XXVIII

“I'll keep you updated.”

These were the words that presently caused a turmoil in Jordan's head as he stared wordlessly at the mahogany coloured drink swirling between the mini ice cubes in his glass. He groaned loudly for the umpteenth time since he and Keelan had arrived at the bar tonight.

Looking away from the bevy of half naked ladies who were seductively batting their fake lashes at him as they twisted and turned their curvaceous bodies in all directions humanly possible, Keelan took in his friend's seemingly frustrated figure with an eyebrow raised.

He scrutinised him as he continued to have a staring contest with the Jim Beam bourbon whiskey glistening in his glass. His friend, who was usually — if not always — quiet whenever they hung out together, that Keelan already knew he had inherited the position of the conversation starter, had been groaning and making frustrated sounds so loudly since the start of the night.

Clearly there was something on his mind. Something was bothering him. Yet another groan from Jordan tore Keelan out of his train of thoughts to discern what could possibly be troubling his friend.

“You do know that having a staring contest with your whiskey is just plain pointless, right?”

He hurriedly raised his hands up in surrender on seeing Jordan's harsh glare. “What? I was just reminding you in case you had forgotten,” he said, trying to pacify him while attempting to inhibit his own laughter.

“Well, keep it to yourself, Mars. I don't need it,” Jordan grumbled before guzzling his drink.

“Alright, spill. What's the matter with you, JoJo?” Keelan teased again, chuckling when he saw another one of Jordan's rare glares.

His friend rarely reacted to any of his gibes but seeing as his every word seemed to gain a reaction from him tonight, it could only mean three things — he was already drunk to stupor, he was in a really good mood — which was something that was probably light years away from J.K — or something really was pestering him.

Knock out the first two because one, Jordan always liked to remain sane at all times to avoid vulnerability, meaning not having too much to drink and two, even happy J.K was equivalent to expressionless J.K, so that scales it all down to one option — he was bothered. That was a rare case too but definitely plausible.

“Alright, let's be serious now,” Keelan sat up, emphasising on the serious. “What's the problem, J?” he asked soberly.

Jordan released a dry chuckle at the question, signaling to the bartender for another refill. He quickly slugged down the delivered drink before making a move to reply.

“What? Are you some kind of protector now?” he raised an eyebrow at his friend. “Well, there's no need to worry about me. I'm perfectly fine, as you can see,” he strived to put an end to the conversation but Keelan was having none of it.

“Don't give me that bullshit, J. Carol and I were worried about you. Apparently, you hadn't left the city but it seemed as if you had disappeared—”

“Overexaggeration,” Jordan interrupted.

Passing him a glare of his own, Keelan ignored his comment and continued, “— Carol and I visited your home—”

“House,” he interrupted again with jaws clenched.

Keelan cleared his throat and continued again, “—visited your house to find it practically empty. Carol also told me you had been leaving the office rather early — although that's a good thing, I guess — or sometimes, you wouldn't even bother to check in at all,” he ranted on and on.

“I didn't know you and Carol had become my guardian angels now,” Jordan tilted his head, passing Keelan a fleeting look.

“I had gone further to ask Skull about your whereabouts but it's like that guy is your shadow or reincarnation or something, because he wouldn't even budge or reveal anything,” he finally concluded, much to Jordan's relief.

“I thought you were smart, Keel but I guess not.” Jordan quipped as he regarded Keelan with a blank look.

“What do you mean by that?” asked Keelan, slightly offended.

“If Skull had been unwilling to inform you of my whereabouts, then you should've known there was nothing wrong. If I had been in danger, he would've called you first to let you know.”

“Oh, I knew that,” Keelan suddenly embarrassed, avoided his eyes while rubbing behind his neck. “I just needed confirmation for Carol,” he mumbled.

“Mhmm. Let's say I believe you.” Jordan held his sixth glass of whiskey for the night, slowly taking sips this time.

“Ok, since we've got the safety part cleared out,” Jordan rolled his eyes, “where have you been hiding all this while?” Keelan asked, genuinely curious as he racked his brain on the possible places his friend could have been hiding but he could only come up with three places just like Carol had — it was either his company, home – correction, house – or the clubhouse; better yet, out of the country for a business trip.

“Somewhere,” he feigned a faraway look in his eyes, intriguing Keelan who looked closely at him. “On Earth.” he smirked, watching his friend's deflated expression.

Keelan kissed his teeth as he eyed Jordan, “Fine, don't tell me. I'll just give my attention to those sexy ladies over there,” he turned back to the ladies whose eyes still remained glued to him and Jordan, who didn't seem to care less about them.

“Suit yourself,” he shrugged, diverting his attention back to the glass in his hand before his phone suddenly vibrated in his pants pocket. Not wanting to handle business with a jumbled mind, he chose to ignore the message until the device began blowing up with more messages, vibrating irritatingly against his thigh.

