Just by looking at the gravelly serious expression that Charles is making at the moment, Cassidy realizes that she is probably taking their late arrival and the reason behind it a bit too lightly.

She is indeed easy to move on from something horrific, but that's only because she doesn't want to continue being tortured by the pain. However, seeing how worried someone was for her this entire time, she couldn't help but think that she should've been a little more troubled over what might've happened to her.

​​

With those in mind, the gravity of the hellish reality that she experienced earlier that day is finally sinking in her.

"There was... a lot of things that went down, and I..." Cassidy trailed off before averting her gaze, a downcast expression hanging over her frame.

"I think I almost died yet again."

Charles is taken aback for moment, not really expecting that she will go straight to that point. It's not like he is entirely clueless about what happened to them, and he doesn't mean to make her bring up something that gruelingly heavy.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through something so terrible. That burnt vehicle in the middle of the road - so that was indeed yours all along," he muttered with a thick and breathy tone, his brows scrunched tightly together.

"Did bossman already tell you? How did you know?" she asked as she looked at him again.

"I was one of the people sent by Sir Edward earlier. We used the family's private chopper to locate both you and the President since we couldn't reach you by your phones. We got caught up in the rain, so we had to stand by for a few minutes. After it let up, though, the President already called me. In the end, all we brought back with us was that car."

"I see... Thank you for your efforts, Charlie. It's alright now, though. Bossman was there with me the whole time, and he said that he's going to start an investigation."

"He did tell me that he would. I'm also glad that you're not on your own back there."

After that cumbersome exchange, the two decided to let a moment of silence sprawl between them for the meantime.

While Cassidy resumes her stargazing, Charles opens up the bottle of wine and starts pouring it into each of their glasses. He then calls her attention again and offers her share, which makes her eyes widen a little in surprise for some reason.

She only stares at it for a few seconds, unknowingly leaning in and sniffing the glass at the same time. That adorable sight of her smelling it makes him smile in silent endearment. He somehow finds it as another one of her childish charms.

"Now that I think about it, I don't really drink wine," she chimed in again before hesitantly taking the glass.

"Because you lost your memories, you don't really remember that you already did on several occasions," he said with a reminiscing look.

"Well, it sounds like something my adult version would do. Am I tolerant of alcohol, then?"

"I think so? I rarely see you drink, so I'm not sure. Only the President can probably tell."

"I usually drink this thing with him?"

"As far as I recall, yes."

Cassidy reacts incredulously to this and starts gushing about how unlikely it is for that mean husband of hers to spare some time to wine and dine with her. She really seems to be firmly holding that image of Adrian as some kind of a cold-hearted demon. Charles simply listens to her ramblings, smiling and chuckling at her exaggerated displays from time to time.

All the while, the two fail to notice a new company arriving at the scene.

"Huh? Charles?"

Speaking of the devil, the cold-hearted husband that Cassidy keeps bashing has now appeared in the picture.

Adrian halts on his tracks as soon as he realizes that his wife is not all on her own. He's surprised to find his secretary keeping her company the whole time. That explains why he hasn't seen him anymore after he arrived at the party venue and showed up to him once.

By this point, the birthday celebration has wrapped up.

Some of the guests already headed to their respective hotel rooms while the others went straight to their resort houses nearby. His family and other relatives also decided to retire for tonight.

Gertrude invited Adrian to stay with them in the mansion just like what he originally planned to do. But he declined this and chose to return to his wife, which made him earn their nonplussed reactions.

"Well, that was indeed unusual, but it was only normal for a husband to stay with his wife, right?" was what Edward told their mother and sisters when they still tried to hold him back.

In the end, he owed it to his brother for saving him from providing an explanation to their ever dubious and persistent family. They wouldn't understand, anyway.

Right now, though, Adrian finds himself facing yet another hurdle. He isn't sure how he will announce his presence. Both his wife and secretary just seem to be having the time of their lives while chatting the night away.

"And Charles already brought a wine, huh?" he thought to himself before looking down at the bottle he was carrying.

Knowing Cassidy, Adrian expected that she would still be up and about at this hour. That's why he had planned to invite her for a drink if ever she's still awake. He rummaged through their wine cellar back in the mansion and took time to search for her favorite flavor.

With that, he brings a bottle of Chardonnay, which is a white whine that tastes like yellow citrus and a touch of vanilla. He recalls that it's the only type of wine that she ever wants to drink and has never gone with a new one since then.

"Oh, but this flavor..." Charles suddenly pointed out, making him look back to them again.

"I don't think that this is what you usually drink with the President, though. This is Pinot Noir, a red wine. I believe that the one you used to drink was something white and a little yellowish."

"Huh? Is that so...?" Cassidy asked - a prompt her husband needed to finally make his way to them.

"That's fine. I'll just try something new, then!"

Then, he paused.

For some reason, Adrian finds himself abruptly stopping the moment his wife enthused that ever so blithely. He doesn't know what has gotten with him at that very minute, but he suddenly remembers how the most unexpected things begin to easily come out of her mouth ever since she lost her memories -

Just like how Cassidy slapped divorce on his face before, when she told him that he was not her type of guy, the part where she bluntly turned down his gifts the other night, and those times when she kept shoving him aside.

Now, there's the wine.

She just declared that she doesn't mind trying an all-new flavor.

"So, then... Perhaps, getting rid of the past will really be this easy for you now," Adrian ended up muttering to himself, expression heavy and inscrutable.

He feels stupid. It's just a freaking wine. Feeling this way because of something like that is so stupid.

But then again, maybe it's not really about the wine. He knows that he will not get upset about something that small and shallow -

Rather, it is Cassidy's tendencies to easily replace the old with the new.

With that in mind, Adrian eventually decided to abandon his plan to join the two. He turned back around and made his silent retreat, leaving them in their own little universe.

---

A moment after Adrian left, Cassidy ended up getting drunk a lot earlier than Charles expected.

"I might have brought something with a higher alcohol level than what her system was used to," he thought regretfully as he scanned her far-off gaze and giddy expression.

They haven't even finished the whole bottle yet, but she's already on the verge of falling back and sprawling on the ground. At this point, her exhaustion has finally become apparent either. She starts looking more tired in each passing minute.

"She probably got that from the events earlier. Her fatigue's showing at last," he pondered with a frown.

Cassidy is wobbling for a bit as she reaches out for another glass, which Charles decided not to allow anymore. He beats her to it and catches her wrist, making her look at him in surprise and confusion.

"Heyyyyyy... What gives?" she then snapped at him, pouting childishly all the while.

"You should go to bed now, Ma'am. That's enough," he gently said.

"But I like it~! The flavor's really funny, ya' know~"

"And your fatigue is not. Let's get you back inside-"

"No!"

Charles ends up holding back a sigh at this, not really wanting to entertain Cassidy's stubbornness this time no matter how cute and adorable she makes herself appear to be.