Enigma

Chapter 4

"Raze?"

"Who else would I be?" he retorted as the two of them stood in front of the other; finally face to face.

Confusion became evident on her face for an instant before being masked again underneath her stoic expression. She glanced back to the four gentlemen seated upon the round table, her slightly apologetic eyes looking at Jude with a ghost of a smile lingering on her lips.

"Excuse me for a moment."

Axelia paid no heed to the other's response for she quickly grabbed Raze's arm, only to guide him to an unoccupied table, just next to the one where she was previously seated.

"The hell was that for?" Raze asked once she released her grip on his arm.

She just sighed as she took a seat, while gesturing the other to do the same. His brows furrowed, maybe because he had no idea about what just happened but he complied nevertheless.

"Just give me a moment, will you?" she spat back, her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. A habit of hers in which he always noticed whenever she was having trouble in repressing her emotions; the latter being predominantly irritation.

"Thank you," she exhaled, turning her body sideways to face the one beside her. "Now would you mind telling me what you're doing here?"

Her statement sounded to be more of a demand than a question. To others, her choice of words would've seemed to be a bit hostile, but within spending time with her for almost a month, Raze was already used to her extremely blunt attitude. Thus, instead of taking her words seriously, his mouth just turned upward to a lopsided smirk as he reached inside his slacks' pocket. Holding out an invitation card between his index and middle finger, his smirk remained unchanged.

Seeing her clearly bewildered reaction, he leaned closer, both of his hands gripping her shoulder gently as he guided her to look in a certain direction. Her frown only deepened once her eyes became focused on her parents- who were talking to another couple.

"Obviously, our parents have a really close relationship," he muttered before easing his grip on her shoulders.

"I suppose so," she replied in a skeptical tone even though the blithesome smiles on both of her parents' faces as they continued having a conversation with the other couple were already proof enough.

"Come on, don't look at me like that!" Raze exclaimed when he noticed her giving him a sort of suspicious look.

"Pardon?"

"I swear I didn't fucking know," he said defensively, causing her to raise her brow. "I had no idea how close our parents' relationship are. The damn thought of seeing you here didn't even cross my fucking mind until my old man mentioned your father's name. So can you please quit giving me that suspicious and immensely doubtful- not to mention, fucking nerve-wracking look?"

She let out a small smile as the green tinge beneath her blue eyes danced with amusement underneath the lighting of the chandeliers. "Chill. I'm not accusing you of anything."

"Yeah, sure, " he said incredulously, for the tone of voice that she used wasn't really convincing. "Keep telling yourself that."

"You don't believe me," she stated, holding the other's gaze with her own.

Raze just scoffed. "Fucking obviously."

"Alright, have it your way then," she replied, leaning back into the black banquet chair.

"You're giving up that easily?" he teased, although defeat was far away from her words.

"It's not considered as giving up if a pointless argument such as this, doesn't necessarily require a fight," she argued.