It was a bright sunny day and Dina was all cute in her coffee brown high slit handless dress. Her hair was packed in a curly ponytail with a bright smile spread across her cheek revealing her perfectly lined dentition. She was all giggling walking down the street to Aaron's house holding her small clutch purse firmly on one side.
While she passed by Eva's apartment, she could just mind her business and walked straight to Aaron but Dina wanted to gloat. She finally got the hottie who just moved into the neighborhood, a fierce battle between her and Eva with both ladies bringing in their A game. There were times Eva will intentionally come out to wash her car in see through clothing just to get Aaron to notice her. But unfortunately, Mr hottie would intentionally ignore her and just focus on his lawn, trimming it to near perfection.
Dina however didn't need to go all out like Eva did. She played the homely card and Aaron who has lost the love of his life, fell like a pack of cards. It was actually easy for Aaron to fall because Dina did not just act, she looked almost exactly like Tisha whom he loved so dearly till she mysteriously disappeared.
"Hey Eva?" Dina waved excitedly at Eva who was just assembling her groceries in the car booth to pick up one after the other into her home.
"Hey.... What do you want?" Eva responded grudgingly.
"Oh nothing!" Dina responded, smiling excitedly like a little girl. Still in her giggly mood, she hopped cheerfully closer to Eva and then whispered in her ear, "FYI, I'm going to Aaron's.
We have a date in a fancy restaurant and I'll be over at his house all through the weekend, wearing nothing but his shirts." As Dina whispered, Eva's eyes tightened as her fist clenched. Grinding her teeth against each other she spoke underneath her breath wishing Dina nothing but the worst on her date.
Not being offended, Dina chuckled and then went on hopping to Aaron's house on her platform heels, while bouncing her curled ponytails playfully.
Getting closer to Aaron's house, Dina couldn't help but notice the clean red Mustang parked behind Aaron's truck. Like the speed of light, Dina went from playing the cheerful little girl character, to an FBI agent trying to know who owns the car and also to ascertain what's going on. Slowly and carefully without making a noise, Dina moved closer to the car and tried to peep through. Not long after, she got caught.
"Hello, is there any problem?" Mira inquired, bending slightly to Dina's ear and whispering softly to it
"Uhh... Not at all" Dina responded in a shaky voice while continuously blinking her eyes. She was obviously startled as she didn't expect anyone to catch her at her FBI work.
"Not at all?" Mira chuckled then continued, pointing at her car, "not at all you say? But you were searching through my car with your eyes. Who are you and what do you want?" By now, Mira's voice sounded denser. She was no longer smiling with Dina and she quickly got overly defensive, grabbing her by the wrist to explain.
"Let go of me! You crazy" Dina yelled
"Oh I'm crazy? Why you...."
"What's going on here?" Aaron quickly joined in the feud, forcefully freeing Dina's wrist from Mira's grip.
"Well, I caught her trying to steal from my car". Mira fired.
"No no, Dina would never. You must have misinterpreted and misunderstood things Mira. I'm sure that if you had asked her, there would have been a logical explanation to the situation.”
"I saw someone peeping into my car, I know what I saw Aaron.You can't paint the scenario how it's not"
"Well, Dina is a friend and she isn't like that." Aaron spoke in Dina's defense.
"I see, a friend uh? No wonder you've been so slow and out of line with your job."
"Mira don't get like this."
"Watch me drive off to tell my father how you've been using his money, my inheritance to finance this low life tramp."
"Hey! Watch it girl. I'm standing right here and won't hesitate to teach you some manners" Dina threatened.
"Oh manners? Like you are so well mannered that you are moving in on my missing sister's husband? Do you know the money he lavishes on you is from the missing girl's father? My father? Are you aware that all that money was given to him to help track down my sister's whereabouts?"
"Mira stop talking nonsense at once. Get in your car and leave." Aaron commanded, fuming in anger as he never wanted Dina to know his true intent of being in the neighborhood.
