"Tell me about you, Claire."
"I don't have much to say about myself," Claire answered before shrugging her shoulders.
"What do you want to know?" Claire asked.
"What is your biggest inspiration? What do you dream of?"
Cole slouched slightly forward, he probably knew those answers already but he wondered if the accident changed her dreams as well. He wondered if he was still the woman who had dreams bigger than hers and was so passionate about life that everyone and everything else became meaningless for her.
"My dreams…" she narrowed her eyes slightly confused.
"Nobody ever asked about my dreams. I have simple dreams. I want to be independent, to be free of concerns of fears. I want to be happy. I had never been fully happy. I mean, happiness is something which lasts so little. I want it forever, I want to have that every day. A job I love, a man who makes me happy, and a family. I want to travel and I want to help people, homeless ones, poor ones, or the ones living in bad environmental conditions.
I want to make my life worth living, I want to make it significant."
Cole smiled highly, his eyes shined in pride and he nodded.
She was still the same woman he met, two years ago during a hot summer.
"Wow, Claire. This is great. I hope you will get that. You deserve it."
"What about you? What do you dream of?" Claire asked, returning the smile. She took a few sips from the wine as they waited for the food to be brought to the table.
"My biggest dream.." he looked at her for some instant, his lips snapped before he cleared his voice.
He rested his elbows on the table and his gaze fell on her lips.
"My biggest dream is to be with the love of my life. To marry her. To be loved by her again." He said it all in a breath, almost as if confessing it quickly was less painful than letting it unsaid.
"A wealthy successful man who had everything in his life, dreams about a woman? Is this what billionaires desire because they can't wish for material things?" Claire joked but Cole didn't seem willing to answer her with the same approach.
He shook his head and his hand now wrapped around the glass of wine.
He answered while he lifted the glass, "careful. I don't wish to have her love again because I don't have anything else to wish for. I want her back because despite I have everything in the entire world, I feel empty without her. Everything is useless if you don't have your significant other to share it with you."
"Wow, that woman must me lucky," Claire whispered, taken aback by that answer.
Any man she met before would never say the same things. He seemed to deeply worship that woman he had.
"You're wrong again Claire. You see, she isn't lucky to have me. I am the lucky one because thanks to her now I have a purpose, now I have another half. I felt incomplete without her. Now I know what my purpose in life is."
The waiter comes to bring us the main curses and the appetizers.
"Thanks to her I had known for the first time myself." He said.
He looked down at his bolognese, he took some pasta with his fork and leaned it closer to Claire's mouth.
"Do you want a bite?"
Claire unconsciously slouched forward and delicately took the fork and put the wrapped spaghetti in her mouth.
She covered her mouth with her hand as she chewed and swallowed down.
"This is very good," Claire commented as she widened her eyes and nodded in approval.
She pushed her dish closer to him to offer him a taste of rice.
He took a mouthful of her rice and nodded as well.
"This place is one of my favorites. The flavors are so authentic." Cole commented.
"Indeed."
A man walked to their table, he was wearing a long suit and from the way he dressed, Claire could easily deduce he must be Cole's friend or someone he worked for. He had golden bracelets and a gold watch. His skin was smooth and his appearance was meticulously clean.
"Hi, Cole. Haven't seen you here in a while. Is she the woman you…"
Cole interrupted him before he could finish, he cleared his voice loudly and widened his eyes. "Hi, Gavriel. She is Claire, my boyfriend's girlfriend."
"Oh…" Gabriel sounded just as confused as he truly was. "Nice to meet you." He said forcing a smile to undercover his puzzlement.
"What are you doing here?" Gavriel asked Claire to change the matter.
"My boyfriend who also is his brother is currently working in Cole's company so since he has a big house we decided to stay at his place while he sets in."
"I see…" his voice sounded even more confusing. How that would be a reassurance? How weird did that sound? Way too weird.
"You're Cole's friend?" Claire noticed the tension and the confusion, she didn't like the atmosphere so she switched to another subject.
"Yes. We used to work together a few years ago. Cole barely took women out so I am just a bit conf…"
"Gavriel, how is your company doing?"
'God damn, couldn't that situation get any worsen?!' Cole asked himself.
Lucky he never introduced Claire to anyone when they dated or they would be in trouble now.