Jade who had drunk till her sorrows weighed heavily in her heart did not take note of the person standing in front of her small table.
'Get out!' Even though she shouted in her mind, it still did not come out as she had thought she said it. It was not until when Xander refuse to move a muscle that she looked up and her lovely eyes met his soul brown ones.
"Xan-n… Xander?"
"Get up, Quinn. Let's go."
"No. Allow me to drink more. Just one more bottle and I am done."
"Hell no. Not on my watch young lady."
"But I want to. Be a darling and give me my drink." Jade tried to pry her half-filled bottle of wine from Xander's hands but the latter was faster and he moved his hand away from her reach.
Her face grimaced into a frown. No longer was she happy by what was happening. "Gimmie my drink, young man." Jade stretched forth her hand but he was much taller than her due to the fact that she sat and he stood. It was as though she was fighting an impossible battle.
Her palms balled into fists and slammed hard on the table in front of her. Rather than be scared of his feisty tigress girlfriend, Xander's eyes widened at her behaviour as his lips curved into an 'O' form.
"Quinn," he called out her name with a warning laced in his tone. Jade was already testing his patience but he still could not get mad at her. In fact, it turned out that a drunk Jade was even much fun and cuter than the normal angry tigress.
"Xandy, gimmie my drink," Jade cried out. This time she kept on hitting her balled fists against nothing in the air like a child who just got her candy stolen.
Her eyes narrowed and before Xander knew what was happening tears had started threatening to fall.
Xander could not believe how things easily escalated to this level. Just as she opened her mouth, ready to rain a torrent of noise down in his ears, Xander handed over her bottle of strong wine.
As though what had happened just now did not happen, Jade's scrunched crying face instantly turned into a happy one and a wide grin appeared on her face.
To say Xander was shocked was an understatement. He did not know whether to laugh or to cry. She had indeed played a fast one on him. He could not believe a drunk Jade managed to do that to him.
Sigh!
Left with no other choice, he watched her empty the contents of her bottle into her wine glass and before he could stop her, Jade happily drank all in one goal and swallowed.
'Urgh!" She made an irritated face before smiling. He knew what she had done would obviously not be pleasant to her throat but he could not complain as it considered it her punishment.
The problem now was when she smiled. It was supposed to be a punishment to warn her, rather she was happy.
'Just what am I going to do with this young lady?'
Xander let out an exasperated sigh just from watching the happiness on her face. She tilted her bottle only to find it empty.
Jade went ahead to tilt her head down and peered inside the cup from underneath. At this point, Xander could not help himself anymore and he face-palmed himself.
Jade was definitely something else. Who would have thought that a drunk Jade would be a cute one? Tsk but now it had passed from being cute to being childish.
He dragged the glass cup from her hand, freeing the little tumbler from her grasp and then settling it down on the table before her.
"Bartender! Another drink."
Xander was shocked. Hasn't she had enough already or was it that she was planning on putting him in trouble?
"Coming right up," the bartender responded. Without a moment to waste, Xander turned his head in the direction of the bartender and glared cold daggers at him.
The bartender gulped and nodded his head at him when he noticed who it was. He dared not disobey and quickly took someone else's other.
Jade was simply a lost cause and a bad market for him. He would rather lose her or get her angry than have the almighty Xander get angry at him.
"Bartender!" Jade yelled again but Xander waved at the bartender to ignore her.
"Hey, I know why he is not attending to me. You are preventing him from coming. Leave here."
"Are you shooing your boyfriend away, Quinn?" Xander asked.
"Yes. You are not my boyfriend anymore." She puffed her cheeks up and pouted her lips.
"Give me my drink and I would accept you." As if adding more dramatic effect, Jade tucked her arms under her armpit and turned her face away from him.
A corner smile appeared on his lips but he quickly hid it before she noticed. "Quinn, let us go."
"No, I do not need you. I would go on my own without you." Saying this Jade stood up from her seat.
She took a couple of steps forward while staggering on her feet. Xander moved up to her with both hands by her side, getting ready to catch her lest she fall but Jade was not planning on being babysitted.
She spanked his hands and frowned before picking up her purse and taking a couple of steps away from him as she muttered some words to herself.
"My love, you would fall if you are not careful," Xander cautioned her but all his words fell on deaf ears.
"I can walk, leave me be. I am not a child you know."
'How funny for her to say such a thing.' Xander sighed for the umpteenth time in his mind that night.
"Says the person behaving like a child," he thought out loud for her to hear.
Fortunately for him, Jade was in no mood to argue with him. All she could manage to think of at that moment was to make it to the next bar and continue to drown in her sorrows away from her naughty boyfriend.
A wrong move as the next thing Xander knew, she was falling to her side, straight for the ground.
"Damn it!"
Based on reflex, he quickly moved and caught her before her body made a mark with the ground.
"Come on, Quinn, get up."
"I umm mache very want I home."
Xander tried making sense of what she just said but nothing was clicking well alright. Seeing the kind of miserable state she was in, he had no choice but to carry her himself.
'Sigh, remind me never to let you get a taste of alcohol again.' Xander reminded himself mentally. As he darted his gaze to her, he found that she was already fast asleep.
Shaking his head, Xander made it out of the bar with his tigress in his hands.
***
The next morning, a pair of eyes blinked before opening and squinting due to the morning sun rays seeping into the room.
A soft yawn escaped her mouth as she had her morning stretch. Slowly she reached up to her eyes to rub the remaining sleep off of them and by the time she had them opened back up she was shocked by the strange environment she was in.
"Hell no, this is not my room. What has happened? Why am I not in my room?" Jade questioned no one in particular.
Her eyes scanned her surrounding very well. It was a room draped in gold with a touch of black and red and the inner room part where the bed was placed was coloured with white.
'Strange colouring.' Jade mentally noted and slowly sat up well on the bed.
"Okay, take in a deep breath, Jade. Just breathe in nice and slow. Breathe in, breathe out." As she spoke to herself, she carried out the exercise calmly.
She was about to panic but now wasn't the time for such.
She needed to know where she was and how she got there in the first place. Her mind was about taking her in the wrong direction, quickly she brought it back.
She had begun to wonder if one of Anders's men had caught her or something that was why she told herself to breath and calm down.
"Okay, try and recall what happened yesterday evening." She was her own person therapist right now.
After settling down well on the bed, she closed her eyes and let her mind recall.
She remembered calling Arctic and him telling her that he had found the person that would decode the message. Although the information was nice, that had triggered a sad memory and she thought to drink.
The last thing she remembered was drinking so many wines when Xander came to see her and ruin her fun.
The more she recalled the more her head began to bang. At the end of it all, she decided not to bother thinking much.