Lina’s POV

The noise was the first thing that got to me.

It was the same time someone walked past me in such a blur that I would have missed him if I hadn’t been paying so much attention.

But I saw his back.

He was lean, but at the same time, well built, the neat cut of his dark hair grazing the white collar of his shirt. He looked back a fraction, the side of his face slightly visible.

I swallowed immediately, wondering why it felt as if someone had hit me straight in the heart. He vanished behind a door just as my legs shuffled in the opposite direction.

“No!”

A hysterical voice screamed as I tried to take my seat at the first table I found. I looked up at her, my brows scrunched in confusion.

“You cannot sit there! That spot is reserved for our CEO alone. You can go scurry out and find some other place to sit.”

My best friend, Cindy, would warn me to let it go, to just do as she wanted, and move on. After all, I was here for a reason. The moment I got it, I would be out of here.

I brought out my phone and scribbled something into my notepad: "Customer Service, 0 rating."

“This table was empty, so I sat on it. If you didn’t intend for anyone to sit there, you should have put a reserved card or something on it. That way, you wouldn’t have had to yell at me.” She scoffed. It was the first time I noticed the disdain on her face. Who the hell hired her?

“How dare you speak to me like that?” Her eyes passed through my features from my hair down to my feet. “And can you even afford our services?”

“What do you mean?”

“You are dressed like a bloody wannabe in those pants and shirt. I think I have seen Rihanna in the same outfit as well. You are one of those, right?”

She moved closer, her nose in the air. “You are a fake, and fakes don’t deserve to be here.”

I shook my head. It was true that I was dressed in a similar outfit to the one she spoke about, but it was personally designed by my family's designer. Of course, I didn't expect her to know that.

“You will regret this!” I said as calmly as I could, even though my eyes communicated something else entirely. “Get me your CEO right at this instant.”

A few other diners had begun to watch the scene, but the waitress didn’t seem to care about that.

“Right,” she sneered. “I will get him so he can kick you out of here.”

I knew she was bluffing. Not about the kicking me out of here part, but the part where she would get him.

I had done my research and even though the owner of The Barnes didn’t have an online personality, he wasn’t one that could easily be approached. This waitress was perhaps going to call the head of this chain.

And if that person was anything like this waitress, it would be the end of this restaurant.

“Fine!” I murmured, getting on my feet. “In fact, I will make it faster so you don’t have to stress yourself. Why don’t I walk you there?”

I didn't wait for her response as I got on my feet, heading in the direction where I saw the man with the black hair go.

But before I could get there, she walked ahead of me and pushed me out of the way with so much strength that I almost fell to the floor.

My eyes jerked to hers as I stabled my feet. “What the hell was that?” Now, I was angry. “You have no right to treat anyone who walks in through that door this way.”

“Wait here,” she rolled her eyes, then pushed the door and walked in, leaving me standing there with different pairs of eyes on me.

‘It’s fine, Lina,' I told myself. 'A few more minutes and you will be out of here. You have to go through this to get the recognition you want. Remember, the goal is to be a world-class chef.'

"I don't care about that," I heard a deep baritone voice travel from behind the doors. It made every part of my being stop, made me take an unconscious step closer.

“Handle it, Martha, and while at it, ensure it never happens again. I don’t want the slightest thing to go wrong with any of my diners. If this happens again, your jobs will be on the line.”

I guessed he was talking to the people in that room with him, and I could bet my head that it was the kitchen.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open and stepped in. An abrupt silence travelled through the space as everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at the person who had just walked in.

The door at the other end banged shut, the same black hair visible before it disappeared. A sharp gasp escaped my lips as I took in the scene before me.

“Why the hell is this kitchen dirty? Is this where meals are being prepared to serve your guests? Do you care about sanitation at all?”

“You cannot be in here, ma’am,” the lady I guessed was called Martha walked over to me, her dark eyes giving me one look before placing a hand on the small of my waist and pushing me out through the doors.

“Stay out there, or better still, visit some other restaurant. There are no extra tables at the moment.”

“But…”

“There are no extra tables, ma’am!” she repeated, her voice getting stern. “Get out if you don’t want me calling security on you.”

Sighing, I turned around and headed out of the restaurant. My phone chimed in my purse, and it took me a few seconds to reach it.

“Mom?”

“Your father has set up a dinner tonight with the man you are to marry. Make sure you show up. This is the last chance he will be giving you.”

Lina’s POV

My parents’ house was located in the Historic District of downtown Roseville. I didn’t like to call it home even though I still lived there and that was because my father was trying to force me to get married.

