A silence fell over the room."She"s your what?" One of the guys next to Adam asked immediately.
"My girlfriend." Adam said again.
A faint blush crept up Elle"s neck as she crossed the room and took the empty seat next to Adam. It reminded her of the night of MK"s launch all those months ago.
Once again she could feel everyone"s piercing gaze on her as walked into the room. Only this time she had no mask to hide behind. She did, however, have Adam by her side.
After a long silence, mostly filled by shocked and bewildered stares, the room erupted into questions.
"What"s your name?" and "How long have you been dating?" and a dozen other questions that went unheard in the midst of the outburst.
"At least ask one at a time." Adam instructed, silencing them.
Elle took the opportunity of their silence to quickly introduce herself. "I"m Elle. It"s nice to meet you all."
"How long have you been dating?" One of the friends demanded.
Elle glanced at Adam, who looked perfectly relaxed, and gestured for her to go ahead and answer them.
"A few months now. We started dating after new years." Elle answered.
"Ah! I thought I recognized you. You were at the party we went to on new years eve."
"That"s right." Elle replied awkwardly.
"How did you guys meet?" A girl asked.
Elle looked back at Adam again. "He spilled coffee on me? I worked for him?" None of those seemed to be appropriate answers.
"It"s kind of a long story." She answered vaguely. "We just kept b.u.mping into each other by chance."
The questions continued for a while longer; where was your first date, are you living together, questions about Elle"s work, which all the girls were excited to know more about once they learnt she was the heiress of Tae, until Adam finally silenced them.
"Enough. No more questions."
"That"s not fair." The crowd moaned. "You can"t suddenly announce that you"ve been dating a girl for the better part of a year and then not expect us to have a million questions."
"Yea." The others chimed in. "I can"t believe you didn"t tell us about it earlier. "
"I knew about it!" Marcus called out, smugly adding fuel to the fire.
"What?! Out of all of us you decided to tell Marcus?"
"He only found out by chance." Adam said in his defence. "The relationship was going so well. I didn"t dare ruin it by introducing her to you lot."
Elle tried to hold back but she couldn"t help herself, she began to giggle. "That"s rude." She said, pretending to chastise him.
As Adam"s friends continued to delve into a fake argument Elle glanced around to room at all the unfamiliar faces.
It was hard to imagine that someone as antisocial as Adam has this many close friends. But then again she supposed it couldn"t be helped for someone in as high a position as him.
As Elle looked around a familiar face suddenly came into view, and the distressed look on it immediately confirmed what Elle had begun to suspect for a while now; that Amelia was in love with Adam.
Elle could see it clearly in Amelia"s pale countenance, distressed expression, and in the way her eyes never left Adam. Not even to notice that Elle, who was sitting right beside him, was watching her.
A pang of sympathy hit Elle. It wasn"t like Amelia had any control over who she fell in love with. Nor did Elle know when Amelia"s admiration had first begun to develop. Elle knew herself what it felt like to chase after someone"s affections and not receive them. So she returned her attention to the teasing that had begun between Adam and a few of the other guys; not bothering to worry about things that she knew would never be.
~~
Drinks were poured and dinner continued. Elle was overly conscious but as time went on she began to feel more at ease. She easily fell into the light conversation.
"What do you even see in him?" One of them, Daniel, asked Elle at one point in the night as they all sat around the table.
Elle looked up in surprise. "Everything." She replied immediately.
"That"s a cheap answer!" the room argued, not accepting her answer.
"Hmm." Elle said, putting her fork down and bringing her hand to her chin to contemplate her answer.
"He"s kind, and considerate, and funny." Elle began listing.
"Funny?" Marcus questioned. "Are you sure you know him well?"
Elle ignored his teasing. "He knows me so well." She continued. "Somehow he likes the parts of myself that even I hate. I"m a better person when I"m with him."
Even Marcus was silent. "Well, I can"t tease you about that." He said after a moment of silence. "This one"s sweet and gentle. Be careful not to loose her Adam."
"I won"t." Adam said firmly, taking Elle"s hand in his and bring it to his lips to gently press a kiss to it.
Elle smiled shyly, trying to control her reddening face. Meanwhile Amelia was only growing paler. She had endured her way through the dinner, focusing solely on her food with a tight smile on her face until now.
~~
Eventually the night came to an end, everyone parted ways with promises to see each other again soon.
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Elle drove Adam and herself back to his condo.
"I like your friends." Elle commented as they drove. "They"re all very nice."
"Hmm." Adam replied.
Elle glanced over at him but he was looking out of the window, she couldn"t read his face. "What"s wrong? Did you drink too much? Are you feeling unwell?"
"I"m reflecting on myself." He answered. "You said you liked that I was considerate."
"I did." Elle said, recalling the memory from earlier in the night.
"I wonder if I deserve your praise. I don"t even remember when the last time we went on a proper date was. I"m ashamed."
Elle felt her heart soften. "I told you before, I don"t need anything like that. We don"t need to go anywhere, I only care that we"re together."
"Is that so?" Adam replied, but his face plainly showed that he was still bothered by it.
They had reached his home by then. Elle parked the car and leaned over to his seat, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"If you feel that bad then make it up to me. Give me all the attention I was deprived of this last week tonight." She whispered softly.
That seemed to do the trick. The idea seemed to be gone from his mind, replaced with an urgency to get back upstairs.
Elle was laughing as they entered his condo and immediately headed towards the bedroom. They stopped occasionally, leaning against the wall to share a kiss, and discarding their clothes along the way.
In the bedroom Adam was attentive. Elle gasped for breath, pinned under him, as he held her the way he always did. His warmth surrounded her, his whispers of sweet nothings and his own ragged breathing filled her ears.
In her mind it only confirmed that she was right when she said what she said earlier. She knew him, knew what he was like. Calm, strong, and of few words; with countless ways to give her happiness. He was cold and hard to the rest of the world but always soft and warm with her. That night his softness made her give herself in to him again and again.