Chapter 9

Czarielle stood there, still facing the stunned Laxton Hendrix. She didn't know what to do next. All of her courage left her body that time. She's nothing compared to the beautiful woman who's willing to do anything just to get this rich CEO's attention.

She's just accompanying him with this party and she might not see him after this. Her daily routine will came back tomorrow so she'll better ignore them.

With that thought in mind, she left him there. She walked away from him as if she just saw him like an acquaintance. She didn't look back on the two of them because they might need to catch up. Looks like they are classmates or old friends.

When she arrived back to their table, she put her hand up-- like ordering on a fancy restaurant-- and a waiter came in with a tray of different drinks. She put all the glasses with whiskey and a glass of vodka on their table.

Czarielle had a lot of patience compared to her friend Freeda but right now, knowing that Laxton Hendrix is talking to that woman, she getting impatient as seconds passed by.

She mindlessly drink the glasses in one shot. After two minutes, the six glasses in front of her are now empty. Her vision starts to spin a little bit but she can still manage to get a few drinks. She closed her eyes to stop her vision from spinning and balance herself to stand up.

She walk towards the buffet table, grab a plate and put all kinds of food there--from spaghetti, white carbonara pasta, macaroni salad, two cupcakes in blueberry and cheese cake flavor, two chocolate bars, sliced wagyu beef steak, Caesar salad and slices of apple and pineapples. She even ordered the waiter to have her bloody Mary cocktail and a cold water on her table.

Instead of stressing herself on thinking about Laxton and Tarzy, she'll just eat until her stomach's full. She's not in the position to choose not to eat until she went back to her room. All of the food looks expensive so she need to have a taste test. It might be the first and last time she'll eat these foods so better take advantage of the goodies.

Czarielle lost count on how many minutes before she's able to finish the whole plate of food. Still, Laxton Hendrix is not back. When she look around, she felt that all the people on the party are mocking her.

She closed her eyes, gather herself confidence to walk out of the party hall without her heels on and imagining herself walking down the highway still wearing her dress.

She sigh and started to unclasp her heel's hook. After she unclasp both of her heels, she use her left hand to hold both of her heels and started to slowly make way to the entrance without anyone noticing it.

Good thing that the dance floor is already open and the disco lights are illuminating everywhere now. She slightly pushed passerbys until her hand reached the door handle.

"Where do you think you're going, woman? You said you don't intend to walk with your heels on that's why you're walking on barefoot?"

"Oh, there you are again!" She stagger a little bit and continue, "You two need to catch up and I want to go home now that I'm full. Thank you for the delicious food, anyway!" She slowly caress his left face and she lean her head over to his right shoulder.

She heard him sigh deeply before he encircled both of his arms on her waist. They stayed there for a moment until someone speak up from his back.

"Six years had passed and you still haven't change a bit, Laxton! You still help out drunk women in every party that you're always into. Haha!" The woman chuckled sarcastically.

Laxton Hendrix swiftly but surely turn around--his arms are still encircled on her waist. "I told you, I already changed a lot, Katarzyna! I'm not the same man that you left before. I'm not the same man that will do all the things you want me to do. I have different priorities now unlike before. And this woman is one of my priorities so back off!"

Czarielle clapped her hands slowly. She's already tipsy and alcohol is slowly sinking in to her mind now. This is the part where she badly needs to go home before she will do something that will degrade her the next day.

"See? He's very rude to tell you that I'm one of his priorities but the truth is, he's a self made jerk inside." She giggled. "He's fifty percent liar and fifty percent jerk who---" Laxton put his hand on her lips to prevent her from talking nonstop.

"Excuse us. I'll need to take her home right now." He slowly lift her like a sack full of rice and carefully open the door. One of his employee volunteer to ready his car.

When they arrived at the photo studio, he carefully put her down on her small bed.

For the first time, Laxton Hendrix didn't ask someone to buy or make coffee for him. The first thing he did is to boil water from an electric kettle on Czarielle's small kitchen. He only see a couple of sachets of three in one instant coffee so he had no choice but to pour that on two cups.

While waiting for the water to boil, he checked the place where he can get a face towel but he didn't see any. He just used a couple of wet wipes that he saw in front of a make shift table with mirror which has lip gloss in three shades--red, gray and pink, a plastic bottle of face wash, face moisturizer, a couple of compact powder, foundation, eye palette and eye shadow.

He started to wipe off her oily face with the wipes. He use another wipes to wipe off her red smudged lipstick.

"Why do you look mesmerizing when you're half asleep, hmm?" He can't help himself but talk to her while her eyes are tightly closed.

"Should I ask you to pretend to be my girlfriend like what Billy suggests? Or should I make it real since you owe me something?" He carefully put a soft pillow at the back of her head and went back to the kitchen.

"You should do what your heart says. Its our friendship motto."

He was surprised that Czarielle can still talked back to him when she's nearly asleep. He sigh and pour the coffee mix on one cup and pour some boiling water. He decide to drink the coffee with two coffee mix sachet for him to wake up. He need to at least drive back to their home or else, he might end up sleeping beside her.

After he finished drinking the coffee, he taught that he can took a nap beside her and will just woke up early tomorrow since his eyes are dropping down on him. He might get into an accident if he still insisted to drive back home.

Laxton Hendrix carefully roll her until she reached the end of the bed near the windows. She might fall if he left her on her position. Then he climb up to the bed, stretching his legs and putting it a little bit higher on the wall before he closed his eyes.