Meanwhile, Felix was like a cat on a hot tin roof as he waited right at the entrance of the private room. The second he caught a glimpse of Alexander, he was so flustered that he almost broke down in tears.
As his gaze landed on Sophia, he was stunned unwittingly. Even so, he was able to regain composure in an instant. “Mr. Xenos, Ms. Yarrow,” he greeted.
Incredible! Mr. Xenos is sure quick to win Ms. Yarrow back!
Alexander nodded in response. “Do escort Sophia to the other private room.”
“Noted,” replied Felix in the affirmative.
After Alexander went to join the lunch appointment, Felix finally heaved a sigh of relief before shifting his line of sight to Sophia. “Please follow me, Ms. Yarrow.”
Thankfully, he had always been a meticulous person. In the past, Alexander would sometimes request another private room to have a proper meal following his lunch appointments. Given that the rooms were often fully booked at Golden Sun, Felix had made the necessary arrangement several days prior.
Sophia arched a brow as she trailed behind Felix.
It was such a coincidence, however, that she bumped into Kayla before even taking the initiative to settle the score with the latter.
Just when Kayla’s gaze met Sophia’s, the former’s face clouded over. “What are you doing here?”
An ice-cold glance was all Sophia returned her. “To have lunch, of course,” she drawled.
Pfft! Is she here to shop for groceries instead?
Kayla was stumped for words. “It’s not easy to make a reservation here. Do you have one already, Ms. Yarrow? If you haven’t, I don’t mind having you join us. I’ve booked a booth for four, after all.”
With a grin playing about Sophia’s lips, she turned Kayla down. “Thank you for your generosity, Ms. Fletcher. Mr. Lane has readied a private room for me.”
Of course, Kayla had noticed Felix, but when she realized that Alexander was present as well, she grimaced. “I guess you’re really something.”
“Oh, really?”
Sophia chuckled at that and continued, “I guess you’re right. People have always said that I’m special.”
“You…”
Her face flushed red with fury, Kayla pointed at Sophia.
How dare this b*tch insinuate that I’m a nobody!
“If there’s nothing else, we’ll talk again someday because I’m famished right now. Catch you later, Ms. Fletcher.”
Sophia sounded casual as she averted her eyes from Kayla before shooting a meaningful look at Felix.
Having caught her hint, Felix prompted, “This way, please, Ms. Yarrow.”
Sophia’s private room wasn’t a spacious one, but it was only over a dozen meters away from the room where Alexander’s lunch appointment was held.
Felix left right after he led Sophia into the room. As for Sophia, considering that she had messed with Kayla a minute ago, she was in such a good mood that she even chowed down on the dishes served.
On the contrary, Kayla found herself at a loss for words after making the exchange with Sophia. In fact, she was suffocating within.
After getting back to the booth, her friend noticed her grim visage, thus instinctively probing, “What’s the matter? Didn’t you say you wanted to come here so that you could stage a coincidental encounter with Alexander?”
The moment the matter was brought up, Kayla’s countenance changed for the worse. “Sophia is here, too.”
“So what if she’s here? There’s no conflict of interest between her being here and you executing your grand scheme, is there?”
Kayla fumed through gritted teeth, “Felix arranged a private room entirely for her!”
Being in the same social circle, everyone knew that it was a hassle to secure even a seat at Golden Sun.
To top that off, since Felix was Alexander’s secretary and he booked Sophia a private room, that could only mean that Alexander was the one who had issued the command.
Most importantly, Alexander himself was also in the same restaurant that very day. As Kayla had gotten wind of Alexander’s schedule, she had managed to ask someone to reserve her a booth, all just to meet up with Alexander.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Sophia had already beaten Kayla to it.
“Was she with Alexander?”
“No.”
What difference does it make? Once Alexander is done with his lunch appointment, he’s obviously going to rendezvous with Sophia!
With that thought in mind, Kayla felt a throbbing pain assailing her heart.
She gulped down several mouthfuls of water while her friend stared at her with knitted brows. “That can’t be right… How did the matter unfold at your hands the other day? Has there been no reaction whatsoever from the Dawsons?”
