The Heart Does Go On

It was 11.00am and I had just stumbled out of bed. I stayed up late last night preparing for my oral presentation that was to be done on Monday for English class. So I slept in, and I was kind of freaking out about if I had enough time to prepare for this ‘business lunch’ with Kaiba.

I think I’m being stupid though. It wasn’t a date, and I didn’t like the guy. Yet for some reason I wanted to look really nice. I guess I was just a sucker for attention, and I wanted to ‘wow’ Kaiba.

I went through my closet, and found my ‘dress’ section. Most were beach/party dresses that were not suited for the occasion. However, my eye caught one dress. It was a spaghetti strap red dress with a floral pattern, and had a big bow around the waist. It was a sundress, which was semi-formal for a business lunch, but not too formal. Basically, it was perfect.

One problem though, it was the dress that I wore when my ex boyfriend asked me to be his girlfriend. I hadn’t worn the dress since we broke up, and I’m surprised I took it with me to Domino, I made a note to throw it out when I was packing my stuff in L.A.

I shook my head. I was quickly moving on from the past, and if I wore this dress I could change it from being ‘the dress that I wore when my ex asked me out’ to ‘the red sun dress with a floral pattern’ which is the way it should be.

I took it into the bathroom with me as I did my things in the shower. I sprayed on a floral scent of deodorant as I put the dress on. I tied the bow tightly, to bring my waist more inwards than it already was, which made my features accented. I applied some straightening balm throughout my hair, and blow-dried it thoroughly.

As I was about to hook up my hair straightener, a thought occurred. Maybe my theme for the day should be ‘natural and fresh’ after all, that’s probably what a guy like Seto Kaiba looks for in his women.

Wow, what am I thinking? I know I only want his attention, but I sound like I crazily want him. I stand by what I said a while ago, I wouldn’t date him because of his personality, but the way I’m presenting myself makes it sound like I do.

Even fighting with my conscious on whether I like Kaiba or not, I decided to go with the ‘natural’ look. I didn’t straighten my hair, and I left my make-up a lot more minimal than usual.

I looked at the time. 12.03Pm, I still had roughly about half an hour until Kaiba would arrive. With nothing to do, I jumped onto my laptop and logged onto MSN to talk to friends.

At exactly 12.29PM I heard a knock at the door. I quickly sprayed some of my Chanel no.5 onto my skin, and grabbed my bag and head out the door.

However, before I could answer the door, Dad answered it for me.

“Mr. Kaiba,” Dad greeted Kaiba, blinking in confusion “How can I help you?”

“Ella and I have some business to discuss.” Kaiba replied.

“Ella, is this true?” Dad asked, turning to me.

“Yeah, it’s work related stuff. I guess I’ll be back later.” I shrugged, and stepped out of the house.

Kaiba and I were silent as we made our way to the limousine, and even after we stepped in. As the driver took off, Kaiba began to speak.

“We will be eating at an Italian restaurant while we discuss business.” Kaiba informed me.

“Sounds yum.” I replied awkwardly.

It wasn’t like Kaiba to be this silent. Especially after he got his way – him taking my Saturday afternoon away from me.

“You do look pretty, Ella.” Kaiba said to me.

When I looked at him to reply, I noticed for the first time his outfit. He wasn’t wearing his usual trench coat; instead he was wearing dark jeans, and a black button up shirt. The only thing from his usual outfit that he was wearing was the duel monsters card locket he always wore.

“Not too shabby yourself, Kaiba.” I smirked back at him.

At first after I said this, I thought a blush creeped across his face. However, knowing Seto Kaiba and his ego, he is incapable of a blush. So I guessed it was the lighting or something, but I was hoping that for a second I bought Seto Kaiba down to a human level to feel embarrassment – a human emotion.

We were silent for the next few minutes or so, until we made our way to the Italian restaurant.

Kaiba told his driver that he would call when we were done, so the limousine left, just leaving Kaiba and I by ourselves.

“Shall we go in?” He asked.

“What else are we meant to do?” I snickered, and Kaiba sent me a smile.

“You picked out the flaw of my statement, even though it was a generous statement. It shows that you’re strong, and reminds me why I don’t show kindness to others very often.” Kaiba explained.

“No it’s just I-“ I started, trying to defend my actions, but was cut off by Kaiba putting a finger to my lips.

“Ella, there is no need to explain yourself. I like what you just did; it’s what makes you different from the geek squad. Speaking of which – I haven’t seen you with them lately. Why?” Kaiba asked me.

“Look, it’s a long story. I’m happy to tell you, I just think we should go in and order.” I said, and Kaiba agreed.

We walked in, and the waiter, whose eyes wouldn’t leave me the whole time, seated us. He stood there awkwardly, even after giving us the menus.

“We’ll call you when we want to order.” Seto said icily to the waiter, and the waiter scurried off quickly.

Why do I always have troubles with waiting staff?

“Well I know what I want. Tell me about the geek squad.” Kaiba said, closing his menu straight away.

“Well, it’s not a long story. Kind of awkward to be with them since I broke up with Joey and he’s being a total jerk. Besides, they’re kind of boring. After I started hanging with Kathryn and Duke, I started having more interesting conversations.” I replied.

“I knew you would come to your senses one day.” He smirked.

“Yeah well...” I trailed off, smiling a little.

The waiter came back, and took our orders and menus. He was trying to start idle chitchat with me, but he cowered and scampered off quickly when he saw the death glare Kaiba was giving him.

