Chapter 287 Whatever?

Chapter 287 Whatever?　　Little friend? Did he really just refer to her as his little friend? Jade asked herself irritably as she followed both men. It was quite obvious that he enjoyed annoying her. He seemed to know the best ways to annoy her.

She had only wanted to hang out with him because she genuinely felt grateful that he had come around. Spending the last couple of days with him was the most fun she had allowed herself to enjoy since her cheating ex-boyfriend died. 

She had withdrawn from everyone, and even though she tried to sound like she was fine while talking with her family over the phone, she had been very far from okay. She barely ate well nor took care of herself. She had buried herself in her job and overworked herself until he had come along and forced her to come out of her shell and communicate with him every day.

The offer of hanging out with him was out of the table now. She was going to go out without him. It had been four years already since she last went clubbing, and she wanted to do just that. The last time she went clubbing was with Todd, two months before his accident. To think that she hadn't even realized that he was cheating on her.

"Esquire?" Harry called when he noticed that she had a distant look in her eyes and wasn't paying attention to what was going on around her.

"Huh?" She asked, blinking rapidly as she tried to focus her gaze on him. 

Harry looked slightly concerned, "Are you okay?"

"Sure."

"Then sit," he said, making her realize that he was still holding out her seat.

She had almost forgotten how much of a gentleman he was. Or perhaps he was just old-fashioned? He was only a gentleman when his mouth was closed.

"Thanks," Jade said as she lowered herself to the seat, and Harry took the seat opposite her.

Philip cleared his throat as he took the seat adjacent to theirs, "So?" He asked, looking at Harry with a hopeful smile, reminding him that he wanted to be introduced to the pretty little friend. He figured that since Harry had introduced her that way, perhaps she was nothing other than that to him. 

"Philip, this is Jade Hank. Jade, meet Philip Foreman. He is the owner of this restaurant."

"Jade Hank? You are not related to Thomas Hank, are you?" Philip asked with a friendly smile, which for some reason, put Jade off. 

Although he was good-looking and she had caught him staring at her with interest a moment ago, she didn't like the look she noticed on his face when he heard her name. Even if he had actually been interested in her, it seemed like his interest doubled upon hearing her name. From the way he asked the question, she could tell that he already knew the answer. 

Harry didn't miss the change in Jade's countenance when the guy asked about her relationship with Tom, and he had a feeling that she wasn't going to answer the question, so he decided to answer the question instead and observe her reaction. 

"Yes. She is Tom's only sister. The spoilt Princess of the Hank family," Harry said with a note of humor in his voice, and he picked up the menu to place his order when two waiters, a male, and female, joined them. 

"Wow! I never knew that Tom's sister was this beautiful. It's nice to meet you," Philip said with a pleasant smile as he held out his hand for a handshake.

"Thanks, Mr. Foreman," Jade said with a polite smile as she shook hands with him and then withdrew her hand when it seemed like he would hold on to it longer than was necessary.

"Call me Philip, please."

'So you can call me Jade? I don't think so!' Jade thought as she looked away from him and picked up another menu, "I suppose you come here often? What's the best dish here?" She asked Harry, who was pretending not to follow their conversation, and he lowered the menu to meet her gaze.

"You want me to order something for you?" He asked, and she gave him a nod. 

"Okay. We will have two servings of your signature dish," he said to the waiters, and the female waiter taking the order for food gave them a polite bow before excusing herself. 

"Bring them our best bottle of wine. It's on the house," Philip said, dismissing the male waiter. 

"It's been a while since I last saw Tom. However, I read something about him showing his face to the world. How is he doing?" Philip asked, and Harry glanced up from the menu, wondering if Philip was asking him or Jade. 

Seeing as Jade remained silent, Harry looked at Philip, "He's doing good. He has just been really busy lately."

"Ah, I see!" Philip said, wondering why Jade wasn't talking to him. 

"Do we have to eat here? Can't we just take it home?" Jade asked, not liking the extra company on the table. 

She had a feeling that he was indirectly trying to let her know that he was close friends with his brother and Harry. And even if that weren't what he was doing, she would keep feeling like everything the guy did was targeted to impress her, and she didn't want to keep listening to him talk.

Home? Was something going on between Harry and Jade? Were they like a couple and were having some sort of misunderstanding hence she was in a bad mood? He wanted to ask, but he couldn't do it in front of Jade without coming off as rude or nosy. 

"Is something wrong? Is the restaurant not to your liking?" Philip asked, concerned.

"Don't worry about her. She is just being her usual sweet self," Harry assured Philip before looking at Jade with a slightly concerned expression.

"Why the sudden rush to go home?" He asked, wondering why she seemed to be so uncomfortable with Philip's company. 

For someone who had been trying to get him to be in a relationship and had insisted that she would get a boyfriend before he got a girlfriend, she seemed like she wasn't interested in getting to know Philip. He was good-looking, wealthy, and polite, so what was her problem?

"I would prefer to spend the evening ALONE with you," Jade said, making Harry's brows draw together in confusion, while Philip quickly concluded that they were both in a relationship. 

"My apologies then. I'll just excuse you both. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding," he said with an apologetic smile as he stood up to leave, and Jade flashed him an equally cool smile.

"Thanks for your understanding," she said as she watched him leave.

"What was that about? You do realize that you just gave him the impression that there is something between us, right?" Harry asked, looking appalled.

