The smile on my face froze almost instantly the very second I heard his words.
S-stunning?!
Seriously?
Of all the words in the world, that was the first thing he thought of when he saw me?!
Now that I thought about it, I suddenly realized he had never, not even once not even by accident, called me beautiful or pretty.
Even when I proudly showed him my photoshoot pictures, he looked at them like he was a professional critique, not like a man complimenting a woman.
Okay, fine.
It wasn’t like that was technically wrong.
A man wasn’t obligated to shower a woman with compliments.
Normally, I wouldn’t even care.
But this wasn’t a normal situation!
The system had thrown me into this ridiculous quest, and if I didn’t get that one magic word out of him, I could kiss my whole reward goodbye.
And besides was he blind or something, the world beautiful couldn’t even describe me tonight, or did he just not have that word in his vocabulary?
No way.
I wasn’t going down without a fight!
I still had six hours left, and I was going to make sure he called me beautiful!
My pride would be completely shattered otherwise.
“Eliana?” Damien’s voice instantly pulled me out of my internal dilemma.
“Are you alright?”
I blinked a few times before forcing a smile onto my face.
“I’m fine.
Really, I’m fine.” I walked over to our table, and just as I reached it, a waiter quickly stepped forward to pull the chair out for me.
I sat down across from Damien, smoothing my dress as I did.
“I’m sorry.” His sudden apology made me lift my head toward him.
“I couldn’t be the one to pull the chair out for you myself.”
Of course, I would never see a man in a wheelchair as less of a gentleman just because he couldn’t stand and do something the waiter already did for me!
“Don’t say that, quite frankly I ‘m already happy just seeing you here, I wasn’t really certain you’d come, you’re very busy after all.
Besides, I should be the one apologizing because …” I paused, glancing at the clock on the wall.
“…
I made you wait for more than fifteen minutes, even after I asked you not to arrive late.
Traffic was just unforgivable today.”
Of course, that wasn’t the whole truth.
The real reason was because I lost track of time while repeatedly trying out different clothes at the boutique.
One more dress turned into almost an hour, and I ended up dropping another three hundred bucks.
Damien gave me a small nod, his gaze sweeping over me once more.
“It’s alright, I didn’t wait long anyways.”
I almost wanted to laugh, was he that prideful?
The kind waiter who had led me here had clearly said he’d been waiting for the past 15 minutes.
And this was Damien we were talking about, a man who valued time like it was gold.
Only him and God probably knew how much he earned every godamn second.
My husband was way just way too cute, was admiting that he’d be waiting really that much of a big deal?
For a second, I even thought maybe losing my reward would even be fine—No!
What was I thinking?!
Hell no, I needed that reward!
I needed to do everything in my power to grow as quickly as quickly as possible, I didn’t want to die after all!
While I was still internally stressing over my quest, Damien asked the waiter to pour wine into our glasses.
I looked up at him finally noticing his outfit.
Unlike usual, he wore something semi-formal: a beige blazer over a black shirt, the top button left undone just enough to soften his image.
It was simple, yet it made him look even more striking, almost unreal against the backdrop of the rooftop lights.
how could a man be this effortlessly handsome?
For a split second, I wanted to slap myself for ever daring to even think about friend zoning him.
Could someone like this really be my husband?
“You’re also worth looking at.” My throat tightened, and my voice came out a lot rougher than I meant.
I quickly corrected myself, my cheeks burning.
“I mean…
you look really handsome tonight, husband.”
The word slipped out so easily, but the heat flooding my face made me feel like I was about to burst into flames.
Desperate to hide my embarrassment, I grabbed my glass of wine and emptied it in one gulp.
But then, I regretted it.
Back in my old life, I used to drink without a problem; vodka, whiskey, wine, you name it.
But Eliana wasn’t used to drinking at all, and the sharp taste of the wine stung my tongue so badly I almost gagged.
“Why are you drinking so fast?” Damien handed me a handkerchief to wipe my mouth and signaled the waiter to pour water into my glass.
“I cleared my schedule tonight, so we can eat for as long as we want.”
I nodded wiping my mouth with the handkerchief as I turned my attention back to Damiem just as the waiter placed our appetizers in front of us.
The smell was tempting, but I was far more interested in the man sitting across the table.
Once the waiter left, I lifted my head and asked, “What do you think about this restaurant?
Is it good enough for you?”
Damien gave a small nod.
“The atmosphere is nice.
You really do have good taste in choosing a restaurant for a da—” He stopped mid-sentence, nearly choking on air itself.
After grabbing his glass and taking two quick gulps of water, he finished in the shortest way possible.
“The restaurant is quite beautiful.”
I forced a smile onto my face, while secretly grinding my teeth together.
What the hell?!
So he could call a restaurant beautiful but not me?