Leap OF Fate novel Chapter 42

Serene felt the bright warm light touch her face. Her hand felt the space beside her. It was empty but still warm. Her eyes immediately opened to confirm what her hand felt. Indeed, she’s alone on the bed. Her eyes lazily explored the room in search of him.

Unable to see him anywhere, she sat up, rested her head on the headboard, then looked blankly at the space in front of her.

Justin lazily looked at her. His arms across his chest, his body resting on the bathroom’s jamb, one of his feet crossed in front of the other. A smirk formed on his lips as he watched her dazed look on her face.

He peeled himself away from the doorjamb; then he lazily walked towards her. He gave her pouting lips a quick kiss, then shuffled the hair on top of her head. “Good morning, sleepyhead”.

“Where did you go?” her husky voice sounded sexy, Justin felt a change in his body.

“I was just in the bathroom. Get up, let’s have brunch.” He pulled her arms to separate her from the bed. She lazily lifted herself and got out of the bed.

She took a quick shower and in less than fifteen minutes got out wrapped in a bathrobe. She cannot help but smile when she saw clothes lined up on the bed.

She approached Justin and wrapped her arms around his neck, then gave his lips a quick peck. “Thanks for preparing these”.

She put on the clothes he picked. He chose a simple wrap around dress. It fell just a couple of inches above her knee. She put on a light makeup and curled the ends of her hair.

“Let’s go?” she asked Justin soon as she finished. He’s watching financial news while working on his iPad. Hearing her, he turned off the television then set aside his laptop.

She never failed to take his breath away. He wanted to forget about lunch and would rather gobble her up again. The dress complemented her body, hugging her in the right places. She showed just enough cleavage.

“Are you okay to have Chester and Bryan join us?” he questions her tentatively. He knew the tension among them, and he did not want to put her to a situation where she’d feel uncomfortable.

“It’s fine,” she smiled at him. “It’s bound to happen eventually, so why delay?” she extended her hand to him which he took then they walked out of his suite.

They drove to a small restaurant outside the business district. The restaurant sits at the top of a cliff overlooking the bay.

When they arrived, Bryan and Chester already sat on a table with an unobstructed view of the clear blue sky and water. From a distance, they seem to be happily chatting with each other.

Chester caught sight of them first. He beamed at them, which made Bryan turn around. He gave them a quick smile before turning his attention back to Chester.

Justin pulled the chair directly across from Chester. Serene took a seat and smiled at him. He then sat beside her.

The restaurant served French cuisine. She ordered lobster thermidor while he stuck with his usual steak.

“I heard you’re working for Rain International again,” Chester broke the silence.

“Working with,” she smiled at him. “But yes, I’m helping implement their expense management software.” Serene knew that he just wanted to have something to talk about, given that the air in their table was tense. So she willingly indulged him.

“I heard Mary finally opened her clothing line,” it’s Bryan.

“Yeah, finally,” she smiled, her eyes glistened with pride for Mary’s achievement.

“It’s surprising that you did not join her. Wasn’t that your plan before?”

It escaped her eyes when Justin’s mouth twitched from Bryan’s question. Although he knew he was just trying to carry out a conversation, bringing up intimate knowledge about her stabbed his heart.

“It was. But then, I really don’t have a knack for fashion. That’s all Mary. I can support her in other aspects, but venturing on a business with her… I will probably just drag her down”.

Their conversation got interrupted when the server brought their orders. Her mouth watered at the sight of her gorgeous lobster. From out of the blue, Bryan handed her a bottle of medicine. The twins’ brows knit in confusion from Bryan’s action.

“Thanks, I got mine.” Serene took out a bottle of the same medicine from her pouch. She did not miss the look of confusion from the other people on the table. “I am allergic to seafood,” she explained. She specifically looked at Justin with pleading eyes and added, “But I really love them. As long as I take an antihistamine before eating seafood, I’ll be okay.”

“En,” he answered and gave her a quick nod. He tried his best to hide his irritation from not knowing these details about her.

She took a tablet from her medicine bottle, popped it in her mouth and drank water. After waiting for a couple of minutes, she happily dug in her lobster.

Justin knew ‌Serene eats for pleasure. They’ve shared several meals together already, but he’s still amused by the facial expression she makes when eating. Her eyes brighten when she’s ‌fond of a dish.

“Shen, baby!” there’s no need to guess who the newcomer was. The flamboyant voice definitely belonged to Dylan.

She stood up from her chair and accepted his hug. “Looking good, Kurosawa,” she smiled at him.

“Ditto,” he gave her a wink before taking the empty chair on Chester’s left side, and opposite Justin’s. “Hello folks,” he greeted the rest.

Seeing an addition to their group, the server promptly approached Dylan to take his order.

Serene put her utensils to the side of her plate. She cocked her head to look intently at Dylan’s tie. Her actions caught Justin’s eyes which made him give Dylan the death stare, to which he just responded a questioning frown.

“Mary gifted that tie to you,” Serene suddenly blurted out, surprising the rest of the table.

“Are you asking me if she gave this to me?” Dylan asked, looking confused. How the hell did she know?

“I know ‌Mary gifted that tie to you,” she smiled confidently at him. Her answer further added to Dylan’s confusion. The wrinkles on his brows deepened.

“I hand painted that fabric,” Serene declared. Dylan’s eyes widened in surprise. He lifted his tie, switching his gaze from Serene to the accessory he’s holding.

Even Justin got shocked by her statement. He never had an inkling that Serene had an inclination to arts.

Besides Bryan, the rest of the table looked at her with mouths wide open. Was it really hard to believe that she could paint?

“Mary and I loved Diane von Furstenberg. A long time ago, we thought of opening a clothing line, where she makes the dresses and I paint the fabric,” she explained to them.

“Wait, you painted this?” Dylan still cannot get over from his disbelief.

“She already said, she did, right?” Justin said amused.

“I know… I know,” he hurriedly said to Justin, waving his hand to dismiss him. His brows furrowed once again and looked Serene straight to the eyes. “If you painted this, did you also write these words?” He removed the tie from around his neck and gave it to her.

She did not need to look at the tie because she knew exactly what he meant, but she accepted it. She flipped the necktie over. A string of words written in a script lined at the edge.

“Yes, I wrote that too,” she answered, then pushed the necktie back to Dylan.

Chester’s curiosity got the better of him. When She saw him pick up the necktie, she reached out for Justin’s hand from under the table and squeezed it.

She met his puzzled eyes with a smile. While everyone watched Chester. His expression changed from curiosity to confusion.

He looked at Serene, then shifted his attention to Bryan.

“Bry, look at this,” he handed over the necktie to Bryan, who did what he was told. The more Bryan stared at the painted words, the more the color on his face drained. He cannot help but dart a quick look at Serene, then wet his lips with his tongue.

Serene continued to hold on to Justin’s hand. Her fingers interlaced with his.

“Aren’t those your vows on our wedding day?” Chester questioned him, then made a quick look at Serene, “Why is Serene saying she wrote those?”

He grabbed the glass of water in front of him and took a sip. Bullets of sweat formed on his forehead. He cleared his throat, then looked at Chester, “Yes, she wrote it.”

Hearing the confirmation, Chester immediately stood and walked away not bothering to say goodbye. Bryan followed him. While she continued to hold Justin’s hand tightly, afraid that he would also bolt out and leave her.

She bravely craned her neck to look at him. She bit her bottom lip, her eyes looked at with apprehension. She could not read any expression from his face which made her heart pound in her chest. Is he angry?