I waited for Olivia at the dining table that her parents had prepared.
I thought about work as I sat there, and it was able to distract me a bit.
When I saw Olivia, I was awestruck that I did not know when I got up from my seat to have a clearer look at her.
Did Olivia know that she was this beautiful? I placed my hand right above my manhood because it has risen without my permission. It was rising against my will, it made me angry.
Also, I was suddenly jealous of Ryan. How was he able to make Olivia fall in love with him? He must have put her under some kind of spell because he was not worth Olivia's love. It was not like I claimed to be better than Ryan. If it were left for me, I would destroy Olivia because that would make me feel better. But then, she was just too beautiful that it was difficult to continue acting like it was fine to see her with someone else. This was a complicated situation, even for me.
I had to be mean to her one way or the other. Maybe if she hated me more, she would say something that will make me hate her or she would push me away till I am unable to feel the weird chemistry between the two of us.
Olivia looked unimpressed by my presence. Her mother must have told her that I was coming, so it was not a surprise to see me, all dressed in a suit, waiting for her. However, I thought she would at least be a little happy, after all, this was what she wanted – me to come to her house and speak with her like a proper gentleman.
She asked her mother questions like where her father was and why he was not present at the dining table. If I was a sassy woman like her, I would have rolled my eyes at her questions. They were all annoying.
Mrs. Adams kept deflecting the questions away from her, and told her daughter to ask me instead.
Hey, this was not my idea. It was my father's!
Olivia looked like she was going to keep arguing with her mother, but her mother did not give her a chance to argue. Mrs. Adams hurried away leaving Olivia with me.
"What is this?", Olivia asked.
She walked towards the chair to pull it and sit down, but I beat her to it, pulling the chair for her.
"What is what?", I asked, feigning ignorance. In my defense, this was not really my idea.
"Why are you here, without your parents? Why are my parents not here?", she asked.
Oh my God! Here we go with the questions! This woman had not even touched her food, but was actively asking me questions like I was a criminal and she was a detective.
"I am here without my parents because I am the one who asked to have dinner with you. I had taken your parents out for breakfast and we had discussed everything that we needed to know", I replied.
Again, this was my father's fault.
If I gave my usual, "it's none of your business" reply, it would not have fazed her, and may even prompt her to ask more annoying questions.
"You know you could have just texted me to go out with you", she stated flatly.
Didn't she feel the unsettled chemistry between us? Did she feel that it was just easy to take her out when she looked like something I could eat?
Also, I did not want her to take it wrongly. I was never going to be a gentleman to her, so it was better for her to understand it now.
"I could. But I didn't. I wanted to see what it felt like to have dinner with just you at your home", I replied, taking a seat.
I had forgotten that I was not seated there solely thanks to Olivia and her interrogations. I couldn't wait for this dinner to end.
"But–", she started saying, but I snapped at her.
"I think you should eat. You overthink about things so much. I know it's not very much like me to come to your home and request to have dinner. But you know the kind of parents we have, they love to be respected. So in my bid to respect them, I had to be here to have dinner with you. No more questions concerning this."
If she was not such a "questionholic", I may have liked her a bit. Anyone who tried to dominate over me, even in forms of questions, was not likeable by me.
Olivia said nothing for over ten minutes, the only thing she did was eat. I loved the quietness of the room, but I was not satisfied with trying to hurt Olivia's feelings.
"You look really decent", I stated blandly.
No. She did not look "decent". Decent was such an inferior way of describing Olivia. Olivia was beautiful. My adulthood was so hard now, and my palms were sweaty.
I said she was decent just to hurt her. I was petty and I knew it. I just wanted to get her frustrated. I wanted to crush this unsettled chemistry. I knew she felt it too, but did a good job pretending like she did not.
"Is that a compliment?", she asked in confusion.
She did not look hurt. Yet.
"It's whatever you think it is, ba–Olivia", I said.
I had almost called Olivia "babe". The only times that I used that word was with my sex partners, only when I had sex with them. But here I was about to use it for someone that I had not even hugged before.
