We had been walking around the manor for almost thirty minutes before finally deciding to sit down on a garden bench.
I stretched my legs out and leaned back with a sigh. "Husband, why don’t you have a golf cart here?" I complained. "We’ve been walking for half an hour already, and if we want to go back to the house, that’s another thirty minutes of walking!"
Seriously, how could he not have a golf cart in this ridiculously huge place? What if one day I tripped and sprained my ankle? Was I supposed to crawl my way ho or scream for help?
"We can ask soone to pick us up with a car," Lando said calmly. He suddenly stood up from his wheelchair and sat beside instead. "But we actually do have a few golf carts here. We just rarely use them since we have ca—"
"You have golf carts?!" I turned to him in disbelief. "Why didn’t you tell earlier? I could’ve explored every corner of this place already!"
Even though I usually took evening walks, I always stuck to the sa route. I never dared to go too far because I was too lazy to walk back, and honestly, too embarrassed to call Henry to co pick up.
"You can ask Henry to let you use the golf cart tomorrow," Lando said.
I humd in response, and for a while, we just sat there quietly together. Then, out of nowhere, Lando asked softly, "Are you still stressed?"
I chuckled. "How could anyone’s stress just vanish that quickly?" I turned to him with a small smile. "But ... I feel better now. Thanks to you."
He spoke again, "Whenever I feel stressed, I just sit in the garden and count the stars." He leaned back on the bench, tilting his head toward the sky. "It usually helps relax... maybe it’ll help you too."
I couldn’t help but smile. It was honestly kind of adorable.
Most rich people had strange ways of dealing with stress, like drowning themselves in alcohol, surrounding themselves with pretty won, or worse, getting addicted to drugs.
But Lando? He counted stars to ease his stress?
Well, I supposed that made sense. He couldn’t drink anyway, and let’s be real, what was the point of chasing won when his little brother couldn’t even rise to the occasion?
"But the stars are endless," I said with a small laugh. "How can we ever count them all?"
"That’s the point," Lando replied, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "You get so caught up counting them that you forget everything else for a while."
I smiled softly at his words, letting the mont sink in. The night air was cool, and the gentle rustling of leaves filled the silence between us.
"Alright, let’s count them together!" I said cheerfully.
We began counting out loud, laughing every now and then when we lost track. Sotis, we’d point at a cluster of stars that looked like a constellation, and he’d casually tell its na.
To my surprise, he actually knew quite a lot about horoscopes, so much that I started wondering if he had secretly taken lessons from an astrologer.
"Okay, now I really do feel better," I said, taking a deep breath and letting it out with relief. "Thank you for staying here with ."
He was probably tired after coming back from his business trip, yet here he was ... walking around the manor with and even counting damn stars.
"It’s nothing," Lando said simply. "I used to do it alone, but it turns out it feels better when we do it together."
Oh. Maybe he was stressed too. Working non-stop like that would exhaust anyone.
"I’ve actually picked my first drama series," I said, finally deciding to open up about what had been on my mind. Still, I was pretty sure Marissa had already told Lando everything about my work.
"This is my first ti auditioning for a drama, so I feel a little nervous," I lied, trying to sound casual.
Lando straightened his back slightly. "Marissa told about it earlier. She said you were going for sothing lighthearted."
I nodded. "Mhm, it’s about high school romance and the other one is office romance."
Since I’d already started lying, I figured I might as well keep going. "That’s what makes nervous. I an, I’ve never really had any romantic experience with anyone, and ... I’ve never kissed soone before."
To be honest, I really had never kissed a man before.
It wasn’t that I thought I was too proud or anything, but it’s just that, to , kissing was sothing sweet and romantic. But all the n I’d t saw kissing as nothing more than a bridge to sex.
Since I wasn’t the kind of person who’d sleep around, I never let them cross that bridge.
So, yeah, I guess it was kind of pathetic to die still a virgin ... with virgin lips, too. Oh, wait, technically, Helcia had been kissed once before.
"If my father’s kiss doesn’t count," I muttered under my breath.
It was disgusting, but that was the truth. Sotis, I was grateful it wasn’t who had gone through that, otherwise, I would’ve scrubbed my lips clean with acid.
After I said that, Lando’s expression darkened, and his tone grew heavier than before. "That kiss doesn’t count," he said firmly.
"You didn’t want it," he continued softly, "so it doesn’t matter what happened. You don’t have to carry it with you."
For a mont, I just stared at him, my heart beating a little faster. Then, after a short pause, I spoke quietly, "Then ... if I have a kiss scene, would you like to help practice it?"
The words slipped out before I could stop myself. My face instantly heated up, and I wanted to bury myself right then and there. What the hell was I even saying?
Lando blinked, clearly taken aback. For a mont, he didn’t say anything, just looked at with a mix of surprise and sothing unreadable in his eyes.
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