YET TO COME

..THIRTY ONE..

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The designated driver was still there when they got to the parking lot. He helped her into the Porsche and climbed in after her. The driver knew just where to take them to without being told and she concluded that he must have been preinformed. He took them to the other side of the hotel, the side facing the sea. He stopped at the place vehicle could get to and parked the automobile.

‘We have arrived at your destination sir and madam. I hope you have a wonderful dinner,’ the driver said courteously.

‘Thank you, and have a wonderful night,’ she replied him.

‘I wish it for you too.’ She hoped so more than ever that her night with Clement would go very well, be wonderful.

Clement helped her out of the automobile as he had already disembarked. He led her down a beautiful pedestrian stone walkway which upended at the seashore. She had a little trouble walking with her stiletto heels on the sandy bank, but Clement was there for her to lean upon, to steady her. They turned to the left and walked for no less than three minutes before she saw the yachts, not one, not two but eleven -she had counted- out on the sea. There were others, docked, not in use. She wowed internally, amazed.

‘We are here my sweet,’ he told her when they upended at a small shore house which was wonderfully shining with lights of varying colours. It was connected to a pier which was also lined with those various colours of lights that gave off an iridescent lighting. They entered into the shore house which was designed as a reception. ‘Wait here,’ he ordered her. She nodded at the instruction. He left her standing there and went to the receptionist. They talked for a minute or two before he presented her something from his pocket, pieces of blue paper. She wondered what it was. He handed her his complimentary card after a second. Anger shot up her guts, tasting weird in her mouth. Why the hell was he giving her his complimentary card? And why was the receptionist smiling at him with all that she had? She was just about to storm up to them and ask those very questions when she saw him take the complimentary card back and put it in his pocket. He turned away from the still sheepishly smiling lady and walked up to her with a smile on his face.

‘Why did you take so long?’ she asked him with a pout when he reached her. He studied her with a lazy smile, finding the pout cute.

‘I had to settle a very small misunderstanding about my identity my dear,’ he told. ‘Apparently, another Clement booked a yacht for the same time which I did. I was just clarifying with her which yacht setting is really mine.’

‘And that setting would be?’ she asked him with raised brows.

‘I booked a yacht with a romantic dinner, candle light preferably and an invisible crew,’ he explained to her. She nodded, assimilating it all.

‘I think you forgot to mention the king sized bed decorated with roses,’ she teased him. He couldn’t help but chuckle. She got him real good.

‘It wasn’t included, my sweet, to begin with,’ he said to her with a satisfied smirk. Well, he got her real good this time for it was her turn to laugh helplessly.

‘You are a rogue, a cheap tease,’ she insulted him with a playful sneer. She saw and felt the change in his gaze. He was no longer looking at her in the way that he normally did. He was looking at her in a peculiar kind of way that made her duodenum go inside out. He was gazing at her in the way one would gaze at the sky through a telescope, as if she was the very centre of his world. It was a feeling she knew well.