She looked at me as I ate, avoiding her gaze. It was as though she was questioning me with her eyes, daring me to call her "babe." But I ignored her. If only she knew that "babe" wasn't a pleasant word I used for women I valued.
I knew people used the term "babe" when in love, but that was not the case for me. To me, "babe" was somewhat derogatory because I alternated between using "babe" and "slut" when having sex with women.
She must have given up on trying to get the B word out of my mouth after staring at me for a while, because the next question she asked was about my business trip.
I told her it was "normal". By normal I meant that it was gory as usual, people had to die, the business trip was successful because the illicit items were shipped to America, I had to sleep in an uncomfortable hotel where there was a power outage for an hour, I drank a lot and had sex afterwards.
I was glad that she did not bother to ask me what normal entailed because I was not going to give her the details.
I decided to invite her for a business dinner/masquerade ball. This was the topic that I appreciated her questions and explained everything in as much detail as I could.
I knew about the dinner before Olivia arrived, but I hadn't invited her. I had no valid reason for not inviting her. After considering her wealth, however, I decided it was best to invite Olivia. If she was going to help me become more famous and powerful, why shouldn't I? Besides, she was going to be my wife, whether I liked it or not. It was better to publicly acknowledge our relationship so that no one would assume we were forced into marriage. If people thought we were forced, we would be mocked, and I did not want that. Those who mocked us might not live to see another day. In summary, I was being cautious. Inviting Olivia to the business dinner/masquerade ball seemed to be the best course of action. Or so I thought.
"You seem excited", he said, smiling mockingly. She seemed interested in the masquerade ball like she had never been to one before. It made me genuinely amused.
My eyes scanned her entire body. Damn! For a brief moment I wanted to be deeply in her. But I managed to snap out of that thought. I was supposed to push her away from me, not being closer to her.
"Why would I seem excited? What's here to be excited about?", she asked.
She was trying to feign ignorance so much, but I knew that she was excited. Also, I noticed that she was tense? She felt that unsettled chemistry, right?
"You tell me", I said in a pretty hoarse voice.
I tried my best to stop looking at her, but I could not. There was a lot of self control I had to use to not embarrass myself at this moment. She had no idea.
"I think you should keep eating", she said, eating her food, and avoiding my gaze.
I cleared my throat, finally taking my eyes off Olivia and going back to my food.
"Yeah, you're right", I said.
I blamed my father for all of this. If I had not come here pretending to be respectful, this would not have happened.
"I knew this was a bad idea", I murmured to myself, putting more food in my mouth.
We finished eating our food in silence. But there was even more silence after we were done eating, and in order to avoid getting nervous again, I stood up.
"It was nice having dinner with you, Olivia", I said politely.
"Uhm, it was nice having dinner with you too", she replied, getting up from her seat as well.
Her height was perfect.
I wanted to say something mean to her or kiss her. I chose the former.
"I assume you got a decent wedding dress as well", I said, scanning her body.
I wanted to kiss her so badly. Being around her was not helpful.
She raised one of my eyebrows in confusion, but I could see that she was slightly annoyed. Good. That was exactly what I wanted.
"I'm really confused if decent is a way of you saying beautiful or pretty. Because if you mean decent as in modest, then you should just say so", she said.
No, I will not call you "beautiful" or "Pretty", Olivia.
"If you want me to give you a compliment so badly, you can request for it instead of talking like you deserve the compliment", I said with a smirk on his face.
"What the hell do you even mean by that?", she asked angrily, raising her voice at me.
It was working. Maybe, I could destroy any chemistry we both had this way.
"Don't shout Olivia, as you can see, your parents planted cameras all around the house, they would definitely see you shouting, and you would be questioned later on", I said, still smirking.
I wanted her to scream, to slap me, to walk out—anything but what she did next. She started to cry, and I froze. I did not have a good past with women crying; I did not know how to react. I watched her walk away, crying, and I stood there, mute. I had to admit, that was pretty dumb of me, and I instantly regretted my action.