Marriage was the last thing on my mind right now, because there was still a lot more for me to accomplish. I tried to explain to him a million times, that a woman was more than marriage, but his mind seemed to be set.

Cindy said there seemed to be a motive behind his insistence. Perhaps she was right. I had heard of a lot of families getting their wards married for business purposes, but I never imagined I would be one of those.

“Welcome, Miss Lina,” the Butler murmured at the door, a wiry old man in great need of a retirement. His head almost reached his knee as he bowed before stepping aside for me to walk in.

“I have told you, Malcom, you don’t have to greet me this way every single time I…”

My words got lost somewhere in my throat when my gaze fell on the hallway leading to the living area. There was something different about it. The decorative candles lining the walls had been turned on.

The last time I had seen that happen was when I graduated from college.

“Malcom, what is happening?”

“Your husband and his family are around.”

“What?” I shook my head in confusion. “I am married, Malcom. You know that…”

“Stop bothering Malcom and come in, Lina.” My mother suddenly appeared in the doorway, her expression stern.

She’d always been this way, stern and firm with me. At first, I thought I wasn’t her real daughter and that she hated me.

But when nothing changed, I just shrugged it off to another explanation. Perhaps, she wanted a male child and had me instead. We never spoke about it. In fact, we barely had any form of personal relationship.

I dragged my feet in, following my mother's lead as we walked through the dimly lit hallway into the living area.

I stopped when we got in. “Mom, I said…”

And then, he turned around.

Him.

The first thing I noticed was his piercing blue eyes, staring straight down at me like he could see into my soul. It made me swallow, take a breath that never got past my throat.

And that black hair. For a second, it made me remember….No! It can’t be. It definitely isn’t. Now, I’m just overthinking this.

My feet shuffled where I stood, and my chest thundered hard against my chest. I was scared it would be the only thing that could be heard in the room.

“Now that our daughter is here, we might as well proceed to the dining table,” my father announced, breaking the awkward silence that had settled between me and the man with the blue eyes.

His upper lip quivered in a smirk before he turned around and followed the rest of them to the dining room.

This wasn't going in the way I wanted at all, but then again, what has ever gone in that direction? I called Cindy because she was the only person I spoke with.

“Cindy, the…”

"It has been oddly quiet here." Those were her first words as soon as she picked up the call. "We know that The Barnes is part of a chain of restaurants. That means the owner is filthy rich, right?"

“Cindy…”

“After that review you left them, I expected that they would have done everything in their power to take it down, but nothing has happened, other than the fact that it has gone viral.”

I stopped.

“Viral?”

"Yes!" She squealed so loud that I had to pull the phone away from my ears. "Over two million people have seen it, honey. This could be that push you have been looking for."

“No! No! No!” I shook my head at once. “I didn’t expect…”

“Lina, calm down.” Her tone was still ecstatic. “You said you needed to go viral so people can finally see that you are a great chef. Well, this is it.”

"Not this way," I sighed, shaking my head. I could hear the clinking of cutlery coming from the other side. "Shit! This is bad."

“Lina? What is going on?”

“Remember the job I told you I applied for?”

“Don’t tell me…”

I began to nod, then stopped when I realized she couldn’t see me. “The Barnes. That was the restaurant I applied to. The moment they find out that I was the one who left that review, the chances of me getting employed will be blown away.”

“This is bad!” Cindy was finally agreeing with me. I could imagine her getting off the floor and pacing her cozy little living area. “What will you do?”

“I already have so much on my plate. My father is trying to get me married to someone I barely know. He is here right now, in the dining room with my family and…”

“Is he handsome?”

“Cindy!”

“He has to be handsome if you are going to get married against your will.”

"He is more than handsome," I conceded, allowing myself to think about those blue eyes again. "He looks like he was personally sculpted by a Greek god. Adonis, maybe.”

“Ouuu! I know that tone.”

"Cindy, no." I shook my head at once. "He is self-conceited, proud, and annoying. He had the effrontery to smirk at me because I might have stared longer than necessary. So, no. This isn't happening."

“So what will you do?”

“I will go enjoy this dinner my parents have planned and then, at the end, I am going to tell them no. I am not going to get married to that pompous jerk.”

“What if they force you?”

“They can try.”

“What if he wants to marry you?”

“I will… I won’t…” It was surprising to realize that I had no answer to that question.

What if he wanted to marry me?

Griffin’s POV

She sauntered into the room and her eyes found mine. I watched her swallow, then take the only empty seat next to me, intentionally made so.

