Chapter 20 Declaring Dominion
The door creaked open, lifting her eyes up from the medical report in front of her, Moriah's green forest eyes came in contact with her best friend's hazel eyes.
"What's the matter?" Moriah asked with slightly raised eyebrows.
Her best friend's tear pooled eyes said that she needed someone who would lend ears and a shoulder to cry on.
"I can't stand it anymore!" she told Moriah before she gave in and allowed herself to cry.
Pitying her friend, she strode toward her and pulled her to her embrace. She patted her back to lend her the strength she needed to pull herself together.
She felt absurd, she was giving strength to her friend when she herself was struggling to make it through her everyday. But what could she possibly do? Will she abandon her friend because she was hurting too. Absolutely, no. She wasn't raised by her parents to be selfish, only thinking about herself.
"Go on, cry," this is her way of telling Cindy that she's alway there for her no matter what.
Over the years that they were together, she had seen Cindy several times broken into million pieces and picked up the pieces each time and started all over again. Moriah very well knew what her friend needed to get a hold of herself.
"I saw him with his new lover in our favorite coffee shop," Cindy said with a dry croak, her throat was too tight she struggled to make her words come out of her mouth.
"When did you see them?" Moriah asked between her gritted teeth, she unconsciously clenched her fist.
"Just now, I was about to order food for us. I know you aren't in the mood to go out," Cindy wiped her tears and smiled. That smile, a pitiful smile pushed Moriah to the edge. She didn't like seeing Cindy smile like that, that smile indicated that she was badly hurt.
"Wash your face and we're going out to eat," seeing Cindy drowning in despair didn't sit well with her.
Cindy was more than a friend to her, she's her sister though they weren't born with the same parents.
She pulled her up and steered her towards the washroom. In a matter of minutes, Cindy emerged from the washroom. Moriah hooked her arm in Cindy's arm as they left the hospital.
"What do you want to eat?" Moriah asked as she focused her eyes on the road while driving. She didn't let Cindy drive the car in her state.
"I'm craving Mediterranean food," Cindy salivated as soon as she told what she liked to eat.
The mention of Mediterranean food, the knot in Moriah's stomach worsened and past bearing. Shaun loved Mediterranean food. Even with her current state, she thought of Cindy and didn't show her uneasiness.
With so much reluctance, Moriah pulled up at the parking space at the Mediterranean restaurant she and Shaun frequented while they were dating.
Entering the restaurant, Moriah saw the receptionist with a friendly smile displaying her pearly white teeth as she spoke, "Good evening madams. Welcome to Olive Tree. How may I help?"
"Good evening, we need a private room," Moriah replied, smiling back at the receptionist.
The last time she and Shaun came here, another receptionist who was on duty flashed a suggestive smile to Shaun which really irked her.
"Madam, please give me a minute to check if there's an available private room," she bent forward and looked at the computer screen, it only took her a few seconds before looking back at the and said, "Madam, private box 203 is available," the receptionist called a server to lead them to the private room.
"This way madams," said the cheerful server.
While Moriah and Cindy were looking at the menu. Two men entered the private room that startled Moriah. She blinked twice before she was able to speak.
"What are you doing here?" Moriah spoke, suppressing the coldness to seep through her voice.
"I should be asking you that," Zachary asked while his eyes danced with mischief.
Pissed off at Zachary's arrogant answer, the tigress in Cindy, unleashed. "We came here first, who are you to question us?"
Zachary scoffed and fired back, "I have booked this room," he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Huh, you booked this?" Cindy lifted her chin defiantly and looked at Zachary head on. "The receptionist told us this room is available," her voice now is firm and there's no trace of her vulnerability while she was talking to Moriah a while ago.
Both Moriah and Cindy would stand for each other, no matter what. Cindy didn't like seeing Moriah being bullied. On the other hand, Moriah would be Cindy's solace when she's heart broken.
Seeing the conflict between the restaurant's clientele, the server informed the manager about it. Hurriedly, the manager went to fix the problem.
"Mr Brown, sir, is there a problem here?" Beads of sweat appeared on the manager's forehead as soon as his eyes landed on Zachary.
Zachary looked at Cindy with a smug face, then he looked at the manager. "I have booked this room 4 hours ago, but someone was claiming that this room is available."
"I'm sorry sir, it must be a misunderstanding, I'll go and check what happened," the manager said while his hand mopped the sweat on his forehead.
He darted toward the reception area before Zachary could say something.
Zachary and Cindy were having a staring contest which was rather amusing than annoying to Moriah and Jerome.
In under five minutes, the manager was back into the room.
