Johnson

Three

It took him no more than twenty minutes to get to the restaurant and park his car around the corner.

By this time it was pushing eight o'clock, and the dinner was meant to have started at quarter to- he just prayed that he hadn't missed too much. He wasn't a fan of being late, even more so when he was actually looking forward to the function.

Knowing the calibre of the restaurant, he knew it was incredibly likely that the starter was being served as he was power walking to the entrance, so he broke into a jog just before he made it to the doors.

One good thing that came out of being late was that he didn't have to wait in a queue to be seated. He quickly told the man at the front what table he was meant to be at, booked under Calum's name, and one of the workers escorted him there in almost no time at all.

The interior of The Swan was elaborate.

He took note of the servers, dressed in their smart uniforms as they carried plates of food in from the kitchen, the aromas saturating the room. Jack didn't think he had ever smelt food so intense in his life. He only hoped that it tasted as good as it smelt and that the cooks were fans of serving decent sized portions. There was nothing worse than being starving and being fed hardly enough to feed an ant.

Mini gold chandeliers hung from the ceiling, illuminating the room in a similarly gold hue.

The tables were draped in white tablecloths and not much else, smart if they were attempting to go for rich minimalism because it gave an air of sophistication without overdoing it on the frills.

He didn't know what the floor was made from, but it was a glossy brown colour and his shoes made a sharp tapping sound with every step he took on it.

The table with his boss and coworkers finally came into view and Jack's throat went dry. Not including his boss, there were probably around seven other people on the table, but his eyes had automatically been drawn to a certain person who should not have been there.

But of course, she often seemed to be in places that she shouldn't be.

Or at least in places Jack didn't want her to be.

She was forking food into her mouth and smiled up at him when she noticed his arrival, a big, wide smile with flashing white teeth.

He forced himself to keep walking and look away from her and the sparkly blue dress that glinted against the light every time she moved.

"Jack. You made it just in time for starters." His boss didn't seem upset at his late entrance and gestured for him to sit down, returning back to his previous conversation.

To his dismay, the only spare seat was next to Summer, so he mentally steeled his resolve before sitting down. It was already burning him to be that close to her and yet unable to do anything else.

"Hey, Jack." She said politely at the same time Eliot, who was on Jack's other side, said: "look who finally made it. Any longer and I would have eaten your food for you."

He ignored Eliot, not before shooting the man a scathing glare, and turned to face Summer instead. She was the lesser of two evils in this situation.

"Hi, Summer." He said, trying to smile back in a natural manner, "you look nice."

He mentally face palmed after the words left his mouth, feeling more silly after he heard Eliot snicker from behind him. He didn't want to sound like he was coming on to the girl but his brain to mouth filter was slowly eroding away the longer he was in her presence.

Her smile widened at his words and she looked down at her dress, smoothing a hand over it, "you think so?"

The alpha in Jack wouldn't let him turn away and duck his head like he wanted to, instead forcing him to maintain eye contact and answer her question like he wasn't a frazzled mess.