6. ~ R I V E R ~

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I wanted to take my car and Xander made no objections so we filed into my black SUV and head out to pick the lawyer, Mr. Carlson from his home. 

It was almost ten-thirty when a very annoyed and exhausted Mr. Carlson filed in. 

"Well, why didn't you guys wait till one in the morning to call?" He asked drily as he got into the backseat of my car. 

"It was not like we had a choice, Carlson." Xander's tone was so cold that the lawyer instantly shut up and tried to look busy on his phone. 

I felt horrible for doing that to him on a Friday night but I had to. My baby was scared out of his wits and in a police station. 

I needed him out. 

We had three hours of ride to go.

"Do you want me to drive?" Xander asked out of nowhere fifteen minutes into the drive. We were just getting out of the traffic and into the highway.

"What?" I turned to look at him, my eyes feeling like even moving them to the side was the most difficult feat on the planet.

"You've had a long day. You look exhausted," Xander said, his eyes on the road ahead. "I know you're upset, and you need to be alert when we get to the station."

The man seemed like he was having a hard time being nice. 

I wanted to roll my eyes and tell him that I was fully capable of doing this on my own and did not need his help. 

But then I realized that I did, in fact, need his help today. So I went for a softer approach.

I shook my head, trying to focus on the road. "No, I'm fine. I can handle it."

But the truth was, I was more than just exhausted. I was drained. Between the office drama and now this, I could feel my energy seeping out of me like water through a sieve.

"For fuck's sake, woman, stop being so difficult." Xander's voice was a low growl, him losing his temper despite me knowing that he had been trying to be calm and composed. Old habits die hard.

But there was a hint of concern beneath the harshness. Or so I was under the illusion of. Maybe it was the exhaustion. "Let me drive." He said again.

I looked at him for a second before nodded. "Okay." And pulled over to the side of the road.

We switched places, me moving to the passenger seat and Xander sliding into the driver's seat. 

"Now get some shut eye." He ordered in his annoying domineering tone as he started to drive.

I grunted, even though I knew he was right. But I did not want to sleep. I didn't think I could. I was just too restless and worried. 

Xander was an only child, an orphan who grew up not knowing what it actually meant to be an orphan except for the lack of parents. 

His grandfather and late grandmother had made sure he was lacking for none. 

But I had something he didn't. A sibling. 

And that sibling was in trouble.

It was hard to just sit back and relax when that one person who constituted your world was in trouble.

"Sterling... I won't say this again." The warning in his tone did nothing but make me roll my eyes as I turned to my dumb boss who was going out of his way to help me.

I sighed.

He WAS going out of his way and his character to help me.

The least I could do was to not act so rude and ungrateful.

"What about you?" I asked him instead. "You had a busy day yourself." Fucking your girlfriend cum ex-girlfriend's sister in the private room of a restaurant. "What if you dozed off with both me and Mr. Carlson out?"

Xander's jaw clenched and unclenched, as if he was contemplating whether he wanted to talk about it or not. "I didn't have a busy day. I had all the time in the world to myself after lunch."

I raised a brow and he glanced over at me for a second and rolled his eyes, continuing, "I broke up with Trisha and went back to my apartment and slept." 

I gaped at him. 

Did he just say what I thought he had just said? 

"What the actual fuck, Mr. King?" I could not control myself. 

Mr. Carlson who was dozing off, stirred awake for a moment before going back to his restless slumber. 

"What?" He shrugged, trying to look like his stern self so that I wouldn't ask him any more questions, even though he knew that that particular antic of his had stopped working a few months into me being his PA. 

"We were going crazy with a freaking hook-up scandal in the restaurant and you are saying you went there to break up with Trisha?" I asked him, my voice hushed because I did not want to inconvenience Mr. Carlson more than I already had. 

"I didn't hook up with her in my own restaurant." Xander gave me a disgusted look, questioning me how I could ever think that he would stoop so low. Well, news flash, piece of shit, you were capable of anything in my mind! 

And yet, here he was, doing something that I had not deemed him capable of.

Maybe I should stop being such a bitch to him. 

Or maybe not. He was the one who brought out this side of me so he should be the one to first redeem himself before I changed my approach towards him. 

"Then why didn't you tell us?" I asked him. "There were spectators saying you both spent hours in there." 

"We left through the back door." He clarified, and I could hear it in his tone that he was not liking having to have this discussed. "Well, she left first." 

"So..." I started. 

"I proposed to her." 

My mouth snapped shut. 

Huh?

Was he that serious about her?

Xander looked at the rearview mirror and satisfied to see that Mr. Carlson seemed to be too out of it to listen in on our conversation, spoke up, "And no, I was not in love with her or anything. I-"

He seemed to think for a moment. 

"You what?" I asked, nudging him on. 

Xander shook his head. "This is stupid!" He banged on the steering wheel angrily and then took a deep breath to calm himself down. "This is so freaking stupid." His tone was much calmer now. 

"What is?" 

I think I have already admitted to the fact that I am a nosy person. So I hated being left in the dark. 

"Marry me." 

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