In the fifteen or so minutes that Xian had been gone, every other people in the room had already ordered their food and were now in the middle of enjoying their meals. Most chatted with their neighbors as they ate, and there was a cheerful buzz in the air from the sound of many voices mixed with the clinking of cutlery.
Some who noticed Xian's return greeted him as he passed behind them, then they looked over his shoulder at the other guy who also just came back in.
Xian had to spend time giving return greetings to or smiling at the ones who met his eyes as he passed, so it wasn't until he was rounding the corner towards his seat that he could catch Lance's gaze.
As expected, the man wasn't too happy.
It's not that he was angry that Xian and Marion came in together—likely after spendi
