Nora's P.O.V
The Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas, that’s where he’d taken me, another hotel which was a complex skyscraper building with very little windows but tons of reinforced steel. Personally, I thought there was no creativity with the architecture, but Las Vegas seemed to follow a trend of using neon lights to make it more magical and regardless, you could still tell it was an expensive place. After all Elijah only ever spent his money in places that recognised him as powerful, if they weren’t expensive, they weren’t worthy of his time.
“We’ll be heading to Twist, it’s a restaurant here that’s renowned for their French cuisine”, Elijah informed me as he drove into the underground parking space.
“What are we doing here?” I asked him.
“I’ll tell you more once we’ve settled in and ordered some food, Miss Nora.”
Although I wasn’t up to detail about certain parts of Las Vegas, a quick google search showed me that Twist was known for its three Michelin star chef, Pierre Gagnaire, and an exciting palate of food that offered traditional French cooking with a signature modern twist, hence the name of the restaurant.
On the outside, the restaurant was situated on the twenty-third floor, supposedly the sky lobby, so once we’d parked in the underground space we headed straight for the elevator. Elijah subtly placed his arm on the lower part of my back and guided me towards the parting doors before we stepped in and travelled all the way up in silence. I didn’t shuffle away from him as quite frankly I liked the touch he was providing me and who knew why he himself had made such a daring move towards me, my boss usually kept his distance.
The doors opened after a good few minutes and the sight before me made me stand still in awe and amazement. The dining room featured a view of the Las Vegas strip through floor-to-ceiling glass windows. There were small glass bulbs floating throughout the dining room like little bottles of champagne and a staircase was situated in front of the restaurant which led to the second-story wine cellar. I could see inside the cellar since it was lined with glass windows and show cased expensive tastes to add to the food you could order. On each table were beautifully decorated purple and white flowers alongside a full assortment of cutlery and different glasses.
All in all, the decoration here wasn’t overly in your face, it was just enough to give a side of elegance and sophistication whilst providing more attention to the food.
“Mr Elijah Cooper here with Miss Nora Jones. I ordered a table for two earlier”, Elijah spoke to one of the attendants waiting near the front. He had made his way forward, leaving me behind to squalor in loss. Where the woman was standing, was a booth area where she could check the logs and reservations of the people attending. The woman looked up from her tablet before she smiled, typed away on the keyboard and then grabbed some menus and complimentary breadsticks.
“Right away Mr Cooper, your table is already waiting for you. If you’d like to follow me”, the young woman replied as she hurriedly made her way to the back of the restaurant where a better view of the strip was. I followed behind Elijah, mindful of the fact that there were loads of other people here which meant it was a busy time for the restaurant.
“Here we go, if you’d like to settle down, a waiter will be shortly with you to take your orders”, the woman added with a pleasant air of friendliness before she turned around and headed straight back to her place at the booth.
I looked around the room with admiration as the sky outside gave off a blue and yellow ambience of the night preparing to go dark. Everything here was beautiful, and I wanted nothing more than to walk around the place, studying the fine details that were inside the room. It was a stark contrast to the outside view of the building but one that I adored with a passion. Noticing that Elijah was already looking at the menu, I picked my own up and started to read the list of food.
‘So expensive’, I fretted but Elijah seemed to pick up on my nerves and assured me with a simple comment.
“My treat, Miss Nora, for your good work at the meeting earlier and helping the business make new deals.”
I looked up at him with guilt crossing my eyes because I didn’t want to be a charity case, but he said nothing more to that and returned to watching the menu.
“Hi there, my name’s Lukas and I’ll be your waiter for today. Are you guys ready to order?” Said a tall man. Lukas started to pour the water for us from one of the jugs on the table before he took a notepad and pen out and then waited for us to speak.
“Yes, I’ll have the antipasto board as an appetizer and then the grilled chicken satay skewers with beef oxtail croquette for my main course, no dessert, but we’ll take a bottle of Santa Margherita for the both of us.”
I gaped at him before looking down at the menu and watching the prices dribble down in wealth. I had no idea what he had just said but they were expensive pieces of food. It all seemed alienating to me yet erotically interesting from the way it rolled off Elijah’s tongue with ease. I assumed since this was French cuisine though, that most of their food involved a sip of wine that was added for flavour when it was being cooked.
