Chapter 16
Sebastian
I’m sitting at the coffee shop off third when Xavier steps through the door, shaking the snow off his boots. He sits down looking a bit flustered. I should probably ask him what’s wrong, but instead, I glance down at my watch.
“It’s 8:07 AM Xavier.”
“Don’t start with me Sebastian. I’m not in the mood,” Xavier snaps.
“Well, I wasn’t in the mood to sit here for seven minutes waiting for you when we said we would meet at eight. You know I fucking hate when people are late,” I say with cool indifference. “Who pissed in your Cheerios this morning anyway?”
“Nothing man, it’s nothing, it's just been a long morning already,” Xavier says, sighing as he looks around.
I’m about to press the conversation further out of pure curiosity, but he changes the subject before I get the chance.
“Anyways, now that I’m here, let's talk about the company Christmas party this weekend,” Xavier begins as he pulls out his phone. “I spoke to the director of the gallery hosting us and everything is good to go. Catering was almost a mess, but thankfully Kaz took care of it. The only thing we need to finalize is seating arrangements for the dinner. I’ve got us all down at table three. I placed Sasha next to you.”
“Place Riley at our table next to me,” I interject quickly.
Xavier gives me a questioning look but I just stare at him with a blank face.
“You do realize that Riley is bringing her husband to the dinner party don’t you Sebastian?” he says with a smirk.
Jealousy flicks through my mind while I envision another man touching Riley. I’m steadily wondering what this man looks like and the different ways I plan on killing him when a finger snaps in my face.
“Earth to Sebastian. Wake up man, she’s married. You haven’t been acting the same in months…” He ponders for a moment and says “As a matter of fact, since Riley started. I’m starting to think you’re obsessed.”
There’s that word again. Even though I won’t say it out loud I think Xavier might be right. I am obsessed. But I’m not going to let him, or anyone else for that matter, know it.
“Just put her at my table with her husband if you must and shut the fuck up about it.”
Xavier chuckles and waves over the server to put in his order. That’s what I love about him. Even if he’s an annoying asshole sometimes, he knows when to stop. Our personalities aren’t exactly alike, but we are similar in a lot of ways. Emotion doesn’t come easy to me, whereas Xavier, he can imitate emotion on demand. He can be that happy go lucky guy, but also can switch to a psychotic bastard at the drop of a dime. It’s probably why we work so well together and most certainly the reason why our firm is number one in this city.
We spend the next hour fine-tuning a few things for the event, and discussing some other case issues before parting ways. It’s time for me to head to the gym and burn off some of this anger that still hasn’t dissipated. Maybe by the time I’m done I’ll forget all about the fact that my little mouse is even married.