Every single person in this room was trying so hard to ensure this night ended just the way they wanted it to. This wasn’t the first time they would try, and it wouldn’t be the last either.

“You finally decided to grace us with your presence,” her mother said. They were so different in looks yet alike in a way I couldn’t decipher. It was somewhere, lingering in my brain, but I couldn’t place it just yet.

Lina was quiet as she retrieved her cutlery and delved into her meal.

“For someone who is going to get married to me, you sure are oddly quiet,” I murmured, eyeing her. She had great brown hair that fell in waves down her shoulders, going past her waist.

“I have no plans of doing that,” she shot back.

“It didn’t seem that way a few minutes back when you were staring at me.”

Her head jerked in my direction. “I wasn’t staring at you,” she whispered harshly. “You were in my line of vision. Where else would I have looked?”

“Maybe around the room?” I shrugged, enjoying this little banter way too much. Her brown eyes got bigger when she was pissed and for some reason….

"There were other strangers in the living room," I continued, allowing my past thoughts to die. "You could have tried to know who they were."

She turned back to her plate. “There wouldn’t have been any need for that, since today is the last day I would be meeting you all.”

“Oh!” I raise my eyes in mild surprise. That was something. “Why? Don’t you want to see me again?”

“I believe it is not one-sided. You hate this arrangement as much as I do, so we can quit pretending. Once dinner is over, we unanimously tell our parents that we are not interested in getting married to each other. That always works.”

“Not your first rodeo?”

“And not the last either,” she whispered in response. “We can come up with a perfect explanation. Tell them I am not tall enough or something, and I will say I don’t like your hair.”

I laughed, a choked-out odd sound that even got my parents arching their brows at me. I could see the satisfaction in their eyes, and it was easy to tell the thought that had settled in their minds.

‘The last time we heard Griffin laugh out loud was ages ago, so maybe we have a marriage on our hands.’

The idea was humorous.

“You’re not tall enough,” I said casually, reaching for my glass of wine, I brought the rim to my lips just as Lina snapped.

“You think this is funny? My future is about getting eroded by some flimsy marriage to some cocky man and you dare make jokes about it.”

I shrugged. “It wasn’t a joke, Lina. You are not tall enough.”

It was strange. This was strange.

I didn't know what it felt like to be rejected, because no one was bold enough to do that. Girls literally themselves at me. Everywhere I stepped, they followed like flies chasing after a carcass.

But Lina…she was doing the exact opposite.

"We might as well break the news to them now." She dropped her cutlery and looked straight into my eyes. "I don't think I can bear to sit beside you for a minute more."

“Am I getting under your skin?” I angled my head and watched her fume. “Girls would say that is a good thing where I’m concerned.”

“They are all a bunch of dumb asses,” she retorted then cleared her throat noisily. The small chatter on the dinner table died immediately, and the faces of our parents all bore a small expectant smile.

“We have….”

“Before you go on, please allow me to do the formal introductions,” her father interrupted. I could see the anger in Lina’s eyes, and half of me expected her to speak up about how it felt being interrupted mid-speech.

But she leaned back instead, letting her anger dissipate.

It made me wonder how long she’d been letting that happen.

"I am very happy that you all honoured our invitation at such short notice," he continued, oblivious to his daughter's feelings. "Although, I was hoping to see your younger son as well."

“He would have loved to come too,” my mother said sweetly. “But he had something to do at the company.”

That was a lie. My brother and I might not get along that often, but I knew how he thought. He hated arranged marriages, and because he was a goody-two-shoes who would rather chew ice than say a word against our parents, he decided to cook up an excuse not to be here.

Coward.

“We would see him at the wedding then,” Mrs. Hart nodded enthusiastically, already concluding that there would be one. “We are so delighted for our daughter to be a part of your family, and it is our greatest honour, knowing how well-mannered you all are.”

I resisted the urge to scoff. We all knew this wasn’t about manners.

“About the marriage,” Lina started, scooting to the edge of her seat. “This…man here and I have decided that we would…”

“…go ahead with the wedding.”

Lina looked at me with surprise in her features. That wasn’t the agreement, and if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t know why I was doing this either. But it was necessary.

I was tired of being pulled to dinners like this repeatedly. I would just give my parents what they want so they could get off my back.

“I am sure that wasn’t what … what he meant,” Lina said at once, shaking her head.

“My name is Griffin,” I said, putting her out of her confusion on what to call me. “And I meant every word. We are going ahead with the wedding.”

“We are not!”

“Can you all please give us a moment?”

Without waiting for a response, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her with me out of the room.”