"Something other than the fact that I'm your little friend?" Jade asked innocently just as the waiter came with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

Neither of them said a word as the waiter poured some wine into the glasses, and immediately he left, Harry picked up from where they stopped, "He already figured that I used that phrase because you're Tom's kid sister. It wasn't a big deal. The guy was interested in you, and you just blew him off," Harry pointed out. 

"Why? Are you now interested in my love life? Or did Tom ask you to get me a boyfriend too?" Jade asked as she picked up her wineglass and took a sip. She closed her eyes to savor the taste, "This is really good wine," she said as she dropped the glass.

Harry just stared at her and shook his head. He didn't know what was going on in her head. A part of him wished he did, but another part of him didn't want to know, so he said nothing as he picked up his wine glass and sipped from it.

"So, what is your plan ?" Harry asked after a while when the silence between them became too much.

"What plan?"

"You'll be seeing Candace tomorrow. Are you going to take her to Jero or bring Jero to her?" Harry asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"Are you incapable of having a conversation outside work-related subjects?" She asked, and Harry sighed.

What did this woman want from him? "What else do you want to talk about?" Harry asked, and she shook her head. It was obvious that the man didn't know anything outside work.

"Tell me about yourself," Jade suggested. 

"You already know me. You know my name, you know my dad is my only family, you know about my job, you know my best friend, you know my relationship status, you know how blunt I can be," Harry listed.

"Yeah. I know all of that. So tell me something I don't know. I'm sure there is more to you than all of these aspects of your life that you mentioned," Jade said, leaning forward in her seat and resting both elbows on the table as she looked at Harry, who had a confused expression on his face.

"Why don't you just ask questions about whatever you are curious to know?" Harry suggested since he couldn't think of a thing to tell her. 

"Whatever?" She asked with a silly smile.

Seeing the smile on her face, Harry knew that it was a bad idea, but he was also curious to know what she was curious about, so he gave her a nod, "Yeah. But keep in mind that for every question I answer, I will ask a question too," he warned.

"This is going to be fun," Jade said with a wide smile as she sipped from her wine. 

Unknown to Jade, who was busy sipping from her wineglass, her prospective sisters-in-law were busy shopping through her closet in her brother's mansion.

"We really shouldn't be doing this," Lucy said, feeling guilty. 

When Sonia had called and asked her to join her in the passageway because something urgent had just come up, she had asked Tom to meet her in the Den when he was ready and rushed out to meet Sonia. She was surprised to see that this was the urgent stuff. 

"C'mon, Lu. Don't be a spoilsport. We aren't stealing from her. Besides, I'm sure that she won't even notice that anything is missing from here," Sonia pointed out.

"The clothes were bought for her, not for us," Lucy pointed out. 

"And I'm sure if we ask Tom, he's going to say it is fine," Sonia said as she picked out a simple long dress, "I think this will look good on you. Change into it," Sonia suggested.

Lucy looked at her dubiously since the dress was decent, "You're actually advising me to wear something decent?" She asked unbelievably, and Sonia laughed.

"It's your thing. It looks like something you would buy. Besides, I doubt that you'd take my advice again if I suggest you wear something sexy," Sonia said with a grin.

"Go on, change into this," she encouraged, but Lucy shook her head.

"No, thanks."

"Why? Because you think it's stealing? I could just call Tom and ask if..."

"No!" Lucy quickly cut her off. She knew that it had probably escaped Tom's mind that there were female clothes in Jade's closet; hence he hadn't insisted on her changing her outfit that morning.

Sonia narrowed her eyes, "What is going on?"

Lucy cleared her throat, "We had a bet last night, and I kinda lost. So I'm supposed to not wear any underwear," Lucy explained, and Sonia's eyes lit up in understanding before she burst into laughter.

"And you don't want to wear the dress because you'd have to do so without undies, and Tom would know?"

Lucy smiled, "Yeah. He's really kind of naughty, and I don't trust him not to touch me..."

Sonia's face split into a happy smile, and she embraced Lucy, "I'm happy your relationship is going so well, Lu. Although you both look so gentle, I never would have imagined you did such naughty things," Sonia said as she felt Lucy's ass to see if she was wearing undies. 

"Sonia!" Lucy exclaimed with a giggle when she realized what Sonia was doing and tried to push her away. 

"You're really not wearing undies. How did I miss that?" Sonia asked in disbelief, "If I may ask, what was the bet about?" Sonia asked curiously, dragging Lucy towards the bed to sit down.

Lucy considered for only a moment whether or not she should tell Sonia about it, but she also realized that she was dying to talk about it, so she leaned forward and then told Sonia all about it, as what led to the bet. 

Sonia doubled over with laughter, "OMG! You're such a slut, Lu! Do you want to switch brothers?" Sonia asked, and Lucy hit her arm as they both burst into peals of laughter.

"Don't joke about stuff like that," Lucy chided.

"But, on a serious note, I never would have imagined that you were capable of all of this," Sonia said with a wide smile, happy that she could finally talk about sex in this manner with Lucy. 

"I know. I would never have thought so either. But then, Tom happened," Lucy said with a happy smile as her eyes fell on the wall clock.

"We should join the others downstairs. It's over thirty minutes already," Lucy said, wanting to stand up, but Sonia pulled her back. 

"You still have to change into the dress. We will sit away from the guys so he won't touch you. I'm sure it would drive him crazy knowing that you're wearing a dress without undies," Sonia suggested with a silly smile. 

"Sonia..."

"Just take this advice, Lu. Trust me."