Dinner date 2

The ride to the venue was a long and silent, the awkward silence disturbed Claire, Jeff was busy on his phone.

Finally they arrived the venue, the slow music was heard from a distant, Claire came down from the car, her dress was very fantastic, beside her was a handsome man, his navy blue tuxedo suit outlined his broad shoulder and long legs, despite Claire's heels, she still wasn't taller than him.

The both of them walked side by side, his presence was announced and everyone turned and saw him approaching, news reporters started asking questions "Mr Jeff who is this lady?"

"Sir are you secretly planning of getting married?" "Is this beautiful lady your fiancée?" Question upon question were asked by the reporters but Jeff replied none, he held Claire's hand firm, finally they arrived a hall, Jeff signed in before going into the hall.

Claire was stunned by what she saw, the birthday was a highly celebrated one, everyone got their own round table, the distinguished ladies sat comfortably, they arrived the table meant for Jeff, Jeff sat and Claire sat beside him

"wow I never knew a birthday would be as big as this" Claire said "for real?" "Yes and everyone here looks so serious minded, if you hadn't told me it's a birthday party, I would have mistaken it as a burial ceremony" Claire said innocently, Jeff giggled, he looked at her, she looked so innocent

"well welcome to a wealthy man's birthday" "really boring" she said and Jeff couldn't help but laugh.

After a while of sitting, a waitress came to take their orders "good evening, what may I serve you?" "Two glasses of red wine" Jeff said "alright" the waitress responded before leaving, in a jiffy she was back with their orders, the duo drank as they watched the boring ballroom dance.

A tall dark man approached their table, he also looked handsome "the boss' boss, good evening" the man greeted "good evening Mike, happy birthday" "thank you for gracing my party" Mike said before turning to Claire

"good evening my lady" "good evening" "you are such a beautiful lady" Mike complimented "thank you" Claire responded "who is she?" Mike asked Jeff

"my secretary and nothing else" Jeff replied with a harsh tone "take it easy Jeff, you flare up about almost everything" Mike said "if you don't mind my lady, would you like to have a dance with me?" Mike asked,

Claire looked at Jeff but he eyes were fixed on his phone, she turned to look at Mike "y…es" she stammered, with this Mike held her hand and led her to the dancing floor.

Claire remembered how her mother taught her how to dance a ballroom dance, the music which was playing was really slow Mike started a conversation with her "who is Jeff to you?" "My boss" "just that?"

"Yes" "you can't lie to me, I know Jeff, the only time he had an encounter with a lady was the day we went to London ,

he slept with a university undergraduate who wanted money so badly, he took her to an expensive hotel, after he slept with her, he left without giving her a clue where to find him, after that incident he couldn't forgive himself so since that day he vowed not to have anything to do with women" "when was that?" Claire asked "let's say four years ago" 'four years, could it be? no way I wasn't the only desperate that year' Claire said in her head.

Meanwhile Jeff was eating vinegar as he watched Claire and Mike dance, anger suddenly filled him, his eyes turned red, he wanted to explode, he closed his eyes and opened it again, it wasn't helping the matter at all, he left the hall

Claire watched him leave, she badly wanted to go after him but she was dancing with Mike, finally the music went off, Claire quickly went outside and found Jeff resting on the car

"why did you leave the party" "are done dancing with the birthday celebrant?" "What do you mean Jeff?" "You danced with Mike" "he asked if I would dance with him" Claire said angrily Jeff looked at her and hissed "come on Jeff, I'm sorry" Claire apologized "let's go in" Claire told him.

The two looked a couple falling in love as they walked to their table, when they arrived their table, they sat down and continued watching those dancing "Jeff can I ask you something?"

"Yes you can" "have you ever had encounter with any woman at all" she asked and Jeff looked at her "hmmm, yes I had but that was four years ago and I don't know who she was" "four years ago, where?" "In London, she was an undergraduate, you know let's not talk about that" Jeff said and that was the discussion ended.

The party lasted through the night, after the long boring dance came the interesting drama, pop dance, truth and dare and so many interesting activities.

The party ended around 3:00am, people began to go back home, Jeff and Claire wanted to enter the car when a voice was heard "son" an elderly man spoke "chief Benjamin" Jeff said "you attended the party" Chief Benjamin said

"what do you want from me Benja" "can't I talk to my son again" "Chief Benja, go straight to the point, I don't have time to waste" "I want to know how you are doing and also warn you not to go on that promo your company is planning to go on" Chief Benja said devilishly "I don't have time to waste on useless people" Jeff said and entered the car.

"Is that your dad?" Claire asked "Maybe" "maybe?" "Yes, he is my dad" "seems like you don't have a good relationship with your dad" "yes, we don't, he is as good as useless" Jeff said "and please I don't want to talk about him, thank you" Jeff said before leaning his head on the chair of the car. The driver dropped Claire in her house "bye Jeff, see you on Monday" she said "give me a hug" Jeff said, the two of them hugged each other, Jeff planted a kiss on her forehead before letting her go.