"Madams, I'm so sorry, this room was indeed reserved for Mr Brown here. The receptionist misread it, the room that was available was room 208, unfortunately it's now unavailable as someone occupied it a while ago," the look on his face was somewhat like a constipated person as he didn't know if he should smile or cry.
"I'm really sorry, madam," the manager said apologetically.
"It's okay," Moriah dismissed him, waving her hand.
The manager didn't waste a second and left the room hurriedly as though he was escaping a life and death situation. Zachary flashed Cindy with his victorious smile.
"Let's go," Moriah said, picking up her bag while she pulled Cindy who was still scowling at Zachary.
"Hold on," from being a bystander, Jerome finally participated and spoke, "Why don't you join us?"
"No, but thanks anyway," Moriah refused him not because she was annoyed but because she wasn't close to them although both were Shaun and Ethan's friends.
Turning on her heels, she came to face a chest just a few inches away from her, standing five feet and four inches and wearing flat shoes. All she could see was that the man in front of her was wearing a charcoal gray suit, white shirt and navy blue tie.
Slowly, she lifted her head and gasped as her eyes came in contact with the blue piercing eyes of her husband. Her husband she hadn't seen nor heard from for days.
Towering over his petite wife, he asked her, "What are you doing here?"
"Sorry, we came to the wrong place," her answer was curt.
She took a side step and said to Cindy, "Let's go."
Ethan caught her arm to halt her progress, his hand on her arm sent waves of electricity through Moriah's body. She stopped in her tracks and looked at Ethan impassively.
"Join us," he said coldly but his warm hand never let go of Moriah's arm.
Moriah and Cindy looked at each other, when Cindy was heartbroken she had to eat what she craved to alleviate the pain. "Moriah, let's stay please, I do crave for the food here," Cindy spoke in her childish tone, gaining a smirk from Zachary. Moriah felt helpless, she was torn apart. She didn't like to stay however, knowing her friend's situation she had to bite the bullet.
"Alright," her tone of resignation was quite apparent to the people inside the room.
Ethan steered her back to the table and pulled a chair for her.
"Thank you," the blandness in her tone wasn't that obvious if someone wasn't attentively listening. Ethan grunted his response.
Before they could warm their seats, someone appeared at the door.
"Moriah," she heard that familiar voice and the way her name rolled on his tongue so intimate, Moriah was flummoxed.
In a state of numb paralysis, she sat like a statue, incapable of movement or speech.
Ethan snaked his arm around Moriah's waist silently declaring his dominion.
As ever, Cindy, who wouldn't restrain herself when it comes to standing for her best friend, began to rant.
"You have no right to call her by her first name, after what you've done," Cindy's chest rose and fell.
Shaun chuckled, "What do you expect me to call her Ms Westland? Would you expect me to call her Ms Chen after all those times that we loved each other? Correction, we still loved each other until now."
Swallowing back her tears, she looked up at him in helpless, angry misery.
On the other hand, a ball of raging fire, looming over Ethan's head.
"Moriah, honey, I'm back," Shaun said as if he didn't do anything that hurt her nor thought how his best friend would feel.
His words appeared to escalate the hostility in the room to alarming palpable proportions, crackling through the air like a thousand knives hurtling.
"Let's order our food now," Jerome said to ward off the tension in the room, he rang the bell and a server came in.
"Dude, you know what I liked," Zachary spoke to Jerome as he gave back the menu to the server without even looking at the menu.
He's too lazy to choose for himself and let Jerome pick for him.
"Alright," Jerome was used to it so he didn't bother to complain.
The good thing is, Zachary isn't a picky eater so he would eat whatever he chooses for him.
The server attentively listened and jotted down the dishes Jerome chose.
After the server jotted down Jerome's order, he turned to Cindy. Moriah gave Cindy a look, 'Can you eat all of that?'
after listening to the list of foods she told the server.
"I can gobble up a whole camel when I'm angry and frustrated," she whispered as both of them giggled.
"I know," Moriah rolled her eyes at her friend.
"No wonder why you're feisty, you must be heartbroken," Zachary butted into Moriah's and Cindy's conversation.
"Nosy person, mind your own business," Cindy fired back, she was tempted to scratch Zachary's annoying face.
The bickering scenario somewhat dispelled the looming storm on the horizon a while ago. "Alright, stop fighting like cat and dog," Jerome said, shaking his head out of amusement.
"Sir, may I have your order," the server asked while looking at Ethan.
Ethan looked at Moriah and asked her what she wanted, unconsciously rubbing her waist with his thumb.
Moriah cocked her head and was mesmerized by his blue eyes that seemed to contain all the stars in the universe, twinkling, bewitching the star gazers.AX