His Priority (Book 1)

Chapter Seven

7 - The Friends

        The restaurant Jack picked was more like a cross between a BBQ cookout and a fancy steak house. You could either go with messy ribs, expensive prime steaks, or the safest choice - a salad.

    "I'll have the salad with ranch dressing, please." Kaitlyn told the waitress politely. She rounded the table, picking up their menus before she headed back to the kitchen. Jack's steady gaze was still lingering over her when she looked up from her phone. "What?" She asked nervously.

Jack took a sip of his coke before pushing his glass away. "Who orders a salad at a rib and steak joint?"

Kaitlyn relaxed. "I just wasn't that hungry, besides I'm not much of a meat lover."

"So you're a vegetarian." He concluded. She shook her head.

"No, I'll eat meat if I have to, I just prefer other things besides it."

"Wish I would've known that before I picked this place." He said under his breath. Kaitlyn chose not to reply. She couldn't tell if he had meant for her to hear his comment or not.

When the waitress brought out their food, they sat in silence for awhile before Jack stilled.

"I have a question."

Kaitlyn laid down her fork, using her napkin to wipe the side of her mouth. "About what?"

He tapped the end of his fork on the edge of his plate before pointing the end of his utensil at her. "The night we met," he started slowly. She nervously followed his green eyes as they began to size her up.

"Y-yes?" She said shakily.

"You were with two other women."

She nodded. "Oh, them. Those were my friends from work."

"They didn't seem like friends." He shoved a forkful of mashed potatoes in his mouth.

"Well, they were. They were the ones who invited me to the club in the first place."

"Yes, they invited you to a place you were uncomfortable at."

"Now wait just a minute-" she responded defensively.

"And let's not forget these so called 'friends' ditched you." He added.

"They didn't ditch me, something urgent probably came up." 

"So urgent that they would let their friend go home with some strange man and not even bother to make sure she was okay?"

Heat rose to her dark cheeks. She felt angry and upset at his accusations, but worse of all she felt humiliated because he was right. They weren't her friends, even she knew that. So why, why did she still try so hard to impress them and make an idiot of herself, she chided.

She watched the handsome man before her as he went back to eating his food. He was someone who had came into her life unexpectedly and he would be gone as soon as everything had settled down. She would go back to living her boring, lonely life like she had previously been doing so well.

Her fists clenched underneath the table. Why couldn't she be like every other girl? Careless, fun, confident? It had never really occurred to her how pathetic she was until she had really took into account who she was actually sitting across from.

Jack a.k.a the huge rockstar that could have anything and everything at the snap of his fingers. Money, women, and friends. People who loved and accepted him for well..him.

Before she knew it, a single tear fell down her cheek, and before she could do anything about it, hot tears rushed from her eyes. She wiped at them furiously, trying to act like everything was okay, but it wasn't.

"Kaitlyn," Jack frowned, noticing her tear stained face, "are..did I make you cry?"

"Just leave me alone."

She went back to eating her salad, Jack's eyes watching her the entire time. After they finished eating Jack paid the bill and they headed back out to look for a taxi. When they arrived at the hotel, Kaitlyn all but ran to her room when Jack's voice stopped her.

"Look, about what I said."

She didn't turn around. "Forget it." She said stubbornly.

He reached out for her arm. "I didn't mean it."

She yanked her arm away. "It's okay," she replied heading back to her room, "It wasn't like you weren't just stating the truth." She bit out coldly before slamming her door.