VORTEX.

10. Divorce

Autumn's POV

THE FIRST DATE

My eyes were fixed on the countless humans that walked on the street, going about their day. I heard Reece calling for the waiter, as loud honks from cabs could be heard below.

"Do you like the restaurant?" Reece booked a top Italian restaurant just for us. The restaurant was in the top floor but it wasn't a very tall building.

Once we got here, I told Reece I didn't want to be indoors. So we came out to the balcony to eat instead. It was mainly because I could watch the growing night, witness the setting sun and look at anything else but Reece's stupid face.

His stupid well-designed, accurately structured face with all the right details.

Black hair that was in a very low buzz cut. Sharp jawline, defined cheekbones, pink little lips that I know are soft, neatly shaved beards, with side beards and very beautiful eyes.

I would be lying to myself if I didn't say his golden amber orbs are not the most extraordinary peer of eyes I've ever seen.

Is this the same guy you said has a stupid face?

A person can have an illegal kind of face and it can still be stupid, so yeah.

I look at his face to find a smile on his lips. "I've been to better." He laughs in response. Just then, the waiter came.

"Good evening Ms. Good evening Sir. What would you be having today?" I ran my eyes over the menu. Reece did the same.

I ordered first, then Reece ordered too. The waiter makes a curt bow before leaving. Silence befalls on us and the best distraction for me was the busy evening before my eyes.

"I didn't know the people of LA would steal your attention away from me. If I knew, I would have taken you to somewhere more private, so I would be the only one entertaining to your eyes." I bring my eyes to him, a grin hitched at the side of his lips.

His expression was soft and playful but the tone in which he spoke with was not so playful.

"What do you want Reece?" My voice was calm and I kept my eyes locked on his.

"To marry you." He leans forward to the table, resting his elbows on the table surface. His grin was still as present as the stupid pimple that doesn't wanna leave my face.

"What do you really want?" My arms were intertwined with each other, against my chest.

"You. I want you Autumn." I couldn't help myself but break into laughter. I tried to read his face but no trace of humor was found.

"Why?" I questioned and he shrugs.

"Why not?" He responds nonchalantly.

Why not?

That's his response? I don't know what I was expecting but why not wasn't it.

I killed any kind of interested expression I looked at him with. "You want me but you don't even have a reason."

"We don't always need to have a reason to want something Ice queen." I purposely ignored the new name he just called me.

"I am not a thing that you can just have or another private airplane you can add to your collection." Amusement emerges his face as he leans back into his chair.

"So you did your research." I scoffed at that.

"There's no need to do any research because the first that comes to mind when someone hears The Hayes is The Hayes Airline."

"So you think because my family has airline companies, I have my own collection of private airplanes?" Of course he does.

"Don't you?" I retorted and he smiles defeatedly.

How am I supposed to hate this guy when he keeps blinding me with his pretty smile?

His smile is really beautiful.

The waiter comes with our food moments after. We began eating in silence. Forks and knives clicking the glass plates were the only things cutting through the silence.

"This is my first time doing anything with The Snows." Reece began, taking a bite of his food.

"We don't have to make small talk Reece." I kept my eyes on my plate but I could tell that he paused with his cutleries in his hand.

"Then what else do you want us to do?" I met his eyes at that. A certain level of deepness mixed with his voice, which only enhanced his lethal features.

"Not get married." I flashed him a fake smile but he only laughs.

"So you rather stay blacklisted than get married?" He tilts his head, scrutinizing me like an the biggest problem he has ever encountered.

Of course I am.

I dropped my own cutleries, making my already hardened face more inscrutable. "Doesn't the idea of marrying someone you've never met, you don't know and you don't love sicken you? Cause it sickens me badly."

I expected him to grin like usual but instead his face falls and a lost look now appears in his eyes. I only just remembered that Reece was married before right at this second, but I could care less if I said something relatively hurtful.

After a moment, Reece's eyes met mine but what surprised me was the way his lips curved up into a smile, like he wasn't just in a trance some seconds ago.

"I've met you and am getting to know you. So no, it doesn't sicken me." He smirks before laughing lightly, then starts eating again.

How is he getting to know me? I've barely said a word about myself. I don't want to know him and I don't want him to know me either.

I exhaled, then resumed eating too, choosing to not fail prey to his evil-- nothing affects me --act.

"You have a daughter?" I inquired, looking at him as I cut through my food and he nods.

"Her name?" A bright smile emerges his face before he responds,

"Axel."

"How old?"

"Four."

Well that's a relief. At least she's not a teenager. Lord knows that would have been buying a bus ticket to hell.

"You're thankful she's not a teenager right?" Reece voiced out with a smile, like he could read my mind.

I ignored his question, even though it was exactly what I was thinking.

"Don't worry. You'll love her. She's an angel." I could see the amount of love he has for his daughter in his eyes.

