Chapter 287: Special Occasion

"Master Hayden is waiting to have dinner with you in his sitting room," Auntie informed me after poking her head into my art studio.

"Oh, right…it’s dinner time already…" I murmured as I glanced at the clock.

I had been working so hard that I hadn’t realized that so much time had passed by already. Quickly, I got up from my seat before following Auntie out the door.

"You don’t have to walk me there, you know. I can get there just fine by myself," I told the old woman who seemed persistent on escorting me to Hayden’s room.

"I’m sure you can but if I don’t do this then I don’t know why I’m still employed," Auntie replied with a grin.

"Well, if you insist…" I replied with a small laugh.

Auntie seemed proud to escort me to Hayden’s room and I gave her the pleasure of doing so. We shared small talks all the way there and I realized how much I missed her company. When we arrived, Auntie opened the door for me even though it wasn’t necessary.

"Thank you so much," I thanked her.

"You’re more than welcomed. Now, quickly head inside," Auntie said encouragingly.

I stepped into the room and the door rapidly closed firmly behind me. Auntie did not join me inside the room, and I found that slightly strange; however, I didn’t have much time to dwell on that thought. The fantastically decorated long dinner table caught my eye and my mouth hung open.

What is this?

"Why do you look so shocked?" Hayden spoke up.

My head turned immediately towards his voice, and I saw him approaching the table. My eyes returned to the table again as Hayden took his usual seat at the dining table. The sight of Hayden sitting at the overly decorate table felt out of place. It wasn’t Christmas or anything worth celebrating today so I had no idea what the special occasion was.

"Umm…did you prepare this?" I asked in a shaky voice as I approached the table.

"No. You did," he replied.

Me?

"I did…what?" I asked, cluelessly.

"You prepared this," Hayden replied as he gestured with his hand at the decoration on the table and around the room.

"No, I…didn’t…do this…" I replied hesitantly.

Unless I lost a part of my memory, I did not remember decorating this room or getting it decorated like this. The work here was professional level and there was no way that I could achieve something as elaborate as this even if I tried my hardest.

"That’s strange…Auntie did mention that you wanted to have a special dinner of some sort with me here…" Hayden said thoughtfully as he cocked his head slightly to one side.

A special dinner…

"Oh, I remember now!" I blurted as I finally connected the dots together.

Hayden chuckled before he grinned at me with a slightly mischievous glint in his blue eyes. I cursed myself silently for taking too long to realize what this dinner set up was for.

"Little Hayden ran into the pathway to Harvey’s wing while I was on my way here to check up on the decoration that Auntie was working on. After that, you know…so yeah, I didn’t get a chance to see it, so I didn’t realize that it turned out to be…this over-the-top elaborate. I mean, it looks great and I’m very thankful…but…" I said while stuttering.

What am I going on and on about? Why am I suddenly so nervous?

I never thought that Auntie would do something so amazing like this. She probably went over the top and hired some professionals to decorate the place when I asked her to help prepare a special dinner for us. The more surprising thing was that the whole set up was still here after all that time that I spent locked up in the room underground. Did Hayden decide to leave it all here?

"Shall we have dinner?" he asked.

"Yeah…we should…" I mumbled, still feeling a little lost.

I shook my head a little to clear my thoughts before approaching my regular seat at the table which was opposite Hayden’s. Hayden called my name softly when my hand reached the back of the chair. I looked up at him to see him gesturing for me to go to him with the crook of his finger. My hand slipped down from the back of the chair at the change of plans.

After walking around the long table to his side, I stood at his side as I waited for him to instruct me on what I should do next. Wordlessly, Hayden patted his lap with his large hand as his blue eyes teased me.

"I thought we would be having dinner…" I mumbled.

"I’ll feed you…if you’re hungry," he replied casually.

I pursed my lips together before lowering my bottom onto his lap just like how he wanted. His large hand grabbed the sides of my hips and settled me down onto his lap before he began caressing my waist and the plain of my stomach with his left hand. My eyes tried to focus on taking in the vast variety of food on the table to distract myself from being too conscious of his closeness.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Don’t act so nervous. Your whole body is stiff…and I don’t like it," Hayden said with a hint of warning in his tone.

I would have relaxed my entire body for him if it was that easy to achieve. Taking in deep breaths seemed to help me calm down a little and soon I started feeling quite comfortable on his lap with his arms around my body.

"What’s the special occasion?" Hayden asked from behind me.

His question caught me off guard and it took me a few seconds to realize that he was probably referring to the original purpose of this special dinner.

"It’s not really a big deal or anything…" I mumbled softly.

The real reason that I wanted to celebrate was because I got my first payment for my first commission work since moving to this mansion. However, the amount isn’t anything to brag about and definitely not to someone like Hayden. For a moment, the cause of my celebration seemed normal and insignificant that I didn’t want to tell him about it.

--To be continued…