Restart

Chapter 20. The dinner

Claire's p.o.v.
His apartment is a bit too modern for my taste, but strangely enough I like it. The decoration is minimal but more than sufficient to fill the room. The combination of wood, metal and stone is actually very compatible to the whole apartment's philosophy and the hidden lighting does wonders to the way everything looks spotlighted.
He is acting rather strangely tonight and if I didn't know any better, I would say a bit flirtatious, but I am sure he is just being in a good mood since this night will probably put an end to his biggest problems.
The door bell interrupts my thought and we both move towards the entrance to welcome them, although I place myself a few steps behind Alexander. At this point, I am starting to get a little nervous, but I quickly shake it off. I am a grown, well educated woman and I can surely get through this evening, without any problems, I am mentally having a pep talk to myself in an attempt to ease off the tension.
"Welcome Mr. Yang." Alexander says completely ignoring his father and I only offer them both a smile.
I decided I won't do much talking tonight, unless I am required to.
"Let me introduce you to my friend. This is Miss Claire Fay."
At this point reality strikes over and I am thinking of how I found myself caught up in this situation and what on earth am I doing here? Why did I agree to this and how will I get my stupid reckless self out of it?
"Nice to meet you Miss Claire, I didn't believe you really existed." Alexander's father says with a half smile that cuts off my breath. Mr. Yang laughs and I feel a bit relieved, knowing he took this statement humorously. I gather my courage and I extend my hand towards his father first.
"Very nice to meet you Mr. Anderson."
And then I turn to Mr. Yang that hasn't spoken to me yet and instead of my hand I bow a little and I say it's nice to meet him too. He projects his hand towards me and we very awkwardly shake hands. He is obviously not very pleased to meet me
Mr. Ronald is quite pleasant and cheerful during our dinner, which was indescribably good. Everything tasted perfect and I was really enjoying that much needed food, as I absolutely love sushi and that was surely the best I had so far. Considering the fact that I ate a lot of sushi in a lot of places, this was a real compliment that I made to Alexander during dinner.
"Thank you, although I have to admit I didn't make it myself," he said, smiling for the first time during our dinner. We are eating at a big wooden table with steel feet, that looked like a huge tree cut in half with the inner part as the top of the table. It was a very impressive piece of furniture.
"So Claire, what do you do for a living?" Mr. Ronald asked.
"At the moment I am between jobs" I say, trying to avoid him and Alexander comes to the rescue.
"She will be working for us. It's why we have been traveling together from London the other week, to help her move here, as well as to have some good company along, during the long flight" he turns to me and smiles.
"And what position will she be filling" his father asks.
In the realization that we hadn't discussed this at all, I freeze and I unconsciously grab his hand under the table squeezing it too hard, feeling like a little kid that was just caught being naughty, feeling thankful Alexander was sitting right next to me, with Mr. Yang and Mr. Ronald sitting at each end of the table, having some distance from us.
"She will be my new driver." He casually informs them and also me.
What? My eyes go wide with surprise and I find it difficult to swallow. I thought he was very straightforward and certain about not wanting me to be his driver, but now he publicly announces that I will. This man is very hard to predict and this was very much new to me. Usually I can see behind someone's words and get his real intentions, but not this time.
I gently let go of his hand, that I was still holding too tight, making him know I was stressed about his father's question, but I freeze at the sound of his contemptuous laughter, that chokes me even more than before. Mr. Yang joins him and I think I am about to cry. I shouldn't be affected by them, but knowing that some of Alexander's arguments were indeed true, my confidence had gone down the drain. It would indeed be difficult for me to memorize such a big city as New York and obviously he could get someone else who would manage this with much ease and who would be experienced in this area, but he agreed with something that now even to me, it doesn't make much sense.
"You are joking" his father told him when he realized that neither me nor Alexander weren't even much as smiling.
"No, I am afraid I am not, which only makes you look a little off, for laughing like that."
"An English girl, that has been driving at the opposite side of the road her whole life and isn't familiar with New York's streets, will be your personal driver!" And by saying that in the most ironic way possible, he again bursts into laughter, only this time his laughter is building up my anger, along with my courage so I decide to speak.
"I assure you both that there is nothing for you to be laughing about. I am an experienced driver. I have been driving since I could reach the pedal and my hobby is racing with antique cars. Yes, it would take some getting used to driving on the other side of the road, but that shouldn't require more than a couple of days driving around this beautiful city, that I am so looking forward to explore and learn it's streets by heart as much as I can. Besides, there is this little thing called technology that would give me precise instructions for what would be the fastest route to follow to get to any destination Alexander needs, so all I have to do is to drive smoothly and safely enough for him, to be an adequate driver. I could maneuver the car away from a crash or an obstacle that could come to my way like no other MAN (I am spitting the word at them) and if needed, I could safely speed towards anywhere he would need to go, surely faster than his present driver"
Oh my God! Was I speaking for so long? I forgot the part I was supposed to speak as little as possible.
"Miss Claire, I didn't mean to offend you, but surely my son didn't need to go all the way to England to find a new driver for himself, but I am thinking maybe driving him is not the only thing he expects from you." He cunningly says.
At that moment, I get up from the table infuriated and excuse myself. Alexander grabs my hand and he stares at his father, stabbing him with his eyes.
"I think you owe us both an apology here. If not, you are not welcome to my house anymore. Mr. Yang I am terribly sorry that you had to witness this, but I won't accept my father's behavior towards Claire and me."
"No don't be sorry at all Mr. Alexander. This is actually quite entertaining." He says in a disgusting slimy tone.
"I feel the same way as your father about this whole ridiculousness, but before I leave, I would like to hear about Miss. Claire's accident. She doesn't seem to be injured, or even scratched as much and you made it sound like it was a matter of life and death, but it seems that you were only making up fake excuses for legitimizing your tardiness to attend to our very important meeting."
I turn around, as I was still standing up from my previous attempt to leave these horrible men, pulling my hair up, showing them the multiple stitches on the back of my head, where I was shaved and it now looked like an ugly and uneven undercut, emphasizing my injury.
Awkward silence thickens the atmosphere as I move towards the door to make a run. Alexander follows me and again grabs me from the arm right when I was about to enter the elevator.
"I will call you later, thank you" he says and he kisses me briefly on the lips, barely touching them, leaving me there standing numbed as still as a statue, with my heart racing, but not from anger that was previously causing it to beat faster than it should. The elevator's doors slide, closing in between us and only then I manage to exhale the breath I was holding in. What was that? Maybe a left over from his life in France. I heard French people kissed each other goodbye with a kiss like that.
The elevator door slides open and his driver is waiting for me outside to take me back to my hotel. When we step out of the building, I request from him something that was so unexpected, that I even surprised myself.