Cold Coffee

Soon a waitress approached them, there was a trolley in her hand in which she was rolling. It had their orders on it.

She placed the food on the table and kept Xavier's coffee in front of him.

"Enjoy your meal, sir, ma'am," she said before bowing down and walking away. She had the same fear for the two but it wasn't as obvious as that of the previous waiter.

Ivy inhaled the rich, spicy, savory scent coming from the food. It smelled delicious.

She had a bite of the burger then her expression suddenly turned sour then the next second, she called out. "Hey, waiter!"

The waiter turned, it was the waiter from before. He has been trying as much as possible to avoid these two, but somehow the chief chef ordered him to get something from a shelf in the diner and was on his way. Unfortunately for him, he was the closest waiter nearby and he dreaded that fact, cursing himself silently.

He tried as much as possible to steady his steps as he approached them. "Yes ma'am," he answered with his head lowered while he fiddled with his fingers nervously.

"My burger is bland, why?" she asked with her gaze fixed on the waiter.

"I'm sorry about that ma'am, I'll get you another one right way," he said reaching out to grab the plate, but then she slapped his hand.

"You didn't even bother asking me how it's bland, how foolish could you be?"

"I'm so–"

"Just get me some pepper," she said pinching the space between her brows.

The waiter quickly ran to get a bottle of pepper.

Soon, the waiter approached them with a bottle of pepper in his hand and she collected it.

She kept pouring pepper into the ham until she was satisfied. The waiter had the urge to stop her because she was pouring way too much pepper into the food, but he held back. Xavier was shocked but his face still held the stoic expression. He was the least bothered about the amount of pepper she was adding to her food and just took a sip of his coffee, nonchalantly and watched her as if intrigued. How could a human consume such an amount of pepper?

"I don't get. Why is there no pepper on the tables in this restaurant?" she asked and the waiter gulped.

"A-actually, m–"

"Just go," she said waving dismissively at him and he quickly left.

"There's no way you're going to finish all that," Xavier looking, looking at the pile of food set before her.

"Try me," she replied with a smile.

She started with the huge hamburger that had an immeasurable amount of pepper and devoured it like it was nothing in less than two minutes and she wasn't the least reacting to the amount of pepper she added. She just ate it like she was eating plain bread.

Xavier didn't notice that he had been watching her in awe and fascination the whole time to the point that his coffee was getting cold.

It had been fifteen minutes since she started eating and the only food left for her was the pudding and she didn't look tired one bit.

"Hey, when you're done looking at me, you can drink your coffee, I can't see any steam coming from It anymore, so it must be cold by now. Am I that admirable?" she called out to him.

It was then he realized what he was doing and his gaze immediately fell to his coffee which was probably cold, but as usual, his expression gave nothing away.

"I like my coffee cold," he replied in a flat tone.

"Then you could have just ordered a cold coffee instead of a hot one," she responded, licking a smudge of pudding resting on her lips.

It wasn't supposed to be seductive, but for some reason, he felt attracted and spellbound to that simple act of hers.

"Aren't I right?" she called out, making his heartbeat skip a beat involuntarily.

"I prefer the taste of hot coffee that has been cooled off to that of the original cold coffee," he quickly answered, since it was the only logical explanation he could think of.

"What's the difference?" she sighed, "Oh, whatever, but it's a wastage of resources... and money, if you ask me."

"Says the lady that orders lunch of 5000," he muttered under his breath but she could still hear him.

"Almost, it's not up to 5000. And besides, 5000 wouldn't take anything from you. You are a multimillionaire, in fact a billionaire–"

"So are you," he countered back.

"You're changing the topic," she said, putting a spoonful of pudding in her mouth before swallowing.

"Was there a topic in the first place?"

She rolled her eyes and took a sip of her ice tea before she spoke. "Okay, if you really like cold coffee as you claim to, why don't you drink it. It should be cold enough by now."

"I was about to," he said, still maintaining eye contact with her.

"Then do it."

He took a sip of the coffee and as usual, his expression gave nothing away to show that he didn't like it or that he was reluctant to drink it.

She couldn't fathom the look in his eyes as he drank it. She tried as hard as she could and this was the first time she ever tried this hard. She was surprised because she never had trouble reading the expression on someone's face but when it came to this man, it was a whole different story on its own so she gave up.

She ate the remaining of her food in silence and some waiters came to clear her side of the table when she was done eating, leaving her unfinished ice tea because she had told them to do so, while Xavier's focus was back on his phone with him drinking his coffee from time to time. After a while of long deafening silence, she spoke.

"My birthday is in two months, so what are you getting for me. By the way, I'll be 25," she said with a satisfactory smile gracing her lips.

"Aren't you already 25," Xavier asked tearing his gaze off his phone and staring at her with an arched brow.

"Approximately," she laughed.

"But the information I got about you says that you're 25."

"You're so impatient. You've already done your research on me... I like that."

Xavier tightened his lips forming a thin line across them. "How will a stranger out of the blue ask for a marriage alliance? How do you expect me not to carry out my investigations? So of course I had to gather all the information that I could," he countered back, making her smile slowly fade away.

"I want everyone to think that I'm 25 going to 26," she paused to look at Xavier who for some reason, seemed interested in what she was saying with an arched brow.