chapter 5

I sat in front of the bar and as usual, Terry, the bartender gave me a wink as he asked my drink. Since Red Diamonds was our favourite club to hang out, both me and Allie were quite familiar with Terry who just so happened to have his shift almost every time we come here.

Terry, although his real name was something else but apparently he didn't like it since he thought it wasn't as cool as his personality (his words, not mine), was in his early 20s, studying photography and in his sophomore year. He had blonde hair with green eyes and a friendly air around him that made you want to talk to him. However, there were some instances when he tried to get a little too friendly with his cool suggestive innuendos that made me want to whack him upside his head. But apart from that, Terry was a bubble of excitement that was contagious to anyone close by.

I smiled and ordered a soda while he raised an eyebrow. Then slowly, his eyes turned mischievous. A grin was about to form in his face, which, I'm sure was at the expense of whatever idiocy was about to sprout from his mouth but just as his gaze locked behind me, his half-grin became fully shut and mischief in his eyes turned into horror.

His transition happened so quickly that it was almost comical. I looked behind me and there I saw the reason for Terry's transition.

Mr. I-own-this-club-and-half-the-United-States stood there with his hands in his pocket and an eyebrow raised as if daring him to say whatever he was thinking earlier. I then followed his gaze and saw Terry flush with embarrassment in front of his boss and clear his throat awkwardly before turning around to prepare my drink.

I turned back to Terry and felt rather than saw the devil sit beside me. I sighed and looked over to Allie and Jake who were still dancing, but then I saw Allie say something to Jake and walk towards the back. Maybe she's going to the restroom.

"Seems like you're not as pleased to see me as I am to see you, Ms. White"

His deep voice near my ear made me snap out of the dancefloor and look at the speaker only to find his face right in front of mine. I was once again startled by his close proximity and tried my best to ignore it, along with the stupid something I felt with him at my personal space.

I leaned my right hand on the counter so as to discreetly create a little more space between us and looked at him.

"Well, I think it's a common sense that if a person books a whole club for a night for some special reason, like, for example her best friend's birthday, then it means that the said person would not be so pleased to see anyone not invited in the club, no matter if he owns it, don't you think so, Mr. Stone?" I asked him sweetly.

His eyes then started twinkling with amusement making them look like sparkling water, and the corner of his mouth tilted into a knowing smirk as he said, "Of course, Ms. White, I wouldn't find it very pleasant. But I'd like to think that I could make an exception for you as I'd always be pleased to see you. We are going to be business partners after all."

If I was feeling a different kind of flush by his second sentence, his third one immediately turned it into a flush of rage. I'd never seen such a big headed man in these 26 years of my life. It hadn't fully been a day since we last spoke and this egoistic brute automatically assumed I would accept it.

I was just about to make it clear to him when Terry came with my soda, which I had already forgotten about. I had a feeling he deliberately delayed my drink and the reason was at my left. I actually felt bad for Terry because I wouldn't want to be around such an intimidating person for long either, especially when he was your boss.

I smiled at Terry and murmured a small 'thank you' to him as Mr. Stone ordered a drink for himself. Looking at my glass, he made a face and said, "Ms. White, I didn't take you for a soda type of woman. How can you even drink it? Sodas are just awful!"

I wanted to laugh at his expression as he looked at my glass as if it was a glass of milk to a school boy. He actually looked adorable eyeing my drink with absolute horror and disgust but I then thought of his ego and all thoughts of adorablity went away.

I looked down at my drink. I was not a fan of soda either but I was to drive Allie and myself back later so I'd gone for non-alcoholic drink and it was the first thing that came to my mind. I just wanted to get away from the dancefloor earlier as he was standing so close to me that my brain was about to shut up. It would have looked awkward if I'd sat down at the bar without a drink.

I looked at my drink once again and resisting the urge to cringe and pinch my brain cells, I tried to manage my composure and said, "What do you mean by 'soda type of woman'? Do I have vodka or tequila written in my face? For God's sake, we just met today Mr. Stone! You know nothing about me! And, more importantly, you don't know that we're going to be business partners as I haven't yet made a decision seeing that our meeting was some hours ago, not days or weeks. So could you please refrain from being so certain about that until I make my decision? That is, if your ego can handle it."

His eyes, immediately hardened and his jaw clenched. "We'll see about that, Ms. White. But if it bothers you so, I'll just leave you to that." He said and turned his back to me, downing his drink Terry brought him in one go. He gave me one last nod, then stood up and walked away from the bar.

I watched his retreating back warily. I hadn't expected him to be angry at this. Maybe I bruised his ego? Well, it was about time someone did it because it was so big even a blue whale would seem tiny in comparison. I convinced myself that I was happy he finally left me alone and once again looked towards the dancefloor for Allie. But I couldn't see neither Allie nor Jake there.

I became instantly worried as Allie was not the girl to be away at the restroom for long. I got this strange feeling that something wrong was about to happen. I hurriedly got up and tried looking for Allie or Jake weaving through hundreds of people.

Pulling out my phone, I called Allie but it went straight through voicemail. Same was for Jake. I left a quick message to both of them and continued the search. I was feeling anxious with every passing second and prayed to God that both of them were alright. Especially Allie. She was upset that Mike had forgotten her birthday and I just hoped she hadn't done anything stupid.

I was just about to reach the girl's restroom when I saw Allie come out of one of the stalls with red puffy eyes and smudged makeup. She noticed me and quickly started to cry in my arms. I had never seen Allie this way so instantly became worried.

