APARTMENT 143

14

The room went quiet and all eyes were on Riven and me. Well all but Alisa, who continued to sit on the couch sipping on her wine while Xavier looked away and smirked.

"You're dating Riven?" Seraphina asks with a stern tone in her voice. "Since when?"

"Well um..." I hesitate.

"It's none of your business," Riven jumps in immediately. "If she was just a friend I wouldn't have brought her here."

"I have a right to know, the last girlfriend you had was nothing but a-" Seraphina stops herself. She looks over at Xavier and exhales. "I'm just looking out for you, I doubt you want a replay of what happened."

"And like I said it's none of your business," Riven holds my hand and leads me away. "I would appreciate it if you stayed away from our relationship, like you said we wouldn't want a repeat of what happened."

As we walk out of the main hall Riven glances over at Xavier, who clearly saw right through our plan.

"And this time I won't hesitate to stop anyone that thinks they know what's best for me."

Xavier chuckles under his breath not responding to Riven. That was definitely a first but what wasn't Riven telling me?

***

Riven and I enter the study and he closes the doors behind him.

"Well that could have gone better," I say with a sigh as I sit down on the couch. "I wasn't expecting her to be so... so-"

"Evil?" Riven says pouring himself and a glass of wine. "Consider yourself lucky, that is the best it could have gone. If she wanted, she would have had the both of us thrown out of here without batting an eyelash."

Riven walks over to me and hands me a glass then sits beside me.

"She is beautiful though, I'll give her that," I say with a chuckle. "I can see where Alisha got her looks from."

"You can also see where Xavier got his attitude from too," Riven says with a slight smile on his face as he takes a sip from his glass. "Seeing him just hits a nerve, it's like I want to punch him in the face every time."

"Is this your version of being nice?" Xavier says as he and Alisha stand at the door. "Because I thought you were told to be on your best behavior?"

"Oh give it a rest already you big stick in the mud!" Alisha says shoving Xavier aside and sits down on the chair opposite of us holding her glass in her hands. "Mom and dad aren't in here so why don't you stop with the high and mighty act."

"I swear I'm just a joke to you," Xavier says walking over to the bar and getting himself a drink.

"You know what I brought Violet in here, it was more so for us to be alone," Riven says. "What do you want?"

"Well we want answers," Alisha says leaning forward looking directly at me. "Since when did this little dating idea happen?"

Riven and I look at each other, he shrugs his shoulders and puts his arm around me.

"Is it really so hard to believe we could be dating?" Riven says jokingly.

Seriously...

"It's not hard to believe, more like it's not like you to announce something like that so casually." Alisha smiles. "And the fact dad didn't lose his head could only mean that he was on board with this, am I right?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Xavier says joining us. "Dad would never approve of something so stupid."

"Well then do I have news for you, you big idiot!" Riven laughs.