Thousand Years

CHAPTER 13 - Date Night

Lora was in her lecture , sitting next to Anna. She did not hear a word the lecturer was saying. She was thinking about Adrian. She was too sleepy to reply to him last night. Now she was regretting not texting him back properly.

She was worried now that he had not tried contacting her afterwards. She wondered when he was coming back. "Hey Lora, aren't you going home? " asked Anna, shaking her out of her thoughts. She quickly followed Anna out of the lecture hall.

She went home and quickly changed so that she could go to the convenience store on time. It was already 3.45pm and she was supposed to be there by 4.00pm.

She entered the store on time. The girl who was on the previous shift let out a sigh of relief as she smiled at Lora. She probably thought Lora was going to be late again. They exchanged a few words before Lora took her place behind the counter.

She was almost at the end of her shift when Derek entered the store. Yes , Derek. The same cute Derek with dimples from her college. Lora had never seen him in this part of the town. She wondered what brought him here.

He smiled at her as he walked in.

"Hey! I know you. Lora right?" he asked,

She was surprised he even remembered her. And she had no idea how he knew her name.

"Hi, yes." she replied shyly.

"So do you live around here?" He asked while he walked towards the racks to pick up snacks.

Lora replied with a small yes. It was almost 7pm and she knew the next part-timer would be here any minute.

Derek came towards the counter with some beer cans and snacks. As she billed for the items, she felt him staring at her. She quickly looked up when the Brian entered the shop. He was the part-timer for the next shift.

"Sorry Lora, I got caught in a traffic jam.''

Lora handed Derek the bill and took money from him.

"It's okay Brian, I'll get going then, see you!" said Lora.

"So, now that your shift is over, care to join me for a drink?”, asked Derek, smiling at her.

She looked at him with a raised brow.  " Oh no, thanks I have somewhere else to be."

"Should I give you a ride to wherever you are going then? "

She did not have to think twice. She did not want to advertise the fact that she worked at an Escort bar. Definitely not to someone from college. She politely refused.

"Okay then see you at college", he said with a wink and left.

Lora did not know what to say. She waited for a bit till he got into his car and left.

She quickly checked her phone to see if there was a message from Adrian but there wasn't. She was a bit disappointed. What if he doesn't contact her again. Then again he had no reason to, she thought. She started walking towards exotic with her head bent down.

Damien was already at the bar cleaning the glasses. She smiled at him, said a quick hi and went inside to get changed.

She put on a dark blue , off the shoulder dress which hugged her body. It reached her knees. She put on her regular and only pair of black heels and put on some makeup. She checked her phone again to see if Adrian had called or texted. 

She then put her phone in her bag, took a deep breath and went outside to serve customers. Madame was near the bar talking to Damien, when Lora her face lit up.

"Oh Lora! You have a customer waiting for you. He'll be here in a while, get ready to go" she said with a wink.

Madame was so excited and Lora wondered why. She almost rolled her eyes. Who was this customer that made her so excited and why anyway, she thought.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adrian landed in New York at 7pm on the dot. The first thing he did was call Madame and he asked what she had to say about his proposition. Madame said that Lora was not given any customers so far, and for the price he insists, she would agree with his conditions.

Now the only thing he wanted was to see her. He went with Dominic to drop Ms Kim and the luggage at his house and he relieved Dominic of his duties for the evening.

Adrian did not wait for any more time, he drove straight to Exotic.

He parked his car and entered Exotic.

"Oh here he is!" Madame chimed as soon as he entered.

He was a bit surprised. They seemed to have been talking about him.

His eyes instantly went to Lora. She looked beautiful in that blue dress. She had a slight blush on her face when she smiled at her.

"Go on then child, I'll see you tomorrow." Madame told Lora.

Lora went back in a hurry to collect her belongings. He was here! He was back here for her, she thought smiling to herself. She wanted to change into more comfortable clothes but she did not want to keep Adrian waiting.

Adrian held the door for her as they walked out of Exotic.

"You hungry?" asked Adrian.

She was starving, so she smiled at him and nodded.

"So, how was your day? " she asked him once they got into the car.

"Well, so so. It was okay I guess." he said with a small laugh. "No one ever really asks me how my day went."

"Oh" she said.

He smiled at how cute she was. She was trying to make conversation and make things less awkward.

"What do you wanna eat?" he asked.

"Hmm, nothing in particular. Whatever you like"

"Well, I can't have what I like right now," he said with a mischievous grin. "But I know a place that I think you would like."

They stopped in front of a huge building. She did not know that this was a restaurant. Rather it read "Richard and Co. Law Firm."

She looked quizzically at him when he pulled his car into the basement parking lot of the building. He got out and opened the door for her.

They walked towards an elevator. He pushed the button for the rooftop.

It was going to be a long ride of one-hundred floors. She thought she was going to be dizzy. As if he was reading her mind, he put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer.

She was intoxicated by how good he smelled. She couldn't think straight, she was standing so close to him, their bodies touching. They were the only ones in the elevator and the air seemed to be humming.

She could feel her heart drumming. "You alright? your face is all red. Does elevators make you sick?" he looked at her with concern evident on his face.

"Yea.. umm.. no. I'm fine" she blurted out as she felt his hand tightening around her waist.

She did not know how long the moment lasted, the next thing she knew was they were stepping into a beautiful rooftop restaurant.

He still had his hand on the small of her back. Not around her waist, she thought a bit annoyed. The place had a beautiful view of the New York skyline. She was literally on cloud nine. She loved roof tops. She absolutely loved the view.

"It's beautiful," she said as she looked around in awe.

Adrian was mesmerized by her. She seemed to be glowing in the light that the small fairy lights above sent. 

He shook his head to get him out of the trans and guided her towards a corner table that had the perfect view.

They ordered food and the waiter served them some wine as they waited.

She looked at him while sipping the wine.

"So now you pay Madame to take me on date?" she asked.

He smiled at her. "I know you would still come if I didn't pay" he said.

She frowned. "Why are you doing this?" she asked. She had a feeling that it would ruin the moment but she needed to know.

"Because I want to get to know you," he replied instantly.

Not the answer she wanted but, she knew this was all she was going to get. So she thought of enjoying the moment. After all, she gets to have dinner with this gorgeous man in this beautiful place, why is she even complaining , she thought.

She then looked at him, he was sipping his wine, deep in thought, his eyes far away. She wanted to know what the longing in his eyes meant.

At that moment she knew that she wanted to know everything about this man.