“And for you, Miss?” The waiter asked as he turned to me expectantly.
“I’ll have what he’s having”, I hurriedly stated, shoving the menu back in the waiter’s hand as he nodded and turned away, ready to inform the head chef of what we wanted. As Elijah typed away on his phone, like the rude man that he was, I quickly snapped some photos of the restaurant ready to send them to my family. A few people turned to me with a weird stare before they continued on with their food, but I didn’t care, I might have looked like a fool, but I needed to capture this for future memories.
“Miss Nora, I take it you’ve never been here before, have you?” Elijah asked, as he placed his menu down and looked up with a raised brow and a subtle hint of humour tinging his soft lips. ‘He must have caught me acting like a tourist and taking photos of the place’, I realised as my cheeks blushed pink.
“No, I haven’t, and you have yet to tell me why you brought me here in the first place”, I accused him so that we didn’t linger on my blunder for too long. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this was a new experience for me and for some reason he seemed to want to rub that fact in my face.
“After our meeting tomorrow, there will be a party. It’s a business one that we all have to attend so that we can mingle and make some connections. I only wanted to discuss that information with you”, Elijah finally revealed as he looked back down at his menu and remained quiet.
I nodded my head before cursing inwardly, ‘I don’t have a dress for a business party, I only ended up bringing cocktail dresses for casinos not for business wear!’ I wasn’t sure how to broach that topic with Elijah, but it seemed I wasn’t going to be able to dwell on it anyways as after a few minutes the waiter returned with handfuls of food on each tray in his hand before he served it to us and poured the prosecco professionally into our glasses.
“Thank you”, Elijah and I both said at the same time before Lukas nodded and walked away to serve other people whilst we went back to our food to start eating.
We started off slowly and quietly, adamantly avoiding each other’s gaze whilst once in a while making small chit chat about the weather and the food. It was horribly awkward, and I think we both wanted to run from this building and go our separate ways for the rest of the night. Everywhere I looked I could see people mingling together in perfect ardour, smiles on their faces and laughter spurring them on as they enjoyed the night.
Then when I looked to the table I was sitting at and observed how the tension rolled off our backs in thick waves, I realised we were painfully different. The entire lack of conversation we shared made us look like complete strangers forced to dine together and because of that we started to resort to alcohol as a way to lessen our muscles and terrible social anxiety.
I gulped down the champagne quickly, having it filled up soon after by Lukas who carried on serving us throughout the night. Elijah, at first, was shocked by my apparent need to taste the alcohol but soon noticed that it helped ease our nerves, so he didn’t say much, just started to follow my lead.
Paired to the alcohol was the delicious food we ate surprisingly quickly. The taste of it all tingled my senses as they clashed together in adoration. With the appetizer, the platter of French dry cured meats, salami, and offal charcuterie paired to the green and black olives left a salty aftertaste that sent me straight to France and imagining the Eiffel tower.
Then there were the grilled chicken satay skewers that were soaked in a marinated sauce with a peanut dip and an assortment of herbs and spices that contrasted the lime drizzled over it. The chicken was so juicy and tender that I wanted to order a second round of the food.
Lastly, the beef oxtail croquettes were crispy on the outside and meaty soft on the inside. The appearance of the food made me question it but when my tastebuds explored the sautéed onions, garlic, and juicy tomatoes along with the subtle hint of bay leaves, I was sure that this was the perfect meal in the world. Eventually Elijah had drowned himself in the prosecco glass after glass after glass. I tried to stop him but to no avail.
“Sir, that’s your second bottle, don’t you think you’ve had enough?”
“Quit talking Miss Jones, I’m celebrating, learn your place.”
That’s as far as I went in trying to convince him. It wasn’t like he was getting drunk or even remotely tipsy by the alcohol, but I understood it as a coping mechanism against stress. It was when he kept ordering bottle after bottle that I started to look around me in embarrassment. People were giving us side glares and Lukas was starting to hold off on giving us anymore prosecco.
