"You should share your secret."

☆

Remi pushes the knife into the salmon fillet. It flakes away, cooked to perfection as she takes it to her lips, her eyes glance up at the host. Chanelle seemed to have forgotten she was there as she casually ate, her eyes glancing every so often at her phone, which seemed to buzz like an angry wasp. Remi swallows down the fish, accompanied by the white wine as she feels the urge to start a conversation. "Do you ever clock off? You must work hard."

Chanelle looks up from her phone at the female sat to her left. She graces Remi with a smile, taking her own wine glass to her lips. "Always working." She says as she lowers the glass back to the table. "How about you? You're a doctor right? Do you ever switch off?"

Remi looks into the distance in thought as she lowers her fork. "I have learnt to separate the two, but it took time." 

"You should share your secret." Chanelle utters, only to be distracted by the phone buzzing once again, but this time she flips it over, choosing to pay attention to the person in the room. 

"Netflix." Remi laughs as she resumes her meal.

"Netflix?"  Chanelle repeats, raising an eyebrow. 

"Well, that was the only kind of drama I wanted in my life, but now I'm starring in one of my own." She looks at Chanelle, wondering what the reaction would be from the words spoken and is somewhat relieved that it is taken as intended. 

"Ah wouldn't that be nice.." Chanelle chuckles. "Believe it or not, I don't look for drama, the drama follows me. People just need to do as they are told and the world would be a much simpler place." She looks at Remi, who instantly looks down at the fish on her plate. The subtlety of the message was heard loud and clear. Maybe she was pushing the buttons too hard.

Chanelle exhales a sigh and she finishes her mouthful. She knew she still had to keep Remi on side. Remi wasn't a fool. The educated type. The type Chanelle seemed to find attractive, a like mind, on the same level, until the other decided to get too clever. "A Detective visited me today." Chanelle utters, feeling the suppressed rage of Jojo Kim's visit wanting to surface yet again. 

"And, they're alive right?" Remi tenses in her seat as she looks back at Chanelle, holding in her breath a little. 

"Appears so. She was scratching around for clues. She suspects my family's involvement."

"Well, she's right." Remi says without thinking. "You are involved."

"And now you are too." Chanelle is quick to reply. "She can do nothing with suspicion alone. She needs absolute proof, not speculation, or scraps of evidence. She thinks she has the pieces of the puzzle, but she doesn't know how to put it together." Chanelle grips a little tighter on the knife in her hand. "She just wants to make things personal. She is bitter. If she wants to take a break and head to the coast, I won't stop her."

"Do you two have history?" Remi dares to question, glued to Chanelle's every word. 

"Like I just said, people will not do as they are told. You see why drama follows me." Chanelle takes her frustration out on the fish as the knife gets plunged into it, before it is crudely cut into pieces. "But she's not taking my family down. This is my business, not a police matter."

"Our business." Remi looks at Chanelle with as much conviction as she can muster. You said I am involved, so it's our business." 

Chanelle takes the wine to her lips yet again and takes a sip. She looks at Remi for a moment without uttering a word as her eyes seem to take in the other female. Those green eyes, that mid brown hair partially tied back. The naturally pinkish glow to her cheeks. Remi had that innocence that Chanelle found endearing. Accompanied with the educated mind that would keep her captivated. She takes in the drink. Savouring the bittersweet taste on her tongue. She lets the liquid glide down her throat, ending the silence with an ever so slight lick to her parted lips. "To our business." She raises her glass to Remi, prompting her to do the same. 

Remi picks up her own glass. The action rather clumsy as an eagerness presses to meet Chanelle half way. The 'chinc' of glass echoes in the vast dining space. She puts the glass to her lips. Gulping down the wine as if it were water. Her mind was a scrambled mess of messages from the lady opposite. Was she still a threat, or now a friend or sorts? Untied in the common cause.  It was what Remi wanted. To get closer. A hidden agenda, but now it was here, it seemed a little easy to come by. But it seemed that the meeting of the two glasses had united something between them, an unwritten contract and now Remi had to play along. For her brother's sake as well as her own.