And she loved Raven immensely since she met her at the orphanage. Charles’ mother adopted Raven due to her infertility. The news had devastated her, because she really did love children, and Charles was the only child she could have. She thought adoption would allow her to have another child, and give them an opportunity to be part of a family.
During the time his parents allowed him the freedom to pick his partner, Charles had several failed relationships, most of which turned out to be assholes. One of them did it because they knew of Charles’ family fortune. Another relationship involved Charles getting cheated on, then there were ones that ended with a terrible fight, or where they had nothing in common.
His mother meant no ill will, and he knew she was only doing this for him. He really hated the idea of arranged marriages, but there was no way out of it. He sighed to himself in defeat.
There was an envelope on the table in front of him which he assumed was be the picture of who he had to marry. With an annoyance, he grabbed it and opened. He was rather taken back when he saw the picture.
The last thing he expected was a handsome man dressed in a black and white suit without a jacket. The man was wearing a perfectly fitted waistcoat which really complicated his body. Charles could tell the man worked out a great deal to be in that shape. He had a killer gunmetal blue eyes that captivated him—not to mention his sharp jawline. The man in the picture looked bit older than Charles which made him wondered why he wasn’t married yet. He felt his face heat up at the thought of meeting this man in person.
While Charles was looking at the picture intently, his mother smiled knowing exactly what Charles was thinking. She was glad she was able to find someone like him, because she swore it was all a stroke of luck. A friend she just met at work happened to have problems finding a suitable date for his son, and when Charles’ mother heard of that, she expressed similar concern. When her friend had an elaborate idea of setting them together, Charles’ mother thought deeply about it. After few hours of chat about their son, they decided they might just be perfect for one another.
"His name is Erik Lehnsherr.” She began, “his family was also in a similar position of not finding him a suitable partner, because of his age mainly. I was bit reluctant to select him as your partner because of his age too, but you are not youthful either. A short summary about him: he recently finished his PhD in electrical engineering with a bachelor’s degree in physics, has a stable business running, and is very well mannered.”
Charles was impressed, Erik was a well-educated man like himself. Charles was still in the process of finishing his PhD in environmental science, there was still couple of months of research left until he’s finished. He noted some of the subjects he studied for his degree were intertwined with Erik’s, which meant they could have intellectual conversations together. That is, if he had the same meaning of an intellectual conversation. Charles’ past relationship partners all had different ideas of intellectual conversations, so he didn’t have his hopes up too high.
“You’ll be seeing him tomorrow at 1 am for lunch. Make sure your schedule is cleared at that time so you can meet him at the Cherwell Boathouse. Now then, I have to go work, our little quarrel took bits of my time.” She said as she stood up and gathered all her things.
Charles’ mother left him to his thoughts. She was convinced that she had won him with his silence. It meant he was off in his own world processing all this. Most likely to approve, otherwise, Charles was usually quick to say no. She was also glad that Charles’ past relationships were a failure, because Erik was the perfect man for him and a perfect son in law she always hoped to have.
“Erik Lehnsherr, huh?” was all Charles could managed to say.
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The next day, Charles bought some coffee after working on his thesis paper. He had been conducting experiments and doting the data down at the laboratory since five in the morning to clear for the afternoon “meeting.” Lucky for him, he was entrusted with the key to the laboratory by his mentor.
Charles checked his clock seeing he was tad late. No problem for him because this was a good test to see what sort of temperament Erik Lehnsherr holds. Of course, he wasn’t blandly rude to keep him waiting all afternoon, so he hurried to the restaurant.
Once he arrived at the restaurant, he briefly skimmed through each table for anyone that might look like Erik. It took him less than a minute to find him. He wasn’t difficult to find with his strong distinguishable features among other people in the restaurant. He was also very well dressed and groomed, and was alone on a table for two.
Charles felt a bit underdressed with his casual attire. He was wearing a simple baby blue collared shirt with a navy cardigan sweater over. His pants was a regular black slim fit. He cursed at himself and gave a mental kick to himself, when Erik approached him.
“You must be Charles Xavier, yes?” Erik flashed a warm smile, and extended his hand to shake Charles’ hand.
Charles was caught off guard and almost jumped to which Erik chuckled at. Now that he was closer, he note his eye color was sterling gray, while he previously thought his eye color was gunmetal blue based on the photo. He was certain Erik’s eye colors were one of those rare eye color called glasz; it shimmered in the restaurant’s natural lighting which was beautiful.
“Ah yes, I am Charles Xavier. I apologize for arriving tardy, I was extremely busy working on my thesis paper before I got here.” Charles extended his hand to meet his.
“Pleasure to finally meet you, Charles. And, by all mean, I understand. I was informed you would be busy with that. I was just as busy as you are when working on mines, so being tardy is very much understandable. Please, let me guide you to our table.” Erik gestured to their table.
Charles felt his cheeks heat up. He hated to admit it, but his mother did one fine job in picking a man for him. How in the heck did she even find this man was beyond him. Once they reached their table, Erik helped Charles to be seated and sat his own chair.
“I hope you do not mind that I ordered some wine before your arrival?” Erik smiled.