With furrowed eyebrows, Jordan brought out his phone and met it filled with messages from an unknown number. Wondering how someone had gotten his private number, he opened the message and instantly, his phone screen was filled up with pictures of a certain someone.

He stared at the pictures in confusion, trying to decipher why someone would send him pictures of her, his eyes widened when a sickening thought skipped across his mind.

In panic, he scrolled down to the bottom of the pictures, expecting to find a death threat or something similar, but he was stunned to see something he had never anticipated.

“I promised to keep you updated. Enjoy!” the message read and ended with a winky faced emoticon.

Immediately, Jordan recalled Logan's last words as he had hurried out the door with his duffel bag in hand. The same words that had been plaguing and putting him on edge since the day before.

He didn't know how Logan intended on ‘keeping him updated’ but he had been on his toes since they had left yesterday morning, constantly checking his phone for calls, texts, emails, anything.

After waiting hopelessly but to naught, today, it had finally occurred to him that Logan didn't have his contact info nor any other means of contacting him to be able to ‘update’ him on anything, so he had given up hope until now that the surprise had finally arrived.

Jordan breathed a sigh of relief when his mind was eventually able to wrap around the fact that she wasn't in any danger. With curiosity gnawing at his insides, Jordan opened one of the images and he felt his breath hitch as he gaped at the picture.

His gemstone was dressed in a yellow skirt and blouse outfit that looked like it was tailored just for her. But that wasn't the only thing that ceased his breath. It was her wide smile.

He didn't know what it was about her smile that always made his insides churn in an extremely good way. Maybe it was how her pearly whites were put on show or maybe, it was how her green eyes seemed to shine even brighter or perhaps, it was how her dimples popped so prominently on her cheeks.

She had that kind of killer smile where her eyes would crinkle ever so slightly at the sides.

In the picture, there was someone beside her, precisely a lady who appeared younger than her, but from the angle at which Logan had taken the picture, only her side view was displayed. She appeared to be wearing almost the same outfit as his gemstone, only that hers was green instead of yellow.

Jordan wondered who the lady was to Emerald.

He swiped the screen on to the next picture. She wasn't smiling in this image, actually, she seemed to be thinking about something yet that didn't stop her from looking beautiful and gracious underneath the rays of sunlight.

Jordan had to admit that Logan was indeed very talented in the art of photography. The pictures were clearly professional and seemed as though they had been taken by an actual camera.

He kept scrolling through the pictures, the world around him completely forgotten as he couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped his mouth at the sight of one particular image.

In the picture, Emerald was rubbing her feet and he could almost easily make out the relief on her face. ‘She must not be a fan of heels,’ he thought.

After looking through all the photographs, he couldn't seem to get enough, so he went back to the first picture where she had blessed his phone with her blinding smile. As he attempted to zoom in on her face, he suddenly felt the hot breath of someone on his neck.

In shock, he hurriedly turned and bumped heads with Keelan who was leaning over Jordan's shoulder in order to get a glimpse of what had kept his friend preoccupied from the entire universe.

He had glimpsed the picture of a woman in a yellow outfit but he hadn't been able to see her face clearly before Jordan noticed him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Jordan gritted, rubbing his forehead as he tucked his phone back safely into his pocket.

“I'm sorry, I was just curious,” Keelan apologised, rubbing his forehead as well. “Besides, it's your fault too. You were the one who bumped heads with me,” he argued meaninglessly.

“You think?” Jordan's glare was sharp enough to bore holes into Keelan's skull. “What would you do if you found a weird asshole breathing down on your neck? And why were you so close to me in the first place?”

Jordan didn't know why he was scolding Keelan when he already knew that this was a usual antic of his. Maybe because he didn't want anyone to find out about. . . whatever it was he felt towards her. He wanted to keep it to himself for as long as possible.

“Whatever, whatever. Who was that, anyway? Some client?” Keelan changed the topic.

“No. It was nothing,” he replied curtly, once again grabbing his glass.

“Or were you perhaps shopping for clothes for CarCar?” he teased.

“Like I said, it was nothing.”

“It couldn't have been nothing, seeing how you were staring so intently at your phone. I even heard you chuckle, J!” Keelan's eyes widened, as though he had just discovered Mungo Park. “You chuckled, dude! And it wasn't your usual dark and sinister one.” Jordan continued to stare blankly at him.

For a few seconds, he seemed to be thinking about something before he suddenly gasped. “You like her, don't you?!” he shouted, causing Jordan to choke on an ice cube. Thankfully, the music had drowned out his annoying shriek.

“No, wait. J.K doesn't do feelings,” he spoke before Jordan could slap him back to his senses. “Such emotions have never existed in your dictionary before, so why would they now?” Jordan froze, letting his friend's words sink in.

He was right, too right. Jordan Kale didn't do feelings or attraction. He didn't look twice at anyone, let alone a woman that wasn't his sister. So, why would such emotions spring up now. Why now? What was it about her that made him feel such things?

