Chapter 7 Dinner with Andrew

Elaine blinked. The contact lens sat on her iris. The first thing she saw was the fuzzy white coat of the doctor as he walked away from her. Everything sharpened with an acute definition. The edge of the doctor's coat stood stark.

The sharp look of everything sent a sharp pain through her head but it receded as she kept starring. Everything still looked shaped. The way it did for the first three weeks after Dr. Roberts fitted her with new glasses.

"So, how do you feel?" The doctor's Indian accent caught her attention.

She turned to him, nodding. "I think this is the sharpest I've seen in quite some time."

"Yes." The doctor smiled. "I looked at your old glasses. The lens was very cheap. Poor quality."

Elaine shrugged. It was what she could afford. Besides, Dr. Roberts didn't make her wait a week for her glasses. She would breeze into his office and be out in an hour and a half with new glasses.

"Here is your contact lens case. It contains the using instructions. This card will get you your new glasses next week." The doctor passed the card to her and a small transparent box with two slots for the contact lens.

"Alright, thank you Dr. Chupra." She watched Mr Swernbach shake the doctor's hand.

Her eyes rose as he turned to her. She gasped. Andrew Swernbach's face was just as beautiful as he sounded, if not more.

"Shall we?" He held out his hand to her.

She shook her head, pinching the back of her palm to be sure that she was really here. That she wasn't dreaming that a prince was standing before her with his beautiful blonde hair, sea blue eyes and a sharp jaw. Like superman. She was right about the jaw.

"Don't you want to eat anymore?" He raised a brow.

"It's not that." Her voice was more of a whisper.

"Then what is it?"

"It's just. Has anyone told you how handsome you look?"

He smiled and Elaine felt something tug at her heart. She ignored the feeling. A face like his was meant to be on display at the Louvre Museum or somewhere where important classical works of art were displayed.

"Careful Miss Johnson, if I didn't know better I would think you were flirting with me."

"What? No. No." she shook her head, her ponytail hitting the sides of her face.

His lips curled higher and parted, revealing clear white teeth. There was no way his teeth were normal. He had to have done some work on them.

"Another Joke. So, will you do me the honour of escorting me to dinner?"

"As a potential business client?"

"Yes. No Jokes this time. Shall we?"

She took his hand. He could've asked her to crawl to the ends of the earth at that moment and she would.

* * *

Melvin stabbed the pasta. The food had gone too lukewarm for him to enjoy it. Even if he wasn't here for the meal, the loss of good food annoyed him to no end.

It was very unlike Andrew to show up late.

He rubbed the back of the fork on the spaghetti and took another sip from the glass on his right. Gwen was yet to tell him which move to take. Was he to find a wife or adopt a child? Maybe a surrogate mother.

Someone cleared their throat.

Melvin stared up with narrowed eyes. He would know that throat clearing even in his sleep. "Why are you late?"

"Your timing was inconvenient and inconsiderate. You didn't expect me to drop what I was doing and fly to your request, right?"

Melvin's dark brows narrowed and his mouth twisted in a bitter rage. "But you had no problem dropping Charleston in my hands?"

"That was your problem. I said I had an emergency." Andrew turned to his left and grabbed a chair from another table. He set the chair at Melvin's round table. "Miss Johnson. Take a seat."

"What is that?" Melvin's eyes lit on the woman behind his brother.

Her fiery orange hair was packed in a simple high pony tail. She wore a dead black shirt tucked into a pink skirt that looked like a ballerina's tutu. Her boots looked like something out of an old western movie. It barely complimented her jacket.

"Why is it here?"

"Melvin?" Andrew's eyes flashed with fury.

Melvin smiled. He had broken through his brother's cold exterior. There were few things that seemed to upset the golden child of the family. "Alright, who is she? I don't remember extending an invitation to her."

"If this is not a good time, I can leave and we can reschedule the --"

"Stay. I should at least listen to your proposal properly."

"But your--" Melvin watched the woman's eyes slid to him and back to Andrew. "--your brother is here."

He saw the way she looked at his brother. It was the same starstruck look that every other woman had when they came in contact with that monster and each time, Andrew managed to make them believe he was a saint. To share the name of a Saint was one thing. To live like a saint-- Melvin stabbed the Pasta again --was another.

"It is about the company so I think it is fair that he hears what you have to say," Andrew said.

"I didn't call you here to talk about the company."

Andrew pulled out the chair from under the table and the woman sat on it. She stared at both of them again before placing her bag on the table.

Melvin eyed her like the maggot she was. "Have you no sense of respect? Get that filthy thing off the table."

"Oh sorry."

He thought she might make a dash for the door but frowned when she grabbed her bag and placed it on her laps.

"Who spat in your juice this morning?" Andrew turned to him, arms folded.

"What I would like to talk about is sensitive and I will appreciate it if your--" Melvin gave her a once over. What was the relationship between his brother and this girl? This woman on wasn't even Andrew's type. "Whatever she is, finds another table until we are through."

"I promised her a dinner and an interview. I'll have to honour that."

"Honour? Rubbish." Melvin eyes darkened.

He thought he saw the woman quake in her seat and a dark joy seized his soul. "If she does not leave, I'll leave."

"Fine then." Andrew turned to the woman like he wasn't sitting opposite him.

How dare he? Melvin rose about the same time that the woman pushed her chair backwards. The chair scraped the tile floor.

"Oh you elephant." He yelled.

A few eyes turned their way. He fell into his seat, clutching his chest. He was walking on a field of anger mines and this woman's attitude was a bomb. "Oh, my heart. You don't know what that sound does to my heart."

"I am not an elephant. I simply made a mistake."

Did this woman just speak to him? Did she not realize that he was putting on a full display of a patient in pain?

"My chest." Melvin shut his eyes.

The woman looked scared. "Is he okay?"

Melvin cranked open a sliver of his eyes and watched the woman hold Andrew's forearm. His brother remained unmoved, unspeaking. Melvin stood on his feet, his face red with anger. "That is it. Since you have decided to be unreasonable, goodbye."