When I enter the kitchen, I notice no sign of Chris. Hmm, that's weird I thought he had walked in here. Was I mistaken?

   I spot Ms. Brooks in the kitchen. She gives me a buoyant glance, then returns back to cooking dinner which smells like chicken or shrimp quesadillas, I can't tell but it smells great either way. "Good evening Ms. Martinez, Mr. Sauve informed me you will be joining him and Ms. Sauve for dinner this evening. Is there anything, in particular, you would like me to make for you?" She asks as she looks up at me.

   "Thank you, but no. What you have there smells delicious." I smile. Besides, I would not want her to go through any trouble cooking me something else, and anyway what she's making smells divine. In fact, it's making my mouth water already.

  "Okay, if you're sure... Are you sure I can't get you something right now? Perhaps water?"

  "No, I'm fine. Thank you."

  "Well, if there is anything you need, let me know," she tells me and I smile at her.

  Well, she is offering so I ask her where Chris might be.

  "I think he's in the wine cellar," she informs me.

  "A wine cellar?" I ask out loud.

  "Yes, miss," she nods.

  Well of course he has that. I shouldn't be surprised he has one. It seems like this place would have many different rooms with something unknown inside.

  "Where exactly is the wine cellar?" I question as I tilt my head to the side.

  "Through the hallway right over there," she moves her chin to where there is a dark endless hallway. The hall has straight wooden walls on each side, as a matter of fact, it shows nothing but darkness.

   I take a breath before I walk through the hallway. Every few seconds, I pass a different set of doors with them being polished dark wood. I bypass them all until I reach the one wooden door that is halfway open. Once I place my hand on it- it makes a creaking noise.

  Why does this feel like a horror movie? I ask myself... Gosh, I need to not watch horror movies anymore.

   I slowly enter the room, darkness fills it except for a little shining light leading to what I can tell is a clear acrylic wine rack- giving the illusion that the bottles are floating. For a second, I thought they were actually floating in the air until I felt them with my own two hands. I look around and find no windows or doors to access the outside world; it feels like I am in an underground cave.

   I walk further into the room as I notice Chris bending down and grabbing a wine bottle from the shelf rack. He glances at me, "So you found me?"

  "As a matter of fact, I wasn't really looking for you. I just happen to run into you," I lie. I didn't want him to know I was looking for him.

  "Hmm, sure," he mutters as he stands up to his feet.

  "You have a nice collection of wine," I say quickly as I shift my eyes to the old vintage wines which have dust on their bottles.

  He narrows his eyes and I can tell he knows I am changing the subject by the way he's looking at me. However, that doesn't stop him from talking about his collection, "Yeah this is one of my sister's favorites..." He lifts up a bottle, so I can see it clearly. "It's a 1999 Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen Thann Clos Saint Urbain, it also has a mouth-watering taste of candied blood oranges lightly dusted with botrytis-caused spiciness. Creamed with red, yellow, and white fruits are interspersed with earth, minerals, and gravel in this complex concentrated full-bodied behemoth. This wine is muscular but still has a graceful taste to it... But that's what the description says," he chuckles.

   "My grandfather and dad loved to buy vintage wine. They always told me the older the brand the better. To me, it makes no difference, but perhaps I am not an expert on wine," he shrugs. "But come." Grabbing my hand he says, "Hopefully my sister is done with her shower."

   Holding hands, he opens the door and takes me down the hallway and into the kitchen. After walking through the hall, it did not seem as scary as I thought, but maybe it was just because Chris is with me.

   When we spot his sister, she smiles as she notices we are holding hands; nonetheless I can see behind her kind smile the shock in her sapphire eyes. From her confusion, I assume she has not seen Chris hold hands with a girl before.

  "It's about time sis," Chris teases his sister.

  She ignores him and moves closer to the black marble dining table setting down three wine glasses. Chris leads me to the table and pulls out the chair to the side, so I can sit. I thank him as I flop down on the chair; I notice Christine glances astonishingly at Chris and he rolls his eyes when he strides to her and repeats the same with her chair and she gracefully sits down.

  "Why are you being such a gentleman now?" She asks.

   "Can't I just be nice without getting a lecture?" He questions when Ms. Brooks comes with a bottle opener and hands it to him. He opens it and pours Christine a glass of wine; he's about to grab mine when I stop him. He glares at me in confusion.

  "I will just have water but thank you for offering me some," I say quickly.

  "Water? But this is good quality wine... You should at least try a little bit," he utters as he tries to grab my glass but I stop him again.

   "No, thank you. I'm fine." I know if I have one sip of wine or any alcohol I will be back to my old habits. I do not want to go down that road again- never again. I have been sober for almost three years and I'll be damned if I went back to the wrong path once more -the dark and painful place beneath the shadows that have been waiting for me to awaken- and by drinking I will be close to gathering darkness deep in my soul; in other terms "my shadows."

  He narrows his eyes. "Why? Is it too rich for your blood?"

  How dare he say that to me. He's lucky I am not getting up and leaving; if it was not for his sister being here, I would be walking out right now. I bite my lip trying not to burst out cursing at him in front of his sister.

   "Damn Chris. Leave the poor girl alone if she doesn't want to drink then don't force her," Christine snarls towards him. My eyes widen in surprise as she speaks up for me and I can't help but smile at her. She turns to me and says, "I'm sorry about my brother. He can sometimes be... uncivil."

  "It's fine, I know how he can be."

  "And you stay with him? I have to put up with his ass because he's my bro-"

  "Sis!" He shouts and mouths the words to shut up as he takes a seat next to me.

