The Billionaire's Xmas Love BWWM

Two Turtle Doves Meet

 "It was you, the musician next door." She couldn't help the words that came off her lips, completely unrelated to what he had just told her. If she were in her normal senses, she would have asked why he thought so about the hotel food and why he couldn't mind his own business. But she wasn't, and couldn't stop her eyes from asking the same question she had asked with her lips, she was curious. And since they sat according to their room numbers, then he had to be the one. Or was he not? She felt disappointment at the thought that he wasn't the one build within her. She had to be right, the emotions and connections she felt towards the voice undid her as much as the face before her.

 "My apologies for that. I didn't realise there was someone else lodging on that floor." He finally replied, after seeming to contemplate on whether to tell her or not. The waiter walked towards him before she could say a word, which was advantageous to her because she didn't know what she would have said anyway.

She had been caught off guard; there was no hint of sadness in his eyes that would have made her recognise him, and had it not been that he spoke, she wouldn't have imagined that he was the one.

 "Sir, wouldn't you like to come upstairs? Your private..."

 "No thanks, I'm good here." He interrupted before the waiter could complete his words. "Just get me the usual." He continued, giving a smile that didn't touch his eyes. 

 "Okay sir." 

 "Wait please." He turned to her again, after talking to the waiter. "Won't you order something else? Believe me, you'll sue the kitchen staff if you taste that food." Because she wanted to get him to keep talking, she nodded, not thinking about how creepy she was beginning to find everything here. 

 "What would you suggest I order then?" If this were someone else, she would have ignored him, but this was someone she had thought of all virtually throughout the day. She was more than glad to let him intrude in her affairs.

 He smiled, and took the menu, pointing at a dish next to the one she had ordered. 

 "Looks appetising, but I don't think the staff will appreciate having wasted food in their hands. I'll just manage it." Stubbornness, her mother always told her, would be the end of her. It would teach her a lesson she would never forget, those were always Ejike Chugo Anastasia's words whenever SheAdaora insisted on having her way. That lesson came staring into her face as soon as she tasted a spoonful of the food she had been told not to taste. She found herself struggling between pretending to like the spiced-to-a-wicked-fault soup and spitting it out.

 She went with the first, and soon found herself gasping for air and water. He was by her side in a stride, and hid her view from the spectators who strained their necks to get entertained for the evening. He rubbed her back gently while pushing a cold glass of juice she didn't know where it came from into her mouth. She gulped it down desperately, and the second glass too, till she felt the burning of her tongue subside and her eyes stop watering. 

 "Thank you." She managed to say, and wondered afterwards, when he snapped his fingers and the waiter took the tray away trying to hide the laughter that crept to his cheeks, if he thought she were some egoist that would rather take a pain than admit she had been wrong in her choice of selection, which was what she actually thought of herself at the moment. She should have just gone with his suggestion.

 "Thanks." She muttered again, and untangled herself from his grip. He sat opposite her, saying nothing as she avoided his eyes and straightened her face. 

 "I'm Kelvin." He said, his sharp analytical eyes making her wonder if she had worn her clothes and hair right. She wanted to adjust something; the time. To travel back to before she took a spoon of that food. She had never felt more stupid of herself. She always had the right words for every situation, and it would have been better if he had looked at her pitifully, then it would have been easier to scorn him, to walk away. But he didn't, and she realised something; he was trying to pretend it had never happened. 

 "Kelvin Hathaway. You were asking about my music, did I disturb you?" His voice was musical, moving in harmony of stressed and unstressed syllables. His British accent gave her the effect she got from having oil poured in her scalp while massaging it in circles. It was a lullaby.

 "No, you didn't. I enjoyed it actually." That was true, but not the whole truth, she couldn't tell him it had made her so sad that she wanted to reach out to him. 

 "Even though it was sad?" Apparently Kelvin was smarter than she gave him credit for. His eyes searched hers for the truth. She found herself unable to lie, looking into those eyes that spoke of sincerity. 

 "It was, yes, but that didn't prevent me from wanting to listen for a second, and a third, till the tenth when you took a break. Sorry if I'm intruding, but are you okay?" The waiter returned before he could answer bearing two trays she hadn't known when they were ordered. She figured he had gone along with Kelvin's suggestion when she opened her plates. She was skeptical about tasting another, but the 'go on, you will like it' he told her made her take it in, and when she chewed, she found herself smiling and nodding her head in acknowledgement. 

 "You like it?" He picked his own fork and chewed the grilled meat he had ordered in bites, mirroring her smiles. 

 "Hmm, I love it. Thank you." She had a slight dimple by the side when she smiled, and he wondered if she had it on the other cheek, he wanted to know. 

 "It seems you've patronised this hotel for a while now." Adaora said, taking a sip of her drink. 

 He seemed amused. "What makes you say so?" 

 "Well, you know the dish that'll make me want to sue the hotel, and one that'll make me want to live in the restaurant just to have a taste everyday. Then there's this look of respectful recognition the staff give you, and there is the waiter who served us requesting to take you to a private somewhere?" 

 He seemed to think for a while. "So you want to live in the kitchen now?" 

"Stop trying to divert. You didn't answer my question." 

As though knowing he had been caught on something, he gave her a cocky knowing smirk. "You're smart, and ordering me? Bossy too. Okay yes, you can say I'm part of the management, nothing serious." He raised his hands in mock surrender and she laughed, forgetting about the food incident. 

 "I'm not bossy, Kelvin." The way she said his name as though she hadn't just learnt it made him wish. 

 "You know, I think I know you from somewhere, I just can't place my hand on it." He had finished his food, or rather meat, and was drinking fresh tomato juice with a straw. Again, if it had been someone else who wasn't Kelvin, she would have thought of it as a bad hook up line and told him so. But there was something unique about him that spoke much of a person who went straight for the kill and didn't have time to disguise what he felt and wanted to say. 

 "Maybe you met me in your previous life?" They both laughed, and his face became all serious again, narrowing flat to slits.

 "I remember now. You are featured in the show 'Under 40 CEOs right?" His eyes were expectant, as though they would fall in disappointment if she didn't affirm. But he was right, and so she nodded as modestly as she could, attempting and failing not to give the pride she felt within her away.

 "This is wonderful, seriously. I've been following that show for the past two years, and damn, I'm a fan."