Chapter 18

Annabeth was sitting in her last business meeting. All their plans were done and they just needed to get through construction.

Things had become a little awkward between them for the rest of the cruise trip. They talked to each other as if nothing had happened, but there was still that tugging guilt that had overcome Annabeth as she walked from Percy's room. She couldn't do this to Luke.

They hadn't done anything, but she still felt it whenever she looked at him. And to make it even more complicated— underneath it all she could feel that same throbbing sensation in her stomach whenever she looked at Percy. It was ever growing and she was frankly scared of it. It felt forbidden, but so very tempting.

And she was probably going to lose it sooner or later.

That night in his room on the yacht— if she remembered clearly— he had reached out to hold her face first. Gods, the way he was calling her name over and over with that husky low voice of his.

It had almost made her want to punch the guy in the face for complicating things for her.

The door opened to the meeting room and a person came to Annabeth.

"The president would like to meet you in his office as soon as possible." the secretary woman whispered in her ear.

Annabeth nodded as the person then left the room.

"Is there something wrong, Ms. Chase?" Leo asked.

"Uh.. no. It's nothing. Please continue."

He nodded and continued talking.

Annabeth soon drowned out all noises, until soon enough the meeting was over.

As she was about to leave the room, Leo came up to her.

"Annabeth."

She turned to him, "yes?"

"There's this project we're calling project

A.R.G.O. II. We were wondering if you would interested in helping us as the head designer?"

"Oh. Um, I'll have to ask my boss about that, but yeah, sure, I would be glad to do it." she said smiling.

"Great. Notify me when you can officially be a part of it." he said smiling, "Thanks, Annabeth."

"No problem."

Leo smiled at her.

Annabeth looked Leo over. He was more on the scrawny side, but a sort of genius side to him made up for it. His face reminded her to that of an elf's and his fidgety hands made her think that he didn't like to be idle at all.

She wouldn't mind working with him again.

After Leo left, Annabeth made her way to Poseidon's office.

She knocked before going in.

"Hey, dad."

The man sitting at his desk looked up and smiled brightly seeing his daughter, "Annabeth!" he said going around her desk to give her a big hug.

"You asked for me?" she said after they had pulled apart.

"Yes, actually I wanted to ask you to come to a family dinner tonight." he said walking back to his desk to sit down in his big spin chair.

"A family dinner?" she asked standing in front of his desk.

He folded his hands together on the desk and smiled, "Yes, Annabeth. I would love for you to be there. You are my daughter after all."

"Um. Yeah, sure. I'll be there." she said smiling back.

"I'm glad." he said.

~o00o~

Percy was sitting with his dad at the restaurant's table which was reserved under the name "Jackson". Apparently there was to be a family dinner of which they hadn't had in years. A great bonding time— as dad had put it.

He sighed as he saw Crystal walk proudly through the doors. She shooed her personal chauffeur away and went up to the desk, immediately flirting with the poor waiter there.

Percy groaned and he heard his dad let out a tired sigh.

Oh great. The raven haired witch is here.

Crystal walked over to where they was sitting and sat in the seat next to him after hugging Dad.

Percy immediately knew she was up to something. There was a sly smirk planted on her lips, as if she knew something— something she shouldn't.

He didn't have time to interrogate her, because -just at that moment- a golden haired beauty stepped into the restaurant.

It was uncanny how she never failed to make his heart skip a beat.

As she handed her trench coat gratefully to the waiter, she made her way over to their table, wearing the same outfit she had worn to his engagement party, which seemed like so long ago now that he thought about it.

Her white hoodless zip up jacket was worn over a white shirt and her amazing legs had grey fitting jeans with dark flats.

This damn blondie— she was definitely trying to make him suffer.

He kept his eyes on her as she greeted Dad and everybody, then sat down. Smiling in her direction, he still kept his eyes on her.

As she finally looked in his direction, it made him smile even wider. It was supposed to be still awkward between them, but he frankly didn't care anymore after seeing her sitting there in front of him.

Her eyes gave him a confused look back as if he were truly insane, until she broke into a small smile of her own and shook her head at him.

Awkwardness gone, mission accomplished. He chuckled to himself.

Dad was talking the whole time, trying to get the conversation lively and familial. Percy pitched in some comments, but he was mainly busy staring at Annabeth. She was just so interesting to look at. He could look at her all day if he could and record in his head all those little quirks and habits of hers.

Like the way she bit her lower lip if she was really focused.

The way her eyes glowed a radiant silvery grey when she was amused or laughing.

The way she ran her fingers through her hair to keep it out of her beautiful face.

Or the way she pursed her lips when she heard something serious— like how she was doing right now.

Percy snapped out of his Annabeth watching and caught what Dad was saying.

"… And about how the inheritance is concerned- I thought it would be best to tell the news right here and now when we are all together." Poseidon looked in Crystal's direction for a second before continuing.

"Don't get mad, Crystal when I say this, but I'm giving your half of the company's shares, assets and property to Annabeth along with her own trust fund. She deserves it and I'm sure she'll make great use of it."

Crystal looked about to burst and slammed her fists on the table, "WHAT?!"

Percy gripped her arm, "Crystal, this is a public area. Don't make a scene." he said firmly.

She ignored him, "Your giving my inheritance to that fucking bitch?!" she said pointing at Annabeth.

Poseidon eyes became darker and Percy knew he was beyond furious, "Crystal, you do not speak to anyone like that. In fact! The way you're reacting to this, just proves that you're not mature or responsible enough to have the inheritance."

