Gabriella's POV

"Shut your mouth." Kiley picks my jaw up from the floor and cements it to my upper lip, his hand still on my chin. This place was wow. And I could tell that anyone looking at the entrance could tell how captivated I was with the setting. 

We currently stood in the lobby area, a wide glass wall behind the receptionist desk giving me the opportunity to openly ogle the beauty of the restaurant. 

The space wasn't so wide, making the restaurant appear more intimate irrespective of the large tables and family settings. Small chandeliers hung between the aisles and the full wall on one side was made of tempered glass -figures, seeing as a woman rested on the glass, her arms around an older man and the other on an old lady in a wheelchair. A man in suit stood in front of them, a toddler in his arms as he took their pictures. 

I get hit with the truth immediately. This is a family establishment. Yes, intimate. But more of the family intimacy. Smart move, Kiley. 

I school my features into an appreciative grin and glance up at Kiley, throwing my arms wide and spinning on the spot. He's laughing when I come to a stop, gripping his arm and quelling the urge to hop. 

"Come on, Tinkerbell." I punch his shoulder but we both know that it barely affected him. Kiley gives the lady at the reception his details and she signals for a waiter to take us to our table. 

"We need to find Jones and harness his brain cells." I'm whispering to him so I don't draw attention to the both of us. My heels barely touch the floor as we make our way across tables before stopping at one in the back, on the opposite end of the glass wall.

"You couldn't reserve a better table." The waiter pauses in pulling out my seat. I smile at him and sit, tucking my chair in and looking up at him. "We'll order in five minutes."

"I'm pretty sure he was planning the numerous ways he was going to gut you." He picks up the menu and looks around the room, dropping the menu and running his palm over his tie. 

"Are you sure you can afford this place? I know you're not hard on money but you look like a man who indulges in a few expensive things once in a while. Few expensive but harmful things, if you get what I'm saying." I wink at him. He pulls back the menu that I was slowly edging to me and looks down at it.

"I don't do drugs, Gabby. And I can afford this place." Another tie adjustment. "I wouldn't invite you here if I couldn't." He throws me a look like that explains it all and proceeds to stare at the menu. I'm about to reach over and take it from him when the waiter comes. 

Kiley doesn't speak to me or ask for any requirements but instead, orders for the both of us and hands the menu to the waiter. 

"I'll need a bottle of water." I yell to the retreating waiter and flush when almost everyone turns to look at me. Their stare is not hostile, just more of the 'who-just-shouted' one. 

"How do you know I prefer fish to meat? Have you been watching me?" I'm in a jovial mood and Kiley feels it, laughing along with me and grabbing my hands between his. My breaths stutter.

"You're basically my sister, Gab. Of course, I'll know your partiality on the fin fellows."

I pull my hands out of his. "Just the fish, Ky. Not merman, as I'm sure you were insinuating." My phone vibrates on my thighs and I squeeze it out of my clutch, watching as more text bubbles appear from my brother. God, my brother was the most annoying person on this earth.

"Why do you think Ethan is texting me about his dentist appointment with an attached picture of his foot sore? They don't even correlate." I don't wait to hear a reply from Kiley, I quickly send a text to Ethan, telling him to get friends who are not me. 

Ethan: Well, I have a friend and you're currently stealing him from me! You traitor!

I laugh and glance up to see Kiley looking at me. He points at my phone, clearly interested in what is making me laugh so hard.

"Called out Ethan's lack of friends. And now he's being petty because his only two friends are sitting together. Without him." I turn my screen towards Kiley and he reads it in two glides.

The waiter comes up then, dropping off Kiley's roast beef stew with bread and my turkey and fries. Kiley eyes his food in suspicion and glares at mine.

"I guess you haven't been here then." I laugh , taking his spoon and poking through the stew. "This is why you need me in your life. To stop you from making sad life choices." I take a spoonful and sigh once I return the spoon.

"So your second thoughts were fallible. It's so good, I'm almost tempted to have a switch with you but I really don't like you." I punctuate this with a hearty crunch on a handful of fries in my mouth. 

Kiley just sits there as I talk my ass off. I talk about school, Ethan's weird habits, his weird habits, the new hairdo I'm planning to do. How I'm going to get him to marry me. He laughs at this but I shut him up wit a glare.

"We need to have a talk, Gabby."

