Chapter 8

Celeste’s POV 

That evening, I made sure Merida had a table set for my dinner date. Xavier arrived thirty minutes early in a black Ferrari. I thought he looked really handsome in his dinner suit, but I wasn’t in a rush to tell him that.

Myself, I was dressed in a short silver gown that stopped right before my knees. A few jewelry hung over my neck and wrist. It had been quite a while since I went out with anyone, and I wasn’t sure how I looked.

But when Xavier walked into the place, his eyes scanned me from head to toe. Then a soft whistle escaped his mouth. “You look ravishing, Miss Laurent.”

“Thank you.” I replied, feeling a little nervous. “You don’t look bad yourself.

Xavier nodded. “Shall we then?”

“Yes. Follow me.”

I led him into the main hall, where the evening events werealready underway. Soft music played in the background, asconversations filled the air without disrupting decorum.

Some of the guests turned their heads when Xavier and I walked past them. I couldn’t blame them, he had the sort of presence that attracted attention without any effort.

We arrived at our reserved spot, a nice table near the windows, away from the busiest section of the restaurant. From here, we could talk without pulling too much attention to ourselves.

Once we were seated, Xavier picked up the menu and looked at it. “Do you still hate mushrooms?” he asked without raising his head.

I blinked. “You remember that?”

“I remember once, you threatened to leave the dinning table because your mother put mushrooms in the sauce.” He said with a laugh.

I smiled. “That was a long time ago. I still hate mushrooms though. They are just… disgusting.”

“You were really unbearable.”

“I was fifteen. I hated half the world at that time, not just mushrooms.” I said, scanning the menu myself. “But you hated the other half too, if I remember correctly.”

Xavier laughed a little loudly that a couple seated nearly glanced in our direction. But for the first time in a while, I didn’t care who was watching.

We made our order, and as we waited for it to arrive, a waiter poured red wine into our glasses. It was a bottle I hadspecifically chosen for the evening. Our conversation thenstarted, as we tried to catch up on the last ten year of our lives.

The topic went from old memories to the lives we had both built apart from each other. He told me about his business… how he had built it from scratch. While I gave him a safe version of my own story, leaving out important things I wasn’t yet ready to share.

Still, talking with Xavier felt surprisingly easy. I didn’t have to pretend in his presence, or measure each word that came out of my mouth so not to give away too much.

Even the occasional silence between us was not uncomfortableat all. It was just as if we had kicked off from when we last saw each other.

With the conversation moving towards a certain direction, Xavier suddenly threw me a question I wasn’t expecting at all.

“So what about your Sebastian Rowe?”

My hands paused over my plate for a second. “What about him?” I then questioned back.

Xavier studied my face carefully. “Well last I checked, you were married to him. Or aren’t you still together?”

For a moment, I couldn’t find an answer to give. Not because I still cared about Sebastian, but because hearing his name nowreminded me of everything I had worked hard to leave behind.

“No,” I finally answered. “We divorced six years ago.”

Xavier’s expression immediately changed. “You’re divorced?”

“Yes.”

“Wow.” He said with a sigh. “What happened?”

I took a sip of my drink before setting the glass down. “He wanted someone else.”

It was the simplest way to explain the six years of pain I had gone through. Xavier didn’t respond immediately. His eyes just stayed on mine for a while, and I wondered if he was searching for the girl he had left behind.

Most people would look at a divorced woman with eyes of pity, or treat her like she carried an invisible mark of vulnerability on her face. But Xavier didn’t look at me that way.

Instead, he leaned back on his chair and said with a silly grin, “So, you finally got rid of my competition.”

I stared at him, not knowing what to say to that. I recalled that back in the day, we had both started to develop feelings for each other beyond mere friendship.

Then things quickly changed as I was married off into the Rowefamily. And Xavier? He left Starling city shortly after that. Nowseeing each other again, I couldn’t keep the emotions I had suppressed for ten years from stirring again.

I broke the silence with a laugh. He didn’t say anything else and just stared at me. I tried to hold myself together, but his flirty gaze made it even worse.

I finally shook my head. “You haven’t changed at all.”

His smile broadened. “And neither have you, Celeste.”

For a moment, the restaurant noise seemed to fade out around us. Then I sort to change the topic. “Tell me something,” I said quietly. “Did you ever think of coming back?”

Xavier leaned forward, wiping his lips with a napkin. “Everysingle day.”

My chest tightened with curiosity. “Then why didn’t you?”

He looked down at his hands. “Because, I thought I had to first become someone worthy of returning.”

“You know you never had to prove anything to us right?” I chimed. “To me.”

“Yes. I know that.”

Neither of us spoke for a moment. Then he reached across the table and touched my hand softly. “But I’m here now, Celeste.”

I looked at him, and something warm formed in my chest. I couldn’t decide on the emotions I was going through that moment, but whatever it was, I let myself feel it.

I even taken Xavier’s hand in mine, squeezing softly and silently telling him that it was nice to see him again. 

We were still holding hands when someone unexpected walked into the restaurant. I didn’t look up immediately, too busy laughing with Xavier. Then I noticed the sudden change in the place.

I turned toward the entrance and my eyes met Merida, who wasstanding at the center of the hall, her eyes widened. The strange expression on her face made my smile disappear instantly.

Then she pointed with her eyes and I followed her gaze.Sebastian Rowe had just walked into Éclat, looking every inch the powerful businessman he was. His gaze then moved quicklyacross the room, and landed on me.

For a moment, he didn’t move from where he stood. Then his eyes shifted to Xavier, who was still holding my hands from across our table. He looked at our joined hands, then back at my face. That moment, Sebastian’s face hardened immediately.