I still needed to tell Elijah that I had nothing to wear for tomorrow’s party. It was a deadly task to take considering that my boss could react in a multitude of ways, and I’d never had to experience dealing with him when he’d drank plenty.
A set of coughing and then I started, “Sir? I didn’t actually know we’d be going to a business party, so I didn’t bring with me any professional fancy dresses.”
At first Elijah peered past the rim of his glass before he placed it on the table and replied, “Okay, that’s not a problem.”
That was a little unnerving as I thought he’d get pissed off with me and become sarcastic like he always did when I did something wrong. What he’d just demonstrated led me to realise that he really was drinking too much if his demeanour had become calmed. His raging fire had been put out and that scared me, it was a sense of unfamiliarity that I knew nothing about.
Once dinner was finished and the last bottle was drunk, Lukas directed us out of the restaurant by taking us to the booth so we could pay for our meal. Elijah made sure he paid with his MasterCard before he went straight for the elevator, ignoring the woman that had greeted us before. I smiled apologetically after her and noted that by now there were significantly less people sitting around. It didn’t dampen the magic of the place though. I wasn’t sure if my boss had tipped our waiter and since I didn’t have enough money on me, I thanked Lukas instead for his services, who smiled bashfully in return.
We left the restaurant going straight to the car and driving out of the underground parking lot to travel to someplace new but as usual Elijah refused to say anything and no amount of coaxing him could change his stubborn mind. The only good part was that he hadn’t said we’d be returning to the hotel which meant maybe I’d get to sightsee but that didn’t make things any easier. My boss was infinitely worse to deal with when he was drunk, ‘Just act normal for once, were you supposed to drink more alcohol for that?’
After a good amount of time had passed, Elijah started to unrestrainedly laugh out of the blue. It startled me at first since I’d never heard him laugh before as he always had that stone-cold face. It wasn’t until the voice of his laughter resonated deeply in my core that I started to admire his rich tones. The vibrations he made as he laughed freely shuddered in my chest and the power of his voice dominated every fibre of my body right down to my bone marrow. ‘I could hear him laugh like this all day’, I mused as a slow smile crept onto my face. His laugh was carefree, almost like he was finally happy and not afraid to show it.
‘Why is he laughing? What’s so funny, what the heck is going?’ I wanted to ask him, but I didn’t want to get scolded for speaking out of turn. I held back for a bit longer until eventually Elijah spoke up, his eyes crinkling in the corner as he tried to control his sporadic laughs whilst keeping an eye on the road.
“Miss Nora, am I right in saying that you brought every single item for this trip apart from a business party dress?” Elijah mocked finishing it off with a hearty chuckle that made it difficult for me to be angry at him. I wanted to join him in his laughter, it was an infectious one that made me feel he was normal and friendly. Unfortunately, there was nothing to laugh about in this situation and he would never understand how women needed plenty of things wherever they went.
“Well yes, but I didn’t know about the party so technically it’s not my fault”, I tried to reason shyly.
“You always say it’s not your fault, but did you bother asking me for more details about the trip? You only asked me what was on the itinerary”, Elijah answered with a cocked head and cheeky grin. ‘He’s having the time of his life, taking the mick out of me’, I realised.
“Okay but you could have told me more about it without expecting me to ask you for details. You’re the boss it’s your job to tell me these things or else I’ll never find out.”
“Interesting observation. Tell me, how many years of experience do you have in being a boss or CEO of a company?” Elijah responded back. At this I could feel my ears turning red, not from embarrassment, but from anger that Elijah was enjoying this torture more than he should have been.
“That’s not necessary information”, I hissed between gritted teeth. I was losing this battle. Elijah once again added a deep boisterous laugh to my comment as I twisted my body away from and crossed my arms against my chest.
“Exactly, you have no idea what being a boss is like so lets just leave this ridiculous argument alone and instead we can listen to some music, hm?”
“I liked you better when you weren’t drunk”, I muttered under my breath but that only fuelled Elijah to become rowdier with his laughing attack before he wiped a stray tear away from his eyes.
“I’m not drunk, not even tipsy, if I were I wouldn’t be driving a car.”