Not feeling the mood anymore, Jordan gulped down the rest of his drink and stood up. “I'm leaving,” he turned around and began heading for the exit, ignoring all of Keelan's intoxicated protests.

Approaching his car, he texted Skull to make sure Keelan arrived at home safely. And as he sped down the highway, the thought that troubled his mind was;

What was so special about Emerald Pearce?

▬▬▬▬▬

It had been over a month since Emerald's mother's birthday party. Although Emerald had returned to Manhattan two days after the celebration, Jordan had barely seen her around the house.

At first, he had thought she had been intentionally avoiding him since he had missed the party until Logan had informed him that she was just really busy with the preparations for her mother's wedding ceremony which was due soon.

Over the weeks, Jordan and Logan had grown close enough to have random conversations with each other and Logan seemed to trust Jordan even with his devilish reputation, although, Jordan still couldn't bear to be there whenever Emerald and Logan were publicly displaying their affection for each other.

It never hesitated to make an unfamiliar emotion stir in the pit of his stomach every single time, but so far, he had been able to keep his emotions under control.

“Hey,” a familiar voice called out, successfully snapping him out of his thoughts.

He looked up to meet tired green eyes which housed moderate sized eye bags underneath them.

“Hi,” he replied, standing to his feet from the kitchen barstool where his computer and a few folders laid in front of him on the island, albeit he had been unable to focus on any of them.

She gave him a tiny smile which also radiated tiredness. “Working late?” she asked, walking further into the kitchen with droopy arms and shoulders.

He nodded, not moving his eyes away from her as she opened the refrigerator and reached for a bottled water. “I could say the same for you.”

“I guess,” she gave a one arm shrug. “I already left the office at about 5:30p.m but I had to make a few stops before heading home.” She plopped down into a stool and rested her head on her arms which were crossed on the countertop.

Jordan looked at the time illuminated on his computer screen, 10:07p.m. She had spent more than four hours making stops.

“Are you ok?” he moved closer and sat on the stool beside her. Her hair was wrapped up in its usual bun but a few strands ran askew here and there and his hand itched to free her beautiful face from their golden tresses.

“Mhmm,” she hummed. “Thank you,” her voice was muffled.

“For what?” his voice came out softly.

“For this morning. And please, do send my regards and appreciation to Carol,” she turned her head to face him as she watched him with her sleepy yet piercing eyes.

“You're welcome. . .and I will.” She smiled in return and they continued to stare into each other's eyes.

Since Jordan had come to know about Emerald's habits of not consuming breakfast everyday and having seen the teensy bits of meals she had during dinner, he had taken it upon himself to make her something to eat.

Every three days, after work, he would head over to his house, whip up meals enough to feed the entirety of Lagos, Nigeria for three days, pack them up into the refrigerator and head back to Emerald's apartment.

Then every morning before everyone else woke up, he would meet up with Skull — who he had instructed to warm up the cooked meals every morning — to collect the packaged breakfast and deliver it to Emerald every morning, making her believe that it was a gift from Carol to thank her for accommodating her brother in her house.

At first, she had stubbornly refused, but yet again, he had managed to guilt trip her by saying she didn't want to eat the meal because she was angry at him for not making it to her mother's birthday.

To prove that she wasn't, she had accepted the meal and had promised to eat it all immediately she got to work. Since then, it had become a routine between the two and Logan and Oriana had been shocked to discover that their friend was now eating breakfast.

Jordan smiled at his accomplishment as his eyes flitted towards the woman who was now fast asleep before him. He watched for long moments, soaking in her every feature.

The way her eyelids didn't completely close even while asleep, as though she didn't trust the world and people around her. The way her little nose wrinkled with every inhalation. The way her beautiful pink lips formed a thin line in all seriousness.

Jordan wondered if this was how serious he looked while sleeping. He moved his fingers to smoothen the frown that was etched on her forehead before making a move to carry her, albeit reluctantly.

He didn't want her to awaken with a crick in her neck so he carried her bridal style into her dark room. This wasn't the first time she had fallen asleep either in the kitchen or on the couch in the living room. And this wasn't the first time, he was bringing her to her room.

The first time he had brought her in here, he had stubbed his toe against the bed from how dark the room had been. Only the colours, dark red and grey or black dominated the room. He had never seen a feminine room decorated with such gothic style, yet he couldn't help but love it.

As he stared at her fragile figure beneath her velvet comforter, he thought back to the conversation he had had with Carol when she had flipped out over him digging up Emerald's information.

Ultimately, after her motherly lectures, he had made up his mind to find out about her pasts, fears and secrets from her and her alone.

He had decided that he would get to know her for who she truly was and not who the file described her to be. He would take it one step at a time with her. He would let the tidal wave of attraction between them guide his actions.

This was all new to him and he couldn't deny the fact that he was a bit weary about wandering in unfamiliar territories. But he would give it a try. He wanted to.

He needed to.