Maviea, oh I won't, don't worry. It will take time on December but I will finish this story. And Erza's definitely not happy, after all the hurt she's gone through.
Guest, honestly, 7 years because I was influenced heavily by the manga hahaha. And you're right about their age and same reason.
Anemone, thanks. No prob.
Raw file. No copyright infringement intended. Still don't have a beta so pm me if interested. Enjoy!
Chapter 11.
"Cana, can you pls. put me on schedule with Erza tomorrow for a dinner meeting?"
"Nope. She doesn't accept dinner meetings in her schedule except if its a matter of life and death. And as to office hours, her schedule's full."
"Make it a lunch meeting then. She needs to eat anyway. Tell her to be at Lemuria at lunch."
xxxxxx
He was in deep thought while walking out of the building when he saw Lucy entering the building.
"Hey Lucy!"
She was startled when she saw Jellal. "Jellal! What are you doing here?!"
"Oh, I came by to see Erza. I asked her to work on a certain project. But she was kind of weird."
"What do you mean?" Lucy started fidgeting, her voice trembled a little.
"Hmmm... how do I put it... she was somewhat... business-like. She was calling me by my surname..."
He was cut off by Lucy then, "Like talking to a client?"
"Exactly!" "That's cause you're a potential client right?"
"Yes, but she changed. She wasn't like that before." His brows frowning.
"Erza didn't change. She was always like that with clients. She'd treat clients professionally."
"But she wasn't like that with me."
"What?! You think that she was like that with every client?! You were an exception Jellal!" She snapped. She then strode away from Jellal, leaving the latter confused by her sudden outburst.
xxxxx
Although Jellal wasn't in a good mood because of Gray's appearance, he was excited of tomorrow's meeting. He carefully thought of what to serve Erza for lunch, making sure that it was all her favorite, and not to mention the special strawberry cake he baked. He personally prepared the food, waking up early and cooking for almost half a day, and he planned the meeting to be at the patio of his house.
Erza arrived at Lemuria, it has been almost 6 years now since she last set foot in the restaurant. Almost nothing has changed. She noticed that everything that they did was maintained so well that it didn't even look that it was renovated 7 years ago. Her mind starts to wander about the past but she immediately snapped back in the present when a uniformed lady welcomed her, and she reprimanded herself.
"I'm Erza Scarlet, I'm here to meet Mr. Fernandes. But before that, is Mirajane Strauss here?"
The receptionist smiled at her warmly. "Right this way, Ms. Scarlet." She led her to Mira, and the white-haired woman smirked at her.
"My, my Erza, nice to see you here. Are you here to see Jellal?" she innocently asked.
The redhead rolled her eyes, "Mira you're the manager here. You know that we have a lunch meeting. This is not a date so don't assume anything. It would also be appreciated if you're not going to blab it to anyone, I don't want to be the subject of any gossip at the office." she warned.
"Aww...you're so cute when you're being defensive, Erza," she cooed. "But with how Jellal prepared for your lunch 'meeting' and how excited he is, it doesn't seem that way," she winked at the redhead.
Erza just shook her head at Mira. What can she expect with the she-devil who spout nonstop about her nonsense pairing whenever they meet. Erza also noticed the knowing stares of the staff but just shrugged it off as the manager led her to the patio.
"Erza!" Jellal brightly smiled and greeted her, she only nodded. "Thank you, Mira." They were too familiar with each other that Erza can't call him other than his first name if she didn't consciously remind herself not to call him by his first name. There were two tables at the patio. A rectangular table located at the slightly far side of a small, round table. Jellal was sitting on a chair in the round table. He met her in welcome and guided her to sit opposite his.
"So Jellal, what are your conditions for hiring our company?" as she put the table napkin on her lap. She wants the meeting done as soon as possible, she didn't want to beat around the bush.
Jellal on the other hand was busy serving her the appetizer and drink. She looked at him since he wasn't answering her question. "Erza, I already prepared the food for you, so you don't really have any choice of what you're gonna eat. But not to worry, all the food that I prepared are all according to your preference." A waiter a little far from them was on standby for any of his instructions, but giving them privacy at the same time.
"You prepared it yourself?"
"Uhuh," Jellal sheepishly smiled.
"I think you should take your seat now Jellal. We should start having our lunch meeting."
"Right," Jellal was slightly disappointed that Erza was so formal. She wasn't smiling to him frequently like she used to but he couldn't complain. He was just thankful that she didn't send a representative to meet him.
He was really trying hard for the conversation to stray to something more personal, like they used to, but she would revert it to business talk. And in the middle of their lunch, her phone rang.
"Excuse me, Jellal, I've got to take the call," she turned her back and walked a little farther but Jellal could still hear her.
"Hey sweetheart! How are you?" Pause. "That's nice! You better show it to me." Pause. "Did you eat already?" Pause. "Me? I'm having lunch right now." Pause. "Are you having a good time?" Pause. "That's great. I have a meeting now so I'll just see you later." Pause. "I love you," she chuckled while half-whispering during the conversation until she hung up.
