Chapter 97. Lost My Appetite

Chapter 97: Chapter 97. Lost My Appetite

Chapter 97. Lost My Appetite

"Wait, hold up. Pan-seared what?" she asked. A heavy daze washed over her face, her eyelids fluttering uncontrollably in sheer bewilderment. "What—what is that?"

Don caught the expression on her face. A chuckle escaped him, his lips twitching as he tilted his head to the side to hide the smile breaking across his face. He closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. Oh my God, this girl is going to kill me with laughter, he thought to himself, struggling to keep still.

Taking another breath, he slowly turned his head back to look at her. "You still don’t get it, do you? I thought you said you had a retentive memory to keep things in mind."

She blinked once, then twice, before letting out a light chuckle. Looking back down at the food, she shrugged. "Well, that was way longer than I expected."

He chuckled again and shook his head with a bright smile, looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "All right, get a pen and a paper," he said.

She stared at him for a few moments, then scrambled out of her chair, pushing it back so fast it scraped against the floor. She rushed back up the stairs. Don watched her petite figure climb the staircase with a small smile lingering on his face, relaxing back against his chair as he took another bite of his food.

As he ate contentedly, she hurried back down a few minutes later holding a piece of paper and a pen. He watched her as she took her seat with a big smile plastered on her face. She handed them over to him, but he simply folded his arms across his chest.

"Even if I write the name down for you, what do you intend to do with it?"

She blinked. "I don’t know. Maybe keep the name just in case. I would love to eat it some other time," she said.

He smiled. "And you think it’s a popular meal that anybody can just cook?" he asked.

She blinked at him again. "What? What does that mean?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "It’s not a meal anybody can cook, Rosa," he said softly.

She frowned. "So are you saying you’re some sort of professional cook?" she asked.

"Well, I once went to a culinary school," he said smoothly.

She stared at him in utter disbelief. She scoffed and shook her head. "You intrigue me in so many ways, Mr. Don," she said.

His eyes widened.

Her eyes snapped even wider the moment the words left her mouth. Looking off to the side, she gritted her teeth in frustration. Don squinted his eyelids at her, his gaze sharpening.

She exhaled and nodded her head slowly in defeat.

"You know what that means, right?" he asked softly.

She glared at him. "You can’t do that," she murmured. "You don’t expect me to starve for two straight days."

He smirked at her. The smirk wasn’t calm or gentle—it was wicked, purely devious.

"Try me and see," he said.

He took the pen and the paper, quickly wrote down the name, and shoved it back across the table to her. She stared at him from across her seat, eyes squinted. She scoffed and shook her head quickly. Don’t think too much about it, Rosa, she thought. He won’t do it. He’s just teasing you. He’s playing with your mind.

She took the paper and glanced down at the name written on it:

Pan-seared filet mignon with a red wine and black truffle butter reduction, served alongside garlic rosemary fondant potatoes.

"I see," she murmured.

She folded the paper and pushed it into the pocket of her jeans, setting the pen down beside her plate. She looked back up at him. Don had returned to his meal, gently shoving bite-sized wraps of meat into his mouth. His expression was completely calm. She watched his mouth work together as he chewed. He closed his eyes and nodded his head slowly in approval.

"Goodness, I’m getting really better at this," he murmured under his breath.

Her eyes traced his face, catching the strands of hair that fell over his eyes, the perfect arch of his eyebrows, his sturdy nose, and his glistening, smooth lips that folded together as he chewed. He stared straight ahead of him, totally oblivious to the fact that she was staring at him. She blinked and quickly looked away, staring back down at her meal. Picking up her fork, she began to stab into her plate.

"Do you really mean it?" she murmured.

Don turned to look at her, still chewing on his meal. "Mean what?" he asked.

She breathed out, "That I’m not going to eat for two days."

He chuckled. "Do I look like someone who is joking to you?"

She gritted her teeth and looked off to the side, feeling her heart suddenly pounding against her ribs. "Tell me you don’t," she murmured.

"Try me and see," he said coolly. "If you repeat the same mistake again, another extra day will be added."

She let her fork clatter loudly against her plate. "This is uncalled for," she murmured.

He turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "Do I look like I care?" he asked, then continued eating his meal.

She grunted at his indifference. "You know, now I’m actually beginning to prefer the Lees family house."

Don turned back to her, his brow curling upward.

She scoffed. "What? At least they took care of me. At least they fed me. It’s far, far better than what you are doing to me right now, all because I’m showing you respect. You are so weird. Many other adults would clearly be happy that I’m showing so much respect by addressing them formally, but you are taking it as some sort of threat, threatening me with it."

Don scoffed back. "I am not just any adult. I’m your dad’s brother, a relative. Would you really address your dad like that if he was with you right now?"

She blinked and clenched her teeth tight. Exhaling quietly, she looked back down at her meal.

Don breathed out, his tone softening slightly. "I’m sorry for bringing him up right now," he said.

"It’s fine," she said, staring at her plate. Then she looked back up at him. "At least, can’t you cut me some slack? Maybe give me some way I can use to redeem myself," she said.

Don looked back at her with a raised eyebrow before he chuckled. "Okay, fine." He relaxed back against his chair and folded his arms. "There’s actually a way to redeem yourself."

She sat up against the chair inquisitively, her cute face already bright with a hopeful smile. Don chuckled at her reaction.

"Really?" she asked. "What is it?"

He looked thoughtful, tapping a finger against his chin. "For every single time you make a correction and call me the right way you’re supposed to call me, it will reverse one of your punishments. Let’s say, for example, you want to address me, and you address me correctly. I will remove one day out of your punishment," he said with a smile. "You have two days of punishment already. If you do the needful, only one day is left."

"Okay, Don," she said quickly. "Does that remove one day already?" she asked.

Don chuckled, staring at her in disbelief. He scoffed and tilted his head to the side. "Nice try. You are one smart one, aren’t you?" he said. "But that doesn’t count, because you are saying that right now immediately after I gave you the rule. If you can do it naturally when you are completely on your own, it will be a direct sign and proof to me that the instruction has actually stuck to your brain. For now, I can’t guarantee that, because you look like you are just saying it to have it wiped away immediately."

Her face instantly contorted, twisting into pure displeasure. She scoffed and looked away. "I should have known you were not going to make this easy for me," she murmured.

He chuckled with a bright smile on his face—not a pleasant one, but a thoroughly teasing one.

"Childish uncle," she murmured, returning to her plate, her eyes darting to his neck.

"I’m sorry. What did you say?" he asked smoothly.

She blinked at him. "Nothing," she replied quickly with a nervous smile, waving a hand in the air. "Nothing, absolutely nothing. I said nothing," she insisted.

He leaned forward slightly. "One more day has been added to your punishment for that disrespect," he said.

"Mr. Don!" she exclaimed.

He smiled at her. "Another extra day. You have four days of not feeding," he said.

Her lips worked together, opening and closing at intervals, completely dumbfounded and struck motionless. She crashed back against her chair and folded her arms, her body shrinking into a sulk.

Don focused back on his meal with a big smile on his face, feeling thoroughly pleased with himself. He kept looking over at her through his lashes and through his hair as she stared down at her plate with a heavy grimace on her face.

"Now I’ve suddenly lost my appetite," she murmured.