12 Dinner date

Yvette stared hard at the broken shards, pouring all the rage she was feeling towards those pieces through her burning gaze. She wished she could do the same to the actual person, who has been giving her this filthy feeling constantly from the moment she stepped into this family. But every time she faced something like this, her entire body ended up freezing, jammed to the ground. The only thing that proves the fact that she really didn't end up getting actually frozen like ice, is her uncontrollably shaky body. With fear, with disgust, who knows, but she can't stop shaking whenever she faces this guy who is supposed to be her own cousin. Her entire self trembles in some emotions she can't properly grasp. All she knows is she can't make herself act instantly against it.

It took a while to return back to her normal self, of course. And when she did, she made a run out of there, towards upstairs. And going straight into her room, she slammed the door behind her.

Once she was in her room, her knees gave in from all the stress she faced. She crouched down, hugging her knees tightly, and rested her head beneath them. She could hear her name being called out from downstairs, after a while had passed. But she couldn't care less right now. She kept her eyes tight shut, and ignored all the noises her ears could catch. That somehow helped, as a while later, all those sounds faded in the background. And the continuous deep breaths she took, helped her to calm down.

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Yvette got down from the taxi, which had dropped her in front of the Royal Cuisine restaurant. She slowly walked into the huge building, picking up the clicking sound of her heels. Upon entering, her jaw almost dropped to the ground, seeing the extravagant furnishing of the interior. Matte red-colored sofa in the lobby, and shiny off-white decors were heightening the beauty of this famous place. She could see people walking in the lobby, some were at the reception. And all of them had a really prim and proper look on them, with properly ironed clothes and decent-looking monotones. Even ladies there had really decent fashioned attire, leaving out a few of them who had weirdly flashy attires.

"Sheesh, I am glad I chose something appropriate," she peeked a glance at the nearby height-length mirror near the lobby, looking at her white tunic dress, paired with matte white heels.

"Now, I guess I have to ask the reception," she gave one look around her before moving towards the reception desk. The receptionist was a young girl, presumably the same age as hers, as her small structure very much seemed petite. The black suit on her felt a bit over the top, as she could almost drown on that suit. "I never expected I would see this obvious flaw in the receptionist."

She slowly picked up her pace, making sure she seemed elegant while doing that. After all, Yvette was always someone who strongly believed that people are how they act in situations. The receptionist girl soon noticed her walking towards the desk, and as she was entrusted with her duty, she bowed a little before addressing to her, "Good evening, Ma'am. How may I help you?"

"Good evening," Yvette nodded back to her. "I wanted to check on a reservation… under the name of Miss Barnhill."

"Ah, let me check it, give me a second." The receptionist proceeded to check through the big computer screen just left to her, clicking away some buttons in between. She seemed really focused while searching for the name Yvette mentioned, and when her hands stopped over the keyboard, her forehead had a small frown on it. "Ma'am, I am sorry but, could you repeat the name one more time?"

"Sure, it's Barnhill, Summer Barnhill," Yvette checked her phone once again, where she saved the text message Summer sent her.

"Ah, yes, here it is. It's private room number 6. The keys are already taken by the guest, so you can go ahead there just turning right from here," the receptionist girl pointed her index towards a turn ahead, showing Yvette the way.

"Thank you," Yvette nodded her head slightly at the receptionist, proceeding to move ahead. She got to admit, the receptionist was well trained in the manner of her treating guests and the way of talking.

Searching the private room wasn't hard, as all of them were quite separated from the main dining hall, making absolutely sure of the privacy and noise going into it. Soon, Yvette was in front of the door which had a wooden name board on it, inscribed number '6'. She thought maybe knocking once would be the right thing to do, just to alert the person inside.

*knock* *knock*

"Come in," a deep voice said from the other side of the door.

"Oh, okay," Yvette was slightly taken aback by the voice, as it sounded really good to the ears. The deep voice came by like a stern, yet refined, like the low growl of black clouds just before the heavy drizzles of rain. There was a subtle politeness to it, detectable under the cover of seriousness if carefully observed. In one line, the voice was mesmerizing. She couldn't help but get awed by it.

"I hope Summer really doesn't regret it," Yvette kept thinking to herself, while pushing the door open to enter. But upon entering the room, she didn't expect even in her wildest dream, to see the person who was right now sitting in a corner of the large sofa, right leg folded over the left one, and arms crossed over the chest. Blue tailored suit perfectly enhanced his kingly aura, and the shiny black shoes on him were too bright to ignore. But out of all, it was the pair of ocean blue eyes which was unavoidable at any cost. And she has been seeing this pair of eyes so much these few days that she can even recognize them with her eyes closed.

But out of all people, why is he here? Why does he have to be here?