Jellal felt like a cold bucket of water was poured over him. Gray. Again. Why did he have to always interrupt them. And she talks sweeter to him than 7 years ago! Are they dating now? He shrugged at the thought. No, it can't be. But he can't think of a reason why its impossible. It stings to hear Erza talked sweetly to the person on the other line. "So where are we?" Erza asked, now back to her seat. Despite his sadness, he forced himself to cheer up. Their lunch meeting wasn't finished yet. He just have to suck it up and treat Erza really special. Maybe she'll be able to see his efforts slowly.
xxxxx
Their lunch meeting ended. They both agreed that Erza will personally supervise the project and will only be needed in Crocus once in a while. Jellal walked her in her car.
"Hey Erza, did you like the food?"
"Yea, all of the food you served are tasty, and the strawberry cake was better than before. Thank you," she said politely, bowed and left. He smiled by what she said, but he can't help thinking how distant she was to him the whole time and it made him sad.
xxxxx
Levy invited her close friends for a get-together. It was attended by Juvia, Lucy, Natsu, Cana and Gajeel. Jellal was also there as they're cousins. He also attended hoping that Erza will be there. It was one of the worst get together he had attended. Natsu was snapping at him, Lucy and Cana were ignoring him, Gajeel was anti-social, Juvia was endlessly talking about Gray and most of all, Erza wasn't there. He asked Levy where Erza was, but she only told him that eversince Erza returned from Bosco, she rarely go with them in their get-together.
Since only Levy and Juvia talk to him, blue heads stick together right?, he decided to talk to the latter to his mistake. Juvia was dreamily talking about Gray again saying how gorgeous and kind he is. Gray this, Gray that. Which made him agitated and more jealous, and sulkily told her that Gray's with Erza to shut her up. Juvia got angry with him and she snapped at him, telling him she's Gray's assistant and therefore, she knows him better than Jellal knows Gray. She said that Gray was only Erza's best friend and not her love rival. His face lit up with what he heard.
He went then to Cana who was busy kissing the bottle of beer in her hand and confronted her. He asked her before if Erza has a special someone and she answered him in the affirmative.
"Why? Did I tell you it was Gray?"
"Then who is it?"
"Why do you need to know? That's none of your business."
"Because I want to be with her."
"I don't think you deserve her," Cana glared at him and left him.
xxxxx
"Erza, can you please have dinner with me?" He was there again in her office, in the guise of checking the recent development of the plans for his hotel.
"I can't. I'm busy. I need to go home," not even lifting her head from the document that she was typing on her laptop to look at him.
"But you always tell me that."
"Because that's the truth."
"Then I'll just take out some food, we can eat at your house. Or I can cook," he desperately said.
"No. Thank you, but I can buy my own food and I can cook too," Erza declining politely.
"Why not?"
"Do I really have to spell it out to you? Fine then. Because I. don't. want. to."
"Erza..." he begged.
"What do you want Jellal? You're wasting my time with this trivial matter," she dryly said.
"I want you back."
Erza laughed at this. She raised her head to look at him for a moment and she laughed at him. "You want me back? What, 'cause you're lonely again? Ultear left you again?"
He was a bit offended but he was expecting that she would not immediately give in.
"Erza, you know that it isn't like that."
"I know? I don't, Jellal. Its just sex. We had a blast, we parted ways, end of story. I don't have an interest to jump on your bed again." She said casually.
"You know that its more than that. And why are you putting finality to it?"
"Do I have to remind you what happened 7 years ago? I'm done playing with you. We shouldn't have crossed the line in the first place anyway." Play? Every word she said hurt Jellal, but he just shrugged it off and took her hand. It was the first time their skin touched again after so many years and he jolted, his skin still tingle with the contact.
"But that was already in the past."
Erza stopped examining the document she was typing and stared at him. "Right, all in the past which was something I don't want to relieve again nor continue. I don't have plans to include you in my future."
"Let's start again, Erza," his eyes pleading.
"I told you, no plans. Not in my future, nor my present." She paused, she hesitated for a moment, then continued. "My mother told me that the first time will always be the hardest, it gets easier, you get used to it, until the time you want more. I did that with you, to my shame, and I learned from it."
"I don't understand, what do you mean?" Confused at her cryptic explanation.
"To not start something that is clearly doomed from the start. We had a different start, a complicated one, which is against how I thought it should be and I still allowed it to continue. Wrong start, but I was stubborn, I thought that you know, it can work. What you did definitely made me regret why I didn't listen to her."
"But this time, it will be different, Erza. I can give you more. Can't you just forgive and forget?"
"But this time, I don't want it anymore. I forgive Jellal, but I never forget, I learn. I'm not a martyr, I tried it once, but it never worked out. Martyrs just... suffer and die." There was no hurt that can be inferred in her voice. She had burried any feelings that she had with Jellal. Over the years, the bitterness had subsided, she admitted that she took part with what happened. She allowed things to escalate, to eat more than she can chew and she had faced its consequences.