Xavier in nightclub

“The beauty of life is, while we cannot undo what is done, we can see it, understand it, learn from it and change so that every new moment is spent not in regret, guilt, fear or anger but in wisdom, understanding and love.”

“If it was up to me, I would not even let you work in any of the companies in New York, let alone my office.”

Those painful words kept ringing in my ears, stealing me of my peace of mind. I was already swimming in the pool of guilt, hearing those words from his mouth had left me in a puddle of misery. For years, I have been running from my past, facing the difficulties, but his face has brought me back to the place from where I started.

To zero!

"Damn! Babe!" Kat's yelling pulled me out of the trance. Turning my face towards her, only to find her staring at her laptop's screen with 'puppy- dog eyes'. "Why the hell didn't you tell me your Xavier Knight is the living Greek god?"

"He's not mine, and secondly why on earth are you stalking him?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at her. Kat shrugged, flicking her brown hair, usually tied in a bun that was now hanging loosely over her shoulder.

"Because my dear Eve, I've to look out for you." She replied, obviously in her 'duh' tone.

This girl!

"And dude, he looks nothing like you described." She said, sounding disappointed.

"He changed." I sighed, "People change."

"I didn't know about anyone, but he definitely aged like fine wine." She commented, while shutting down the laptop, scooting closer to me.

As always, her calculative gaze studied my face and despite my every attempt to ignore her, I failed. There was no point in telling her the hate I faced in the office, because I was literally tired of seeing the pity in her eyes.

"Tell me." She asked as her voice turned serious; her questions always made my skin tingle with anxiety.

"Do you think I'm getting punished?" I asked.

A frown appeared on her face after hearing the question. Sighing, she wrapped her arms around me, placing her head on my shoulder. "You changed Eve, you had your fair share of punishment a long time ago. Don't let anyone walk over you all again."

The hatred in his eyes appeared once again before my eyes. "He hates me." I said, leaning into the couch. "And I think I deserve every bit of his contempt."

Kat stood up, her eyes were twinkling in amazement, disturbingly. "Stand up." She said, well not said, she commanded me.

"Why?" I groaned.

"I'm dressing you up for a 'girls' night, now come on."

I was about to say 'no', which is also my got-to-go answer in every situation. But Kat literally dragged me out of the living room to her bedroom. I wasn't even sure how she switched her mood from serious to partying, but maybe I needed it right now. Kat hid a stash of perfect dresses for me that she knew I would never purchase as seeing my closet contained a bunch of T-shirts and jeans. I had been trying out a bunch of dresses for half an hour already and it seemed that most of them just didn't work out.

"Kat! This is ridiculous. I'm not opening up my 'soul' for everyone to see," I whined. I was bothered that she might try to set me up with some strange guy in the nightclub.

Rolling her eyes at me, she exaggerated. "This is a nightclub, Eve. You're not going to look like a virgin if you're stepping in with me. That's like the tenth dress you've tried on. Pick the damn dress!"

Getting frustrated, I pinched the bridge of my nose, taking a deep breath, I said, "Okay, okay. Just get me a dress that would at least cover my upper body."

"Hold on, I think I've something that you'd definitely approve of." Kat shuffled back to her closet and took out a deep green satin fabric. She then handed it to me. "Here, try this on."

Putting on the dress, I looked at myself in the mirror. My mouth curved into a smile when I saw it perfectly covered the upper area, I didn't mind the slit though. It was a perfect deep green sweetheart neckline backless satin dress. It hugged my body comfortably while the bottom flowed with a slit showing my right leg from knee to feet. I was a bit concerned with the back since it was bare. But in totality, I liked it.

Kat couldn't even contain her excitement. "You look gorgeous babe, like 'drooling' worthy." And I rolled my eyes at her comment.

I wasn't really into make-up. My daily routine only consisted of me putting on some cheek tint, loose powder and light pink shade of lipstick. It was a long time ago, I used to wear a ton of make-up, but guess what people change. Since this night was a once in a lifetime thing, I applied mascara and eyeliner just to let my brown with a tinge of green specs eye color pop. I curled my natural strawberry blonde, giving them slightly a wavier look than usual as then accentuated loosely until my back.

Kat and I were now ready to go. She was wearing a black dress, red pumps and dark red lipstick.

Guess, who is in a full party mood.

"Damn! Girl you're totally getting laid today." I said as the side of my lips twitch to form a natural smirk.

"Shut up, I've got a boyfriend." She rolled her eyes at me. "But you're definitely getting laid today."

"Hey!" I slapped her shoulder playfully.

Kat just chuckled. "Come on virgin, let's go have fun tonight."

The nightclub was already in full swing when we arrived. There were a lot of people lining up waiting to get access inside.

"Are you sure we could still fit in there?" I asked while Kat tried to find a parking spot nearby.

"Don't worry. Mason already got us into the guest list. We wanted to celebrate. Plus, you need to get out of the apartment," Kat assured me.

"Wait, Mason is here, like really here!" I exclaimed, hearing that Mason finally came from his tour.

It has been six years to Mason and Kat's relationship, I know he wanted to finish off his work of the year, so that he could finally prepare to propose to the love of his life and get married. He was my biggest support for years after Kat. I'd have known that partying would definitely be his idea, I still remember the day when he threw a party named 'I finally found my little sister', and that was me.

Those days…

No, no, nope. I know what everyone would be thinking, but no Mason and I weren't blood related. But he had accepted me as his sister the day he saw me.

"Fuck! It was considered to be a surprise. Eve, promise me when you see Mason, you'll act like it is a fucking surprise from him." Kat told me sternly.

I was laughing my ass off, "Why of course Katherine, I'll definitely do as you said."

She was relaxed with my reply, although it somewhat bothered me whatever he planned to do for tonight. I just hoped that I wouldn't be tossed to a pile of hungry horny men. I shuddered at the thought.

As we entered the club, the music blasted through the speakers while the neon lights were blinding my vision. My eyes took their time to adjust to the scene around me. It was overwhelming at first, but I could see that Kat couldn't contain her excitement.

"Eve, that's our table over there!" She screamed in my ear, pointing to a corner where it was a few meters away from the dance floor. It was a good thing that they picked a more private area because I didn't want anyone grinding on me tonight.

Taking my time to look around the club. Obviously, it was as dark as the night sky. All you could see were the silhouettes of people moving to the beat of the music. The low lighting made it difficult to see their faces. It had a stage where the DJ was doing his thing to make everyone dance in their place.

There was a second floor. It was more private than the first floor, I guessed it was the VIP lounge. My eyes caught a male figure, leaning on the railing with two girls hovering for his attention. I didn't realize why my gaze remained longer than normal. He intrigued me and somehow, he seemed familiar.

Staring a bit longer until his shadow moved a bit forward where the light struck his face, my eyes widened, and I froze in the midst of the crowd.

The mysterious man was Xavier Knight.