Desolation

twenty one

Noelle's POV

I sat in the little cafe that Stephen had once brought me to, waiting for him to arrive and bless me with his fucking presence. It had been half an hour already.

We had decided to meet up here to discuss more of the details for the hotel. It had been more than a week since we last picked out some stuff back in his suite. The construction work had been going smoothly so far and although the interiors should have been the last priority, we just agreed to get going with it without wasting any time. But of course he was wasting my time by making me wait.

I was getting more pissed every second and even the book that I had been previously reading, sat neglected on the table in front of me. I was about to gather all my things and leave when suddenly my phone went off, notifying me that I had just received a text.

I grabbed my phone and checked to see who it was from. Blake.

B: where are you?

I raised an eyebrow wondering why he asked me that but sighed and replied back to him anyway.

N: at a cafe near Kathy's place, waiting for Mr. Dickhead to show up.

I was about to put my phone down on the table but it pinged again before I could. It was another text from Blake.

B: what is the place called? and who's Mr. Dickhead? do you have a secret boyfriend that I don't know about? OMG

I rolled my eyes before quickly typing back a reply telling him the cafe's name and letting him know that Stephen was Mr. Dickhead.

I had just hit the sent button when I heard shuffling around me and a figure moving into the seat opposite me. I put my phone down and finally looked up to meet his forest green eyes. How the fuck were his eyes always so sparkly and bright? Goddamnit. Everything about him seemed to piss me off.

He sat there all calm and cool as if he didn't just fucking make me wait a complete half an hour for him. The nerve, I swear to god. He ran his fingers through his hair, slicking it back even though I was pretty sure he'd used a crazy amount of hair gel to hold it into place.

I didn't speak a word, instead I took my time to observe him and obviously waited for him to apologize. Something looked different about him and I tried to think of what it was, when it finally dawned on me that he had stubble around his chin which usually wouldn't have been there. He hadn't shaved. I would by lying if I said that he didn't look ruggedly handsome.

He finally cleared his throat which brought me out of my thoughts. I raised an eyebrow at him and gestured him to speak.

"I know I'm late and I'm extremely sorry," he said sheepishly while running his hand through his hair again. What was it with him and his hair today? "There was an emergency at the office that I had to deal with and I couldn't put it off," he explained.

"You know," I paused before folding my arms in front of my chest and then continuing, "You could have called or texted me, letting me know you were going to be late instead of making me sit here and wait for you," I frowned at him.

"I don't have your number, Smarty. I've only got your email address," he stated while smirking at me.

"You could've emailed Stephen," I sighed and leaned back in my seat.

"Tell you what, why don't you just give me your number? It'll be a lot more convenient," he said before sliding his phone towards me and looking at me expectantly.

"Only on one condition, if you send me any dick pics, I swear to god I will punch the fuck out of you and I promise that you won't be able to procreate," I warned him.