I remembered Gia said something about his wife too, but there have been no news about her for five years now.

Figured I should ask Reece personally about her. I don't wanna get with a man that has a wife who is a mystery, then later in the the nearest future, she finds me, stalks me and eventually kills me.

"What about your wife?" My question causes him to visibly freeze. He didn't look like he was in a trance like before. This time, his face had hardened, his jaw was clenched and when I looked at his hands, that's when I noticed they were both balled.

Fuck!

If I thought this man looked dangerously handsome before, I was fooling myself.

Now he looks deadly hot. The exact definition of the Greek gods in the ancient times that we hear about. The exact definition of a perfect built man.

He should be angry more.

"There's a way that can work for us." I cut into the pending silence after a long moment, although I don't know what was to happen.

Reece face slowly soften and he unballs his fist. "Which is?" His tone was lower now and there was no sense of humor lingering in it.

"We can get married and divorce after a year." I go back to my food that surprisingly hasn't still finished. He was silent at first, like he was contemplating what I just said.

"Why a year?" I thought he would be more concerned about the divorce part.

"To make the world believe it was actually real. You said it yourself, you want the world to believe that we are getting married." He only cuts through the roasted and very tasty ribs.

"The duration isn't always an affirmation." He doesn't look at me, just at his food.

"Yeah...." I took a sip of my red wine, "....but it'll give people enough time to forget about my scandal and everything, because something way more scandalous is gonna happen within a year."

The once soothing coolness of the darkening day now turns into waves of cold air, that attacks my skin through my white sheer suit.

My hands voluntarily goes to my arms and I suck in a sharp breath.

"Kinda rethinking my choice of coming out--" My words get cut off when I felt a warm larger suit land on my shoulders.

His movement was so swift, I didn't even notice him standing up. His cologne invaded my sense of smell, giving no room for me to breathe in anything else. His scent was tinted in the air and on his suit, that was now shielding my body from the evening cold.

"Thank you." I finally say after what felt like a lifetime but he only nods his head.

His mood shifted since I asked about his wife but I honestly didn't know it was a sensitive question.

We go back to our food and finished it in silence. Reece calls for the waiter before completely giving his attention to me.

His striking golden amber eyes that matched a blazing sun connects with mine and I found myself getting lost in them.

How can someone possess such beautiful heart racing eyes?

"Okay I agree." Reece's voice brings me back into reality. I had no idea what he meant by that.

"Agree to what?" He c***s his head and for the first time in the past minutes of showing no ounce of emotion, his lips c***k into a smile.

"Where's your head at Ice queen?" I roll my eyes at him and he laughs. He's back to himself.

I want the angry one.

I ignored the nickname, mentally tracing back to what he agreed to. It took a moment but I finally remembered. The divorce.

My own lips spread into a grin, "Really? Why?" The divorce is exactly what I want but for some reason, am curious as to why he agreed to it so easily.

"Isn't it what you want?" He was way too relaxed and unbothered, like he had an hidden agenda. I don't like it.

"Yes it's exactly what I want." I say proudly. He nods understandingly before speaking.

"But--" I knew he has something cooked up in that sexy mind of his.

Sexy mind?

What has gotten into me?

He locks his eyes with mine before uttering "You have to agree to everything I say for a full year."

Hold up-----

Hell no.

"Marrying you is already taking a toll on me, you still want me to agree to everything you say for a full year?" He shrugs.

"You're not the only one who gets to call the shots or make demands Ice queen." This little snake.

"Is calling me Autumn so difficult?"

"It's what everybody calls you so yeah."

"But it's my name."

"And that's why am giving you a new one just for me." He was enjoying our back and forth way too much and it only pissed me off. Not to talk of that winning grin on his lips.

"From Bellezza to Ice queen? Really?" I quirk a brow at him.

He chuckles at the actuality of my question. "Bellezza is beauty in italian." He smirks.

Oh.

Well that's unexpected. I should've done my research.

"Then why the Ice queen?"

"You told me to not call you Bellezza." Yeah he's right.

"Well I don't like Ice queen." He narrows his eyes.

"Are you sure? Cause the name really suits you." I roll my eyes at him again.

"Nicknames isn't what you should be worried about but don't worry, you're gonna love the next one I get to call you."

I only just realised we diverted from the divorce and agreement to nicknames. "You're right. I could only care less about some dumb nicknames. We are getting a divorce after a year and no, am not agreeing to everything you say."

He closes his eyes, drags his hands to his chest in a dramatic way like my words just pierced him like an arrow.

"Ouch." I couldn't help but chuckle at his display.

"I'll ignore my pierced heart by your words Ice queen." He pours himself another glass of wine.

"If you don't agree to my own demand..." His voice became an octave lower and deeper and he sips his wine.

"Then I won't agree to yours."

a/n:

thanks for reading!