XXXVII

Moving around his closet while humming a tune with a wide smile on his face, Jordan absentmindedly looked through his rows and rows of clothes for what to wear for the day's occasion he had been invited to, while also reminiscing about the letter he had received from Emerald previously.

A mirthful chuckle escaped his lips as he thought back to how she had tried to hide her concern for him by 'strictly' shunning him from delivering more flowers and cards to her. He knew that by now, her apartment and office would be looking like a garden or greenhouse but if that would earn him her speedy forgiveness, then he wouldn't back down at all, not even in the face of an allergy he never knew he had until that day.

Jordan was happy, sincerely happy and for the first time, he actually allowed himself to bask in the happiness the thoughts of her gave him. Suddenly missing those bottomless emerald eyes of hers, Jordan dove into his closet to find a shirt the same colour as her eyes.

After spending a few minutes searching but all to naught, Jordan heaved a sigh with his arms resting on his hips, his lips pressed together in a firm, thin line as he turned a full 360 degree in his colossal sized closet. He shook his head in disappointment.

Even with his mall of outfits, Jordan couldn't find a single emerald green shirt. His clothes were only in the ranges of dark to cool colours, no flashy or bright coloured outfits, whatsoever. That flaw needed to be amended.

As Jordan was immersed in the thought of where to get a green shirt in a span of seconds, a loud voice suddenly cut through his reverie.

"J! Are you in labour or something?!"

Jordan heard his sister shriek just outside his closet room before her approaching footsteps followed and a few seconds later, she peered down at him from the top of the ladder-type stairs. A frown immediately clouded her face and Jordan could only dread the ominous silence that followed after.

"You aren't dressed yet?!" she shouted, her shrill voice echoing round the bouncing walls of the large closet. Jordan shook his head with a groan as he hurriedly discarded his earlier thought of going to find a green shirt. He began digging through his waterfall of shirts for something else.

"Calm down. I was trying to find a green shirt," he mumbled quietly without the intention of letting Carol hear his words but unfortunately for him, she had. And in return, she shouted again,

"Green shirt?! Why do you need a green shirt?!" Rubbing his ears, Jordan looked up to glare at her but she only regarded him with an eye roll before speaking at a normal decibel. "Is there a colour theme or something?" her eyes widened and she suddenly began shouting again, "Why didn't you tell me?! I'm not putting on anything green!" Frantically, she looked down at her black and white checkered dress.

Jordan groaned loudly again before raising his voice too. "Number one, stop shouting, this whole place echoes. Number two," he narrowed his eyes at her, "you're speaking as if I personally invited you to come with me when clearly, you invited yourself." Carol rolled her eyes again and waved him off. He sighed.

"Number three, there is no colour theme, so don't panic," he finally stumbled upon a long sleeved Prussian blue shirt with tiny white stripes along its length. He nodded. That'll have to do.

Finally surrounded by the quietude, Jordan thought that he was finally alone again without the presence of his clanging sister and he almost began to hum when Carol's annoying voice echoed again. "Since you're done stating your analysis, I'll state mine." Jordan face-palmed in exasperation.

"Number one, it's not my fault you decided you wanted your closet to be underground when it's not like it's a cavern or something," she grumbled. "Number two, I invited myself for your sake. The invitation card clearly stated that you could bring a plus one and clearly, since you're a loner," Jordan glared at her choice of words while Carol snickered, "I decided to help your life.

Or did you perhaps plan to take someone else with you before? Who was it? Keels? Or maybe, scary Owen," she mocked with a triumphant smirk on her face when she saw that he had nothing to say in retort.

With a grunt, she straightened up from her bent over position before running her hands along her dress to smoothen it out. "Now, now, stop being such an ungrateful wuss and get dressed. We can't arrive at the anniversary party late. Ugh, I can't believe I actually skipped out on movie night with Nardo just to help you yet, you still treat me this way."

Jordan heard her retreating footsteps as she mumbled something along the lines of "such is life" before she called out, "I'm giving you two minutes!" and the room door slammed shut behind her.

Jordan heaved an exasperated sigh as he buttoned up his shirt before picking up his silver Rolex wristwatch. He stood seemingly transfixed before his full length mirror as he thought about his initial plans for today.

