Arranged

Chapter-27

Darian could not decipher how a person would not react after being stared intently at by a handsome man like himself. All right, maybe he was not that good looking, but he knew he would fare well in that sort of ranking, should it ever be taken. Yet, here was a human who was unperturbed by his unwavering – and quite flattering, he must add – gaze.

"You are unusually quiet today," he finally said, unable to bear past the five of minutes of silence that had crawled away and somehow given the appearance of an eternity clocking by.

Kelly looked up then and sighed – the first sound her lips had imparted since the call she had made an hour ago, requesting a brunch date. She dropped her head over the edge of their round table and mumbled something which, if the table had ears, even it would not have been able to comprehend what she said, much less the person sitting across from her.

"What?"

Kelly raised her head and cried out, "We had proper dinner last night!"

Darian blinked in surprise – not once, not twice, but so many times that his eyes watered. Whatever reply he might have expected, this one would not have ranked anywhere in the sheet! He could not even figure if she was being serious or not, or whether he should laugh or console her. After all, what was so upsetting about a proper dinner?!

He tilted his head forward, chin thrust upwards slightly, as he spoke slowly, "Kel, elaborate please."

"We ate proper dinner last night," she sniffed, as if it was a universal explanation of some form. He opened his mouth to point out that she had basically just said the same thing over again, but his attempt was thwarted momentarily when the waiter arrived and asked for their order.

By the time, he left the two of them alone, Darian could not get a chance to speak what he had intended because Kelly continued whatever it was she had been trying to say.

"You know how Allison and I meet for dinner every possible Saturday and pretty much discuss every minute detail about our lives? Well, yesterday, we went to The King's Throne –"

"Are you kidding me?! That place costs an awful lot!" Darian exclaimed, his lower jaw dropping beyond the permissible level prescribed by nature.

Kelly nodded, patiently taking his interruption into stride. "Yes. But she had kidnapped Carl's credit card, so it did not really matter. Anyway," she added firmly and Darian obligingly shut his inquisitive mouth, "that's not the point here. The thing is that the two of us – Allison and I – we have this...this quality. You know how people usually eat sweet stuff when they are sad or depressed?"

"Girls mostly, but continue."

Kelly narrowed her eyes at his seemingly nonchalant remark and decided to forego a reaction for it. "As I was saying, the two of us did not do that – in fact, it was quite the opposite. Whenever we would be ecstatically happy about something, that's when we eat desserts like our lives depended on it. Nothing else. Just pastries or chocolates or any form of dessert, really. It's just what we do when we are together and are extremely happy. That's how we celebrated when Carl proposed to her, when they got married, when she announced her pregnancy. And yesterday was their one year anniversary of the proposal. But you know what? I was not happy – I could not be happy! Al, bless her heart, took it all in good sport and we pigged out on the normal, non-sweet food! Ugh, I feel so awful right now! I couldn't even eat breakfast at home, but then my stomach growled an hour ago and I knew you would only have just woken up, so it was worth a shot – I called you up!"

She looked expectantly at him then, obviously waiting for him to react. Which he did, a minute of another silence later. He leaned forward, reached out with his hands and squeezed her fingers in his clasp. Lightly, at first. But a second later as a scowl quite similar to the ones that Ben put on from time to time began to morph his features, the hold became tighter and Kelly winced.