a genuine grateful smile. She almost cried with happiness with what he did and said to her. His answer calmed her. I love him, she thought to herself.
He put the flower tiara on her head. As soon as he did that, he was speechless on how beautiful Candy was. With her simple white gown and the bouquet, she looked just like a beautiful bride. He was imagining walking down the aisle with her. If only he could do that. If only he could tell her that.
"You are beautiful," he said in awed, barely audible, more like talking to himself.
Unconsciously, he arranged her long hair so it fell nicely on her cheek. His finger tips accidentally stroke her cheek gently. The feeling of the brief touch sparked fire which roared trough his heart. I love her so much, he thought to himself imagining one day he could fully hold her cheeks in his hands and kissed her rosy lips. He wondered what she thought of him and if she could feel what he felt. He didn't know that at this moment the same fire was roaring inside her too.
He put all his strength to gather himself.
I'll know on Wednesday night. I'll be your suitor on Wednesday night, Neal thought to himself referring to the big business offer he's hopping to get. His heart was blooming with hope.
He smiled at her, stopped looking at her, and lifted her to the carriage to take her home. The two had such a good time chatting together. He dropped her off in her mansion. He felt so sad to see her walk away from her. If only he could take her home and be with her forever. He saw Terry came to approach her.
"Well Candy, you're with the bookworm here," said Terry. He's so annoyed to see the bouquet of flowers and tiara she's wearing.
Terry took her at the arm and said, "I just came back from the Netherlands, I bought you a nice bouquet of rare tulips, and pearl with gold hair band. Come let me show you." He spoke loudly on purpose for Neal to hear.
Of course Neal heard it. He determined to work even harder and be successful. The more also he put his hope on the business opportunity notification which he'd get on Wednesday night. He'd propose to Candy one day and beat Terry to win her. But for now, he needed to be satisfied for just being able to see her from the far. With that, he turned around and went back home.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The following day, as Neal was sitting in his booth thinking and waiting for customer, he got a surprise visit from Terry. Terry had noticed how his beloved spent more and more time together with Neal. He couldn't take it anymore thus wanted to face Neal personally, in person.
"It's only me, she's not coming," said Terry rudely. He looked sharply at Neal and said, "I want you to get away from her."
"From whom?" asked Neal.
"Either you pretend being an idiot or you really are one, Candy of course," answered Terry back.
Neal was stunned that Terry could sense his feeling towards Candy but he didn't show it.
Calmly, Neal replied, "She can talk to me at anytime she wants to." He looked sharply back at him.
"Just look at you. You are here on the street, and she's there," Terry pointed to the majestic mansion of Sir William far away in the background. "Do you want to make her live here on the street like you? You are not thinking!"
"It's my business how I want to live my life and where I want to be," answered Neal still calmly although inside he was burning with rage hearing Terry's lecture which hit his soft spot.
Terry snorted and left.
Neal was so mad. He clenched his fist and hit the table in front of him as hard as he could to vent off his anger. Of course he knew he's poor and she's rich, he's not an idiot. That's the very reason why he had been hesitating to pursue his interest in her to the next level and be more than her friend. He feared he'd fail and end up dragging her to live poorly like him. All this time, no matter how much he enjoyed her companion, with all his strength he kept his love for her secretly in his heart, silently hid it from anyone, especially from her. Surprisingly, Terry could see it. He wondered if it became too obvious for others that he loved her. What about her? What did she think of him?
-TO BE CONTINUED-
Thank you so much for reading.