Sophia’s Point of View
After leaving me alone in our room for most of the day, Mr Prescott returned to our room just in time to pick me up for dinner.
I chose a casual but elegant champagne dress with several pleats and frills that covered up my slight baby bump.
My pregnancy wasn’t officially announced yet and since I had no idea what Mr Prescott planned towards that regard, the last thing I wanted was to complicate matters even further.
Mr Prescott didn’t speak to me as we walked towards wherever it was this dinner was holding and I couldn’t tell if he was still annoyed from our earlier conversation.
We had just stepped out of the elevator when Mr Prescott got a call.
“Hello?”
Whatever he heard must have been serious because Mr Prescott’s entire demeanour shifted, his jaw tight as he held up a finger silently asking me to excuse him.
I nodded and he moved away to take the call. I wondered what was going on. Hopefully, it wasn’t anything serious.
I felt weird just standing in front of the elevator but since I didn’t know where the dinner was going to hold, I couldn’t get there myself.
So I began to walk through the down floor slowly taking in the magnificence of the hotel. It wasn’t as though I had anything better to do.
I was a bit distracted by the view of the unrealistically blue pool from the expansive gallery windows that I bumped right into someone nearly falling if not for the stranger’s grip on my forearm keeping me upright.
“Are you alright?” He asked.
I straightened to see the dark haired stranger in a dark blazer and matching chinos staring down at me in obvious concern.
“Yeah, I’m fine-” I said, my voice cutting off haltingly as I noticed the half empty glass of champagne in the stranger’s other hand and the rest of the wine on his damp red shirt.
Bumping into him, I’d gotten wine on his shirt
“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry.” I apologised feeling extremely embarrassed. How could I have been so absent minded?
“It’s fine,” The stranger shrugged off my apology like the incident was no big deal, curiosity lighting up his hazel eyes. “You are here for the event with Reid, right?”
I blinked up at the stranger in surprise.
“How did you know that?” I asked, taking another look at him, surprised that I’d missed it the first time. With his clean-cut refined appearance, he looked like he came from money. It wasn’t as much the elegant clothes but the easy confidence and attitude that came from having more money than most people knew what to do with.
“Are you also here for the dinner?”
He grinned at my question, dimples flashing before offering me his hand.
“The host actually, Derek Terrence. Nice to meet you.”
He was a Terrence? As in the owner of this resort island?
I shook his hand feeling slightly starstruck. “Sophia Prescott. Nice to meet you too,”
Derek looked around and I immediately knew he was looking for Mr Prescott.
“Reid is currently taking a phone call.” I said by way of explanation.
Derek nodded with a wry smile playing across his lips.
“The troubles of being married to a businessman or so my wife would say,” He said jovially, offering me his arm. “Allow me to escort you in place of Reid.”
I hesitated. Mr Prescott hadn’t expressly asked me to wait for him but going to dinner without him would feel weird since I didn’t know anyone here.
But at the same time, how could I say no to the host?
“I wouldn’t want to impose-” I began to defer but Derek must have taken that as acceptance because he smiled, his arm still outstretched.
“Trust me, you aren’t imposing, Sophia. Everyone wants to meet the woman who finally tamed Reid.”
The woman who tamed Reid. I wouldn’t call what Mr Prescott and I had taming of any sort. Some days, it felt like I barely knew him.
I took Derek’s arm and he escorted me to the outdoor dinner setup.
It was far too easy to forget Derek was rich. Unlike most rich people I had mingled with during my time married to Jerry Baxter, he wasn’t pretentious; rather he was cordial and jovial, pretty much giving me an abbreviated tour as we walked.
The moment we arrived at the dinner, I realized that Derek hadn’t been exaggerating when he said everyone wanted to meet me.
Immediately Derek handed me over to Rita, his wife, the rest of the ladies were on us quickly segregating us from the male half of the dinner.
It was a bit overwhelming but surprisingly nice making me realize how much I had missed Tina and bonding with female friends that weren’t Nana.
However, even this good moment couldn’t last forever.
“You are so pretty,” Jill gushed. “I can see why Reid chose you over Daphne.”
The food in my mouth turned to ash. Had Mr Prescott brought Daphne here as well?