Malia’s POV
I arched an eyebrow as Ronan led me to a black limo. “I thought we were just having lunch,” I commented.
“We are,” he replied.
“Isn’t this too fancy?” I asked as he held the door open for me.
“It’s not. You deserve the queenly treatment,” he answered as he slid in beside me.
He gave the chauffeur the name of the restaurant as he drove the limo smoothly out of the driveway.
The drive to the restaurant was quiet save for the voice of Frank Sinatra coming from the radio.
The limo finally rolled to a stop and Ronan stepped out of the car. I took his proffered hand and gasped as I straightened out of the car.
We were in front of those fancy restaurants where one needed to book a reservation first.
“I didn’t know this community had a place like this,” I said in awe.
He gave me a look. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
I rolled my eyes and nudged him playfully with my elbow.
“Please tell me you booked a reservation,” I said.
“My brother and I own this restaurant. We always have a reservation,” he answered.
I kept my mouth shut as we entered the building. A waitress hurried towards Ronan and me as soon as she spotted us and led us to a table.
“It’s been a while since you last visited, Beta. We’re so pleased to have you here,” she gushed, barely sparing me a glance.
Ronan smiled patiently at her. “Thank you, Clara.”
Perhaps pleased by the fact that he had remembered her name, the girl’s smile grew unusually so wide, her lips almost touched her ears.
“Will you take our orders now? I’m starving,” I said with a forced smile, trying so hard not to let my irritation show.
“Of course,” she replied, turning to face me with a slightly sour expression on her face.
I perused the menu and settled for spaghetti carbonara. Ronan decided to go for what I had chosen and added a bottle of expensive white wine to our order.
“I think she has a crush on you,” I said as soon as the waitress walked off.
“Probably,” he replied and stared at me for a moment.
“What?” I asked, and he chuckled.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re jealous Malia.”
I scoffed. “Just so you know, I don’t get jealous.”
“Indeed,” he said with a smile.
I allowed my gaze to roam the interior of the restaurant. The decoration was tasteful and dreamy. It was perfect for a romantic dinner date.
“Do you want me to give you a tour?” Ronan asked and I glared playfully at him.
The waitress arrived with our order and placed the meals carefully on the table.
“Do enjoy your meal,” she said, her eyes locked on Ronan.
“I will,” I replied cheerily. She walked off without giving me a second glance and Ronan burst out laughing.
“Women,” he muttered under his breath.
“She’s the one with a problem, not me,” I protested and went ahead to carefully inspect my food hoping she hadn’t spat in it out of spite.
I swirled the pasta around my fork and took a tentative bite. My eyes widened at the delicious taste. I dug into the food with gusto, all hesitation forgotten.
Ronan chuckled as he shook his head. “And here I was afraid that you weren’t going to eat for fear of the food being poisoned.”
I ignored him and thought about the fact that I hadn’t even imagined that the food could have been poisoned.
Whatever. I wasn’t going to reject the meal just because of a little poison.
“You’ve never really spoken about the kind of life you led before you got here,” he said, out of the blue.
We were already halfway through our meal and I wondered why he hadn’t brought up the topic when we were already done eating. The food was delicious, and I didn’t want anything to ruin my appetite.
I took a sip of water and dabbed at the corners of my mouth with the provided savette. I cleared my throat. “I assumed Ryder would have told you,” I said.
“Ryder and I are not the kind of brothers that talk about everything. It’s mostly business between us,” he replied.
“Oh. Such a shame. I wish I had a sibling. We’d be best friends and talk about everything,” I said with a sad smile.
“As beautiful as that sounds, that’s not always the case. There’ll always be sibling rivalry and so many other little things that just add up to create a little rift,” he replied.
I thought about my best friend Lily and how she had been there for me. I remembered the way we had laughed over silly jokes, gossiped and plotted little, funny conspiracies.
“Please don’t tell me you’re about to burst into tears,” Ronan said in mild alarm.
I blinked furiously to prevent the tears from falling and gave him a weak smile.
“I had a best friend, Lily. We were so close and we talked about everything. I just hope she’s doing okay. It hurts to think that she would have found a new best friend.”
Ronan chuckled. “Do you think it’s that easy to replace a best friend? It might take years if you guys were truly best friends like you say.
I nodded. “I’d want her to be happy though.”
He nodded, “Of course you would,”
“So, why did you leave?” He asked.
“I had to. To protect my sanity, I really had to. The one person who I cared for the most didn’t hesitate to hurt me when he got the chance.”
“Let me guess. Your mate?”
I nodded.
“I’m so not sorry to say this. He must be a fool to let something as precious as you slip through his fingers,” he said with a scowl.
I gave a wry smile. “Don’t be so quick to judge, Ronan. You might have done the same thing if you were in his shoes,” I said.
He scoffed. “Believe me, if you were my mate, there’s nothing that would be strong enough to tear us apart.”
“Are you really sure about that?”