The atmosphere inside the private room of the restaurant could not be described as either good or bad but one thing was for sure, there were different emotions inside that room right now but the dominating one was of that curiosity. Both the eyes of a grown-up man and a child were looking at Amber without restraint.
"You are my brother's lover!" Xander could not forget his sister's exclamation when she saw Amber who came with him to get her from the school. It took Xander by surprise that he immediately covered her sister's mouth and mouthed the word 'sorry' to Amber who was only smiling on the side. It further surprised him when Amber crouched down to Xerra's level and patted her head.
"Yes, I am. It's nice to see you again." She answered without any reservation. "I'm glad that you still remember me."
Xerra pried her brother's hand and approached Amber without hesitation, "That's because you were pretty and you were taking care of my brother!" She even took the initiative to hold Amber's hand while she was smiling at her.
Xander could not forget that interaction while looking at the people who were with him for a dinner. Carl was looking at Amber with bright and somewhat shining eyes which he could not understand. Xerra was also mimicking Carl's look that Xander could not bear to look at them anymore.
"Will you please stop looking at her like that? Are you not embarrassed of what you are doing?" he had closed his eyes to avoid looking at how childish they were acting. He was only holding back from pulling them out of the room to talk to them outside.
"Why? I'm just curious so there is nothing wrong with how I am looking at her," Carl leaned on his seat with his arms crossed on his chest. He raised an eyebrow at him then gave him a smirk. "I thought she was only joking when she said that she was your lover when we first met but it turns out that she was not wrong. I did not think that when you were out there you would find yourself a pretty girlfriend."
Xander sighed, "Please stop it and besides she's not my lover, yet." He shook his head and looked at them in earnest. He did not want to create a misunderstanding between them since Amber was yet to become his lover. He had not even courted her or professed his love for her and even though they were mates, he wanted to take it slow since he was new to this kind of relationship and the person, he likes was not an ordinary one.
"Not yet but sooner or later you'll eventually fall for me," Amber softly laughed then gave her man a wink. Xander averted his gaze as he could feel his face heating up. Amber was not this provocative before and he did not know why she became like this all of a sudden. Was it because of what had happened earlier that day? He did not know and he did not have the courage to ask.
A whistle sounded inside the room after those words were spoken. Xander looked at his friend with a glare but Carl pretended not to see it. A knock broke the awkward silence between them. Xander was finally able to breath easily because of the welcome distraction.
The host of the dinner was thankful that the topic of him and Amber were not raised during the dinner. They only talked about anything that came to mind and some questions that were asked by Carl. He would scowl from time to time when Carl's question would go overboard while Amber would only smile and would not give him any answer. Apart from that all of them enjoyed the dinner.
After they left the restaurant, Carl took it upon himself to volunteer and send Xerra home. Amber even laughed when he heard what Carl was saying while they were walking away. He was mumbling about leaving them alone to cultivate their relationship.
"Why are you laughing?" Xander had a scowl on his face while looking at the woman who seemed to be having a good time by herself.
She looked up at the man and laughed once again while shaking her head, "You have a funny and loyal friend. I like him." Her grin widened but Xander remained confused.
With no other things to do, Xander walked with her since she did not want to take a ride. "Thank you for the dinner, Xander. I'll be staying here in Cartnan for a few more days and I'll be visiting you whenever I have time."
Xander nodded, "I'll inform my secretary so that you can enter the company without any problems."
She hummed in response and they fell in a comfortable silence. Both of them enjoyed the warm air of the night even though no one was talking. Amber remembered the times that she would go with Xander during his early morning jog, both of them would remain silent but there was no tension between and she was happy with it. She truly enjoyed every moment together with her mate.
While waiting for Mayor Mykel's information, Amber took the time to explore Cartnan and visited Xander at the same time. She was spending her time as efficiently as she can while she was having a bit of leisure time. That day she decided to visit Xander again to bring him food she cooked herself.
She had just stepped inside the company when she could already feel the intense gazes aimed at her but she did not really mind them instead she walked inside with confident strides. No one stopped her and one of the guards even ushered her to the executive elevator that will directly lead her to the CEO's floor.
Stepping out of the elevator, she could already here the high-pitched voice of the woman who was clinging to Xander the other day. The smile on her face disappeared at the woman's intruding presence so without any qualms, she got near the woman who was making a fuss.
"What a surprise to see you here again. You really do like to create trouble in here and seemed to lack respect for all the people who are working here." Her voice broke the tension between the guards and the woman who was trying to force her way to Xander's office.
The guards stood in attention while Thalia turned around to scold the person who dared to talk to her in a rude manner. "It's you!" she flared after seeing who it was.
"Yes, it's me. Do you have a problem with that?" her voice returned to the ones she usually used to deal with people she disliked, just maybe it was just her usual tone when she was not speaking with Xander.
"Yes, I'm currently annoyed with you because ever since you came, I was not allowed to even see Xander." She was angry because of the appearance of this woman. She would not back down and would make sure that this woman will not be able to appear in front of Xander once again. "I'll make sure that you won't be able to appear again in front of Xander. You don't have any idea how powerful my father is and no matter who you are, you won't be able to do anything."
"Be my guest." Amber was not one to be threatened easily, she would welcome any challenge and a provocation as shallow as this woman's threats will not work on her. "In return I will make sure that you won't be able to rise up from the mud where I'll be placing you."
Thalia sneered, "You won't be able to do that because I'll beat you to it." She did not like the woman's confidence so she made up her mind to thoroughly show her the influence her father has in this city.
"Miss Javier, please leave. The CEO has a meeting and we don't want any disturbances in here that might affect their discussion." Lillian, Xander's secretary, advised while gesturing for the guards to escort her.
"Wait! Why am I the only one being driven out, shouldn't you let this woman leave too?" she asked in confusion.
"The boss had instructed me to give her a pass meaning she could enter this place without hindrance, I'm only obeying what my employer has instructed me." Lillian did not even bat an eye while saying those words as she remained cold towards Thalia who was not looking at her with wide eyes.
"Lie! How could Xander give this woman a pass and not me when clearly, I knew him longer and I am his friend!" She marched towards the secretary and pointed a finger at her. "I will let Xander know what you did today. Let's see if he won't fire you. What a useless secretary!"
Amber frowned at this woman's disrespectful way of talking, "Enough!" she stepped forward towards Thalia and gave the woman a death stare. "How uncultured, as I can see you grew up in an educated family and yet you look like you were raised by barbarians. Is that how they taught you to treat other people? If you won't leave right now, I'll personally drag you out of here."
"You! How could you speak to me like that!" she placed a finger at Amber's chest while glaring at her. "You are the one who is uncultured! Suddenly appearing here like you owned this place when in fact you are nothing to Xander. And look at you, so ugly and so cheap."
Amber just let her talk and when she was about to speak, they heard a cold voice from behind. There was also a hint of anger mixed with his deep voice, "Thalia, you've gone too far and to talk to them like that, are you not embarrassed of how you are acting right now? If your father knew what you've done here today, I'm sure that he will not tolerate it so please leave before I call your father. This is the exact reason why I did not allow you to come here. Aside from being disrespectful to my employees you have been disturbing their work which I won't tolerate but I'll let this pass for the sake of our acquaintances."
Thalia was rendered speechless after hearing those merciless words coming out from Xander. She was not yet able to recover when she heard him speak again.
"If this is your way of telling other that we are friends then next time, don't bother coming here because I won't be welcoming you anymore."