Chapter 62 - Father And Daughter

"Oh, sorry! Where are my manners?" she giggled cutely, covering her mouth with her hand, revealing a sparkling marquise diamond in her slim ring finger. 

A crease between Jess' eyebrows was formed. She wondered if the diamond ring she was wearing was her engagement ring. For the huge sparkling solitaire rock was smiling at her, mocking her with its splendor. 

"Come in, come in." she glided inside the open space living room slash dining room. 

She observed that Noah's interior designer had the whole floor plan into one wide open space, combining the living room and dining room into one space. She likes the seamless flow of the area making the whole room inviting for a gathering. 

She could imagine a small group of people being in the two separate spaces, yet overlapping with its other without overpowering one another, rather complementing the space and style of each other harmoniously. He has a brilliant interior designer. 

"Here, you can put it here." she motioned her to the kitchen island counter. She noticed Noah uses a lot of natural colors in his apartment. His island counter is a slab of mahogany. The open kitchen was quite spacious and looked well-used. Unlike her kitchen where anybody could see that she barely uses it. 

She smirked thinking how her dining table was never used since she moved to her place. Maybe, she should ask Noah who was his interior designer so she could redesign her place to make use of all the floor space she has. 

She focused on observing the interior design of Noah's place for she knew that if she gave attention to all the actions of this woman who let her inside his house, she would lose her control. 

It didn't escape her the way this woman treats her like a servant of the sort. Telling her to bring the basket of ripe mangoes when she could easily accept it on her own and make her go her own way. But no, she was acting like she was the mistress of the house. 

She smirked inwardly at how the woman blatantly shoving in her face her claims over Noah's living space. 

"Well then, you guys can keep the basket. I gotta go. Have a great day!" she gave her a million-watt smile. 'You are not the only one who could play this game.' She kept her composure and said goodbye. 

The bitchy woman didn't even have the proper etiquette of showing her to the door. 

"Thanks for the mangoes, Jass," she called from the living room. 

"It's Jess, you silky-bitch!" she muttered under her breath. She escaped the woman's company. Her day was totally ruined! She just wanted to return to her own apartment and forgot what happened. 

But it seems like the freaking universe is out and about to get her today. She was in the hallway on her way to her own apartment when she heard a familiar voice calling her name -- that automatically sent shivers to her doodah. 

'Shit!'

She smoothed her hair, those tendrils she painstakingly made sure to fall in her face in such a way that would frame her face to make her look...sexy? But now after seeing Noah's ex-wife she was questioning her own level of sexiness. 

Now the loose hair on her face was nothing but annoyance. So, she gathered them all and pulled her hair up in a bun. Before she turned to face Noah. 

She plastered a neutral smile on her face, as she watched the father and daughter duo approached her. Both of them were wearing Adidas sportswear. Noah was wearing black - it's the same clothing he had on when she had mistaken him for a pervert with an expensive car in the elevator once. 

While the girl with jet black shiny hair, with the same blue eyes as her father, was wearing a cuter version of what Noah was wearing. For her sportswear is in pink! 

Jess couldn't help but smile watching her. She suddenly misses all her younger half-siblings at home. She has seven younger sisters back home. The two oldest were both twenty years old -- from different mothers, while the youngest were twins aged five from a woman that is one year older than her.

Her father impregnated women left and right throughout the years, resulting in eight daughters! 

She smiled bitterly with the memories of all the scandal she had to suffer just because she was the firstborn of a father who couldn't keep his - gun in his pants. 

It is one of the reasons why she hides her own identity. She hated the fact that when people knew her father's name, they would automatically give her a look of pity because her father's name was a common name in the entertainment section of tabloids and even newspapers! 

And she was more than once dragged in those scandals. She couldn't understand how people would take her pictures, some would even ask her questions about her father's latest conquest as if she had a say in any of it. She was a child back then, for fuck sake!

Those lowlives only stop when her grandfather can no longer take it and decided to slap all those paparazzi with lawsuits in their faces with how they disgustingly dragged around her name and her picture - where they put a black rectangle in her eyes, to protect her privacy! 

"Did you drop by at my place?" he cocked his head to the direction of his apartment. 

"Yup." she casually answered, making sure the ill feelings she has towards his ex-wife don't show in her face. 

"Oh, this is my daughter, Lucille," he said in his usual voice, full of pride every time he talked about her daughter. "This is Jess..." 

"...the neighbor." she finished Noah's sentence for him. She avoided Noah's questioning gaze with what she did. She simply doesn't want to be somebody to his daughter. Not because of anything, but because she remembered when she was at Lucille age, she hated the way her father introduced all the women he was dating. 

'Not like she and Noah were dating! Just she thought it wasn't a good idea for Lucille to know her other than a neighbor. 

"Nice meeting you, Lucille." 

"Likewise." 

She smiled at the girl who has very observant blue eyes.

"See you guys around, bye!"  She waved her hands to them, totally avoiding Noah's eyes.