The Billionaire's Dilemma

Chapter 5: Stella

Chapter 5: Stella

"I know you couldn't wait till tomorrow to meet me, Stel, but all this is making it too obvious." Eli grinned as he stepped past a couple of officers standing at the doorway, his jet-black hair styled to perfection even though it was close to two a.m. in the morning. He stepped into the brightly lit room where a female police officer was taking my statement as to what had happened not two hours back, holding a paper bag with a familiar logo on it.

"Elijah!" Grateful to see a familiar comforting face, I couldn't help breaking free from the questioning and engulfing him in a hug. Before his arms could wrap around my frame, I had deftly slipped away, snatching the McDonald's bag which was in his hands earlier. My stomach grumbled as I almost groaned at the delicious smell. From the corner of my eye I saw the police officer get up from her seat on the sofa and rejoin her team to discuss something in hushed tones.

"Wow. You meet your best friend after three years, and the first thing you do is steal his food." He shook his head, putting his hands in his coat pocket, "the audacity."

I laughed in return as I took out some plates, with Eli leaning against the counter, his eyes on the officers standing at some distance. "It's really nice to see you again, Eli. But fighting off intruders sure builds up an appetite."

"Yeah, about that..." He trailed off as he approached the officers, breaking up their conversation. He whispered something to them, periodically all of them looking at me as I dug into my burger without any care in the world. It was hard to focus when I was feeling ravenous anyways.

Not two minutes later, Eli escorted them out of the door with a smile and came back, sitting opposite to me. He folded his hands and put his head on them, scrunching up his button nose when he tried to steal a French fry from me, but failing epically when I slapped his hand away.

"You know, I bought this food."

"I know. And I am eating it. What is your point?"

"Sharing is caring?"

"Yes, sharing is caring, but do you think I care?" I counterattacked, taking out more sauce for my burger from the sachet. His sigh of defeat had me double over, but then I offered if he wanted to take a bite. As he munched on a pizza-pocket, he had this look of bliss on his face, making me laugh again. I got up to get a couple of beers for us.

"Trouble sure loves following you, Stel. It's not even day one and already something like this has happened."

I sighed, feeling the effects of the jetlag and the attack all at once. Almost dead on my feet at this point, I sat down on the chair again, putting my face down on the table as Eli munched on the remaining leftovers.

"It's been hectic, yes." I closed my eyes.

"Can you tell me what happened, exactly? Like if you aren't that tired. All you said on the call was that there was an intruder in your house who tried to drown you."

"You need more details than that?" I groaned as I shifted, trying to find a comfortable position.

"Tell me everything you can."

"How about tomorrow? I already gave my statement to the police."

"You may forget a lot of things tomorrow."

My eyes opened as I reconsidered his words. It was silent for a while.

"I came back home around ten forty-five. I decided to take a bath first. I was in the washroom by eleven ten. I didn't see the attacker then. I am not sure where he came from. I was just relaxing when he tried to pull me by my ankles to drown me." To prove my point, I put a foot up on the counter, to show the red marks in the shape of a hand. I watched as Eli observed it, nodding after a while. "I escaped and then he ran away."