I stop chewing, cleaning off my finger on my napkin and looking up at him. "What's it?" Somehow, I can already hear his words in my head:

'You can't keep having hope for anything to happen between us. You're just a sister to me.'

I snort just as he starts to speak and he arcs his brow but goes ahead with what feels like a planned speech. "You remember Tiffany, the girl I was with at your welcome party?" I nod hesitantly. Where was he going to with this?

"Well, she told me that the business idea that she’d desperately been pitching to Ethan for a while now was turned down by you? Something about you stealing it off her. I don't know, she just sounded really stressed when she called me. What was that about, Gab? You snatched the deal? You don’t even like the family business. You’ve never once indicated any interest in joining in. So why now? Because I brought her to your party?”

“The world doesn’t revolve around you. And no, I just realized that I should finally have a hand in the business.” I took a sip of water.

“You’re lying.”

I sit there boiling. I've never felt a rage so consuming than what was running through my veins. Is he seriously asking me about that?

I clear my throat, my appetite long gone. "If you called me here for something else now would be the best time to state it, so I don't murder you before you get a word out."

"Well, she was really beaten up about it and I just wanted to clear the air between you... " I cut him off then with a swipe of my hand in the air.

"I can't believe you." He's giving me that confused look, probably wondering what he did to annoy me and that makes me more angry. 

"You stupid twit. I dressed for you, left the comfort of my home for you and you're here telling me that this dinner was an intercessory one? You're here on behalf of Tiffany, buttering me up with this dinner so I'll be pliant and ready to do your will? That's just cruel, Kiley. Especially for you." I stand up then, spilling the glass of water on the table. Kiley and I watch as dampens the golden table cloth and the family on the next table glance at the both of us. 

"Sit down, Gab. Let's talk." He's looking around and I want to feel bad for him because he's clearly embarrassed by my outburst but I can't help it. 

"You know you could've told me this at home. Not dragging me across town to discuss your new partner. You're delusional if you thought that this was going to be in Tiffany's favor after I found out. Because I was most definitely going to find out."

He's sprawled on his chair, man spreading and all. It irritates me the more and I lean into him. "I need to leave. Now." 

I walk away from the table and by the screech of a chair pulling against the tiled floors, I knew that he was following me. Good, my jacket was in his car and the walk to my house was going to be a long and cold one. 

"Get your doors opened." I order and once the lock clicks, I'm bending into the back seat, lifting my jacket off and pulling it on. I start to walk away from him when he grips my arm and spins me to face him. 

"I'm sorry. Seeing it now, I can imagine how this would look like. I wasn't lying when I said this was my very own welcome party for you." He pulls me closer to him, running his hand over my forehead, such a younger sister and brother act. I wanted to scream. 

"The welcome party never even started if that was on your mind all through our conversation."

"As you said, conversation. Tiffany didn't ask me to do this, she just voiced her fears and thoughts and I thought that we were family enough that I could bring this up while we were having a normal conversation. Now, you're being really petty, Gabby."

"Why, you little shit!" I smack his chest. It's not enough and so I punch him in the arm. He stares at me, almost bored and I slap his chest and push him.

"Don't come after me, asshole." I'm not satisfied with the meagre push I gave him so I push him again, harder this time that he bumps his car. I stomp on his shoes next and turn around.

"Your brother would be pissed at me, Gab. Get in the car." He starts to walk behind me. Annoyed, I pick up my steps but he eats up the distance between us quickly that he's soon walking besides me. 

"You could've thought about that before you invited my hopeless self to this sham of a dinner. Go back to your car, Kiley. You honestly don't know what I look like not pinning over you but trust me, it's not pretty." I tighten my jacket around me and pull out my phone, about to call an Uber. 

"You're being stubborn and it's uncalled for. Let's talk this out instead of this childish tantrum."

At that I freeze, my phone gripped tight in my palm. "Well, you can take your grandpa tendencies away from my child like self and do what you please. I'm serious, Kiley. Don't come after me again." My phone's service is not so receptive, so I stand by the road, praying desperately for a taxi to come up.

"Seriously, Gab. Come on." 

A taxi pulls up on the other side of the road, dropping an elderly couple and I signal to him, indicating that I'm about to cross over. "Go fuck yourself, Kiley."

And with that, I leave him standing by the road, watching my race to get away from him.