The Segment (Completed)

5. Alleged Affairs

Farrah's eyes were glued to her wrist, where masculine fingers were softly trailing across the face of her watch. His fingers were thick and long, with short clean nails and never did they for a second brush her skin but Farrah's wrist was still burning. She could feel the flush creeping up her skin, from her toes expanding its spidery, silky tendrils to the roots of her hair. For the first time in her life, she thanked The Almighty for her dark complexion; it was almost impossible to be caught blushing.

Farrah cleared her throat, with as much grace as possible, she moved said wrist in a motion as if to pick up her cup of Chai. She tried to subtly move her hands as far away as possible without making the movements too conspicuous.

On second thought, she picked up her cup and sipped at the Chai. She let the hot milky drink work its magic in dissolving the lump that seemed to be lodged in her throat. She studied him over the rim of her cup, unsure of what to do next. She noticed that he seemed to enjoy the verbal sparring that they do and decided on that.

"Unfortunately, I am not a model, celebrity, nor an heiress. I don't think I fall into the categories of 'potential-partner-for-Prince-Richard'," she said raising her eyebrow, making sure to keep her hands to herself.

"Ouch, that hurts," Richard said playfully.

"Does it now? You forget that I work for BBCS. Out of the hundreds of stories that have been printed about you and your affairs-"

"Alleged affairs," Richard cut in with a frown.

"Mmhmm, alleged affairs – I've authored some of those articles," she finished putting down her cup and crossing her arms across her chest. She was now really itching to see his reaction to what she said. She knew how much he hated the media especially the coverage of his personal life. Although it has definitely lessen since he matured into adulthood.

His eyebrows were knitted in a furrow and he looked a bit lost, like he was at a crossroad and he needed to make a quick decision.

"So, are you still up for a second date, love?" Farrah added sarcastically, her lips twisting into a cruel smirk.

As Rich was about to speak, a waiter appeared by their table an promptly arranged their order on the table and left. While earlier the air was crackling with attraction, tension was rolling off the prince in waves.

Feeling pity for the prince Farrah cleared her throat, "I remember when I first saw you. I was seven years old then. And you were this beautiful boy with the orange hair on the tele." She looked at him through her lashes and continued softly, "You were the picture of what heartbreak looked like...at your mother's funeral. And I remember crying with you and for you, even though I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I refuse to accept that after everything that you've been through, that this....," she gestured towards him, "that all there is to you is just shallow and superficial."

Rich leaned back and studied her, his fingers rubbing his lips. Seeming like he reached a decision, he simple announced; "let's eat," and left Farrah mildly disappointed. She had hoped that he would at least argue with her, to defend himself, to prove that he had some sort of depth to him. And a part of her had also wanted him to pursue her for another date, well it was a small, tiny, insignificant, part of her and that part can be squished to oblivion, she thought. Lightly sighing, she picked up her fork and stated eating.

The atmosphere was still tense and heavy, where earlier they were sparring verbally (although somewhat flirtatiously), now the conversation was strictly limited to their food and the weather. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Farrah had lost not only her chance for a career defining moment, she had also lost the prince's attention. Well, easy come easy go, she thought still disappointed. Instead of having to present her proposal, she made plans to eat her weight in ice cream. She could only hope that Charlie would be at home; she could use a different perspective on what has been the most bizarre night of her life thus far.

As dinner wrapped up Rich still maintained his aloofness, and Farrah had had enough. Standing up she said, "Thank you Rich for the lovely dinner. It was nice meeting the both of you," she said smiling at Ben. "Hopefully, we'll bump into each other at another press conference or event or something...," she trailed looking Rich in the eye as he stood up as well locking his gaze with hers. 

Blinking, "Right...Thank you, once again," she turned and quickly shrugged on her coat. So absorbed she was in her task of buttoning her coat up that she was caught completely unawares with Rich standing in front of her. With her fingers still doing up her buttons, Rich grabbed her lapels and pulled her closer. Gasping, Farrah's hands flopped to her side, eyes wide and anxious. Where she had left off, Rich continued, he gently started fastening up her coat.

"Tomorrow, at 11.00am bring your proposal to my office. I will send you the address...oh and I do not appreciate tardiness," He murmured.

Rich looked down at her and nodded, before he left Farrah still standing in the restaurant reeling in confusion at what had just happened. 

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Hello my lovely, beautiful, wonderful readers. Woop, woop...I went past 50reads! It doesn't seem like a whole lot but trust me, if you're starting from zero like me, every single read matters. So a big fat thank you to everyone who spared your precious time to read my words. 

Okay, now on to not so great news...I am currently severely lagging in terms of writing and updating. It is currently Ramadan and with all the fasting and prayers that's involved I find myself completely exhausted by the end of the day. Hopefully I manage an update weekly and then once it's over we'll go back to the two updates perweek schedule. So for now, I am sorry for the short chapter but I thought it was better to put something out than to leave it without updates for the longest times. -_-"

I hope that everyone is having an awesome weekend. Spread the love by sharing the story, commenting and voting! xx