Chapter Text
You swear this happened almost everyday while working with him. Each step you walked into the courtroom or the conference room felt like a competitive waltz. Narrowed eyes stared at the other with a fire buried beneath them. Green hues dug into your brain and you couldn’t forget the way he would look at you each time you entered the room. If this were some sort of regency, enemies to lovers story – Xavier would be your rival, your arch nemesis, and the one person that made you grind your top teeth against your bottom. Each sight of him was unbearable to look at, each snarky and devilish grin that plaster on his face each time he would try to out-do you piss you off. Dislike wasn’t a strong enough word for this man; only Hades from down under could come up with a word worse than that.
Okay yeah.. maybe you might have been exaggerating a bit. It took you a lot to genuinely hate a person, and frankly, you knew enough to realize that the rivalry you two had was just that - a rivalry. He didn’t do something deranged like kill your family or anything, just simply was a nuisance you had to endure being with at work. Every. Single. Day.
With everyday you were at work with him, you could always picture yourself glaring at Xavier and him smiling at you with the same one-sided teasing grin. His pace swooping you into his arms and initiating a satirized, hateful tango of verbality with all lights shining way too bright on the both of you.
Despite the irritation, you welcomed the challenge. It wasn’t as if you were incompetent. In fact, you were the attorney that put a stop to Xavier’s track record of successful contracts. His snarky and sarcastic attitude became what it is today because of that event. Probably bruised his ego. It only made winning against him taste even sweeter. Unfortunately for you, the contract negotiation doesn’t seem to be leaning in your favor today.
“ Seems like luck is on my side with this contract ,” He said slowly as he sat at his side of the table, clearing up the spread out files.
Of course, life wasn’t some sort of rivalry musical where you would dance as a form of competition between you and Xavier. In fact, it was much more lackluster than the sounds of music. Instead of competing in the middle of a grand hall, you each sat at opposite ends of a large table in a conference room after a session of contract negotiations. Just being in the same room as him could cause world wars, at least that was how you could describe each and everyday seeing each other.
"You're humble..." You mumbled to yourself, tapping your fingers over your hard-cover planner.
“And that I am." He grinned. God, that incredibly stupid smile that he always had on his face whenever he knew he won something.
Because that was him, that was Xavier. To your coworkers who would constantly whisper to you about how good-looking he was, you never had the time to see it. Not even for a damned second. He was always too much of an underlying prick who masked it all with his charm - that you could most certainly agree on.
"It makes me wonder how an attorney like you would lose such an important contract? Could that be why you look so- dejected?” He hummed, eyeing the folder on his desk and opened it.
You raised your brow, your fingers tapped lightly on the table as you listened to the words Xavier huffed under his breath. The potential client–oops, Xavier’s client, left so you knew you could remove your professional façade and speak your mind. You looked up from your papers and pointed the tip of your pen toward his face. “The only look of deject is going to be on your face when I secure the licensing agreement to the movie adaptation of Blooming Panic. You only secured this contract with the client because they thought you were attractive."
“Oh? Is that so? Then perhaps the author of Blooming Panic will also find this face attractive and license with me instead of you.”
You glared daggers at him. If the author was going to actually sign with him just for that sole reason, then curse his attractive features.
“On another note, it appears that since the attorney across from me lost, they have to partake in fulfilling a favor, hm?” He cleared his throat as he picked his head up from looking down at the folder. His hands were intertwined with one another, each hand bending like a bridge for his chin to rest on.
There was that snarky grin again.
“Piss off Xavier, you know that we agreed to not wager work matters on these favors. I already know what it could be anyways. Another drink? Or perhaps another lunch?” You let out a heavy sigh and rolled your eyes, “You’re very predictable.”
“Well then, you might be surprised by the difference this time.” Xavier snickered lightly as he sat up from his office chair and leaned his lower back against the edge of the table. His originally crossed arms that were huddled against his chest were now planted by his sides on the desk to stabilize himself.
This caught your attention. Difference? There was a difference in his pattern?
He smirked again, “Nice, I caught your attention.”
You let out an irritated sigh, “Hurry up and spit it out.”
He nodded before sitting up from his leaned back stance and made his way back to his chair, “You, me, my sister's wedding. No catch, just come wearing nice clothes and you only do this once. Oh and you get free food, obviously.”
You scoffed, “What, why me? Your sister's wedding? Don't you have a partner or something for that?"
“I don’t have a significant other, if that’s what you were wondering.” He smiled goofily.
You manage to huff, “I wasn’t”
“--But you lost the contract to me, so you have to do me a favor. We didn’t specify in our rules that favors were limited to lunches and drinks. Unless…you’re someone who violates the terms, which I do understand could be characteristic of you.”
Even if your question was valid, you couldn't hide away from your own pride and ego. You always found yourself to be a competitive person, but this side of you always seemed to come out when it came to him. You lowered your gaze, your lips forming into tight-lipped grin.
You furrowed your eyebrows and stood up, “What’s that supposed to mean? The reason why I asked is because out of all the people you know, why would you ask me to be your date? ”
“Because I think you’re a great actor. You’re pretty good at pretending you hate me in this little game that we have, but we both know you want to put away the swords and call it a truce.” He explained as you immediately shook your head.
“In your dreams, Xavier. Hating you would require you to mean something more than just mere work acquaintances; and we’re NOT friends.” You let out before you stood up from the table and made your way over to him as you whispered into his ear, “In fact, I feel more inclined to be friends with the birds that constantly shit on the windows of this building.”
Xavier’s eyes widened slightly at the statement, though you could tell it wasn’t from shock.
“My, my (Y/N)! What a mouth you have. I could bring this to HR, you think they would also be friends with those birds too?” He let out in a sarcastic tone before snickering.
You rolled your eyes once again before sitting back into your chair, “We work at different firms, remember? No jurisdiction. About your favor, I’ll do it. It’s a one and done thing right?”
He nodded, “Yes, just a one and done thing. Family events for me only happen once in a blue moon, so you won’t be stuck pretending that you like me.”
“For the first time in a while, hearing words come out of your mouth is a relief.”
“In a while? I’m glad it’s not the first time that I’ve given you relief then.”
Yeah, you didn't know how this was going to work out.