Crystal looked a bit scared from Poseidon's outrage, but then shouted just as loudly, "But I'm your daughter! not her!"

"Crystal stop being so selfish! Accept what I have decided or I will take everything away from you, including your trust fund!"

Everyone in the restaurant was staring at them now.

Crystal glared murderously at Annabeth who had been sitting there silent the whole time.

Her grey eyes looked back at her— her expression unreadable.

"Be careful what you decide father." Crystal said suddenly smirking as she pulled out her phone from her back pocket.

Oh no, this can't be good, Percy thought.

"You're giving half the inheritance to a cheating slut." she said as she held up a her phone.

Percy hesitantly looked at it and immediately froze.

"How'd you take that?" He asked incredulous.

Crystal smirked with evil delight, her face still red from her previous anger.

"That really doesn't matter, does it?"

Poseidon looked shocked at the photo and said with a dangerously low voice, "What is the meaning of this?"

~o00o~

Annabeth looked at the photo on Crystal's phone.

It had a picture of Percy and her on his couch cuddling in a position that could be very easily misunderstood. If they were in different circumstances, it might have actually been an incredibly adorable picture to Annabeth.

Too bad they weren't in different circumstances.

"You are not stealing everything away from me like you did before" Crystal said to Annabeth with an almost crazy laugh, "You are not going to take what is rightfully mine again."

She turned to Poseidon and said, "If you don't give me my rightful inheritance, this photo will go viral on every news line and on every hot topic magazine there is." she laughed with evil glee, "And I don't think it will help the company image if you, father, are giving half the inheritance to a fucking slut who slept her way up to the top."

Poseidon looked absolutely stunned and shocked at what he was hearing.

"Dad, we didn't sleep together. I swear!" Percy yelled, "How can you be swayed by a photo? It proves nothing!"

"Oh no, Percy, I think it does." Poseidon said again in that dangerously quiet voice of his, "Even if I do believe you, do you think the public will?"

Percy looked horrified at his father, "You're letting your own daughter black mail you?! You're our father! Now act like it for once!"

"Percy…"

"No, you haven't been our father or acted like it ever since mom died. I left it be, since everybody was grieving. But right now, you can't just be that passive father anymore! I mean it!" He started to stand, "And if you care about the company more than you believe your own son, then maybe you shouldn't even be a father!" he said going around the table to help Annabeth up.

"Come on, Annie. Let's go." he said as he led her out of the restaurant and through the crowd of people still staring at the scene.

When they were outside, Percy let go of her arm. Annabeth watched as he let out a tired sigh and ran his hands through his raven black hair.

She set a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

"Percy. It's fine. I didn't even want the inheritance in the first place."

"No, it's not fine. Dad wanted you to get it, not Crystal. And it's not only because of how irresponsible she is." he turned to face her, his soft green eyes exuding a sweet, calm beauty that had been so opposite of what had happened in the restaurant.

"He wanted you here— running the company here in New York. I wanted you here too."

Annabeth smiled at him in amusement, "So… the inheritance idea was for me to stay here, huh?"

"Partly, yes." he said smiling back.

She shook her head with a bright grin, "Percy, I'll work my way up to the top the right way like a regular person. I don't need any favors or any inheritance. I work better that way anyway. Plus, I even got an offer from Leo to do a project with him, that is, if my boss says yes."

Percy's eyes brightened up, "Really?"

She nodded, "So, there's absolutely no need for all this inheritance business. You can tell dad that I refuse, okay?"

Percy nodded, "Of course. That was resolved a lot more quickly than I thought it would."

"All because of me." she said flipping her hair in mock self-love.

He laughed and invited her to walk with him towards mid town Manhattan.

"What about Crystal? She still has the photo."

Annabeth sighed, "I guess we just have to hope that she won't do anything with it."

~o00o~

Percy knew Crystal wasn't going to stay put with that kind of blackmail in her hands. He knew he would have to delete the picture.

But that was something to think of later.

Because right now he was on a date with Annabeth. At least he considered it a date.

They watched Les Miserables on Broadway and afterwards, walked around Times Square, looking into shops and lounging in cafes.

Soon, they stopped at a bar and decided to go in for a drink.

They both ordered a tequila and were soon a bit drunk. Percy had a better tolerance than Annabeth so his mind was a bit clearer.

She smiled lazily up at him, "Did I ever tell you that I thought you were gay when we were in high school?"

Percy looked at her amusedly and chuckled, "Why did you think that?"

"Cuz… you refused to be with any girl who wanted to be with you."

"That's because I had you already." he said smiling at her.

Annabeth looked weirdly at him, "Ew. Incest."

He laughed at that.

They talked and talked when, eventually, a girl came up to flirt with him which then led up to him rejecting her politely.

Annabeth looked at him and smirked, "See what I mean?"

"Because I still have you." he said smiling.

"You always say that."

"This time I meant it." he said a bit quietly before taking a drink of his cup.

She looked at him, wondering what he meant by that.

Resting her cheek on her arm, she lifted her eyes to look at him.

"You'll always have me. You know that right?" as she found her eyes to get heavier and heavier.

Gods was she exhausted.

The image of Percy smiling at her was imprinted in her memory right before she let herself fall into sleep.

"Of course I do." he said back.

Author's Note:

AWWWWWW. Now, I really want to Percabeth to happen RIGHT NOW!

But seriously, am I the only person whose hating Crystal so badly right now?

Anyways, thanks for reading and don't forget to reviiiewwwwwwww.

You guys are the best.