I turned back to look at him in more detail. His face had taken on a more angelic appearance from the smug little grin he plastered on his face. His hair was carelessly flowing around his face as the partial wind from the rolled down window blew it fancily away. Even his body language was more relaxed. Long gone were the days of his stressed posture and tense muscles covered in suits and shirts, no, with his t-shirt and jeans he looked like anyone else would do. ‘I like this side of Elijah a lot more’, I noticed, ‘He’s actually expressing his thoughts and opinions right now and the laugh he gives is the most rewarding jewel ever.’
“Let me show you something, Miss Nora.”
I wanted to ask some more questions about where we were going to but with that happiness radiating off him, I let him surround himself in those emotions for a bit longer. ‘If I ended up saying anything, I’d probably ruin it.’ Instead, I looked past the window and studied the landscape, forever admiring the water fountains and big skyscraper buildings.
After an hour of silence, I could feel the car slowing down in what seemed to be a quiet little neighbourhood, quaint in comparison to the big city we both spent our usual time in. I thought Elijah would just exit the car and wait for me to join his side like normal but because of the alcohol, my boss stepped out of the vehicle, rushed to the passenger side, and opened the door for me.
Like a true gentleman, he actually passed me his hand for me to take before helping me out of the vehicle. I watched in mild surprise at his gentle touch caressing my palms, staring down at the way his hand fit snugly against mine before peering back up at him in stunned silence. ‘Wow, that’s unusual’, I felt sort of uncomfortable since I’d never seen him like this and the few times, he had shown me some forms of physical attachment were when he’d drunk alcohol.
Then again, if this behaviour was due to the alcohol, then I would wish upon every shooting star that he’d drink every day. It was a cruel thing to say but this new version of my boss made me infinitely more attracted to him.
The neighbourhood was situated around a particular old house. It was painted white with a red crippling roof and broken windows, there wasn’t much to describe as it wasn’t looked after and even the flowers on the front porch were starting to wilt and die. ‘Was this his house?’ I questioned as Elijah let go of my hand and I immediately missed his warmth. He looked excited to be here and yet there was a sad longing in his eyes as he scanned the area which made me want to comfort him.
“Come with me”, Elijah whispered as he led us to the house. There was a hint of vulnerability in his voice when he’d spoken but it was masked with the shuffling of his keys as he unlocked the door and placed them back in his suit. When he stepped forward, the floorboards beneath us creaked under the newfound pressure but didn’t give way.
“What is this place, sir?” I quietly asked him once we’d stepped inside to a clean hallway. It was almost like the outside was a disguise to am immaculate place that was immersed in a sense of warmth, and family memories. Hanging everywhere on the walls were pictures of people all happy and full of life. The hallway led to two separate rooms and then a staircase somewhere at the back, but we didn’t go further in.
“A safe space for when I need to get away for a while”, was all that my boss responded with.
Elijah made his way to one photo in particular on the wall where the frame seemed to be in good condition and well looked after. There the picture showcased a family laying sprawled on the grass as they played together with the sun beating down on them. It was one that made me feel as though this family were carefree and strong together, where an old lady with happy wrinkles tickled two boys in glee as she held a twinkle in her eyes and seemed to be laughing with the children.
Upon further inspection I noted the familiarity of the two young boys with my boss and his brother. They all seemed to have the same piercing pale blue eyes, but the only difference was that those two boys were having fun and now the man standing beside me was shattered to glass. ‘Wait, could it be Elijah and Elian?’ It was a difficult sight to process. ‘Who was the woman in the photo though?’ Almost like my boss was reading my mind he answered.
“This house used to belong to my grandma”, he informed me as he reached his hand up to touch the photo of the lady, a small smile gracing his lips before he frowned, “But she passed away two years ago.”
“She was a beautiful woman, and I can see you were very close to her”, I tried to sympathetically share, “Can I ask how she died?”
“I’d rather not share that story, it’s much too depressing for now.”
I respected his boundaries and kept quiet, letting Elijah reminisce and pass by all the photos with a haunted look. Elijah wasn’t joking when he called it a safe space, this was a house that was Elijah’s sanctuary where he ran to when he was broken or sad and needing some comfort.
