Chapter 24

Eli was on the fence when it came to wanting friends with different personalities rather than your own. The majority of the time, his friends would annoy him but there were rare times where he did enjoy the unexpected moments they experienced thanks to their clashing personalities. Those moments always ended up being chaotic.

It depended on what mood he was in for Eli to stomach being around different kinds of people. Most of the time, all the different personalities clashing would lead to many arguments which was just a big headache.

You needed to find the perfect group of people to balance the group out or eventually the group would fall apart because no one could stand the disagreements for too long.

"You might get a full house in the first few minutes," He stated inspecting the number of people who were entering as Helen lead him up a more secluded area. Whatever wonders she worked in preparation for creating her brand were working off tremendously.

"That's a really good sign. A lot of people have been keeping watch about Essence and showed up today. I worried too much for nothing," She replied finally releasing all her stress and nerves. She worked up so many negatives thoughts all for nothing.

Helen truly believed only the guest she invited plus one or two random people would show up today. But a lot than what she expected was already here.

"Will your parents be attending today?" He questioned wanting to see the couple who raised Helen. She might've gotten some of her spitfire personality from her parents.

"No. They don't live in Harlow city anymore so it would be too much of a hassle to have them drive all the way over here just for the grand opening. And they have their own restaurant they run daily to manage so I told them to stay where they are," Helen explained eyeing how her employees were doing while she went to an upstairs area.

In the future, this area would be for more private lunches but as for right now, she would use it as a way to watch over the restaurant when she was here. It was also useful at the moment for hiding Eli away from her other guests.

She really did not want to be bothered with any more questions about her relationship with Eli and how it was going or where it would stand in the future. She could handle some of her friend's questions but any more coming from someone else would just drive her crazy.

Helen would prefer if some people saw her beside someone and not have questions about it. Lose your eyesight when you see a man beside her unless she introduced him as something serious.

One of the worst things about relationships was the explanations. Explaining how you got together, the dates, how you came to love each other, the plans for the future, and even having to explain why you broke up. She didn't care to explain most of the time and why were people so interested to know her private business?

She understood her friend's reasoning as they were all single and on a love deficit. If Julie, Isabelle, and Jennifer were currently in relationships, they wouldn't be questioning her so much about Eli. Maybe Isabelle would because the situation with Eli was one of her fantasies but other than that they wouldn't be bothered. Just slightly impressed with Helen for having the man ask her out.

Helen also wanted to hide Eli from a few of Mary's associates who Mary invited since she couldn't be here. They were the typical people who liked to comment on your insecurities when they see you. They wouldn't like it if Helen were to ask how they felt having so many wrinkles on their faces.

"They must be upset they couldn't make it for your big moment," Eli said walking ahead of Helen when they got upstairs so he could pull out her chair. He was indeed a gentleman most of the time because of all the lessons his mother prepared for him in the past.

"They probably are but I could celebrate with them at any moment. For now, I'll just take as many videos and pictures as I can so they wouldn't feel like they missed out on anything. Thank you," She said taking a seat in the chair Eli pulled out for her. He also pushing it further against the table so she would be more comfortable before he took his own seat.

"Your employees all seem to be beaming with happiness. It doesn't appear like you just built a business but kind of like home. An environment where people would be happy to gather," Eli spoke.

"Flattery, you do it so well."

"I can't help my charms. Recalling your friend's warning that you would be the one hurting me, I take it you wore the pants in your previous relationships?" He questioned curiously as to why she really wasn't interested in serious relationships. Everyone had a reason.

For him, it was because he would live forever and he needed to really consider his partner. If his partner was another vampire it was likely they would never part ways in the future. If his partner ended up being a human, the human would just die eventually.

No one ever woke up and just decided they didn't want to have any kind of serious relationship in the future. Sure some could say they just wanted a break to have some fun but most of the time they were running away from being hurt again.

The main question was, had someone hurt Helen in the past?

"They're overreacting, to be honest. I don't feel like I ever hurt any of my past companions because I've always been upfront with what we were but sometimes they got way too attached. Serious relationships just lead to constantly hearing about marriage and marriage is just one big trap," Helen sort of explained her reasoning of just having fun.

"It gets even worse if the married couple gets kids and they start to fall out of love. The kids are the ones who have to suffer the most. I plan to avoid marriage at all costs. It didn't suit me anyway," She said.

"Just because I was in an orphanage people think I'm supposed to be in a rush to create the perfect family I didn't have growing up, have some kids but I really just want to be alone at the end of the day. And to be truthful, I've got a lot about myself I need to fix before I consider possibly bringing someone into my life permanently," Helen admitted thinking about the terrible childhood memories she rarely shared with anyone and she planned to keep them to herself.

She would rather suffer alone.