Evelyn turned to see Phoenix smiling at her.
"Phoenix!" She said hopping off her chair. Phoenix gave her tight hug before pulling back and glancing at the person next to her. When she saw who it was, her eyes widened.
"Jinhai, I didn't expect to see you here." Phoenix said.
"Phoenix," he greeted her.
"Evelyn asked me to come, hope you don't mind." Jinhai said. She shook her head in response.
"Shall we go?" Phoenix asked. Both Jinhai and Evelyn nodded as they went up they turned to grab their drinks before following Phoenix up the stairs.
"Jinhai, how are you?" Phoenix asked when they reached the top.
"I've been fine. How's business?" Jinhai replied.
"It's going well." She replied. They made their way to the end of the hall to a private room. Jinhai walked ahead to grab the door for them.
Inside the room it was finely lit. The chandelier casting a warm glow on the room. There was a dining table set for six near the doors. It had a red embroidered linen table cloth over it. On the other side was a lounging area. It had two long couches and a coffee table.
The room followed the restaurant's red and gold color theme. It was afterall, reflecting the magestic phoenix. The trio took a seat at the dining table.
Jinhai sat across from Evelyn and Phoenix took the seat to her right. Evelyn took a long sip from her Long Island Iced Tea. She was able to taste the various alcohols as well as the sweetness from the soda.
Being a socialite, Evelyn's tolerance was actually very high. It was very rare that she ever got drunk but when she did she always regretted it the next day. At the moment though, she didn't care. She welcomed the idea of not feeling if just for tonight.
She's lost so much in the past two weeks, all she wanted to do was not feel that lost tonight. It was exhausting to hold all of her emotions inside. It was overly taxing to pretend she was fine when all she wanted to do was stay in bed all day and cry. She put up a very good act, fooling even her family. The only person that was always able to see through her was Jinhai.
"What do you want to eat today?" Phoenix asked holding out a menu to her and Jinhai. He took it from her but didn't flip through it. He instead was watching Evelyn.
"I'm not very hungry," Evelyn said, drinking more.
"You either eat, or that's the only drink you're getting tonight." Phoenix threatened, pointing at Evelyn's glass.
"Hey, you said I could drink to my hearts content tonight." Evelyn said looking at her friend.
"No, I said I could supply drinks. I never said I'd let you do it on an empty stomach." Phoenix challenged. Evelyn glared at her. Didn't she understand that all she wanted to do was get gloriously and mindnumbingly drunk?
"I'll go somewhere else," Evelyn said.
"I support you drinking to your hearts content, but I will not allow you to completely neglect your health." Phoenix said. They glared at each other, neither of them was willing to back down. The tension was so thick that you could cut the air with a knife.
Jinhai chose to remain neutral. He sat back and crossed his arms enjoying the battle of wills before him. The silence was finally broken with a loud stomach growl.
Phoenix lowered her eyes to her friend's stomach, where the sound came from. Evelyn looked down trying to conceal her sudden blush at her traitorous stomach.
"Fine," Evelyn said grabbing her menu from the table, stonily ignoring Phoenix's smirk. She quickly flipped through it settling on the last page. She shot up straighter in her chair. What she saw had piqued her appetite.
"Since when did you do hotpot?" Evelyn asked. Phoenix laughed, she had a feeling that that would grab her friend's attention.
"It's this month's promotion. I'm considering making it part of the menu permanently." Phoenix said.
"Are you interested?" Phoenix asked. Evelyn nodded taking another sip of her drink. She felt parched.
"Thirsty?" Jinhai asked, finally breaking his silence.
"Hm? Oh yeah, a little bit." Evelyn said pulling the straw from her mouth.
"Did you drink water today?" He asked her. She thought about it for a second. She had coffee that morning, the juice at the hotel, and now the Long Island Iced Tea. She had also been crying all day. Realizing that her body was actually dehydrated she shook her head. He gave her a look like he wanted to reprimand her before he addressed Phoenix.
"Phoenix?" He looked over at her as he said her name.
"On it," she said as she hopped off the chair heading toward the door.
"The usual for hotpot then?" Phoenix said as she turned back to them.
"Yes, actually you don't like spicy." Evelyn said looking at Jinhai.
"I do, I'll have whatever you guys do." He answered. Phoenix nodded before heading outside to give the order. When she left, Jinhai blew out a breath through his nose.
"Why didn't you stay hydrated?" He asked her. He tried very hard not to make it sound like he was lecturing her.
"It slipped my mind." She replied quietly, taking another sip of her drink.
"Give me that," he said, grabbing her drink from her.
"Hey! Give that back!" She said reaching over the table for it but he held it far from her.
"Jinhai!" She raised her voice.
"Evelyn," he said, unimpressed with her tone.
"The ice cubes in the drink give me water." She said. He scoffed but didn't give it back to her.
"You can have it back when you have some water." He said. She huffed but then glanced down and noticed his whiskey on the table. The glass had droplets of water on it from the condensation. But there was a layer of water on top from the melting ice cube.
Before he could realize what she was doing she grabbed his drink and tilted it back downing the shot completely.
"Are you serious?" He asked. His eyes conveying his suppressed anger. She beamed at him.
"Brat," he said. She looked indignantly at him.
"I'm not a-" she didnt finish, realizing she did sound a little bratty. She instead pressed her lips into a thin line.
"You're pouting." He said looking amused by her reaction. She crossed her arms and ignored him. After a short while, she turned back to him.
"You said you'd do anything to make it up to me," she said, knowing that it was a low blow.
"You said all I had to do was take care of you tonight." He said. 'Shit, I did say that.' She thought. She glared at him. She never was able to win a battle of wits against him.
"Then what? Are you going to leave me again?" She looked at him, schooling her features. She never was able to fool him, but he had not seen her in years. Did he still know her like the back of his hand?
He was silent as he studied her.
"No, Evelyn, I'm not going to leave you again." He said to her. She looked at him in disbelief. At this particular moment she didn't believe him. Maybe it was because he had left her five years ago or maybe the pain of this morning was still so fresh. But she didn't believe him, even though she wanted to.
"How am I supposed to believe that?" Evelyn asked him.
"Because I promise you." He said to her. She met his eyes.
"You've broken that promise before." She said. His eyebrows scrunched up.
"When I was fourteen, you made me that promise. Then five years ago, you broke it." She felt her eyes begin to prick with tears. He licked his lips, the way he always did when he knew he was trapped.
He slowly set the drink back on the table.
"You don't trust me anymore?" He asked instead of answering her question.
"I don't know." She answered. For a second she thought she saw a pained expression on his face. But he quickly masked it. He gently pushed the drink in her direction with his fingertips.
"I thought I had to have water first." She said slowly reaching for her drink.
"I will earn your trust back. Whatever it takes." He murmured.