Open Your Heart

Chapter 4

Why had he wanted this? Now, he was definitely second guessing his sanity for asking Chardenay to meet with him again. No strings attached, just another dinner and another chat. Sure, Chardenay had called him, but the deathstalker had only asked how his day had gone and made other small talk. It had sounded more like boredom than anything else. Standing outside the restaurant he'd chosen, he tapped his foot quickly. "Are you alright?" Glancing toward the voice, he rolled his eyes at Orco.

"Do you know how many times today you've asked me that?" Crossing his arms over his chest, he huffed at the mere thought.

"Several, but don't I have a good reason? First you miss lunch and don't talk to anyone, and then that... conversation that we had earlier." Henroin threw a glare at his bodyguard, but as always, the man was unfazed. "And now, because you got one phone call from the man, you're gonna have dinner with a practical stranger. Again." There was a small pause before he spoke again. "A stranger who doesn't benefit you at all, might I add." Henroin waved a hand at him.

"Oh shut it, will you? So what if I have dinner with some guy. Have you thought that maybe I'm thinking about how he can benefit me?" Straightening his back, he idly toyed with his jacket. "I've been thinking about expanding the business anyways. So I'm looking for new ideas, and he might have one or two for me." Orco grunted in response. Looking down at his watch, Henroin couldn't help but feel the nerves creeping up his spine to tickle the back of his brain. The last thing he wanted was to be stood up or played with in any way by a hooker he'd met once before. They had agreed to meet twenty minutes ago, and Chardenay still hadn't showed. As the minutes passed by, he started to get even more restless, shifting his feet, tapping his fingers against his leg, and checking his watch every few seconds.

Almost thirty minutes after their meet time, he was about ready to simply leave. The only reason he didn't was a taxi that pulled up in front of the restaurant. Once the door opened, and he caught sight of the passenger, he was thrown off. The first time they'd met, Chardenay had been dressed closer to the trashy hooker one would expect. Tonight, however, he looked like a completely different person. The dress was solid black, in a soft and flowy fabric that shifted easily with every little move the deathstalker made. The long sleeves fell the barest amount above his wrists, showing off the delicate silver bracelet he wore. While the dress did have a fairly deep V-neck, it stopped just after his sternum where the article had a defined waist through seaming. The whole garment hugged Chardenay's body like a lover, fitting every curve to perfection and showing off the generous hips the man had. It flared at his knees and fell just above his ankles to show of the strappy, black stilettos he was wearing.

Forcing his eyes up to the other scorpion's eyes, he noticed the soft, almost casual makeup the man wore that made his eyes pop. Not to mention the delicate bun of platinum blond hair that didn't have a single hair out of place. And suddenly, Henroin felt incredibly under dressed as Chardenay strode up to him. The apologetic look the other scorpion gave him reminded him of how late the other was. "I am so sorry for being late. I swear, I thought I had enough time and then that moron decided to take the busiest streets possible to run the tab up." Just before the cab drove away, his dinner date flipped the driver the bird with a glare. Henroin shook his head.

"No, it's fine." The sound of Orco clearing his throat had his smile dropping. "Well, I did think for a moment that you might have stood me up, which... wasn't a great feeling." Chardenay snorted.

"And when was the last time someone actually stood you up?" He thought about the question and cringed. It had been a while, for sure. Then again, he hadn't actually been on a "date" that wasn't for business in decades.

"You definitely weren't even born then." The deathstalker sucked in a breath with a wince.

"So, like, a hundred years." Henroin scoffed.