45 Roses

Talia looked at Arthur standing with a grim expression looming over Linda like a tall cedar tree and was stunned.

What is he doing here? And...

'Why is he so proud of tripping a woman?'

"You...You... Why? You poured the wine on me! "

Linda shrieked as she was steaming with anger and David walked in front of Talia to help Linda.

"Oh? Then, should I have let you pour it on... " Arthur pointed at Talia and her jaw dropped.

Wow! So Linda was going to pour that glass of wine on me? But, Fred wait... Don't say - My wife... Don't!

"This lovely lady here? " Arthur finished his sentence and Talia patted her chest in relief.

Arthur really wasn't impressed by her unwillingness to reveal his relationship with him but still he stood with a stoic expression with both his hands in his trouser pockets.

Linda was helped up by David and she was still fuming by the humiliation she has encountered. It's not enough her fiancé is meeting his ex-girlfriend in secret, now an unknown stranger is lending that woman a helping hand?

Is she that special? Why can't I compare to her? How am I any lesser than that woman?

"What are you doing here?" David asked Linda holding back his embarrassment. He was not impressed by Linda trying to make a scene in a public place. He looked around and felt relieved there aren't anyone else but them.

" You said you lost contact with her! Why am I seeing you having a date with her?" Linda raised her voice and Talia looked at the door to see Jordan standing there and it seemed like no one will be entering the restaurant for now. Even the employees were not in sight.

"It's not a date! I just wanted to invite her to our wedding..." David tried to reason with Linda in a low voice and Talia could see all the red flags of a cheater rising up around David.

She didn't interfere their conversation. It is not her problem!

She got up to Arthur and looked at him and he just shrugged.

" I happened to be here! "

" Yeah?" Talia pursed her lips and her eyes showed her doubts towards his words.

'This guy stalked me! I'll give him a piece of my mind after we get home.'

Arthur on the other hand, didn't plan along for all this. He was just browsing on the Internet since he was bored and he impulsively decided to go on a date with her. He looked for a helicopter ride that would tour the city and he thought of bringing her on a date. He booked a ride, reserved for dinner in a nice French Restaurant and knew she'd want to change before going out and so he decided to walk her home.

And he didn't feel right meeting her with nothing in his hand and walked to a florist shop on the way and since there were no blue roses, settled for the white ones.

He doesn't know anything about flowers. But... Those petals reminded him of her fair skin. And the florist said the meaning was 'Young love' and 'Eternal Loyalty'. He very much loved those white roses and so he bought a couple dozen of them.

But to his infuriation, he saw her talking with David and so he decide to leave. But in the end he couldn't throw the bouquet away and followed her.

And here he is... He didn't care what those two were talking about, but he was pretty happy to see that guy's depressed face. And then he saw this other woman with a malicious expression walking with the wine cup and he interfered.

Talia was in deep thoughts and didn't want to speak further in that place. All she wondered for now was how to get her purse still at the table she previously sat at and now she has to cross those arguing couple to get there.

As she was rubbing her head, she smelt something nice and opened her eyes to see a bouquet of white roses.

The man holding it had the loveliest smile and he is the man she loved all her life... The only man!

She felt like she was on the top of a mountain getting showered by a rain of petals while she was surrounded by clouds.

'That came out of nowhere! And this is the first time he's giving me something not blue!'

She couldn't hold back her smile as she looked at the bouquet, flabbergasted. This was such a sweet surprise that she never ever expected and she bit her lips and couldn't hold back her smile.

Arthur watched the pure, unadulterated excitement in her face and he remembered she was this excited when he gave that necklace too.

This woman gets excited for the oddest and simplest things!

"They are pretty!" she got it from his hands and her fingers grazed over his and Arthur's heart fluttered in excitement. He could watch this excited face of hers all his life.

These two were in their own world but the other man who was in an argument with his beau, didn't miss the moment of intimacy with those two as his eyes kept on wandering to that woman who was living in his mind rent free and she was not his fiancée.

His heart filled with darkness.