  She disregards his reaction by rolling her eyes, "You know it's true, bro. You need to learn to be polite to others, especially to your girlfriend."

   I choke when she said "girlfriend;" I recompose myself as I hastily say, "Thank you, but he and I aren't-"

   "Yeah, you are right. I have to learn to control my temper," his voice husky. I slightly laugh at myself or Chris making me surprised and not letting me say we weren't really boyfriend and girlfriend. To be honest, I still have no clue what we are. Perhaps Chis wants me to be his girlfriend? Truthfully, I wish I could read his thoughts to know what he wants because maybe he desires what I want which is him.

   "What's so funny?" He asks me. I suspect he's frowning at my random outburst, but because I refuse to look at him, I can't confirm that.

   "I'm sorry," I apologize and I find my eyes traveling to his long fingers around the wine glass and moving further up the leanness of his body until our stares meet. His face is serious but still stunning.

   "So Sussianna where did you two meet?" His sister breaks our eye contact- saving me from making a fool of myself.

  "School," he says swiftly and takes a drink of his wine.

  "I was asking Sussianna," she snaps at him for interrupting us and then turns her attention back to me. "You attend BU as well or touring the grounds?" She asks me.

   Before Chris can answer, I say "I attend BU, I'm actually in the same class as Chris." I literally had the same classes with him since freshmen year but I doubt if he noticed me then. But I can't help but to still ask that same question that keeps popping into my head- why is he interested in me now after all these years? What is his motive?

  "You seem very young, are you going to be graduating soon?" She questions.

  I smile at her as I mutter, "Yeah, hopefully, and then after finishing my degree I'm thinking of going to New York?"

  "New York?" Chris exclaims, unable to hide his surprise.

  "Yeah," I whisper since I am not able to think of anything else to say.

  "What's in New York?" He snaps.

  "Work, I guess," I shrug. Why is he making me feel like I'm being interrogated?

   Ms. Brooks comes with plates of Mexican dishes of quesadillas -my kind of food- and places them down on the table. "Would that be all?" She asks as she pours me a glass of water.

   "Yes, Brooks. Thank you," Christine says. "One second, I think we need some more tortillas... I will go get them," she tells Brooks as she gets up rapidly and heads to the kitchen before Brooks can protest.

  "Please don't be mad at me," I say, so low that only he can hear.

  "I'm not mad at you," he lies and my eyes narrow. I know he's not being honest with me.

  "Alright, I'm mad at you," he confesses. "When were you going to tell me?" I can tell his temper is unraveling.

   "I don't know," I tell the truth. "I didn't know we were a couple, let alone tell you about this. Plus, I am only thinking about it." Okay, now I am lying to myself, I have been wanting to go to New York for a while and I also have applied for jobs; I'm going to New York whether Chris wants me to go or not.

   "This conversation is not over," he warns as his sister comes back to the dining room with some tortillas. From the corner of my eye, I noticed a tattoo on Christine's wrist as she sets the tortillas on the table. I frown at the cursive writing, it reads: "fidele jusqu'au dernier souffle." It's French for "loyal until the very last breath."

  I glare at the black ink wondering what that tattoo meant. It has to mean something to her.

  "That's a lovely tattoo you have there," I glance up at Christine as she sits down and then eats some of her food.

  She clears her throat. "Thank you."

  "Where did you get it?" I ask curiously when I start eating a little bit.

  "In France. A very long time ago," she informs me. "You know what it says since you speak french?"

  "Loyal until the very last breath," I say in a low voice.

  "You're correct," she smiles.

  "What does it stand for?" I question since I was dying to know.

  Christine shifts her eyes to her brother as she takes a sip of her wine. Chris looks up from his plate. "This food is delicious, isn't it? Brooks always does a fine job when it comes to her cooking." He grins as he takes a bite of his shrimp quesadilla.

  "Yeah, sure it is," Christine nods curtly to him and concentrates on eating.

  I'm confounded with myself; why did their moods change when I asked about the tattoo? I mean it's just a tattoo unless it could mean something more to both of them. Whatever it is I assume it's something important for them to change the subject so quickly.

   However, it does smell delicious and in spite of the fact that my stomach is churning from Chris's stray away from the conversation about the tattoo, I am starving. I grab the quesadillas and start eating them and by the time I was done, I couldn't believe I was almost finished with my plate.

   As we finished our dinner, Brooks appears and clears the table. Chris gets up and Christine and I follow him out of the dining room.

  "Are you a marine biology major, Sussianna?" Christine asks me politely.

  "Yeah, same as Chris," I reply with a smile at her and then at Chris.

  "I think my sister is probably exhausted from her long flight," Chris says rather harshly. "Aren't you sis?" He nudges her on the arm.

  "Huh?... Yeah, but first since Sussianna is staying the night she needs some pajamas; I suspect she has no clothes with her, so she does need some clothing to sleep in. You are staying, aren't you dear?" She asks with her eyes gleaming and I nod with a shy smile.

  "Good!" Before Chris can protest, she grabs me by the arm and leads me upstairs to her bedroom.

Hey everyone, I am so sorry it took me forever to write this chapter. I have been busy with schooling and then I became very sick so I really had no time to write and that's why I have been gone for so long as well. I do apologize for my absence; I promise I will try to write more frequently now. As always thank you for taking the time to read, vote and comment! I really appreciate every single one of you because if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have a book so thank you again!
Until next time... I LOVE YOU GUYS!