"I would like to see more of your work," she said. Iris leaned back in her chair. "Honestly I just want to talk fashion with you. I do have my friend Lori she wants to be a photographer in the fashion industry, but I want to talk to someone on a designer level."

Gabriel nodded. "I can show you more if you're really that interested. I would like to see some more of your designs as well, though. We're not far enough into the year for me to get a good sense of your style."

"That would be great!" she said with a smile. "I have a ton of sketches that I can show you. I'll bring them Monday. Over the summer break I went to New York with my father. I was inspire while I was there. It's amazing how the fashion over there.."

"Iris?" said a voice cutting her off. She turned and saw Beau standing there. Iris felt her stomach drop.

"Hey, Beau..," she said trying to stay calm. "What are you doing here?"

"I was going to meet a friend. Who's this?" he looked at Gabriel.

"This is Gabriel Agreste. He's one of my teachers. He's designing a dress for me. We were discussing it."

"I see. Do you mind if I join you two?"

"Uh.."

Beau sat down anyway. He looked at Gabriel. "Hello. I'm Beau Rey, Iris's fiance. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Gabriel stared at the man who seemed to feel he was important enough to just barge in and interrupt someone else's lunch uninvited. Sure, he was Iris's fiance, but it was still extremely rude.  Then again, Iris had decided to marry this man so he couldn't be as bad as he was letting on, right?

"It's nice to meet you too.."

Iris sat there trying to compose herself. She was mad. He just sat himself down out of jealousy. It was so obvious that he was jealous! Did he not trust her? She had every right to befriend someone of the opposite gender.

"So what classes do you teach?" Beau asked Gabriel.

Iris shot Beau a glare. He ignored it.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes.  Was he imagining the frustration in Iris's body language?  Probably not (he had a knack for reading people), but shouldn't she be happy to see her future husband even if he was being rude?  He mentally shook his head and reminded himself that it was none of his business.

"I mainly teach design class, but I've also had a class or two in garment construction and keeping current with fashion trends," he answered. "What do you do?"

"I'm currently study medicine," he replied boastfully. "I want to be a doctor." Their waiter than came by due to noticing Beau's presence. He took Beau's order and left.

Iris sipped her class of wine.

"So how old are you?" Beau asked. Iris stepped on his foot and he held back a noise. He looked at her annoyed. "What was that for?"

"For being rude," she said. 

"For being curious?"

"You don't ask people their age," she snapped. "Especially if they're a stranger."  

"Whatever," he said and rolled his eyes.

What an arrogant, self-important asshole...  Gabriel had to take a sip of his drink to mull over his response rather than retaliating. Beau was posturing.  Jealous?  Why?  It's not like he was trying to date Iris or anything.  This was just a friendly lunch.  Also, trying to control how she spent her time was not right.

"If you want to be a doctor, you might want to work on interacting with people. You seem a bit lacking," Gabriel said before taking another sip of his drink.

Iris snorted. Beau shot her glare, but she didn't care. He was being rude and Gabriel had a right to call him out.

"Excuse me?" he said and looked offended. "Clearly I have good social skills. I have a girlfriend. We've been together since high school."

"Beau," said Iris annoyed. "He's right. You're being rude."

"I am not."

"Yes you are. Now go."

"What?" He turned to look at her.

"I said go. I don't want you here. You invited yourself and being rude to my friend." She waved her hand as if she was shooing him away.

Beau looked mad and stood up. "Fine. We'll talk about this later." He then stormed off.

Iris sighed in relief. She turned to Gabriel. "Sorry about that.." She looked embarrassed about the whole thing. "He's usually a nice person..." She started to play with her hair.

Gabriel paused a long moment, trying to decide what to say. To him, boy seemed like an insecure, controlling boyfriend who could just as easily develop into a verbally abusive spouse if given the chance.  But that was just a first impression and probably not true.  Gabriel was sure Iris had better taste than that.

He shrugged. "You shouldn't apologize for the actions of someone else. Does he always act like that when you're around other men?"

She shook her head. "No." Their food finally arrived and Iris explained to their waiter that Beau left and she would pay for the food. He just took Beau's food back to the kitchen. "I don't know why he was acting jealous. Maybe because we're engaged now.." Iris felt distressed now. She had a feeling their talk will turn into a fight.

Gabriel took a bite of his food as he mulled this over. "Engaged or not, he seems to be overstepping his bounds. You should probably reiterate that he has no right to control who you hang out with during that talk he seems intent on having." 

He took a quick drink.  Why was he getting involved in this?  It was none of his business whatever dynamic Iris and her fiance had.

"You think so?" Iris said in panic. "I'm not good at confronting people. I feel like this is going to turn into a major fight.." she played with her food by using her fork.

"If he pushes it to a major fight, then he's a self-entitled jerk who thinks he's in charge of what you do with your life.  You can't let him get to a point where he knows he can win just because you hate conflict. It would be a very unhappy marriage for you."

Wow, he really shouldn't be getting involved. That advice was likely to lead to a break up, which was bad if it hurt Iris. Still, she should be aware that conflict needed to happen to be sure she was treated fairly.

Iris stopped playing with her food and stared at him. His words were harsh, but he had a point. She needed to keep her ground during her talk with Beau. She couldn't be a push over. She gave him a small smile. "Thank you." she paused. "Does this mean we're friends?" He was giving her blunt advice after all. Generally people act blunt around their friends.