Seven Hearts Café
Shawn looked irritated at this point. His business meeting was meant to have long started. Maybe that was even jumping the gun quite a little bit.
This unprofessional business partner should have been here a few hours ago, to be honest. He'd already resigned himself to waiting since this business deal was rather important and the other seemed promising. Plus, the ambiance of this place was really good and he decided to help himself to coffee.
He was calmly sipping his hot brew when his ears picked up commotion ahead and he let his pale gaze rove over in that direction.
The commotion seemed to be centered around the man and woman up ahead. The one who drew his attention though was the woman because she was just oh so exotic and just her existence seemed to command presence all around her.
She was dressed in a bold red spaghetti strapped gown. The bodycon seemed to highlight all her fine points and Shawn could hardly remember the last time he'd come across a woman who was able to flaunt her body so outrageously and still look so poised and beautiful all the while.
Three years ago.
Sweet innocent Tavakha.
He didn't want to remember her now and forced his attention back to them. They seemed to be having a spat of some sorts. More or less like a lover's quarrel and Shawn was even too far away to listen in on them.
The woman did look oddly familiar though and that was why Shawn had some kind of hard time tearing his gaze away. He would never have had a way of knowing where he'd seen her before since he was just that bad at faces.
They bantered on a long time and when he thought it was finally getting to the peak and that they might get physical, the woman suddenly threw her hands up in the air and walked away.
That was when the man suddenly looked around the restaurant and his gaze came to rest on him. With a quizzical expression, he walked over. "Mr. White?," Shawn kept a neutral expression even though deep down he was annoyed knowing he'd been waiting for someone having a spat with his female counterpart. He would never know, though. Women were pretty much unpredictable too. "I'm Alan Garcia. My apologies for the delay."
Shawn waved it off politely as he brought out the contract from his briefcase, eager to get this over and done with. His gaze drew outside for a little while and he caught sight of the exotic woman, her gown with its double slit whipping wildly in the wind, with her phone to her ear.
Alan followed his gaze and scoffed. "Don't be deceived by her appearance. That woman's just a bitch through and through," He'd never been able to tell how he'd reached such a weak level. "Anyway, that isn't a cause for worry. With someone of your calibre, you'll never fall for someone as lowly as her."
The man may be right but Shawn already knew that deep down based on her appearance alone, then she had already won a place in his good books. That was why even though it was something he'd never really do, he found himself asking as Alan Garcia leafed through the contract, "What happened to the both of you?"
"Oh, you know," Alan began to shrug until he saw Shawn's deadpan look.
"..." He wouldn't have bothered asking if he really had, would he?
"Right," Alan went on with what he'd been saying. "She owns this establishment that specializes in helping guys act as their pretend spouses. The only prerequisite is for her client to not fall in love. Either ways, I guess I'm the fool for falling in love with her anyway. I just thought it wouldn't be so unrequited, you know?"
Shawn honestly didn't know but had no words to say to the guy either ways. He didn't even know when their business meeting had suddenly turned to a tear fest about unrequited love.
"What?," Alan seemed to catch the determined look in this man's man's eyes as her car pulled up and she stepped in. "Don't tell me you plan on seeking her out as well?"
"So?," Shawn was really not prepared for the adequate look of horror that splashed so quickly across the guy's face.
"I'll just warn you to not fall in love with her, if you know what I'm saying?," He said as he hastily scribbled his signature at the allotted position.
"When has that ever been a problem?," Shawn scoffed as he looked back to his raised cup and took a long calming sip.
Of course, Alan thought with a pained and almost envious expression. This man who was the most influential person in America right now was basically seen as an iceberg. No woman could even stand falling for someone like him since they'd just end up disappointed. He was the obvious fool for thinking he could work out with a woman as emotionless as Olivia Hart. She could really be on par with this man in terms of standoffishness if it really came to that.
...