The CEO's Painted Skin

One hour later, they entered the vicinity of Makati City...

And another thirty minutes of driving, Sandra finally parked her car in the parking area of The Royal Diners Restaurant. The area was swarmed with regular patrons flocking to the restaurant to get their food fix.

"This restaurant is also my favorite caterer because they served delicious dishes which is not so expensive and affordable for everyone," explained Sandra.

They walked towards the cashiers' section and explained to one of the employees that they had reserved a function room for this coming Friday's events.

They exited the dining area and entered a hallway somewhere in the northside accompanied by the restaurant's employee. They entered a 30 seater function room. It's spacious and the wall was painted light pink with three beautiful chandeliers hanging in the ceiling. There were tables and chairs arranged neatly on the corner waiting for an event.

"What do you think of the area, Catherine?"

"It's nice. I like it!"

Sandra smiled. "Good, we have the same taste in color. I love pink!"

The two women giggled.

Sandra and Catherine sat down on the chair facing the table.

She placed the two brochure of the menu on the table. "Now we will start perusing the menu. Have you chosen yet?" asked the older woman.

Catherine shook her head. "I'm confused what to choose..."

"Okay, let's go through on them one by one so that we won't miss anything."

They start examining the mouthwatering foods in the brochure.

While in the parking area, Allan called his boss.

"Allan, what's up?"

"Boss, am here in Makati City in the parking area of The Royal Diners Restaurant. Catherine and that lady friend of hers entered this restaurant and until now they have not exited yet. What will I do next?"

"Standby Allan. I'm coming there over in the restaurant."

John ended his call with Allan. He called Romeo.

"Bro, do you know of a restaurant called The Royal Diners Restaurant?"

"Yes. That is my wife's official caterer I mean our favorite restaurant if we like to go out for dinner outside the house. Why?" asked Romeo.

"Catherine is there inside that restaurant right now. Would you mind calling your wife and asked for her whereabouts?"

"Okay, bro. I will call you after I can get a hold of her," said Romeo.

A few minutes later Romeo called him back.

"Sandra is in The Royal Diners Restaurant with Catherine, my wife warns me not to inform you that your ladylove was with her right now," Romeo chuckled.

John laughed. "Ah, so we just have to surprise them right now. Common let's go there! Let's have dinner there."

"Okay Boss!" replied Romeo laughing.

They met in the parking area. Romeo drove his own car while John and Ramon was onboard the Armored Range Rover car.

Twenty minutes later, they arrived in the restaurant.

John gave Ramon some money and instructed him to find Allan so that he doesn't have to eat his dinner in the restaurant alone.

John and Ramon proceed inside the restaurant to find the girls. The restaurant employee showed them the venue where the girls were currently located.

There was a knock outside the door of the function room and it partially opened...

"Pizza delivery Maam!" Romeo's voice echoed inside the function room.

"We didn't order pizza..." replied Sandra ignoring the voice. Then she noticed the voice, it's something familiar!

The women shifted their attention towards the door...their eyes widened!

The boys entered the room smiling.

"What you girls are up to?" asked Romeo.

Sandra covered her mouth, oh no! John is here!

Busted!

Catherine and John's eyes were glued to each other as if they were the only people inside the room. She smiled sweetly at him. John walked to her side and planted a kiss on her forehead. "Here you are!" he murmured.

"What is that?" he scanned his eyes upon the colorful brochure.

"Brochure for the menu for this coming Friday," she said.

John sat beside her. His warm hand rested on her waist.

Sandra and Romeo move over to the nearby table to give the lovebirds a moment of privacy.

"So, what we have here?" John was examining the colorful mouth-watering dishes on the menu.

"Now that you're here, help me choose the menu," said Catherine.

"Okay...," he spreads the brochure wide in the table and inspected each of the ten menus, each has different price tag that ranges from PHP5k up to PHP30k.

To make it quicker for Catherine to decide, John, took the initiative to choose 3 menu that ranges from PHP15k...20k and the last one was PHP 30k.

"Now pick two out of the three menus, Catherine."

Catherine picked the PHP15k and PHP20k menu.

"Then out of the two menus, pick one, that will be our menu for the wedding reception."

"I choose this one!" Catherine chose the cheapest one, the PHP15k since she knew that there were only a few people invited and the excess food might go to waste.

"Good. Now we already have our menu. Anything else, wife?" he playfully pinched her nose.

"Next is the reception theme, the decoration." Catherine browses the website on Sandra's tablet.

There were different themes such as Romantic, Alternative, Vintage, Whimsical, Modern, Bohemian, Garden, Winterland theme and so on. There are more than twenty themes displayed on the website.

"Do you want the winter theme wedding decoration?" he asked.

John pointed at the photo of the room, several white trees dotted the venue decorated with snowflakes hanging on every leaves and branch of the trees. The overall effect looks like that of white Christmas trees with white lightning illuminating the tree. The ceiling was decorated with tiny LED twinkle star string lights hanging from the ceiling. It looks so romantic and magical in the photos. Everything looks white...and heavenly.

"Yes, I love it!" she beamed, her eyes twinkled brightly.

John smiled at her fondly. "It's winter theme then! Now that's settled, let's have dinner in this restaurant somewhere."

John stood up and sauntered to where Sandra and Romeo was sitting.

"We already had chosen the menu and the wedding decoration theme guys!" he pointed at the chosen menu and the decoration theme to Sandra.

"Nice choice!" Sandra exclaimed clapping both hands in glee.

"Now let's get out of her and have dinner. Do they have a private room here where we can eat our dinner in private?" asked John. He was asking about privacy since he wants to take off his mask while eating without getting conscious that other patrons can see his disfigured face.

"Yes, they have. Let's ask the employees here. I think they have 5 private rooms upstairs," answered Sandra.

They went out of the room.

One of the employees brought them upstairs in one of the private rooms with dining table and chairs. Nice decorative cherry blossoms trees were painted painstakingly in the entire wall of the room even the ceiling has it.

"Wow! Nice! It feels like we are dining in the middle of the garden somewhere in Japan!" exclaimed Sandra.

Japan was famous for its cherry blossom festival.

Catherine smiled brightly at John.

"Do you like it?" he asked.

"Yesss! It's so beautiful here...!" she gushes.

John kissed her forehead.

A few minutes later their orders were being served hot and they start devouring the delicious food in comfortable silence. Romeo starts cracking up some hilarious jokes and they would erupt in laughter every now and then, a strong bond of camaraderie enveloped the group.