God, this has to be too good to be real. I must be dreaming. This can’t be real. Charles thought to himself.
“As long as you don’t mind my ordering of a coffee before arriving here then?” Charles smiled for a brief second before going back to his neutral face.
“Of course not. Would you like some wine then?” Erik lifted the wine bottle as offer.
Charles moved his empty glass under the bottle, and Erik poured him some. The waiter then approached them and asked them what they wanted off the menu. After a briefly looking at the menu, Erik let Charles order first; Charles ordered the soup of the day, a wild mushroom pearl barley risotto, and crème caramel. Erik ordered slow cooked fillet of rainbow trout, and oven roast loin of venison.
“You’re not having dessert?” Charles looked up from his menu as he raised his eyebrow.
“And won’t be for the next few weeks. I was intending on following a no sweet diet following my terrible eating habits during my graduate school years.” Erik rubbed the back of his head with a laughed.
Erik’s laugh reminded Charles of one of a shark, more specifically that one shark from finding nemo. He only remembers the shark because Raven insisted he watch the movie with her constantly. The comparison was rather cute, but sharks aren’t supposed to be adorable, right? Sharks are deadly, Erik isn’t—at least for now. Unless he’s an asshole, but none of his actions he had shown signs of that. Charles began to wonder off to his own mind when he heard Erik call out.
“Charles, are you ill?” Erik looked a bit worried.
Oh crap, I need to stop this habit of getting lost in my own thought. Charles shook his head a bit.
“Of course I am, I just get lost in my own thoughts sometimes. What were you saying?”
“Everyone has those moments, it’s not a problem. I was saying; I hope I have not disappointed you.”
Truth be told Charles was far from “disappointed.” In fact, he was more so impressed, infatuated, charmed, and much more, none of which he wanted to say out aloud.
“I don’t know, you tell me.” Charles lied and darted his eyes to distract himself with anything because he felt his face heat up.
Erik could see Charles’ blush and knew it was a blatant lie. He found his actions to be amusing and adorable rather than rude. He was kind enough to not to point it out and thought to go along with it.
“I’ll be needing more time to asses your feeling towards me in order to answer your question then. Perhaps if we continue seeing each other more, I will eventually be able to tell you.” Erik retorted.
Just before Charles could reply, the waiter intervened their little banter to place their starters on the table, and also a thin wallet-like looking case at the same. Charles’ attention was more on being annoyed at Erik to notice it. The waiter nodded slightly and wished them a good meal before leaving. Charles made sure to let Erik know he felt that way by letting a huffing an air out.
Charles and Erik enjoyed their starters, followed by their meal and then Charles’ dessert. Throughout each meals they had meaningful conversations, some about their time in college, their majors, and bits of their personal life. Charles was mostly made sarcastic remarks any time the topic shifted to their arranged marriage, or when Erik made heartfelt compliments about him. Erik found them all entertaining.
“You know, you’re really missing out on this.” Charles spoke as he took a bite of his crème caramel.
“True, I will admit I’m rather jealous, but it is for my own good. Especially since age is catching up to me. I already have back problems.” Erik closed his eyes with his heads up and rubbed the back of his back with a groan. “See what I mean?” He laughed.
Charles almost choked on his dessert because first, he did not expect that, and second, the face Erik made was hilarious.
When Charles finished his dessert, they continued their conversation. When Charles offered to pay for the food, Erik held up his card and told him he had already paid for it when they finished ordering. Erik winked and told Charles that in his past relationship, his partners always insisted on paying for the meals, and would not budge until they paid. To avoid this, he gave the waiter his credit card and instructed him to pay once they were done ordering everything. Of course, he speculated that Charles might order dessert at the end, but instead he ordered it in the beginning; therefore Erik got his credit card when their meal arrived.
“Smart ass.” Charles mumbled it under his breath. Not audible enough for Erik to hear.
For a brief time they walked around the restaurant to see the punts. Cherwell is one of Oxford’s biggest punt station, and Erik noted Charles interest to ride the punt. Charles was fascinated; he heard of this place from his friends, but he had never been here until now. It was a lovely, and also a romantic activity they could partake in—but maybe in the future.
After they were finished viewing the boat house, Erik offered Charles a ride back to him house. At first Charles declined the offer, but somehow ended up in his car anyways. It was probably because of his gorgeous smirk or his magnetic personality, or somewhere in those lines. Once they arrived to Charles’ house, Erik even walked him to his front door.
“I hoped you enjoyed today as much as I did.” Erik’s mouth opened to a soft smile, exposing his upper teeth.
Charles turned towards his door and sounded as uninterested as possible. “Yeah well, it could have been better.”
“Seems we might have to do this more often then. Trial and error after all.” Now Erik was smiling fully, his entire teeth exposed.
Right when Charles turned away from Erik, he thanked him before he opened his house door and went inside. He wished him a simple “good bye,” before closing the door.
Erik thought Charles as an interesting person. A bit of a brat, not that he minded, but he had other noble qualities which he admired. He could not wait for future dates, that’s for sure. And lucky for him, Charles’ mother just so happens to give him his number. He sent Charles a quick text while he walked to his car.
And to answer your question, I’d say… you found me anything but disappointing ;-) -E
