Chapter 8: Jealous

Joyce saw Kashmir and Amaro and she walked towards them.

"Good evening, Mr. Khan." Joyce respectfully greeted.

Smiling at her, Amaro greeted back "Good evening, Ms. Joyce"

"Girl, look at you! You look like a princess, where is your prince charming?" Joyce admiringly looked at Kashmir and hugged her.

"My prince charming is missing and I don't know where to find him, help me find him." Kashmir teased her friend but her heart is sad because she misses him.

"Oh, you do have a prince charming now?" Joyce sensed that Kashmir was telling her the truth. 

"Tell me who is that brave man who won your heart. He must be an extremely good looking man, that he won your heart. Did you meet him when you were in the Philippines?" Joyce teased Kashmir.

“I met him in the Netherlands” Kashmir giggled.

“Really? Tell me.” Joyce was elated, finally her best friend fell in love. 

"Girl, it's not the right place and time for that." Kashmir answered her best friend.

Amaro, who heard their conversation, frowned and panicked.

"Hey buddy, what's up?" Ishmael tapped his shoulder; he knows that his friend is anxious.

"It's just things in the company but I can manage it" he sighed.

"Come on man, is it really the company or it is a woman that's bothering you?" Ishmael heard the girls' conversation and observed Amaro's reaction while listening to the conversation. 

He knew that Amaro was jealous. They've been best friends since childhood and he knew his friend is in love with Kashmir. From the day of the interview Amaro's actions were hints that he is smitten with Kashmir, even his order to get necessary documents for one week so Kashmir could fly to Dubai and him personally picking up Kashmir at the airport. And now this dinner date. He booked the whole place so that no one will come except them. He was certain that his friend was in love, he was never like this even to his fiancée.

They came to their table at the centre and sat. A waiter approached them and handed each of them a menu. The waiter took note of what they wanted to eat.

"Please, bring us a red wine," Amaro said to the waiter.

"Yes, sir." The waiter politely answered.

The waiter came back with a bottle of wine and served the wine. 

When he's about to serve wine to Kashmir, she quickly refused. "No, but thank you."

"You don't drink?" Ishmael was amused because her best friend Joyce drinks.

Kashmir blushed and bowed. Thus, Joyce answered for her. "We tried to teach her to drink wine but she doesn't like the taste," she explained. 

"We went to a club after our final exam, we forced her to drink. When she tasted the wine, she made faces and spat out the wine and ran to the powder room and gargled. We couldn't make her drink wine. And then, me and our two other best friends got drunk and did silly things at the club. We were so drunk that Kashmir had to drag us to a cab. The following morning, she got a sore back because of that." Joyce recounted and laughed.

"So, she is the good girl among you?" Amaro asked.

"Yes, she is the good girl in the group. Samantha, Queenie and I are wild and do crazy things. She tames us, that's why we love her." Joyce grinned.

"Kashmir, Amaro needs taming" Ishmael winked at her and laughed.

Amaro blushed and he glared at Ishmael.

"Sir Ishmael, I am his PA not his mom." She wittingly answered.

Amaro threw his head back and howled with laughter and they joined him laughing. When they stopped laughing, Ishmael asked Joyce for a dance.

"Honey, let's dance. The song they're playing is our favourite love song" Ishmael held Joyce’s hand

Joyce and Ishmael stood up and went to the dance area. Kashmir watches them dance, she imagines that she and her prince charming is dancing. She longs for him and she regrets not asking his phone number. Tears pooled in her eyes, but none escaped. She looked at the floor trying to conceal her gloom.

"Will you do me the honor of dancing with me?" Amaro extended his hand, Kashmir looked up and saw Amaro smiling at her.

"Y... Your.. Uhhhm... Amaro... Uhhmm." Kashmir was hesitating to dance with Amaro.

"Will you do me the honor to dance with me princess?" Amaro repeated, his hand still extended.

"Yes, but please don't call me princess because I am not." she held his hand, stand to her feet and they walked towards the dance floor.

She put her one hand on his shoulder while her other hand was on his hand. Amaro held her waist and pulled her closer. Kashmir’s breath hitched and was shocked by the sudden pull. Amaro enjoyed savoring the moment while they were dancing.

After the dance they had their dinner, they had conversation after dinner for a while.

"Bye girl. We have to have a video conference with the girls. You owe us. You have to tell us about your prince charming." Joyce hugged.

"You didn't forget it," Kashmir said, smirking at Joyce.

It was already 10 pm when they arrived at the palace. Kashmir had bathed, when she was about to go to her bed, she heard a phone ringing. She wondered who could have left a phone in her room. She has not bought a phone yet, for she left her iPhone to her sister. The sound was coming from the night stand and she saw her clutch bag there, she picked and opened it. There she saw an iPhone, she looked at the phone screen to see who was calling. It is Amaro, so she answered it.

"Hello, Your Highness, do you need anything?" she said, looking at her watch. 

"Do you really want me to kiss you?” Amaro’s voice was husky and sexy. 

"It's only my first day here, please give me some time to do your order. It's really hard switching you know. I'm afraid I will make the mistake of accidentally calling you by your first name when we are with other people. I think I have to stick with calling you 'Your Highness'."

"No, that's an order" he refused her to call him 'Your Highness' at all time, he wants her to call him Amaro because it's intimate.

"Amaro do you need anything" Kashmir corrected her question a while ago and called Amaro by his name. 

"Be ready at 7am, I want you in my chamber." Amaro instructed Kashmir. 

"Yes, Amaro," she said. "By the way thank you very much for taking us out and thank you for the dress, clutch bag and accessories but please don't do it again. And this iPhone, I will be giving it back to you."

"No, you don't have to, I have to give you that because we need it for communication."

"Well, deduct it from my salary"

"Good night princess, have a good night's rest."

"Goodnight too Amaro" she hangs up the phone.

Amaro looked at the ceiling and was thinking about Kashmir, his lips curled up as he thought about her.