♡︎~Chapter 9~♡︎ KENDALL

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Kendall was busy studying. Not in a field related to work, or education, or politics. In fact, it was nothing economical either. Then his phone went ahead and dared rang. He never liked phone calls anyway. They were dangerous and most of the time, disastrous. Nothing good ever came from a phone call.

He was on his bed, engrossed in the pile of papers that covered the navy blue bedspread. His room had been neatly tidied up by the house maids that morning—just the way he liked it.

Because you couldn't do chores doesn't mean you should live in an untidy environment.

He picked up his phone and almost instantly threw it back the second he saw the caller's name.

Cora?

"What does she want now?" He silently said to himself, his brows highly arched. Kendall's anxiety kicked in. He thought of the various reasons Cora might had decided to give him a call on a weekend. Not that it was anything surprising though. Cora always called to speak with him about business meetings they couldn't fulfill during weekdays, some important details he'd missed, as well, during the weekdays, and other times, other things that were quite relevant. Again, in the business lane.

Kendall was only surprised she was calling just when he'd been thinking about her—reading about her.

"Cora," he finally picked up, saying in a tone that sounded close to jovial.

"We need to talk Kendall, Now!."

"Slow down, love."He hushed, cuddling a piece of document from falling off the bed.

"What do you mean slow down? Meet me at --uh, Aunt something restaurant, now."

"Aunt something restaurant, checked. Uh, nope." He said, remorselessly.

"But there's something I have to tell you --"

"I'm busy."

Her voice sounded shocked. "With what?"

"What do you mean with what? I'm a busy man!"

There was a pause. "Okay, what are you doing?"

What was he doing? What was he doing? "Chores."

"Chores. Seriously?"

"Yes. I'm busy with chores. Many of it." Kendall said, his eyes squinting hard on a paper. He saw something amusing.

"Kendall, never in your life have you done anything chores related. Come on!"

One of the demerits of having someone as smart as Cora around? She was too smart she hardly forgot things.

"Alright fine. I'm lying. But it's on a Saturday. I can be busy if I want to."

"Fine. No one's saying you shouldn't --"

"Meet me up at Alfredo's later by--" he stared up at the wall clock, "seven."

"But it's an emergency, it can't wait!" Yelled Cora's voice from over the phone. It sounded muffled.

"It can wait?" He asked, not really asking. "Alright love. See you by seven tonight. Bye." Ignoring every other thing she said, Kendall hung up.

He was busy. There was absolutely no time slacking around.

On one of the documents before him, he saw a list of Cora's likes and dislikes. For some reason, Steve had a hold of this list. He was truly good at his job.

Or maybe she posted it on her Instagram page, and since Steve might had been friends with her, he saw the list. And never in his wildest dream would he had thought of her username to had been hot stuff. The thought made him chuckled.

From the like list, he read out: coffee, jewelries—all of them, RnB music; westlife especially, cooking, astronomy, doing chores... He'd been especially amused when he saw that she enjoyed doing chores.

Then on the dislike list, he saw: romance novels, romance movies, romance stories, alcohol

apples, black things, donut, traveling... He decided to stop after his eyes blackened out from disappointment. How would you hate apples? Or black things? Or even sweet good old alcohol?

Something was completely wrong with her. He knew it.

But then, as he read through her files, he realized that she might actually be an interesting soul. Someone lovely enough to get to know better. He sighed.

"Cora Flames..." the name slowly emitted his lips, as if he were in a trance.

✩★✩

Alfredo's bar was the right spot for him—and Cora.

Not much people knew him there, as it was more than half an hour's drive away from work. When there was a general hang out with colleagues and distant friends, he visited The Heist. When it was just he and his buddies, Alfonzo was the right spot.

Tonight, he was with Cora. She was in a mini dress, something he'd never really noticed on her before. Her hair was let loose and on her face was a light makeup—he couldn't even tell if there were any at all, judging from the natural glow from her bare lips, and the clearness in her face.

They were at a corner in the bar, disconnected from all the loud noise and distracting incandescent light, canvased by a dim glass door. She was busy saying something, but his mind was elsewhere. His eyes stared, but they had no exact vision.

"...Kendall!" She eyed him with a daunting glare that made him shiver. Her voice actually brought him back to reality.

"You're on a dress tonight, never really seen you on one." He couldn't keep him mouth shut and just had to say.

"What? Is that more important than what I've just said now?" Cora frown.

"Well, it looks really good on you, you know?" Kendall said, not taking his eyes off her.

The frown on Cora's face changed into a confused glare. Her brown eyes flickered in the dim light and her head tilted slightly. "Really?" She said.

"Yes of course. It really brings out the--"

"Are you trying to distract me right now?" The frown on her face formed again.

"Distract?" Kendall scoffed. "No, of course not. I just really thought that--"

"Kendall this is serious." Her eyes widened, although Kendall was beginning to see now that she had big eye. Like those Animes characters.

And for some reasons he could not describe, his eyes fell to her bare skin, down to her breast. She wore a black dress, and from the shoulders up, it was net. Her skin appeared fair inside the net, but he wasn't even sure if she had always been that fair. He hadn't noticed she'd been talking again, and only woke back to reality when she yelled out his name. "You know, I've never seen you in a dress before." He said, trying to remember if Cora Flames had ever appeared to be a lady.