The irritating sound of a phone ringing weaved its way into Jordan’s dreamless sleep, chasing away the darkness that had cloaked his mind. Jordan’s eyelids flew open with a start, before immediately shutting again at the sight of the blinding lights coming from the half-risen sun outside the glass door leading to his personal balcony.
With a loud groan, Jordan placed an arm over his eyes in attempts to block out some of the light from the balcony as the irksome phosphene danced in circles behind his closed eyelids. He let out a sigh when his phone went silent and the peace and serenity of his room was finally restored, but only momentarily before his ringtone went off again. The caller seemed persistent.
Irritated by the lights and noise and perhaps, everything in sight, Jordan aggressively sat up and reached for his phone sitting on the nightstand. Prepared to throw it out the glass door, he came to a halt when he glanced at the caller ID and saw his friend’s name illuminated on the screen.
He let out a grunt before answering the call. “J!” Keelan shouted over the phone. “Where did yo-” Before he could complete his sentence, Jordan had hung up on him. Persistent, Keelan called again and Jordan once again, answered it.
“Jordan!” he shouted again and yet again, Jordan hung up on him, settling into his bed as he rested his back on the headboard of his king-sized bed. Silently, he watched his phone, waiting for it to ring again and a millisecond later, it did.
“Jordan, st-”
“If you want me to stop hanging up on you, then for fuck’s sake, stop shouting over the phone,” Jordan gritted out, his voice low and menacing. “Believe me, I could play this game all day.” He relaxed into his bed, satisfied with the silence on the other side of the phone.
“What the hell crawled up your ass and died inside?” Keelan grumbled.
“Why did you call?” Jordan went straight to the point.
“Yes, about that.” The excitement was evident in Keelan’s voice as he spoke. “I went by your new site this morning. The one you intend to use for the new club?” Jordan gave a grunt in affirmation. “And I absolutely love the new layout plan you went with. This wasn’t Ridwan’s idea, was it?”
Jordan closed his eyes with his hard expression easing into a smug look. “It wasn’t. Ridwan kept bringing up old and outdated ideas and most of the modern ones he suggested were just copies of other clubhouses, so I found a new architect,” he explained, his mind wandering to his gemstone and her amazingly talented family.
Emerald’s younger sister, Armani had outdone herself with the layout plan she had designed for his clubhouse and rather than pretending to be amazed by it just so she could earn a high score, Jordan had truly been immensely pleased and had decided to use her designs rather than his old architect’s, Ridwan’s.
“Well, I must commend him. Who is he? Do you think he would be willing to work with me? Or is he too upscale?”
“It’s a ‘she’ and she would have to be the one to decide that since she’s still in college.” Jordan explained as he stood to his feet and gave a little stretch, hearing a satisfying pop emanate from his shoulders and back.
“A college stud?” Keelan asked, surprised. “I didn’t know you started scouting for young, ungroomed talents now, J. Did you organize some sort of youth empowerment programme?”
Jordan rolled his eyes before walking into his bathroom to brush his teeth. “Very amusing, Mars. I just helped the girl out with her university project and I found her ideas very promising and modern, so I used it although, I do plan on offering her internship and hiring her to work with my building committee.”
Standing in front of the mirror slash cabinet mounted against the wall above the sink, Jordan couldn’t help but stare at himself, his image reflecting on the spotless looking glass. Although he had been rudely awakened and was left slightly irritated by his pest of a friend, the happy glint in his chocolate orbs remained unmistakably conspicuous despite his usual grouchy morning mood.
He and Emerald had spent the majority of the night and earlier hours of dawn chatting about everything and nothing at the same time. They had left the twenty questions game for another time and had rather talked about general topics, some relating to their crazy friends and their shenanigans and needless to say, Emerald was more than excited to meet Keelan Mars, much to Jordan’s misfortune.
“Helped out with a school project?!” The obvious disbelief and astonishment was evident in his voice as he mildly shrieked. “Who the hell are you and what did you do to Jordan Calix Kale?!”
Letting out an aggravated groan, Jordan pulled open the mirror, revealing the shelved cabinet hidden behind it before reaching for his toothbrush and toothpaste.
“Don’t blow things out of proportion, Mars. Armani is just Emerald’s younger sister,” he clarified as he placed his phone between his ear and shoulder while he squirted some toothpaste on his toothbrush.
“Armani? Emerald? Who the hell are they?”
In total exhaustion, Jordan ended the call before peeking half of his body through the bathroom to toss his phone on his bed just as it rang again.
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