Chapter 4

Phoenix Sterling

We ended up picking a seafood boil restaurant for our lunch. We ordered to servings of mix seafood boil. I saw her rolling her sleeves up and then she even clipped her hair into a bun to prevent her long hair from going near her mouth.

I found her adorable by doing all of these.

When we first met, she gave this badass attitude and even mocked Julie for being a commoner. I judged her badly because of how rude she was when we first met months ago. Our second meeting, she was pretty cold and not friendly. But our third meeting was rather interesting. She showed me how professional she is, not to mention that she's pretty responsible for all my employees.

Now, she's acting all adorable and calm. Pretty different from our first encounter.

She put on the apron to prevent the sauce dripping on her dress. Not only that, she put on the plastic gloves completely ready to eat seafood boil.

"Why are you.. laughing?" She raised my eyebrows when I chuckled looking at her. I didn't even realize that I was laughing at how adorable she was.

"You're so ready to eat." I said and she looked down to her apron and she nodded.

"So.. can you reach your father today?" I asked curiously and she shook her head.

"I don't think he's running away from this case." She sighed and she looked blankly to the table. I raised my eyebrows seeing her reaction on that statement.

"Where did he go?"

"You don't want to know and please let's not talk about my father. If you need anything, just contact me." She said in a sad tone and I nodded. I don't want to be disrespectful to her decisions.

When I was about to ask her, the waiter came with out order. She poured the seafood on the table and her eyes widen. I can tell that she's excited for the food. She grabbed the potato first and ate it slowly since it was so hot.

"This is so good!" Her eyes widen after she took a bite. She was looking at me excited and she even squealed before taking a crawfish. I felt a loud thump on my heart seeing it and I couldn't help but looking at her most of the time.

"Eat up.. it's good." She said as she put a crawfish in front of me. I grabbed it and started peeling it. I took a bite and it was good. The seasoning was so good.

She started peeling some shrimp and eating it deliciously. I followed her pace and started to eat a lot even more. I saw her struggling to crack the king crab. She was trying so hard to use the scissors to crack the crab.

I took the scissor from her hand and the crab too. I cut it for her and thanked me while smiling sweetly at me. She ate it slowly and I couldn't stop being amuse by her.

"How's Finn?" She asked.

"He's doing good with Julie." I said and she rolled her eyes when she heard Julie's name.

"His taste in woman is annoying." She hissed as she kept peeling crawfish and shrimp without eating it.

"Julie is a nice girl, you shouldn't judge her that way." I said as I took a bite of the king crab.

"Don't tell me you like her too? This is not a disney movie where the commoner just gets the prince." She sighed as she looked at the pile of the pelled crawfish and shrimp. She ended up giving it to me instead of eating it.

"I don't like her but she's nice. She might not have all the money in the world like you but she's nice."

"Where did Finn find her? From the streets?" She snapped and I don't really like this side of her. She was judging people really hard.

"Julie is actually my employee." I said and her eyes widened. She was going to say something but she immediately closed her mouth. She ate the king crab again.

"I heard that you're one of the Illicit, is it true?" She asked and I shook my head. No one knows who the Illicit are, people know they exist but never know who's a part of it. We rather stay that way instead of going public.

"Who said that? I mean I wish.. I am." I said pretty much lying.

"I wonder if Finn is a part of it." Finn is absolutely not a part of it. Finn might be my friend but sometimes I don't like him for some reason. He just makes me mad sometimes.

"Honestly, I don't really like someone talking bad about someone so I rather not hear you talking bad about Julie and Finn." I said in a nice tone and she looked at me with an unreadable expression. She ended up keeping eating and peeling everything without stopping or eating.

"I hope we can settle all of this fast, I couldn't stand being in one place with you. We will end up hating and killing each other in the process if we keep meeting up like this."

"We have lawyers." I said simply responding to her rant about hating on me.

"I rather speak to you directly to get this settlement fast." She said in a cold tone. There you go again, she really can make people like her in a second and hate her right away.

"Hello Phoenix." I turned to see Adrian appearing out of nowhere. Some people gasped when they saw him but Lana didn't even react that much.

"Fancy seeing you here." I said sarcasticly.

"You got a friend?" Adrian smirked as he turned to Lana.

"Adrian, this is Lana Castroff. Ms. Castroff, this is my friend Adrian Nielsen." I introduced them both and Lana smiled to him.

"You want to join us?" Lana offered and I can't believe that she's being nice right away. Adrian nodded and sat beside me. He put the plastic gloves on and started eating the peeled crawfish and I can't believe that he can be this comfortable the second Lana offered him to join.

"I'm quite surprise to see a prince going around town." Lana said as he turned to Adrian smiling. I guess she can be sweet to other people except me.

"I was visiting my friend nearby and I saw Phoenix's car." He wanted to see Lana so bad that he stalked me.

"Nice to meet you, Your Highne-"

"Please, I don't like being formal. Just call me Adrian." Smooth Adrian.. smooth.