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Benjamin just couldn’t shake off that awkward feeling of sitting across from someone who didn’t want him there—whom he didn’t want there either. It somehow started to bother him immensely that she hated him so much.
Time for a snappy remark.“So how does it feel?”
She looked up from her plate “How does what feel?”
With a cocky grin, he answered. “You know, having dinner here, with me, in this place.” He gestured around him, the mighty pillars of the castle-like dining hall towering high above them as a fire was crackling in the fireplace. He was sitting at the far end of a long, wooden table that would remind most people of a knight’s dining hall.
“I know I am not particularly exciting to you, but the hall is not the usual place you frequent I assume?”
She pressed her lips tight. “I have my dinners at home and when I feel like it, I eat outside, at a restaurant of my choice. You make it sound like I’m some out-of-place homeless person who just got lucky.”
He smirked. “Out-of-place? Maybe. Lucky? Definitely.”
Anger rose up in her, watching that relaxed smugness on his face. “Maybe I am lucky. A toast to me then. Long Live Ava Burns. May she be rich beyond belief.” She raised her glass and winked.
He frowned for only a moment before he rose and walked all the way over to her with his glass to clink it against hers. The two looked like they were caught in the middle of one big joke. An outsider would have thought it was just a nice meal between two lovers. If they only knew.
Benjamin strolled back to his seat at the other end from Ava and continued eating in silence. He peeked up to at her, but she was playing with her food again, once deeper in thoughts.Why was she so sad?
“I was just joking…I don’t know how else to deal with all of this.”
Did I just apologize?
A sad little look crossed Ava’s face and he pulled his tail between his legs again.
“It’s not you… at least not today. It’s work.”
Ben stopped eating and grabbed his wine. “Why do you even work there if it depresses you?”
“What?”
“At the shelter. That’s where you work, right? Can’t be solid pay for what you have to do there.”
“I’m a social worker. I don’t do it for the pay. And somebody has to do it, so people like you can live their lives care-free of the troubles of this world.”
Benjamin stayed quiet.Was it really impossible to have just one single conversation without it turning into a fight?At least when they were kids their fights weren’t nasty like this; they fought about who got the last piece of pie or who would get to pick the church flowers but none of those fights had pure spite at its core. He picked up his fork again and continued eating in silence. The salmon that tasted like heaven moments ago now tasted bitter, sour, inedible.
“Why do you even care?” she suddenly asked.
“I don’t,” he said in a monotone, cold voice as he pushed away his plate and wiped his mouth elegantly with a napkin. “Really. Not an eensy weensy teeny weeny little small bit. I just want to make sure we all stick to the plan without venturing into new territories.”
Her face flushed and she put her wine glass back on the table without drinking from it. “Like what? Trying to cheat you out of your inheritance?”
Leaning back in his chair, Benjamin didn’t respond to that. She gasped.
“Is that really what you think?” Her body became tense. She clenched her fist tight as she spoke. “If I’m correct you were the one knocking at my door, not the other way around. And I don’t even want to know what you mother is hatching out as we speak, but maybe you should focus your attention a little more into that direction. I’m not one of those girls who’d try to claw her hands on something that’s not hers.”
Benjamin wanted to nod as he actually agreed with her on the issues regarding his mother. She had never been a person people would easily get along with, but ever since the reading of the will she was nothing short of reprehensible. But he didn’t.
Ava pushed back her chair and stood up angrily. “I think this dinner will count as spending time together, don’t you think?”
“It better…”
With determined steps, Ava crossed the room to leave through the enormous double doors behind him but stopped next to his chair. Leaning closer, their faces just inches apart and eyes locked fiercely, she whispered slowly, “...your mother...”
An eyebrow raised, a smug look on his face, he replied, “Not my main concern.”
She pressed her left hand hard on the table as a couple of maids came in to clean up the dishes, all minding their businesses but still casting sneaky glances at the two, perhaps wondering what the hell was going on with the couple’s date.