A mention of that piqued Kayla’s suspicion straightaway. “Nothing,” was her only answer nonetheless.
It was like nothing had ever happened for the Dawson family. What infuriated Kayla more was that Lukas’ mother had even gone on a shopping spree with Sophia ever so amiably.
At the thought of that, Kayla felt even more upset.
She wondered what spell Sophia had cast to bewitch the Dawson family to the point where they could remain unfazed despite having a strict family tradition and being the center of public opinion.
Little did Kayla know that she had already misinterpreted the relationship shared between Sophia and the Dawson family right from the start.
In the meantime, Sophia had almost eaten her fill when Alexander stepped into the room.
Just as the latter flung the door open, Sophia caught a whiff of alcohol wafting from Alexander.
She couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and turn to eye him. “Did you drink again?”
“Mm.”
Those old geezers at the lunch appointment had been a difficult bunch to deal with. In an effort to get back to Sophia sooner for a tryst, Alexander had no choice but to drink a toast to each one of them.
Upon grunting a reply, Alexander paced toward Sophia and slumped into the seat next to hers, asking, “Is the soup good?”
“Yeah.”
That being said, Sophia couldn’t seem to finish the entire serving of soup all by herself.
Judging from Alexander’s question, she thought that he wanted to try some of it as well. “Do you also want to have some? I’ll order one for you.”
“No, it’s fine.”
As he spoke, he put her bowl of leftover soup in front of him before grabbing a spoon and steadily supping up the soup.
Sophia fell silent for a while before posing a rhetorical query. “Are you that strapped for cash now?”
Alexander, in turn, sneaked a peek at her and uttered, “Yours tastes better.”
“Whatever.” Sophia could feel her cheeks burning.
What a shameless thing to say! Ugh! I give up.
She was almost done with lunch, but the man beside her hadn’t had much to eat earlier on.
“Let’s add a few more dishes,” she suggested.
“Sure.”
Soon enough, Alexander finished the soup before picking up a fork and slowly enjoying the fish.
On the flip side, Sophia didn’t have much appetite, so she couldn’t really clean her plate. All she could manage was one-third of all three dishes that she had ordered.
In fact, Golden Sun served rather exquisite delicacies with reasonable serving portions. Sophia could have easily gobbled down those three dishes if she had been there any other day. Nevertheless, that particular day was an exception.
After more dishes were served, Sophia quietly watched Alexander as the latter dug in.
He wasn’t tardy in eating, yet his every move breathed the utmost elegance. Sophia enjoyed every second of observing him.
After lunch, Alexander returned to the mansion with Sophia.
Earlier, the former had drunk a lot of liquor. Since he had been late for the lunch appointment, he had to knock back one glass of liquor. In the course of the meeting, he had downed another two glasses of liquor. Last but not least, he had had three more glasses of it before taking his leave. In total, that was almost half a catty of liquor.
Considering that he had a knack for holding his alcohol, that amount of liquor wasn’t sufficient to intoxicate him.
Still, being under the influence had cost him his rationality.
As he pressed Sophia against the couch, the stench of alcohol on his body reached her nose.
The next instant, Sophia was smothered with passionate kisses, and her entire body was scorching.
“Alexander!”
“Yes, Sophia,” he, too, deliberately said the woman’s name.
He hung his head low and looked her in the eye, his eyes inundated with longing and desire.
Sophia blushed as they exchanged gazes. Immediately, she reached out to shove the man away with all her might.
However, Alexander had summoned every ounce of strength to pin Sophia beneath him. He was practically as immovable as a boulder. Despite gnashing her teeth and going all out, Sophia still failed to push him away.
Alexander pulled her hand away and held it. With her hand in his, he questioned, “When can we make our relationship public?”
A snort escaped from Sophia’s mouth on that note. “Now is just not the time yet.”
He then made a move and burrowed his head into her shoulder. “So, when is it slated for?”
From his perspective, not being able to openly claim her as he was too much of an agony to bear.