"Allie, what's wrong? What happened? Please talk to me, Allie." I begged her but she didn't stop crying. I was about to ask again when Jake came out behind her with an angry expression. His eyes were wild and I noticed his knuckles were bruised. There was a bruise starting to form in his jaw. What on earth had happened here?

Then things became clear to me as the third person came out with a bleeding nose and bluish eye followed by a dishevelled brunette. I became livid on seeing the last person I'd expected to be here and all the missing pieces fit into a piece.

"You bloody son of a bitch! How dare you?!" I immediately let go of Allie and marched towards him, landing a solid punch to his left cheek. My hand hurt like hell at the contact but I refused to let it show and was about deliver one more to the vile creature when two strong arms held me back.

"Let it go, Eves. He's already got it. He's not worth it. You need to think about your reputation and Allie's. It'll only get worse if things go out of control. I'll handle it. Allie needs you right now, okay?" Jake said softly although there was a dangerous undertone to his voice, no doubt directed to his brother.

His voice and arms pulled me away from ripping out Mike's body parts and I pulled away, but not without kicking him where sun doesn't shine. Feeling satisfied with Mike's painful grunt, I turned to Allie and found her crying at the scene before us with her hands on her mouth. I quickly hugged her and tried to comfort her, all the while cursing Mike to the pits of hell.

I heard a thud and saw the cheating scumbag passed out on the floor. Jake came to us and put his arms around Allie, softly rubbing her hands and saying soothing words in ear. He then turned to me and said, "Eves, you take her to your car and I'll meet you there after I quickly handle my douche of a brother. I'll see you both soon, okay?" I nodded and slowly led Allie towards the exit.

We were nearing the bar and thankfully everyone was enjoying themselves and no one had wondered about the host. Well, no one except one.

As soon we reached the bar, Adrian Stone came to us and his eyes showed relief but then he frowned as he saw Allie almost in the verge of passing out in my arms. Was he searching for me? I shook my head at the ridiculous thought and looked up to find him staring intently at me.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly. I gave him a small smile and nodded my head slowly. He looked at Allie once again and asked, "What about her? Is she drunk or something?" I wanted to remind him that it was none of his business but then thought against it as he was only being nice and I was feeling a little guilty from earlier.

"Yeah, something like that. We're about to leave actually. I'll just inform the manager and then we'll leave." I awkwardly searched for my phone but hissed in pain as I moved my right hand. Who knew punching someone could hurt like karma.

"What happened to your hand? Are you alright, Evelyn?" I looked up at Adrian Stone's concerned gaze. It was the first time he'd said my name and it gave goosebumps in my arms. I just nodded my head again and heard him sigh. "I'll inform the manager, don't worry about it. And I'll drop you both off."

Just then Jake came back and saw us just standing there. "Why are you guys still here?" He looked at Adrian who had suddenly gone tense and then at me confusingly.

I cleared my throat and looked at Jake. "Mr. Stone, this is our friend, Jake. Jake, this is Mr. Adrian Stone, CEO of The Stones Inc., and the club's owner. He offered to give us a lift and I was just saying it was of no need."

Jake looked at me as if I was about to commit a crime. "Why would you do that, Eves? Allie is passed out and although I'm sober by the events, I don't think I can drive at my state."

I had just opened my mouth when he held out his hand and exclaimed, "Don't even think that you can drive, Eves. That punch you delivered him sure was badass, but your hand is gonna hurt like a bitch, trust me."

Looking at Adrian, he talked to him as if I wasn't present there. "Mr. Stone, don't mind her. She has the tendency to be out of her wits. But I beg you, can you please drop us? You can just drop these two. I can find a cab but it wouldn't be safe for the women."

Adrian's body became somewhat relaxed and even amused as he said "There's no need. I'll drop you all. Let's go." Jake then carried Allie up and I followed them to the car. Jake and Allie sat at the backseat while I was left to the passenger seat beside him.

The whole ride was silent apart from the occasional small talks between Jake and Adrian where Jake filled him in with my 'oh so heroic' action while the devil sat there with his amusement growing accordingly. As we reached Allie's home, I decided to stay with Allie tonight and Jake carried her upstairs leaving me alone with Adrian.

I turned to him and found him already looking at me with an unreadable expression. "Thank you, Mr. Stone. And I'm sorry if I offended you earlier." I said honestly.

He gave me a small smile and said, "It's not a problem, Ms. White. I'm glad I could be of help. And you don't need to apologise. After hearing your recent events, I'm just grateful that all my body parts are intact."

I found myself blushing at his teasing and he added, "You'd better put something to your hand or else it'll get worse. Take care, Ms. White. I'll see you on Monday and I hope we'll be seeing each other more often." I smiled and nodded as I got out of the car. After thanking him again and wishing him a goodnight, I walked inside and soon I heard him drive off.

As I reached Allie's bedroom, I saw that Jake had already tucked her in and he looked at me sheepishly. "Um... she's fast asleep so I didn't want to wake her. I have removed her shoes so she'll feel more comfortable. I'll.. uh.. I'll just go now. I've called the cab and it's just around the corner. You guys take care and you put the ointment on your hand."

Jake looked embarrassed by everything and I had a suspicion that he might feel something for Allie. I wanted to interrogate him but now was not the time as it had already been a stressful night. So I just nodded and offered to do something to his own wounds. He declined it saying he'd handle it and with a quick kiss to my forehead, he went away.

I sighed and changed myself into Allie's clothes. I then took out a simple oversized t-shirt from her closet and changed her. After rummaging through her bathroom cabinet, I found an ointment and applied it on my hand. Finally I cleaned my makeup and got into bed with her, trying not to think about a certain someone with captivating blue eyes.