"Of course I'm leaving. Leaving to tell my father that the reason he's not been making headway with Tish's search is because of your little distraction."
Dina was overly confused with the bickering, she looked at Aaron with her eyes already filled with tears and then questioned him what's going on.
Aaron at his end couldn't bring himself to explain to Dina how his dead girlfriend, like he made her believe, turned to a missing wife. All he could say to Dina who was already walking away was that he could explain. Before he could turn to utter another word to Mira, she zoomed off.
In his mess, Aaron uttered underneath his breath, “I'm screwed”. As Mira's trail became air, he didn't know how to settle it off with Mira's dad but he sure didn't want to lose Dina. Being his coping mechanism since he got into the neighborhood, Aaron felt bad for lying to her. But how could he bring himself to tell Dina the truth why he really moved into the neighborhood? "Perhaps, if she knew, she wouldn't love me anymore." Aaron concluded. A conclusion that made him really uncomfortable, causing him to immediately turn back to his truck to race up against Mira before she gets to her father.
Aaron wasn't fast enough as he arrived at Mira's mansion a little after dawn. Since he's a familiar face, he wasn't interrogated by the security. He quickly found his way to Mira's Father study, where he met him puffing on his cigarette. He would puff it for a couple of times and hold on to the smoke in his mouth for some seconds before blowing it out through his mouth and nose
A long silence ensued for a while until Mr Richard took a break from his smoking and finally spoke, "which is it son? You are here to reaffirm your loyalty to my daughter Tish or to pacify me not to take all that money away?" Waiting on Aaron's response, Richard dragged on his cigarette and slowly blew the smoke in the air.
It took a while for Aaron to come up with the perfect words. After pulling himself together, he cleared his throat and took a deep breath. "I'm here to reaffirm my loyalty sir. You know how much finding Tish means to me." Aaron responded.
Crushing the ashy part of the cigarette on the ashtray, Richard took a long look at Aaron who stood in front of him and then spoke, "I doubt that.You know, before Mira came down to see what you've been up to, I've been watching you.”
Standing him up and patting Aaron on his shoulder, Richard continued, “You've grown soft Aaron. You used to be one of my best guys but then I found out that you and my daughter were a couple, I was excited. I gave you my blessings then the next thing I hear, she's a drug addict, you are in Jail for selling drugs, next she goes missing."
"Wait what? Richard, you know that the drugs were for Tish right? I didn't have anything to do with them. I took the blame when police raided our home just to protect her. Everything I do, I always put Tish first!" Aaron spoke with a slightly raised voice. By now he was visibly angry and taken aback by Richard's utterances, but he managed to defend himself.
However, Richard wasn't backing down in tackling Aaron. He scoffed and then fired back, "no you don't! If you had protected my daughter, she wouldn't sell or do drugs.
Maybe you are forgetting boy, but I brought you out of prison to look for my daughter. If she's dead, I want to see her corpse, her remains. Someone can't just disappear into thin air. Dammit Aaron! Don't you get it? I got you that House in Tiger Haven because that was the last place she was recordedly seen. I sent you there to find my daughter not to get off with the next hot chick on the block."
"I'm sorry Richard, I had a moment of weakness. It won't happen again." Aaron out of remorse with his dealings with Dina, apologised.
"Surely it won't. I have always known petite women to be your Kryptonite. Is that not the reason Tish was able to influence you to turn a blind eye to her drug dealings? Petite, beautiful perky, your spec? Just like Dina?"
"What? You know her name?"
"I know more than you think I do Aaron. Break it off or I'll send you back to the Jail I picked you off from."
"You don't have to threaten me. Like I told you before, boss, I always put Tish first and until I find her, you won't be getting rid of me."
"Now that's what I like to hear. You know me Aaron, I'm just a man who loves his girls and I hope your actions speak louder than your words do.”
Aaron managed to flash a not so genuine smile in agreement. He knew what he had to do and he understands that for him to get rid of Dina, he needed to move out of Tiger Haven and operate anonymously.
