11 - Celine and Max

‘Why do I feel like it’s my first date?’ Max felt so nervous he was sweating. This was not a feeling he was familiar with. He always had the confidence to face any task or person, but there was something about Celine that threw him off his game. It felt like this was one date he could not mess up because his life depended on it.

‘So how is your sister? Is she feeling any better?’ She asked when someone tapped her shoulder.

‘Celine, I saw you from the street. Why are you having lunch here? Does your lunch date know who you are? That you don’t eat at places like these?’

‘At least if I was your lunch date, I would never have brought you here. It’s so dingy, and things look cheap.’ He swipes his finger on the table, coming up with nothing, but pretending there was dust on it, to show his disgust.

Celine rolls her eyes. ‘Dante, nobody asked for your opinion. And this is my lunch date, not yours. You can leave.’

Dante is the son of one of the prominent families in San Diego. Plastered on all the billboards around the city was his mom’s face. She was selling prime real estate while his dad did construction, building the mega subdivisions. Gated communities with mansions built on hillsides and prime pieces of land. And even though it was his parents’ hard work that brought them riches and fame, he never failed to ride on their coattails. Brandishing his wealth whenever he can. He has yet to finish his schooling, but he always acts as if he is above everyone else. 

Max chose the restaurant for the food, not because he thought it was expensive or because he wanted to impress Celine. It was an impromptu lunch date, and he just chose whatever was nearest, so they could go out and get to know each other, away from his siblings. Impressing her would come later. This is just the initial date to make Celine want to see him more. His plan was to charm her and make her laugh, but everything seemed to blow up in his face. He did not expect someone else to interrupt them today. But he should have taken heed of that ominous feeling he had earlier. 

‘You are interrupting our time together. I suggest you leave,’ Max threatened in a clipped, curt manner. He stood up to show Dante that he could take him out, but he had to appear peaceful. He was trying to be blunt without being overly offensive. 

Dante tried not to act too surprised when he saw how tall Celine’s lunch date was. He towered a full foot above him. He needed to look up. When he looked down at his full length, Dante noticed he was wearing the latest Armani suit, and envy bloomed in his chest. It was the same exact suit he wanted for himself but had to wait for because the shop had to alter it. Taking in some length and letting out a few areas. He was pudgy and had been trying to lose weight around his middle, but it seemed that the nightly carousing and binge drinking did not help. He noted that on this man. The suit looked very well-tailored. It made him wonder if they’d be competing against each other for Celine’s affections.

‘Who are you? And why do you think you can speak to me that way? Tell your friend who I am, Celine, before I get mad.’ Dante slowly raised his voice.

‘Dante, you’re interrupting my lunch break. Can we talk some other time?’

‘You’re really asking me to leave?’ He was flabbergasted. Nobody has asked him to leave before. Women fawned at him and threw themselves at his feet. And yet this infuriating woman is asking him to leave. If he didn’t want Celine so much, he won’t do what she says.

‘Yes, thank you!’ It left a sour taste in her mouth to encounter Dante while she was out with Max. Just when she thought she had other prospects, he comes and ruins it for her. Just because they met first, he thought he had ownership of her. 

It was one reason she was excited to meet someone new, someone, who would not judge her for who people knew her to be. Instead, for who she really was and not just because of her family name, Jacobs. But as Celine.

‘You are impossible. If I didn’t like you so much, I wouldn’t be here.’

‘But I didn’t ask you to be here, did I? I need to get back to work soon, so can you leave so I can continue with my lunch?’

‘What is your name? You’ll regret coming across my path.’

‘I’m Max Johnson, and you’ll regret saying that. Maybe it’s high time you honored the lady’s request and scheduled an appointment with her for later. We are having lunch right now, and we don’t want to get indigestion.’ And just in time, the food they ordered had arrived, which prompted Dante to move out of the way. 

Max and Celine both ignored Dante like he did not exist, and it angered him.

‘So how does your chicken taste?’ Max asks as he pretends to take a tasty bite of the steak sandwich he ordered. Right now, it tasted like cardboard. 

‘It tastes very good. The pesto sauce they added to this chicken is the best I’ve ever had. You should try it.’ She reaches over to invite him to take a bite of her sandwich.

Dante was seething as he watched the couple eat their lunch. ‘This is not the end of this,’ he murmured as he huffed and walked out of the cafe, embarrassed.

 ‘I’m really sorry about that,’ Celine apologizes the minute Dante was out of earshot. ‘He thinks I should be his girlfriend just because he talked to me when I first moved back to the city.’

‘Did he say he wants you to be his girlfriend?’ Max asks.

‘He has expressed it in so many ways. Even going to the lengths of talking to my parents about it. But I don’t want him.’

‘Did you tell him?’

‘Yes, I do, all the time. Sometimes to the point of being rude.’ 

‘You know what, I think we should schedule another lunch when both of us really want to eat. He ruined my appetite, and I’m sorry if he ruined yours as well.’ She signaled the server to bring her a box.

Lunch was a disaster, and he didn’t even need to do anything to ruin it. And for once in Max’s life, he wanted to know more about Celine, which meant he wanted to see her again and go on another date. And this will definitely mean he has to break his cardinal rule of never dating a woman more than once if he wanted to bed her on the second date.