"Why are we the only ones here?" she asked, walking up to the table. "Do people not eat here?"
Alex chuckled as he said, "Of course, people eat here, Emma." He tried to avoid the first question she asked.
"Why is no one else here then? Did you book the whole place?" Emma asked as she kept observing the place.
Alex looked at her and said, "I felt it would be better if I booked the place for just you and me, so no one has to see you, harass you, or take unnecessary pictures."
Emma nodded, an involuntary smile spreading across her face as she couldn't help feeling touched by his gesture. She looked at him, her eyes full of admiration and respect for him.
But then, she feared that if they continued this way, their harmless arrangement might turn out to be a problem in the end. She didn't want any of that.
"You shouldn't have; I'm gradually getting used to everything now; I wouldn't care much if people talked or stared," Emma admitted with a smile, and Alex raised an amused brow.
"Don't tell me you're starting to get used to it," Alex said, looking at her, and she nodded.
"Yeah. I've decided to help myself," she said, and Alex smiled, impressed.
"I love the sound of that," Alex said as he pulled out the chair for Emma to sit down while he sat down and gazed at her.
"By the way, I was meaning to ask. Did you in any way threaten those news outlets that hauled at us at the hospital?" She asked, and Alex raised a brow.
"Why do you think I did?"
"It's confirmed. You did. Thank you," she said softly, and Alex chuckled.
"Why are you so certain?" Alex asked, amused by her.
"Well, because you didn't deny it," she said, and Alex smiled.
"You look beautiful, by the way," Alex remarked as he looked at her to see her reaction to the compliment.
"Thank you, and you don't look bad yourself," Emma said with a shy smile.
A comfortable silence settled between them before she finally spoke up again.
"So, you did all these just for us to have a nice meal?" she asked, and he shrugged.
"Yeah. And also to really get to know you," he said, and she raised a brow.
"Didn't you say you knew me that day at the hospital?" she asked, and he smiled.
"So, you do remember what I said that day?" he asked in amusement, and she nodded.
"I remember quite a lot," She said, and Alex nodded.
"I know you as Emma Winters, my nephew's wife, but nothing personal. So, tell me more about yourself. Please," Alex said, gazing into her eyes for a moment before perusing the menu so he could place an order.
"Well, I don't think there's much to be said," Emma said as she stared at the menu in front of her.
Alex motioned to the waiter to come and take their orders, and then he said, "Tell me about the little; I know you are an artist and graphics designer, but I want to know more."
"Okay. I was raised by a single mom; I put myself through college and had the desire to raise a family in a beautiful home," Emma answered, and Alex raised a brow.
"Wow! Raised by a single mom? You deserve to be happy, you know?" Alex acknowledged as he smiled at her.
"Let's talk less about me now and more about you," Emma said, smiling.
They both went silent when the waiter returned with their meal. Alex smiled as he watched Emma pick up her fork and started eating the spaghetti and meatballs that she ordered.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Emma asked as she looked up from her meal and caught Alex looking at her.
Alex, realizing he had been caught staring, cleared his throat.
"Well, I'm just a CEO of Ling Corp, as you already know. I'm, uhm, married to a beautiful wife and trying to enjoy the dinner in front of me," he joked and laughed, not wanting to say much about himself.
Emma blushed even as she said, "It's just a fake marriage, Alex."
Alex nodded, reminding himself that. "You're right," he said with a sigh.
Alex had been engaged to a lady he loved so much that he had made plans to build a family with her until death's cold grip took her away from his arm.
She had been on her way to inform her parents of her engagement when she died in an auto crash seven years ago.
Since then, Alex has not thought about entering any other relationship, as he has continuously blamed himself for not being there with her.
The pain he felt then was something he didn't want to go through anymore, so 'love' was out of the question for him.
After the death of his fiancee, Alex had left for Paris so he could start a fresh life with new faces and maybe get over the death of his fiancee completely.
He had a flourishing company there. He managed to get over the loss and also started a charity organization where the needs of the less privileged were met to a large extent.
Although he had met several beautiful ladies he could have settled with, he had been too stuck up in the past and hadn't been ready to settle. It was because he wanted to be left alone; hence, he wanted a contract wife.
And after seeing how Jake had hurt Emma and how he had bad intentions to him, he had decided to get married to her instead and help her in the duration of their fake marriage—a win-win situation, like he had said.
Alex paused his meal for a while and said, with such seriousness in his voice, "Thinking about you, Emma, I would really love for you to start designing again. The more you choose not to utilize your gift, the more dormant it becomes, you know?"
"Yeah, about that, I wanted to make one suit for you," she said and couldn't help the flicker of surprise he felt.
"Really?" He asked, and she nodded.
"So you see that I could design better than your designer," she said, and he chuckled.
"I look forward to that. But then, I'm talking more about doing it as a career," he said, and Emma frowned.
"Why?" She asked, and he shrugged.
"I told you before. I want you to start doing what you love again. Besides, you'll gain a lot of self-worth and fulfillment doing something you love. It'll help you heal a great deal," he said, and she nodded.
"I know all that. But right now, I lack the confidence to design again," Emma said calmly, with her face now looking sad.
"But you were confident about making something nice for me. That's enough confidence to start..."
"It's different. There's a lot of difference between designing for you and everyone," she said, and Alex nodded.
"Fine. Why don't you think of it as though you're designing for me? The only difference is we'd be auctioning it to others to see?" Alex suggested, his eyes fixated on her as he waited for a response from her.
Emma saw how bent Alex was to make sure that she started doing what she loved again, so she said with a thin smile, "If you feel thinking it's you I'm making them for is what I need to build my confidence level, then I will do that."
Alex who was happy to see how positive Emma was, thought, "She must have a better life as far as I am still in the picture."