'She knows that man? And isn't he familiar? She never liked flowers. I got her rare blue roses after attaining it using all my connections for our first anniversary, spending a lot but she didn't even touch it. But she is this excited for some cheap white roses? Could it be... This is Freddy? No... Now I remember, he is Arthur Sinclair - CEO of Northern Star Enterprises and wasn't he the one I saw in her apartment lounge? Is he staying with her... And if he is the CEO... ? '

"Why are you looking at her? Look at me babe! Please... Have me in your eyes too... " Linda' s voice shook out of sorrow as she grabbed David's collar but got enraged seeing David still looking at Talia and not even answering her questions.

Then she turned to see Talia holding a bouquet of roses and the man who was a lot handsome than David looking at that Talia with his eyes filled with love. That's how she wanted David to look at her but he never does.

And all her disappointments turned to rage and she wanted to kill that woman.

"You slut!"

Linda screamed and extended her arm to grab Talia's hair but before Talia could sense what was going on she saw Arthur's hand pulling her into his embrace.

She didn't know what happened and all she could hear was the rhythmic heartbeat of Arthur and suddenly an ear piercing scream filled the restaurant and Talia got out of Arthur's hold to see Linda on the floor holding her arm.

"What did you do?" David tried to throw a punch at Arthur and Arthur skillfully dodged.

"I just dislocated her arm!" Arthur said coolly.

With his seven foot stature and his toned body wearing customised suit, he lived up to his name as The King.

David watched the man in front of him and erupted in anger. Not only he stole Talia, he hurt Linda too. And he couldn't even punch him properly.

He felt emasculated.

"Just because you are the CEO of Northern Star, you thought you could do anything? Wait till I file a report!" David threatened and Arthur just snorted not even considering him as a threat.

"Whatever!" he said in a provoking voice.

This is the man whom his wife stayed with for a year. If this was Esteria, he'd have buried him six feet under and there'd be grass growing above his unmarked grave by now.

If not for the excited smile Iris gave him receiving the bouquet, he wouldn't care for the laws in this country and would have killed this pest.

'What kind of man is he? And how dare this woman try to touch my Iris again and again?'

Arthur really wanted to tear David and Linda apart.

"CEO of Northern Star?" Linda forgot the pain in her shoulder for a moment. She was still on the floor and David still wasn't looking at her.

'How did this lowly woman who studied with scholarship and an orphan with no family could get a man this high up the ladder?'

Talia looked at Arthur, looking like a big mountain and his face looked dark like it was covered with dark thunder clouds with clapping thunders rolling in his face. She had never seen him this angered before. He looked like angered Zeus.

David seemed like he was willing to fight too.

Talia could feel the escalating tensions and her head hurt. She knew somehow she is the reason for the fight and she wanted to disperse these two men filled with testosterone willing to fight any moment.

She knew Arthur, as the son of the President of Esteria has Diplomatic immunity and won't be incarcerated by this country's law even if he killed David, but she didn't want him to have blood on his hands.

"Arthur! Leave!" she stood in between those two men and tried to push Arthur out. She needed to diffuse the tension and calm David and Linda before they leave. They might not cause much damage, but with social media these days, they can create some ruckus against Arthur and it will in turn affect the company. She didn't want that.

Arthur was not pleased seeing Talia trying to send him away. It seemed like she was not going to leave with him. In his anger, he forgot who he is and what kind of PR disaster his actions would bring for his company if he tried something in foreign soil.

"Fred! Go home first!" Talia gritted her teeth seeing Arthur not even planning to move an inch.

"Fred? He is Fred? So were you cheating on me with him even when we were together?" David shouted from behind her and Talia who was already stressed, felt her anger rise.

I cheated? He dares to say that?

Before she could reply David, Arthur was the one shouted,

" She cheated on you? She is my... "

" Fred! "Talia shouted and her voice echoed in that empty restaurant and she kicked him hard on his leg with the tip of her boots at the same time as she shouted his name.

She saw Arthur looking devilish with his clenched jaw and she knew she kicked him hard and he should be hurting a lot now. But she saw his expression gradually softening as he looked at her as if he realised something.

"Go home. And carry this for me," she stuffed back the bouquet of roses back in his hands fearing he'd hit someone again and pushed him away.

"Hahaha.... This slut! She always had a man by her side! Did you see that David! She is no pure,innocent flower as you claimed. She is just an opportunist trying to climb the ladder!.."

Linda kept on talking and Arthur who turned to leave accepting Talia's words stopped for a moment and seeing Talia looking at him with pleading eyes, walked outside of the restaurant.

He felt really bad.