บท 17: Unlike Alexander Qinn

The man who approached Abi looked confident and authoritative. His suit, the expensive looking watch and shiny, well polished shoes all told her that he was probably quite a rich man. Most of the men on the second level were also wearing suits but there was something about this man that stood out from the crowd. Maybe it was the perfect cut of his jacket or the expensive diamond cufflinks by his wrists or his perfect. Or maybe it was the confident, arrogant air about him which seemed to be something that rich, entitled men naturally gave out.

Her observation was proven true when the man gave her a business card and she saw that he was a CEO. Taking her acceptance of his business card as a positive sign, he sat down on the seat next to her and started a generic but polite conversation with her. She studied him carefully. His eyes weren't cold as ice, unlike Alexander Qinn's. When he smiled, it looked like it reached his eyes; he didn't smile wickedly at her, unlike Alexander Qinn. His words were polite and well mannered; he didn't threaten her... unlike Alexander Qinn.

Why was she even thinking of that guy right now?! Why was she comparing this man to him? That was unfair to this man in front of her.

She smiled back at the CEO and continued speaking with him. This was what she came here for after all, right? To be less ignorant about things and to get more experience? He looked harmless enough, even nice, so why did she feel completely different from how she felt when she was with Alexander Qinn?

He spoke politely and Abi was starting to be a little comfortable with him. Until he tried to touch her hand. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as if it sensed danger. She couldn't help but want to pull her hand away from him.

There was something in the way he looked at her now and Abigail didn't know why she suddenly wanted to utter Alexander Qinn's name. But she bit her lip and subtly move a little away from the CEO.

She took another sip of her bitter drink and winced from the terrible taste, trying to push all thought of Alexander Qinn to the back of her mind. She looked up at the man before her again, pretending to have heard the words he just said.

A waiter instantly hovered near them the moment the man clicked his fingers. He said something to the waiter and the waiter immediately left to do his bidding. A few minutes later, she saw the waiter walk back towards their table with 4 different drinks in fancy shaped glasses and he carefully set these down on the table. The man beside her then gave the waiter a generous tip to make him promptly go away.

"Here, try these. They taste much better than that drink you've got there," he said, persuasively. "This is a mojito, a cosmopolitan, an apple martini and a long island iced tea." He first pointed to the drink that had lime and mint in it, then to the pinky red one, then the green one and then the one that looked like its name, the tea.

Abi was hesitant at first, but she eventually decided to try it out, because this was exactly what she came here for. She was here to try out things she'd never tried before. She took a sip of the pinky red one because it looked pretty and, surprisingly, the man was right. Compared to the drink that she thought Kelly had bought for her, this drink was much better! Curious to find out what the others tasted like, she also took a sip of each of them and found that they all tasted as good as each other, but she liked the pinky red one the best. And so she took that drink and started sipping through it as the conversation went on.

Soon, her face was flushed and her eyes were starting to glaze over. She also seemed to be having some trouble forming her thoughts and her words were becoming a little slurred.

As she sipped her second cocktail, the apple martini, a thought popped into the slightly drunk Abi's head. I have to tell Kelly about these drinks! These are so good! She needs to try them, too!

As her friend's name rang through her head, Abi looked up, her eyes zooming at where Kelly had stood a while ago but to her surprise, she couldn't see her friend anymore. She frowned as she looked around.

Where did she go?