Two days prior, when he had gone to pick up his daily, fresh bouquet of a new flower specie for Emerald - completely doing the opposite of what she had instructed him to do - surprisingly, the middle-aged couple, who ran the flower shop had invited him for their anniversary party, which was to take place during the weekend.

Over the two weeks that he had been visiting their shop, he and the woman had grown considerably close, since she had been really helpful with recommendations on which flowers to buy. She had even been the one to suggest the idea of getting his woman different species of flowers for each day with matching coloured cards. So much so that they were now on first name basis with each other.

But at first, he had wanted to reject their invitation out of shock, since he had never been cordially invited to any of such good-natured event before. Sure, as the Mafia Don of the entire J.K Empire and CEO of the most successful and prestigious winery of all time, Jordan was always invited to all the extravagant events there was to have ever existed since he rose to fame years back, but he knew very well that the reasons behind the invites were never good-natured.

It was either to create an opportunity to form business relations and alliances with him, to leech off of his riches and become a favoured business partner or to find an opening, an Achilles heel in order to take down the seemingly impenetrable and unshakeable Mafia Don.

But Jordan, well aware of their plans, had never fallen for any single one of them, much to these people's disappointment. So, imagine the shock he had gone through when these average middle-aged couple had invited him - a total stranger, who was only but a patron of the services they provided - over to their home to join in the celebration of their anniversary with blinding smiles on their faces.

Without much of a choice, he had agreed but after giving it much thought, he couldn't help but begin to see the event as a miracle; an opportunity; a blessing in disguise. He had planned on inviting Emerald as his plus one, but unfortunately, his sister had caught wind of it when she had come to visit him at the company and thinking that she was helping him with her gracious presence, she had slithered her way through.

He didn't have a choice but to bring her with him instead. His sister didn't know anything about his feelings for the green eyed temptress yet and he was afraid that if he mentioned that he already had plans to take a 'woman' to the occasion, his sister would become suspicious and he knew that sooner, much rather than later, she would come to know everything and he wasn't sure he would be able to live that down.

So with discontent evident on his visage, Jordan grumbled his way up the stairs of his closet and out of the room, already dreading the party.

▬▬▬▬▬

Floating around the small gathering with irrepressible smiles on their faces, the couple of the night entertained each and everyone of their guests, both young and old, while every once in a while, Alora would instinctively pass a fleeting look at the door before letting her eyes linger a bit on Emerald, who was busy chatting so animatedly with Alora's and Levi's grandchildren, along with other kids, who had been brought to the party by their parents.

Alora continued to watch the beautiful, young woman, who had been the centre of endless double takes and once-overs since the evening started. Alora couldn't blame her guests though; Emerald was the epitome of beauty and elegance and the people around - both males and females - couldn't help but let their eyes bath in her ethereal glow.

Levi, who was talking to Sebastian and his wife, looked over at the unmoving figure of his wife. He gave Sebastian a look to which the latter nodded before letting his friend go to his wife.

Alora snapped out of her trance when she felt a familiar hot breath fan her ear. Her husband's deep voice wafted into her ears. "She's really good with children," he commented, his eyes looking in the same direction as his wife.

Alora nodded in agreement. "She would make an excellent mother," she smiled before her thoughts drifted to her mysterious customer, causing her smile to fade and almost on reflex, her eyes glided back to the entrance. She gave out a sigh for the umpteenth time tonight.

Levi, who was standing behind his wife, noticed the expectant look she had passed to the door. He slowly and gently laced his hands around her waist and nestled his chin in the curve of her neck. "You've been sighing the whole evening, my love."

"I really thought he would make it," she muttered dejectedly, "maybe I shouldn't have been so expectant." she looked at Emerald who was so engrossed in what the kids were saying. She had even subconsciously settled down on the floor of the makeshift playing area to be well surrounded by the children.

"I wanted him to see her like this. The view is so astonishing."

Levi nodded. "You're right. Even our Richard seems enthralled by her." The couple looked towards their son, who stood frozen in a corner with a half filled flute in hand and his beady eyes latched onto Emerald's frame. Alora snorted, earning a chuckle from her husband who then, went back to the matter at hand.

"But you're indeed right. This would be the perfect moment for his arrival."

