Chapter 21.

A young girl of about 19 came up to our table after Dixon waved her over and glanced between us in curiosity. Her name tag read 'Megan', she's really pretty with her natural red hair and the freckles scattered all over her nose.

"Hello, I'm Megan. How can I help you today?" She asked with a pen and note in hand. I gave the menu a quick glance before deciding to go with the simple sausage egg sandwich.

"Can we get a plate of your Working Man's breakfast? I'll have some pancakes and bacon for myself." I opened my mouth to protest that I couldn't possibly eat that much but my stomach growled reminding me o the fact that I haven't eaten anything since I ate my Raspberry Swirl Loaf which I didn't even get to finish. I bit my lip and lowered my gaze in embarrassment.

"What would you like to drink, Princess?" Dixon asked, making me raise my head to look at him.

"I'll have a cappuccino, please." I told the waitress with a small smile. "Thank you."

Once the waitress was gone, I turned a narrowed glance at him." A Working Man's breakfast? Really? If I'm not mistaken, that's three pancakes, roasted potatoes, two pieces of French toast, some bacon, ham, pork sausages, and scrambled eggs. Wait, are you trying to kill me?"

"I can't kill you, Princess. We haven't even been on a real date yet."

"That's what you're worried about. Seriously?" I said as I tried desperately to hide the smile that is coming on my face. He shrugged his shoulders as he ran his hand through his hair. I so longed to touch and feel that shiny soft featherlike hair someday.

"What's the next step now? I mean if we're really going to find the hidden message your dad has for us, we have to know what we're doing, how we're doing it and how we wanna go about it." He said. I nodded and brought out my note pad.

"How about we have some rules?" I said. He raised his eyebrows in question as he looked at me. "What? I watch movies and read books too. It's fun, don't judge me for being a girl."

"Well, You're such a girl." He chuckled as I threw the nearest object at him which he dodged successfully even though he didn't see it coming. Or maybe he did.

"Since we're gonna be couples, I guess we can be the lovey dovey kind of lovers." I saw his eyes brighten in excitement, "And no, no sex. no kissing too except your life really depends on it and I mean really really depends on it like 'you're about to die and I give a CPR to bring you back to life' kind of kiss."

"That's really mean, how can I have a girlfriend I can't even kiss? At least, we get to kiss in public, right?" He asked fluttering his eyelashes at me and his bottom lip tucked out in an attempt to be cute with both his hands clasped together looking at me in hope.

"Awww, you're so cute. But Nope can do." I sang just as Megan arrived with our food. The smell of freshly cooked bacon filled my nostrils as I felt my mouth water. I literally had tears in my eyes as I put a slice of bacon in my mouth.

"You know, for a girl you have a wonderful and satisfying eating habit." He said making me glare at him. I knew he didn't mean that as a complement.

"I never said I was a girl anyway. And you don't stare at a lady who's eating her favorite thing in the world, she might just decide to scratch your eyeballs out." I said and went back to eating.

"Ohh, feisty? I like." He winked before grabbing my note pad and going through the rules I wrote down. "So the contract. No kissing, no sex. What else?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure. I guess I'll just add more as time goes by." I shrugged before taking a bite out of my pancakes. So buttery, just how I like it. Yum!!

"You won't add that line? You know the 'don't you dare fall in love with me' creepy line?" He asked.

"Nahh, I find stuffs like that boring. I mean when you say that, there's like a 99.999% chance of it happening, so why waste your time trying to prevent what's going to finally happen?"

"So you think we might fall in love?" He asked with a smirk playing at the corner of his lips. I felt my heart hammer so fast in my chest. What will I say to that now?

"You wish, dude. You wish." I said as I patted myself mentally for being so strong and convincing. Whew!! That took a lot of energy.

"Who would have thought that the popular Dixon Greene watches the cringy and cliché movies?"

"Whatever. When you have friends like Adeline, you'll watch cringy movies. Can you believe she made me watch Titanic and forced me to cry at its end? Like seriously?" I busted out in laughter as I knew that's definitely her.

"She did that cause she loves you." I said as I finally calmed down.

"By sticking two fingers into my eyes claiming to call out my tear gland. That's a brutal way to show your love to someone." He said as I literally felt my cheeks hurting from laughing too much.

"You know you love her. She's your best friend." He smiled sadly at me as his eyes seems to look far into the distance.

"Yeah, she's the best friend anyone will be grateful for but I feel like a bad person, you know."

"Why is that?" I asked as I set my food aside.

"I had a female friend too when I was like really young. But like everything else, I ruined what we had. She was everything to me, a really good friend. We met at a family function and I can still remember her being the most beautiful girl in the world in her little princess outfit." He chuckled as I felt my heart clench in jealousy. "She came to me and said 'I really like your shirt', I'm telling you I felt my heart somersault in my chest. That was the first time I fell in love."

For some reason, I felt like there was something special between him and the girl. A part of me felt so happy they didn't end up together but another part just wanted to take the pain away. He look like he's been hurt by her. I stretched my hand across the table and grabbed his.

"It's okay. It's all going be fine. Adeline is a really cool person, you know that. I suck at consoling someone right?" He nodded smiling. I clicked my tongue to the roof of my mouth;" At least you know not to come to me when Ada has you crying for Titanic now."

My phone ringing interrupted our little discussion. Luke's name appeared on the screen, seeing the time I definitely knew I was in trouble. I answered the call.

"McKenna, Where in the beJesus's name are you? You were supposed to be here 30 minutes ago for the Sinclair company investor's meeting." My eyes widened as I realized that I completely forgot about the meeting.

"That was for today?" I asked dumbly. He sighed deeply on the other side of the line.

"Will you just get your ass over here right away? And you better be fast about it."

"On my way. See you soon." I hung up.

"Calls always seems to cut our dates short, doesn't it?" He asked.

"Yeah, sorry. Except that was work and I really have to go. Apparently, I forgot I had a meeting to attend this morning."

"That's alright. I have to head to work too anyway. Let me walk you out." I nodded before picking up my bag and heading to the exit with Dixon right on my heel. For some weird reason, I felt like I was being watched. I paid it no mind and entered into my car. It's probably the press again trying to get a story. I rolled down my window just as Dixon bent down. Freaky tall dudes.

"I'll call you later, yeah?" I nodded before placing a small kiss on his cheek. I immediately pushed him back out and drove out of the parking area in full speed not even caring if I hit Dixon along the way. "You do know he's in love with someone else, right?' my stupid subconscious just had to make herself known. Of course, I know but for the first time in my life, I don't want to worry about the past or future. I'll just let myself think about now. I thought to myself as I sped to the office.