“How old do you want to be before you have children?” Kaiba asked me.

“Excuse me?” I asked, choking on my water.

What a random question!

“Well, this question has a lot of meaning to it, so a person’s answer shows a lot about them as a person. You’re one of my employees, and you have the potential to build a career at Kaiba Corp. so I should get to know you better.” Kaiba explained.

“I already told you, I work at Kaiba Corp. part time to get a little bit of pocket money. I don’t intend to a build a career.” I replied, smartly.

“Circumstances change, but state of minds do not. Answer the question, Ella.” Kaiba replied.

“If you must know, hell if I know. I’m not having a kid when I’m in my early or mid 20’s, I have too many things to do before I have a kid, and I don’t want to neglect myself or my kids to do those things after I have children. But screw people who list things you have to do before you’re 30. As you said, circumstances change. May not be able to have kids before 30, I may be able to.” I replied.

Kaiba sent me the second smile of his for the afternoon.

“My reply would be nearly the same – however perhaps a little more formal.” Kaiba replied.

After this reply – the ice broken. And I’m not talking about the awkwardness of today. I could tell it took a long time for Kaiba to build up the need or courage to ask me a personal question like that; it wasn’t just the spur of the moment. So after hearing an answer he liked, I knew that was Seto Kaiba’s way of knowing that I was an okay person to open up to.

After that topic skimmed over, we discussed more topics. Some of the same personal sort of conversations, some were less formal and some were even silly. We spoke whilst we ate our food, and we even stayed a while longer to have some coffee and dessert.

“What sort of foods do you eat anyway? I’ve never really seen you eat.” I said, once the waiter bought out our desserts.

I ordered gelatin, and Kaiba ordered a piece of chocolate cake.

“I eat as any normal person would.” Kaiba shrugged, taking a spoonful of cake.

“Really? Well, I eat mega healthy. I eat fruit and yoghurt for breakfast, a salad sandwich and an apple for lunch, and some lean meat and vegetables for dinner.” I replied.

“Yet you’re indulging in ice cream now.” Seto stated.

“Yes. I have small indulgences every now and then.” I shrugged, popping a big spoonful of ice cream in my mouth.

“The perfect balance.” Kaiba commented.

After we finished our coffee and dessert, we noticed that people were starting to come in for dinner, and that it was late and time to go. I felt a little disappointed, I wanted to spend some more time with Kaiba, but I couldn’t let him know that, he may find that a little weird.

Kaiba paid the bill, and as we were walking out I was questioning him about this.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to pay some of that bill? After all I ate too!” I complained.

“Ella, don’t worry about it. It’s coming out of the company’s expenses.” Kaiba shrugged.

“Yeah, but by you paying for both of our dinners, it increases expenses, which decreases profits, which means that the company’s assets decrease, and owner’s equity decreases, which lowers both your cash position and the company’s cash position.” I protested.

“You really are a little accountant-in-training.” Kaiba smirked, as we exited the restaurant.

“You didn’t call your limousine driver.” I noticed.

“Your house is nearby, and being the health freak you are, would you like to walk with me?” Kaiba asked.

“Sure.” I happily accepted, after all it was more time to spend with him.

“Wait,” I said, once we started walking realizing something “That was a business lunch, but we didn’t discuss anything business related”

“You just preached the accounting equation to me, and how the lunch effected the accounting equation. We discussed business.” Kaiba said to me.

“So you just wanted to go to lunch so I could practice a little accounting?” I asked, a little confused.

“Maybe.” He smirked, as he replied.

I just stayed silent. I’ll never understand that guy. Sometimes he’s as clear as day, sometimes he’s so hard to understand. This was one of those things I just knew I wouldn’t understand.

We made idle chitchat as we walked towards my house. As we were walking, I heard a long honk that gave me a fright. I looked at where it was coming from, and I saw Joey drive past quickly.

“Wheeler!” Kaiba bellowed as Joey drove away.

“I don’t know when he’ll stop taunting me.” I said, looking downwards from being upset.

“Ella, I’ll make sure he stops bothering you. You don’t deserve it.” Kaiba said, as we reached our house.

“Thank you, Kaiba.” I said, and I felt stuck.

How would I say goodbye? Although Kaiba now completely saw me as a person and not Ella Campbell his employee, I don’t know whether to say we are friends or not. And the date-like situation made it sort of awkward too.

Kaiba cleared his throat; I could see he felt a little awkward too.

“Well Ella, it’s been a nice afternoon. I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday.” Kaiba said to me, looking straight into my eyes.

“Yeah, you too.” I over exaggerating my smile, I wanted to hide my confusion.

This moment wasn’t new to me, we were having one of our ‘almost kiss’ moments. When I was almost sure he was about to lean in, Joey’s car came roaring down my street again, and he honked loudly again.

“Wheeler!” Kaiba complained, however only saying it loudly for us two to hear.

“I think you should go inside. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Who knows what Wheeler is capable of.” Kaiba told me.

“Yeah, you’re right.” I said, trying to hide my disappointment.

I muttered a soft ‘goodbye’ and ran inside, so nothing would let slip. I quickly ran into my room, shut the door, and screamed into my pillow.

I liked Seto Kaiba. He had a ‘good enough’ personality for me to like him now. But the problem is, I knew nothing could ever come of it. He led a life that was too busy for me, and I could see possible clashes of my flaws and his personality that could come down the line. But no matter how many times I thought those thoughts, I couldn’t convince myself not to like Seto Kaiba. I was stuck.