Cherry | Bruce Wayne

TWO - SECOND IMPRESSIONS

Three weeks had passed between Bruce walking out of Tigress and walking into a Japanese restaurant in the financial district of the city. It was the middle of December and a pianist played Christmas songs in the corner of the room, low ceilings and ambient, golden lighting cast shadowed outlines of Christmas trees and mistletoe across the purple walls and wooden floors.

It was an upscale establishment and one that Bruce had frequented throughout his adult life, using it for date nights to impress women that he didn't need to and to impress business men that he did need to. That evening was a combination of both.

He walked inside with Natascha's hand settled around his forearm, their coats taken by a maître d as they shook fallen snow from the ends of their hair and fingertips. Warmth welcomed them, as did the scent of rich food and aged wine, private conversations mingling with others in the air as they breezed through the centre of the room with elegance in each step.

Nathaniel Astor rose to his feet when he looked up from the table to see Bruce Wayne and a beautiful woman approaching him. He turned to the woman sat beside him and gave her a nod, prompting her to follow his lead as he flashed a handsome smile across his face.

"Nathaniel, so good to see you. How are you?"

Bruce shook the hand of Nathaniel with a firm grip and an equally bold smile, both of them looking sharp in expensive suits and polished shoes, cufflinks clinking with their briefly shared grip.

"The pleasure is all mine. I'm well, thank you. I don't believe you've met my lovely Inez?"

Nathaniel gestured proudly towards the woman now standing beside him. She reached just above his shoulder with golden hair curled around her heart-shaped face, cheeks bronzed and eyes lined with black, a silver shimmer across the lid that made her emerald iris' glisten in the light of the room. Full, red lips smiled and her collarbones shone like diamonds, a simple ruby pendant hung from her neck and decorated the edge of her floor-length black gown that curved around the contours of her body perfectly.

Bruce raised his brows with the proposition of a smile, and although his heart ceased to beat within his chest when he locked eyes with her from just three feet away, his poker face gave away none of the shock that consumed him.

"I don't believe I have," Bruce swallowed and stepped around Nathaniel, drawing closer to the woman he was almost certain that he'd laid eyes on before.

Inez had been given the grace of preparing to see Bruce Wayne again since Nathaniel mentioned their dinner engagements a week prior. She didn't so much as bat an eyelid at his name being brought up and truth be told, she hadn't given him a second thought since he'd bolted out of Tigress three weeks earlier.

It was rare for her to greet men that had paid for her time while she stood at her boyfriend's side but the notion didn't phase her, knowing that the interaction must have been undoubtedly more awkward for them than it ever could be for her.

Bruce Wayne, however, didn't look the slightest bit phased by their meeting. In fact, Inez wasn't entirely sure that he even recognised her at all as he approached her with a vacantly polite smile and empty eyes.

"Bruce Wayne," he introduced himself, a hand on her waist as his lips pressed a kiss to both of her cheeks. He felt her hand touch his shoulder and his gut tensed at the sensation, though he forced himself to grit his teeth and ignore it entirely, "It's lovely to meet you."

"Likewise," she said quietly as they pulled apart, her voice sending a flash of familiarity across his hazel eyes and for a wildfire moment, they both told each other without saying a word that they knew, "Inez Swann."