As soon as those words left Levi's mouth, the entrance door was pushed open slightly and a head peeked in through the crack. Recognizing the owner of the head, Alora squealed and immediately pulled Levi along with her as she hastily made her way to the entrance.

But before the couple could get to their destination, the man suddenly burst into the house, almost falling on his face as he stumbled forward. Alora's and Levi's eyes instantly went wide as they watched him stumble forward a few steps before gaining his balance in time to prevent himself from crashing into the full length framed picture of a grinning Alora and Levi with a big 40th marriage anniversary calligraphed on it.

Jordan heaved a sigh of relief as he was able to successfully avert the imminent crisis. His head was just some inches away from the shiny glass frame.

While he straightened himself out, still recovering from the shock of being pushed so ruthlessly, Alora and Levi had already looked back at the door to find the culprit, who had so mercilessly pushed their potential future son-in-law with frowns on their faces.

At that moment, a woman in a black and white checkered dress walked majestically into the house with her highly held blonde hair swinging side to side as she moved, a well wrapped present in hand. After fully regaining his composure, Jordan turned around to glare at Carol, who only rolled her eyes with a snicker as she let her eyes take in the beautifully decorated house.

A scowl graced her delicate face when she noticed that everyone else was already here and that only they had arrived rather late. She glared at Jordan and as she moved closer to him with a menacing look, the couple who had been taking in the exchange between the man and woman, finally awoke from their frozen state and moved towards the two.

"Jordie dear," Alora called out with a grin as she moved towards the pair, who looked like they would rip each other's heads off any minute.

Jordan cringed and turned away from his sister to see the owner of the voice that had called him such unacceptable nickname. Alora giggled, noticing Jordan's cringe as she pulled him into a motherly hug.

"Alora," he whined, "I told you to stop calling me that," he muttered, wrapping his arms around her in return, completely surprising Carol, who stood on the sidelines, watching their exchange.

Alora giggled again, pulling away. "That's why I told you to find me a nickname as well, so we could be even and yet, you refused to. So, don't blame me," she winked before pulling her husband closer. "Won't you two say hello to each other?"

With squinted eyes, Levi gave Jordan a once-over before standing up to his full height so as to look bigger. Since Jordan had first patronized their shop, Alora had been speaking endlessly of his natural grace and elegance, of how he carried himself with such dignified propriety, of his enigmatic ambience and simply just everything about him.

Levi couldn't help but feel jealous and he was almost close to walking away rudely but on seeing his wife's glare, the thought vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Begrudgingly, he stretched out his hand for a firm handshake before nodding his head slightly in acknowledgement. "Thank you for coming."

"Sure." Jordan answered simply.

Alora and Carol could only roll their eyes with a shake of their heads. 'Men and their egos. Such alpha males.'

Just then, Alora's eyes met with Carol's and she arched her eyebrows in question. Carol immediately nudged Jordan with her elbow before gesturing to be introduced.

"Oh, pardon me. Ali, Levi," Alora smiled widely at the nickname Jordan had given her, "meet Carol, my-"

"Oh, Jordie dear, is she the lucky woman you've been sending those flowers to?" Alora interrupted before Jordan could state his relationship with Carol.

Comical expressions immediately graced the siblings' face as Jordan's eyes widened and Carol's eyebrows slightly furrowed. 'Flowers? Lucky woman?', Carol thought confusedly before turning to face Jordan with a questioning look, but her brother completely ignored her gaze, his eyes trained on the middle-aged woman before him as his lips were pressed firmly in a thin line.

"She's the lucky woman, am I right?" she asked again. When no one made a move to answer, she immediately moved closer to Carol, who remained frozen in utter bewilderment. Pecking both her cheeks, Alora continued, "oh dear, I knew it was you at first glance. You're really beautiful and I knew that Jordie here had eyes for the good stuff."

As she ranted enthusiastically, no one could have ever seen the mischievous glint behind her happy smile. Only Levi knew the shenanigans his wife was up to and all the poor man could do was look helplessly at his friend, Sebastian who was accompanying his wife. Sebastian chuckled at the helpless look in his friend's eyes before shrugging and gesturing towards his own wife, who was so engrossed in her discussion with him to even notice that he wasn't listening.

Before Levi could stop his wife from going overboard, Carol suddenly spoke, already frustrated at being left in the dark.

"Actually, I'm his sister."