340 Be My Date?

An hour had passed since Damien sat on the tufted red love couch. He wanted to hate sitting there while being painted by Wallace White but the cushion was unexpectedly comfortable and the classical music playing in the background was also quite relaxing.

From time to time, Wallace asked questions in which Damien answered briefly — harmless questions about his current projects, his hotels and resorts, and did not repeat the first question about marriage—which he was thankful because honestly, Damien didn't know what to tell him. Sure, he and Katherine were working things out between them and he stupidly showed his possessiveness towards her with regards to marriage but after what happened that morning, he was slightly shaken.

Brushing his thoughts away from that sad realization, Damien shifted his gaze to Wallace and watched him work quietly on his canvas, playing with colors on the painting tray on his hand. There was something different about him this time compared to the last time that he had seen him seven years ago and Damien couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Something's up with you," he started.

Wallace glanced at Damien from under his lashes, a hint of amusement ghosted on his lips before he turned his focus back on his painting. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. You're different… Something's changed."

"Really? Have you finally taken notice of me?"

Scoffing, Damien shook his head, "Dream on."

"Talking about change... I can see you're the one looking different now." When Wallace saw Damien quirk an eyebrow, he continued, "Have you met someone?" Seeing that Damien didn't respond to his personal question, he plastered a mischievous smile on his face. "You did, didn't you? Is she pretty?"

Damien turned to look at the window, his mind brought him an image of Katherine with a bright smile on her face from when they visited France together where they had forgotten about their worries for a moment and just enjoyed each other's company. "Peerless," he muttered in a low husky voice, it was almost inaudible but Wallace heard him clearly.

"She's unparalleled, huh? You must like her a lot…"

'Like' was an understatement. What Damien felt for Katherine couldn't be explained in mortal words as he himself couldn't find the best word that could describe her so he didn't bother to correct. "Are you done?"

"Nowhere near," Wallace replied almost instantly and observed Damien from where he was seated. "Tell me about this favor that you're asking from me…" He drawled the last word at the same time that he drew a long stroke on the canvas before him, taking a step back for a few seconds to inspect his work before dabbing his brush on it again.

The paintbrush that had just kissed the canvas and was about to be dragged down halted, creating a small smudge on the paint. Wallace then shot his stare towards Damien, his brows knitted in irritation at what he heard. Damien was putting him in a difficult situation, knowing full well that the owner of the restaurant was his father, whom he hadn't spoken to in a few years.

Wallace and his father had a misunderstanding and because of pride, neither of them tried to be the bigger person, letting their disagreement drag on for this long. And now Damien was asking him to make a move. He clicked his tongue, exhaling a sigh out of no choice, and responded, "You're a jerk."

Damien chuckled, "Are you still not on speaking terms with your dad?"

"Well, he isn't speaking to me so I'm not speaking to him either." He rolled his eyes, annoyed at the thought of having to do this favor for Damien. The thing was, he couldn't say no to Damien so there was no way he could go back on his words.

"Your works are in his restaurant. Did you know that?"

"Tsk. Is this your way of persuading me?"

"You already agreed to do my request even before knowing what it was. You are going to do it and I don't need to persuade you," Damien reminded him. He was about to stand up when Wallace raised his index finger and signaled him to stop.

"Don't move. I'm not done with you yet. Sit your ass back down," Wallace commanded, his voice dipping an octave lower than his normal voice. When Damien unwillingly complied, Wallace winked at him and chuckled, "Good boy. Why don't you tell me why you need this guestlist?"

"That's none of your business, White."

"You're asking me a favor, it is my business." Wallace shrugged, unaffected by Damien's coldness. "You're doing this for that girl, aren't you?"

Realizing that Damien wouldn't answer his questions, Wallace let out a sigh in resignation, "Fiiiiine… It's pretty rare for Damien Park to ask for favors, so I will take this as a huge honor."

"You should. I'm not going to be your subject again. This will be the last."

A playful rumble of laughter escaped from Wallace's pinkish lips, causing Damien to knit his brows together. This man was too pretty to be a man. He wanted to get out of there as fast as he could and go back to Katherine but his plans were instantly ruined when he heard the other say, "I really doubt that. But make yourself comfortable, you're going to be sitting there for a while."

Damien slumped on the red couch, his back molded on the soft material and he wondered if Katherine was going to be okay while he was away. 

Squeezing more paint on his tray, Wallace carefully dabbed it and swirled his magic on the canvas as he continued, "Oh, and since I don't really like this favor that you're asking from me, you're going to need to do something else for me."

"I'm not going to strip for you, just so we're clear. I'm drawing the line."

Damien's statement made Wallace laugh again, his broad shoulders shook as his eyes smiled along with his mouth. "I'm flattered that you even thought of that. I won't say no if you do, though, but no, I'm not going to ask you to take your clothes off. I'm perfectly fine with the image I have in my head." He glanced at Damien while maintaining a grin on his face. For a long time, he hadn't had this much enjoyment and he was glad that Damien visited him even if it was because he needed something.

Damien shut his eyes, reminding himself for the nth time that he was doing this for Katherine — it was the sole reason that kept him going. "For Pete's sake, White, cut the crap."

"Now that's the grumpy Damien that I know…"

"I'm not grumpy."

"Suuuuurrreee." Wallace placed his paint tray on the table and grabbed two bottles of water from the mini-fridge, tossing one to Damien before twisting the cap on his. "You're coming with me to the auction next week."

"What auction?"

"Haven't you received the invitation from the club yet? There's an art auction and a few of my works are going to be on display."

Damien only remembered that Markus had told him about that invitation but because of his appointments and current situation, he didn't plan on attending and if he did, he was going to go with Katherine—not with Wallace White. "Right…"

Wallace dug a paint-messy hand in his worn-out jeans' pocket and tilted his head to the side as he asked, "So? Be my date?"