Chapter 5: She Has a Boyfriend

At that same hour, two men sat in a private dining room on the second floor.

Ethan James crossed his legs, glancing at the half-empty bottle of red wine in front of the man across from him, and raised an eyebrow.

"Nate, you've gone through half a bottle and haven't touched a single dish. Word gets out, people are going to think my restaurant's food is garbage."

Nathaniel didn't rise to the bait.

He loosened his tie, fingers curled loosely around the wine glass, swirling it before taking another slow sip.

"Something on your mind?"

He was, in fact, deeply preoccupied.

That night still haunted him a nightmare he couldn't shake. A week had passed, and she hadn't reached out. It sat in his chest like a bomb waiting to go off. He was terrified Claire would find out.

Does she think I'm disgusting? Some kind of degenerate?

A knock interrupted them the restaurant manager, looking for Ethan.

Getting nothing but silence from Nathaniel, Ethan shook his head and stepped out to deal with it.

On his way back, leaning over the stair railing to glance down at the first floor, a familiar face caught his eye.

He returned to the private room grinning. "Hey your Miss Bennett's downstairs too."

Nathaniel's head snapped up, eyes suddenly sharp. "Where?"

"First floor. Looks like she's out with some friends."

Nathaniel set his glass down and walked out without another word.

"Hey go home, man. Employees get a life outside work, don't go crashing their dinner," Ethan called after him, trailing behind.

Downstairs "Claire, your nose thing's coming loose," Derek said, squinting at her.

"Where?" Claire pulled her glasses off, feeling along the bridge of her nose.

"Here." Derek pulled his chair closer and pinched gently at the spot, smoothing it back into place.

"We got a new batch of material in, it's more breathable. I'll make you a fresh one soon."

"Sounds good." Claire tilted her head, eyes half-closed, letting him work.

From the second floor, the scene read entirely differently.

Nathaniel couldn't hear a word of it.

His hands closed around the railing, veins standing out, knuckles bleaching white.

"Is that Miss Bennett's boyfriend?" Ethan asked, oblivious, nudging Nathaniel's rigid arm. "Look how close they are definitely together. Take the hint, man."

Boyfriend.

The word landed like a blow straight to the skull.

Since when does she have a boyfriend?

Of course she does. She's wonderful. Why wouldn't someone want her.

He turned on his heel, radiating something between defeat and fury, and stalked back into the private room.

He seized the half-empty wine bottle off the table and drank straight from it.

Red wine ran down his chin, staining the collar of his shirt, leaving him looking wrecked.

"Whoa hey!" Ethan lunged for the bottle. "What is wrong with you?"

Nathaniel's grip tightened around it, eyes bloodshot.

"Back off."

Ethan froze like he'd just stumbled onto something enormous.

"No way. No way. You like Miss Bennett?"

Nathaniel dropped the bottle on the table with a bitter laugh. "So what if I do."

Ethan stood there, stunned into total silence for a solid thirty seconds, like he'd been struck by lightning.

His jaw hung open, face twisted like he'd swallowed something he couldn't decide whether to spit out.

"No Nate, you"

He actually reached over and pressed a hand to Nathaniel's forehead, checking for fever.

"Claire Bennett? The one you'd walk past in a crowd and not even notice?"

Ethan looked personally betrayed.

Nathaniel Cross had turned down more stunning women than most men saw in a lifetime. With one snap of his fingers, he could've had a line of them stretching around the block.

And now, apparently, he was hung up on

Well. From what Ethan remembered, Claire Bennett was about as plain as they came.

Drowning his sorrows over her? Acting like his heart had been broken?

"What did she do save your life? Put a spell on you?" Ethan demanded, completely lost.

Nathaniel ignored him, sinking back into the couch, his usual sharp gaze gone hollow.

"You wouldn't get it." His voice came out rough. "She's... perfect. Every part of her."

"I genuinely do not get it."

Ethan finally shook off the shock, replaced almost instantly by pure disbelief.

"So," he said carefully, testing the waters, "the president of Cross Enterprises hundred-billion-dollar bachelor, most eligible man in the city is pining? Heartbroken? Over someone who doesn't even know it?"

Nathaniel turned his face away. Silence. Confirmation enough.

Ethan sighed. "If you like her, go tell her. What's with all this moping?"

Nathaniel lifted his eyes, dejected.

"She has a boyfriend."

Ethan scoffed and dropped into the seat beside him, launching into his pitch.

"Look at you young, successful, could pass for a drama lead. Sure, your temper's garbage, but everything else checks out. And best of all"

He paused for effect, voice dripping with mockery.

"you're still a virgin. That's a selling point."

At the word virgin, Nathaniel went rigid.

He rubbed at his temple, expression caught somewhere between annoyance and something harder to name.

"I... no," he muttered. "Not exactly."

"Oh?" Ethan's face scrunched up in mock offense. "Come on, we've been friends for years. I know everything about you. Being a virgin's a *plus*, don't be embarrassed."

Nathaniel exhaled hard through his teeth.

"Last week. Polaris set me up."

"Set you up how?" Ethan glanced over, then burst out laughing. "Nice try changing the subject we're talking about your virginity."

Nathaniel shot him a look, jaw clenched so tight it looked ready to crack.

"A woman got into my bed."

Ethan's mouth fell open. Had he heard that right?

Plenty of business partners had tried planting women in Nathaniel's orbit over the years. None had ever gotten anywhere close. Ethan had privately started wondering if something was medically wrong with the guy.

"Was she gorgeous?" Ethan guessed, grasping at straws. "Had to be, to crack the great Nathaniel Cross's defenses."

Nathaniel threw his arm over his eyes, throat working.

She was beautiful, yes.

But the face I actually saw afterward that was Claire.

Ethan clapped him on the shoulder, voice softening into something almost sincere.

"Alright, alright. Stop looking like a heartbroken virgin who just lost it. Nobody's impressed by inexperience these days you probably don't even know how to make a woman happy. Embarrassing, honestly."

Nathaniel shot him a cold, flat look.

That's not what you were saying thirty seconds ago.