Chapter 247: Hope He is Not Reckless
Adam has no idea why Suzaan would have mixed feelings towards him, but this reaction from her has piqued his curiosity about her reasons, as this is the very first time a woman has shown him negative feelings.
Julia, of course, doesn't count because the hate between them preceded his regression.
Of course, Adam doesn't bother calling out Suzaan for it; instead, he sits down and joins the group in their conversation, which soon focuses on him.
They start asking him about his interests and when he will be debuting in MMA.
Learning that his very first fight is in a few weeks gets most of the people in the room excited.
Lana and her friends already believe that Adam is going to win, as they have seen him in action, and even though Isla did hear about his actions, she feels a little nervous for him, wondering if he is really ready.
She has heard all kinds of horror that take place inside an MMA cage, from light injuries to even death, though rare, it has happened.
So, for someone as handsome and charismatic as Adam to go into a violent profession like MMA, Isla doesn't think it's right.
Adam did say he was trying to get better at music, so combined with his good looks, even if he gets a little decent at it, she believes he would do so much better with his life.
Of course, she keeps her lips shut as she has no right to tell Adam what he can do with his life, she just prefers that Adam doesn't get seriously hurt while doing this.
Sitting beside Adam, Isla feels her heart race while his intoxicating scent continues to stroke at her heartstrings.
The way he smiles, the way he looks at her with his strong but gentle gaze, his deep, strong voice, and his overall presence make Isla feel as if Adam is a made-up figment of her imagination, a guy who perfectly fits her, but Adam is far away from being her imagination, he is as real as one can be and he is sitting right next to her.
But as much as Isla wants to feel happy about being in Adam's presence, she is also annoyed by Lana sitting on the other side of Adam, who is probably having the same thoughts as her.
The two girls are trying their best to be the one Adam focuses on the most. They stick close to Adam, asking him one question after another, even interrupting each other while also throwing slight jabs of words.
The cat fight was on, and it was clear to everyone in the room that these two girls were trying to contend over Adam.
Suzaan looked at her friend in surprise as she no longer had that nervous energy as she talked to Adam. Isla's so invested in trying to outshine Lana that she forgot how pressured and nervous she feels around Adam.
This is the Isla she and the other band members are used to, confident and bold. So when she saw how Adam affected Isla, turning her into a nervous wreck, she knew there was no saving Isla, but now that she sees Isla step back to her original self and fight her fight makes Suzaan believe that there might be some hope left inside Isla.
Adam isn't complaining about the attention he is getting from these girls, as the more familiar they become with each other, the easier it will be for Adam to make them realize that they cannot claim him for themselves alone.
The meet soon starts coming to its end as the band needs to head back, Lana and her friends take a group photo with the band, and even in the photo, Lana and Isla stand beside Adam.
Lana might be a fan, but she is no pushover, so what if Adam has a date with Isla tonight? It's not set in stone that she and Adam will end up together.
"Looks like we should leave as well," Adam says, looking at Isla, making her blush.
She realizes that Adam's about to take her on their agreed date.
"Right from here? I haven't even changed into a suitable outfit," Isla says, pressing her lips.
"You don't need to, you already look stunning," Adam says and grabs her hand and pulls her in a little closer.
Isla blushes while her heart starts racing again.
Seeing this, both Lana and Jean frown. Both of them feel jealous seeing the person they have a crush on being so close to each other and are about to go on a date.
"Alright, guys, we are gonna go ahead first. It was nice meeting you all," Adam says, waving goodbye to the rest as he takes Isla away with him.
Under his influence, Isla gets completely swept away and doesn't even try to bid farewell to her band members, as she is more focused on Adam holding her hand.
As they walk outside, Adam walks her up to his car.
Seeing the black sports car comes as a surprise to Isla, as she didn't think Adam would have such an expensive car.
"This is your car?" She asks, surprised. After all, she saw Adam working as a waiter in a restaurant; no matter how well a restaurant pays its waiters, there is no way they can afford such an expensive car.
Instead of answering, Adam just smiles and unlocks the car with his key and opens the door for Isla before grabbing her hand and guiding her in.
Isla is still surprised by this development and couldn't get a word out until she was already in the car and Adam had closed her side of the door. He then walked around his car and entered as well, finding Isla staring at him with questionable eyes.
She began wondering if Adam is a reckless teenager who got a massive loan for himself to buy such an expensive car just to show off. The reason she has this thought is because she has seen many young men do this for attention and fame across social media.
She begins wondering if Adam is the same as them and if her instincts about Adam are wrong.
"What?" Adam asks her while his face continues to hold onto his charismatic smile making Isla feel weak even though she was having slight second thoughts about Adam.
But before she could come to a conclusion, she decided to ask Adam. She still wants to believe that Adam is the man she thinks he is and not some reckless teenager who likes to show off.
"Is this car really yours?" She asks again.
Adam smiles. "If it was not mine? Would I have the keys to it?" He asks her back, confirming that it is his car.
Hearing this, she feels a little nervous; she was hoping he would say that he borrowed it from a friend or rented it out for a week or so. But there is still hope, maybe he won it in a competition or a lottery because things like that happen to lucky people, maybe Adam's one of those very few lucky people
"Where did you get it ?" She asks, hoping he would say anything other than it was him who bought it for himself.
Adam can see the conflict in Isla's face, and he can also guess why.
He smiles.
"I got it as a gift from my father for my eighteenth birthday," Adam says. As soon as Isla hears these words, a sense of relief washes over her.
But then, she starts having other questions.
"Wait, your father gifted it to you? Are you like, rich?" She asks.
"I am, what gave it away?" Adam asks sarcastically.
Isla is surprised by this, she didn't expect Adam to be rich because she did see him working as a waiter in that restaurant... If he is rich, why does he work there?
"But, you were working at the restaurant. I thought..." Before she could finish her sentence, Adam spoke up. "You thought that I was just some regular dude trying to make a living."
"Yeah, I didn't expect this," Isla says, looking around. After all, this is an expensive car. Sure, it's not one of those super expensive supercars that cost around millions, but no one in the world would be against buying one of these.
"If you are rich, why do you work as a waiter?" Isla asks, not very curious about Adam's choice of work.
"My father's old school. He needed to see that I can appreciate hard work, nothing much, plus I like working there. I get to meet a lot of people and hear some interesting stories," Adam says, smiling charmingly. Seeing his smile takes Isla's breath away; her face flushes, and her heart races.
Now that she knows Adam's not some reckless teenager, her admiration for him grows as he is willing to subject himself to menial work like waitering around in a restaurant, even though he is the son of a rich man.
As Isla has gotten more famous because of her work, she has met quite a few young, rich men, and all of them were arrogant and liked to show off how rich they were.
Adam here is different, till now, he never bragged about being rich, but he didn't go out of his way to hide it either.
If Isla really looks back at the interactions she has had with Adam, she realizes that Adam always wore nice looking clothes that were clearly expensive, even the watch on his wrist right now, she realizes that it belongs to a well-known brand and costs more than an average person's yearly salary, Adam always had this watch on his wrist, she never just noticed it because she was completely mesmerized by his looks.
Compared to those snobs that annoyed her to her core because of how snobbish and rude they were to people who weren't as rich as they are, Adam is so much better than they.
'He really is amazing,' Isla thinks, smiling happily.