Chapter 9 Estate bargains
Blaine entered the five-star restaurant and when he got to the VIP section upstairs, he found Mavis sitting alone, looking extremely beautiful while fuming with anger. He had not planned on making her wait even one second for him but certain things weren’t on his side today.
She was putting on a purple gown and had her long, brown hair, curled into perfect waves. She had little makeup done, more emphasis was on her eyes, they had this dark, smoky look that made her anger appear even more fierce than she might’ve actually felt.
This was not how he intended to destroy a moment he was looking forward to. He never even expected her to apologize in the first place, let alone ask him out for lunch! So when she called, he had canceled a few of his appointments and lied about having to travel to LA just so he could meet her sooner. All that was bullshit since she was now sitting angrily, waiting for him.
” Hi,” he said when he finally sat down opposite her on the chair. She slowly turned to look at him and opened her mouth to say something but she suddenly stopped.
” Mavis, I’m so sorry –”
” – two hours. That’s how long I’ve been here.” Mavis said, folding her arms and glaring at him.
” I’m sorry, I didn’t want to waste your time but I found out that there was a meeting that I had to attend briefly. It was just for thirty minutes.”
” and it somehow took you two hours to get here. Isn’t it supposed to be a twenty minutes drive from your office to this place?” she asked, placing her hands on the table just long enough for him to see that she painted her nails, purple and black.
Mavis couldn’t believe him. He made her wait for over an hour but he couldn’t even properly apologize? She wasn’t going to let it slide so easily. She was about to judge him gruesomely when she saw his hand wrapped in Band-Aid, his mullet seems a bit rough and he seemed like he hit his forehead against something because he had a little bit of blood there.
” What happened to you?” she eventually asked.
” What?”
” You’ve got a Band-Aid on your hand but you don’t have one on your forehead so I can see that you’re bleeding, plus, your hair is never this messy. You look awful. What did you get into a fight after losing money due to a bad investment?” Mavis asked with a smile that looked to Blaine like she was pleased.
” No, Mavis, I had an accident on my way here.” He said with a straight face and Mavis’s smile slowly faded.
” For real?” She asked but he didn’t say another word. He just stared at her blankly.
” Sorry, I didn’t realize…”
” you never want to”
” Excuse me?” Mavis asked when she noticed how angry and provoked he sounded.
” You always like to make statements about me based on what you’ve already prepared in your head and believe so much to be true. Like, you were probably gonna say I’m the type that does this all the time.” Blaine said bluntly while she scoffed in disbelief.
” Am I lying? Didn’t you think of saying that?”
Mavis was going to defend herself but she had nothing to say that would defend her from him. ” Look, it’s not like that Okay. I’m sorry.”
” Fine.” He said. Mavis looked at him, wondering if he was serious and if he seriously wasn’t mad at her anymore.
” I’m sorry I made you wait an hour. I didn’t mean to.” Blaine apologized again, making her surprised at how easy it was for him to apologize.
” So, I guess we can just skip whatever fake discussions we would’ve ended up having and you could just tell me why you went out of your way to invite me to have lunch with you.”
” Madame, your order.” A man with a distinct french accent said as he brought a tray of food and placed it in front of her. Blaine stared at Mavis when the waiter opened the tray and he saw the biggest turkey he’s ever seen along with a lot of other very expensive dishes. Did Mavis think she could eat all of this?
” Oh, could you cut out a little piece of the turkey for me to eat? I would like the rest of it packaged so I could take it home to eat. He’ll pay.” She said simply and he finally understood. She did this to punish him for making her wait for two hours.
The man gave Mavis A judging look before he pretended to smile and do as he was told. When he left with the rest of the dishes to have them packaged, Blaine looked at Mavis but she seemed so unbothered.
” don’t look at me like that. I ordered those thinking I should punish you for leaving me here for so long, I didn’t know you had an accident. Maybe I would’ve ordered less.”
” Mavis, what if I didn’t show up?”
” Please… I knew you’d come eventually.” She scoffed with a hint of pride.
” Really? Why is that?”
” Just…because.”
” Hmmm”
They sat there silently, Blaine watched as she ate her turkey and wiped her mouth clean with a tissue before gulping down a glass of wine.
” That was awesome. Aren’t you ordering anything?” she asked but he shook his head and said, ” not hungry,”
” Oh, you must be on some kind of special diet to keep fit huh?”
” Not really, I’m a big eater,” Blaine responded dryly, waiting for her to say what she came here for. When he saw how she still tried to bring up lame discussions he grinned finally understanding why it was so hard for her to come out and say it already.
” What’s so funny?” she asked, angry that he was acting like a total jerk when all she wanted to know was if he was a vegetarian.
” Mavis. It’s okay if you suddenly want to sell the Estate, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” He said with a smirk so smug that she almost cried out of embarrassment.
Oh why is he so annoying – she wondered.
” I…umm. Well, I was trying to be a decent human being and try to get to know you better instead of just bringing up my needs.” She said and he laughed.
” Sure…that’s so decent.” He said, his smile slowly fading as he ran his hand through his dark, long hair and looked straight at her with eyes that suddenly made her shiver. Those eyes were just too bloody sexy, Mavis thought.
” Look. I need to sell the house.”
” Why?”
” Because I need to. I can’t go into details but that’s it. Are you still willing to buy the house? I mean, I checked the documents containing your previous agreement with my dad and I saw that you were willing to pay £500000 for it.” Mavis said, confidently.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.
Blaine raised a brow at her and both his brows furrowed in a frown, while he stroked his beard. ” £500000 huh? Well, that was the agreement I made with him but I don’t believe I have that kind of money to spare right now.”
” What?!” Mavis yelled in shock, but when she saw the look of disapproval in the eyes of people around, she laughed nervously and apologized.
” What do you mean that you can’t afford it?”
” I could then, but not now. I’ve been in a bit of a tight situation with my…wife.”
Mavis noticed how spiteful he was when he said ” wife” he must’ve been very hateful towards her. She wondered what the reason could be but also tried not to get distracted because that wasn’t her concern.
” What about your wife?” she asked anyway.
” I am filing for a divorce. You know what that means for me right?”
Mavis exhaled and clasped her hand over her face. Of course, she knows what that means, he would have to pay her a huge amount of money and that might leave him with almost half of his net worth if not more. She had found out last night that his wife was a popular media personality so… this won’t go well for them.
” I’m sorry about that…but, how much can you afford to pay now?” she asked, smiling apologetically for how insensitive she must’ve sounded.
” I don’t know, maybe…”
Mavis held her breath as she waited for what he would say.