“Both Elian and I were close to them, but we weren’t very close to our parents, so we took solace with our grandparents instead.”
“I’m sorry to hear that”, I added, heading over to him, and patting his shoulder comfortingly, but Elijah snapped back from his daze and coughed awkwardly.
“I wish I could turn back time but what’s happened has happened, there’s no use frolicking in the past.”
Elijah turned to me with a strained face, almost as if he was trying to keep it together so he wouldn’t end up crying in front of me. Maybe, he didn’t want to appear weak since everyone thought he was the Devil CEO but right now as I looked at him, I saw the same boy from the photos, the one that was innocent and vulnerable and so alone.
I knew exactly how he felt when you ended up losing someone that you were close to. That piece of them gets ripped from you and you end up feeling so lost, like a void was in your chest. The smile from his face had disappeared and it wrecked my heart to see him like this, so I caught his arm and gave it a tight squeeze for moral support.
“Alright, enough chit-chat. Would you like some pasta?” Elijah proposed with a distracted face as he started to make his way to one of the two rooms. At first, I didn’t want to agree since we’d already eaten and I was full, but it didn’t seem right to reject him since he was upset about his family.
“It’s my grandma’s special recipe”, he added, trying to convince me. We graced the kitchen with our presence where a small kitchen table laid in the middle under a neat grey rug and on the outer edge was a marble countertop littered with pots, pans, and an array of kitchen knives.
“Aren’t you full?” I asked him boldly.
“Pfft, no. There’s always space for food”, he tacked on whilst putting on a bright blue apron. I laughed at the sight before me as he spread his hands out and bowed like a gentleman about to start the Vietnamese waltz.
“Okay, you’ve convinced me.”
With that my boss got to work and started to prepare a sauce to his pasta. It didn’t take long to prepare the meal and throughout the duration of that Elijah had ordered me to the small kitchen table where I was meant to sit quiet and stay away from the cooking process. Elijah didn’t want me to distract him or ruin his mojo when he was cooking.
“It’s ready!” He called out to me in a satisfied voice.
I sat forward in anticipation and the scent of food had me painfully drooling as my stomach cramped with protest. ‘Shush, we will eat this food’, I scolded it. Elijah pulled out a chair before we both sat down, and he placed a set of plates and cutlery down before dishing out the food evenly.
“Thank you for the meal”, I kindly said as we tucked in with a fresh vigour. The food melted beautifully against our tongues, and it was difficult to not moan out of pleasure. By the end of the first bite, I found that Elijah had been right, there was always space for seconds, and that man knew he was right when I saw grinning over the table and enjoying the sounds leaving my mouth. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at his smugness. ‘I didn’t know he could cook this well’, I praised but I would never say that to his face. That was a secret I would hold until death.
Once we’d finished, we cleaned the mess Elijah had made in the kitchen, side by side, working together without any glares or angry scowls or even sarcastic comments. It seemed that for once we were just getting along because we actually wanted to get along.
“Do you know how to play Uno?” Interrupted my boss who wiped his hands against a towel and peered at me through his hair.
“Of course, I do, how about you?” I challenged him playfully, setting down the drying towel after I’d finished with the last plate Elijah had washed.
“Oh, I’m the master at Uno”, he taunted back with raised eyebrows.
“Let’s see if you keep saying that at the end of the battle.”
We moved from there to the living room where Elijah placed himself comfortably on the floor and prompted for me to do the same. I thought we’d be playing on the sofa, but I guess Uno was meant to be played on the floor with a table in between us. Like true childish behaviour Elijah turned giddy and plucked from a wooden drawer a deck of Uno cards before shuffling them and dealing seven cards between us. We put the rest in the middle before the top card was drawn from the pile and set aside so we could begin the game.
Throughout the game we spoke about our lives, how different they were and how our families were doing. We joked about our colleague’s and even the men we’d been in a meeting with just a few hours before to then talk about how the stress of being a CEO and running a company were actually taking a toll on him. To summarise, the night was pretty fun and when I loved spending time with him when he was actually under the influence, it was different when he was sober.
After a good few rounds, I fell asleep but not before triumphantly exclaiming, “I WON! YES!”
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