Convincing her

The group stayed at the pool for about two hours before they went to have dinner at the garden. Before dinner, they had all gone to their rooms to either rest or change into dry clothes for an hour before they started moving one by one to the beautifully decorated garden.

The decorations were not over the top as the garden already did a lot all by itself, and also, it wasn't that big of an even to go all out with decorations. They had just done enough to make the dinner special.

This time, Lucas and Jen arrived last as they were supposed to from the start, and they joined the others who were sitting on the long table. In the time they were all in their rooms, Brian and Rachel arrived.

They were usually late because Brian had just returned from an assignment or something similar, but this time it was different as they had been 'distracted' and had forgotten the time. Rachel hadn't even bothered to give excuses as to why they were late because no one asked them anyway.

When Jen saw Rachel and Brian, she waved at the two with a wide smile and Rachel waved back at her. Even Michael and her younger sister were already at the table.

Michael, unlike everyone else, asked David when they were going to start and came thirty minutes earlier. During that time, he and Alex took their time touring the large house, which left both of them in awe. 

"We are quite wealthy ourselves, but this place looks like sin," Alex commented while laughing. Michael looked at her laughing face and quietly looked away, Alex did not know what the boy was thinking about in his silence, but she saw the determination in his eyes.

He was determined to be wealthy enough so he too could sin like this if he wanted to. If Alex could hear his thoughts, she would have patted his head and called him cute. It was not easy to be wealthy to this degree, alright?

They had also had a property like this before, but they had lost it all, and even though they had regained some of their splendour, it was going to take a while before they return to their former glory.

After the house tour, they had come to the garden, and that was when they saw some familiar faces. When Lucas looked to Alex, he had to suppress the urge to laugh, Alex was sitting between Michael and Nathan.

Michael had a dark expression on his face while Alex was happily chatting with Nathan, who she had just formally met. Jen saw Lucas' funny expression and looked to where he was looking and saw Alex talking to Nathan. She didn't really notice Michael's mood.

"What's so funny?" Jen asked Lucas when she heard him chuckle. He finally could not hold back.

"It's nothing, I just think that today's dinner is going to be very interesting," Lucas answered and took a sip of wine. Jen looked at him curiously and looked at everyone else. She was wondering what was going to be interesting tonight as she looked at her friends one by one.

Jen wasn't left to her thoughts for too long as I brought the food out to the table and arranged in the middle.

It was more like a family dinner as Jason had insisted that he did not want it to be formal at all, so besides the attentive people who refilled their wine glasses, everyone ended up passing bowls of food to each other as they chatted happily.

"I can eat today, right?" Laura's voice was heard on the table, and few people chuckled at the unexpected question. James who was sitting next to her also smiled at her question.

"Have your fill," James said as his fingers brushed her hair. Laura smiled happily and really did not hold back at all. James watched as she piled her plate with food he knew she would not finish. Her appetite had become smaller because of her job.

She was doing this for her own psychological satisfaction. James's fingers brushed against her ear a few times and he moved closer to whisper in her ear.

"Are you taking enough for both of us?" James asked, and Laura paused for a second and turned to look at him. He was close to her, so when she turned her nose almost brushed his.

She blinked at him a few times as she tried to get her thought processes running as usual. Before she could say anything, James leaned back into his chair and picked up his glass of wine. 

"I'm not hungry, so eat on my behalf," James said and took a sip of his wine. 

"I will," Laura answered and continued to pile her plate with food.

Jen had already started eating because Lucas had grabbed everything she liked for her. She casually glanced at her friends and say a few words here and there and laugh when someone made a funny joke.

As she watched her friends, she noticed Brian add food on Rachel's plate whenever he noticed that she had finished something. It was cute to outsiders, but Rachel was having a hard time. Jen had noticed earlier that Rachel was wearing a cotton turtle-neck blouse that covered her to her elbows with a long airy skirt. 

Jen had started getting used to her not wearing such suffocating clothes, but thinking of how her relationship was with Brian, she figured that whatever she was hiding was the reason they had been late today.

After another forty minutes, they were all done with dinner and the table was cleared. James did not have any intention to eat, but because of how much food Laura had heaped on her plate when she realised that she wouldn't be able to finish, she started feeding him mouthful after mouthful.

She had stuffed him full, but her plate was still empty. When she attempted to give James another bite of food, he had glowered at her.

"Enough. Don't ruin my appetite for wine," he said, and that was that. Laura couldn't force him after he gave her such a decisive answer, so she had a few more mouthfuls of food and gave up. She was so sad that she could not eat more.

For those who still had room for dessert, there was cake, and for those who were not interested, they continued to drink while chatting happily. And when everyone was done with dessert, Jason stood up from his seat.

"Okay, so now that everyone is done with eating, you can choose where you are going to go off by yourselves. Let's meet at the rooftop in an hour, Michael, Alex, I'll show you two where you can spend the night," Jason said and left with his two followers. 

"She can stay in our wing right?" Jen asked Lucas, and he nodded.

"That's where he is going to take them," Lucas said and held her hand.

"Shall we go for a walk, I overate," Lucas said as he played with her fingers. Jen nodded in agreement as she was thinking of doing the same thing. She had even had dessert at the end, so she was stuffed. Jen held a glass of sherry in one hand and hooked her other arm with Lucas' and the two of them went to take a leisurely walk.

James looked at Laura, who had overeaten and smiled at how she looked like she had given up on herself.

"Why would you eat so much? Are you a child that you still need to be told when to stop?" James asked her and patted her slightly protruding stomach. 

"I would have eaten more if possible. I feel like I've been stuffed to my throat," Laura complained and rested her head on his shoulder. James asked one server to bring a bottle of sherry as Laura continued to make herself comfortable.

When the bottle arrived, he poured them both a glass and handed Laura her glass. Laura looked at him with eyes filled with doubts. 

"You are letting me drink?" she asked him, her voice tinged with scepticism. The last time she had alcohol was at Leanna's wedding since then she hadn't drunk because of work. Alcohol equals empty calories, which equals self-sabotage.

"Only if you want to. Who knows when you'll drink again?" James said as he leaned back and took a sip from his own glass. He swirled the drink in his mouth and his mouth watered from the slightly sour taste. When he swallowed it, he felt himself get warmed up, and it left a sweet aftertaste on his tongue.

"This is good," he commented and took another sip. Laura stopped hesitating after being tempted by James and drank from her glass as well. Since she cheated, she might as well go all out.

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