"No way. We're not a good match. Emtt is a weird guy when he's not working. What's more, I enjoy being single. I don't need a man. It's my parents. They want to find a nice guy," Kasie said on the other end.
Debbie pursed her lips and defended Emtt, "So why did you accept the expensive handbag he bought?"
"For the selfies. Those are worth more than the price of a handbag. We took so cute pics to convince his parents we're dating."
Debbie sighed helplessly. "Fine, as long as you guys are okay with it."
"Yeah. Oh! Can you guess who we bumped into at Shining International Plaza?"
"Who?"
"Hayden. By the way, why haven't you told him who your real husband is? He thought you were married to Emtt."
Debbie knew Hayden had mistaken Emtt for her husband. Yet she wasn't interested in explaining anything to him, and he likely wouldn't even believe it. "I don't need to explain anything to him. Anyway, it's not like we're an item," Debbie replied firmly.
"Sounds about right. I'm looking forward to the day Portia finds out you're Mrs. Huo. I can see the look on her face. Aha...ha..." Kasie leaned against the sofa, bursting into wild laughter.
Right then, the door of the empty VIP room was pushed open. A group of businessn walked in as a man said politely, "Emtt, this is the room we reserved..."
The group of neatly dressed businessn were shocked to see a woman lying casually on the sofa. When she spotted them, Kasie hastily stood up from the sofa and tidied her clothes.
Emtt asked curiously, "Kasie? Why are you here?"
Kasie swung her phone in front of him. "Too noisy out there, so I wanted a quiet spot to talk on the phone. I'm leaving now," she explained briefly.
Emtt nodded and moved aside to let her out. But the next second, he rembered sothing and stopped in her tracks. After pulling her out of the room, he said, "Hey, my dad invited you to have a al at my house."
Kasie widened her eyes in shock. "What did you say? A al with your parents?"
He nodded casually, confirming her words. "Yeah. I have no choice. Relax, this is a paid gig. When you have so free ti, I can buy you a handbag, costics, whatever you want."
'What?' Kasie felt weird. All sorts of thoughts were going through her head right now, none of them good. He was paying her to go out with him? Wouldn't that be like a prostitute? If the comparison was valid, then did that make her a whore? And what did that do to her image? What if soone found out? And was that all she was to him? A paid escort? He seed friendly enough, but his offer of "a paid gig" just set her on edge.
As Debbie was still on the phone, she could hear Emtt's voice coming from the other end, so she spoke loudly to get Kasie's attention. "Hello, Kasie? Kasie? Put Emtt on the phone. I need to talk to him."
When Emtt took the phone from Kasie's hand, he noticed that the caller ID was "Tomboy" and that they had already been on the phone for 18 minutes. Realizing this, he grinned broadly and said playfully, "Hi, Mrs. Huo. Emtt here. Miss yet?"
Kasie rolled her eyes at him. "Oh please. What would Mr. Huo think if he heard you?"
Debbie had wanted to get on his case too. Now, hearing Kasie's remark, she couldn't help but burst into laughter. She fought the urge and stopped laughing. She needed to know. "So, what do you think of her?"
He thought carefully. This was her best friend Kasie, after all. "My parents are happy with her after seeing the photo," he answered in an official tone.
Debbie chuckled. "Very polite. But what about turning this lie into reality?"
Emtt paused, shifting his gaze to the girl casually leaning against the wall. "I'd like to give it a shot. But she loves Mr. Lewis Huo..."
His sentence was interrupted abruptly by Kasie's angry shout. "Hey, who loves Lewis Huo? You an ? Bullshit! I was done with him a long ti ago. Cut it out!"
Emtt thrust his arms forward, palms out. "Okay, okay. a culpa." Getting back on the phone, he said, "Mrs. Huo, I have a eting. I'll call Kasie later to talk about her visit to my house, okay?"
"Wow! So soon?" Debbie exclaid. She was taken aback. 'Seeing parents? Are they talking marriage?'
After returning the phone to Kasie, Emtt drew close to her and whispered in a mysterious voice, "The contract tonight is important to the company. If I can't seal the deal, half of my bonus goes bye-bye. I'll call you when I'm done."
His closeness made Kasie nervous. With a stiff smile on her face, she stuttered, "I-It's... none of my business."
He tried to get her on board by saying, "There will be a lot of new and fashionable products at the plaza after the Spring Festival. I'll buy you two things and you co to my house to have a al, okay? Just one al. That's it!"
'I get two things and I get fed...' Kasie hesitated. This was tempting because her mother had tightened her purse strings recently. 'Fine, just one al. I'm not marrying him. There's nothing to worry about.' With that thought in mind, she nodded, "Deal!"
Emtt smiled happily, showing his white teeth. Before entering the room, he patted her on her shoulder and promised, "If I get this contract, I'll buy you dinner."
Kasie wondered, 'Buy dinner? Since when did we get so close? Why would he buy things, invite to his ho and treat to a al?'
Lost in deep thought for a mont, she finally ca back to her senses, realizing that the call was still connected. "Tomboy, hear ?"
"Yeah. I heard everything. Look, Emtt's a nice guy. Think about it, okay?" Debbie persuaded.
Kasie paused. After a while, she said, "I... Let think about it."
As Debbie was chatting fervently with Kasie over the phone, a knock at the door interrupted her. It was a housemaid, informing her that Carlos' grandmother wanted to see her. The old lady was waiting for her downstairs. It seed that Debbie had been too naive. She thought that as long as she stayed in her room, nobody would ss with her.
'What does she want?' she thought. Ending the call quickly, she asked the housemaid curiously, "Did she say why she wanted to see ?"
"Sorry Mrs. Huo. But Mrs. Valerie Huo didn't tell ," the housemaid replied.
Despite her reluctance, she had no choice but to follow the housemaid downstairs. It would be impolite for her to keep an elder waiting.
In the living room, Valerie and gan sat on the sofa while a few housemaids were busy with housework.
Valerie was sulking silently. Seeing Debbie co downstairs, gan asked, "Aunt Debbie, have you seen a string of Buddhist prayer beads made of lobular red sandalwood?" The main feature of lobular red sandalwood was the wood grain which looked like stars on each bead.
'A string of Buddhist prayer beads?' Debbie frowned. "No, I haven't seen it. I've been in my room the whole ti. Why do you ask?"
gan gave Debbie a aningful glance before answering in a regretful voice, "Grandma's string of Buddhist prayer beads is gone. It was here yesterday, but we can't find it now. We've been looking for it for a while."
Debbie nodded and comforted Valerie, "Grandma, please take it easy. In my experience, the more you try to look for sothing, the less likely it is you'll find it. But if you stop worrying about it, it will show up one day, out of the blue!"
Valerie sneered and gave her a cold glance. "Did you an to say I shouldn't look for it?"
Under Valerie's cold glare, Debbie felt utterly speechless. 'Fine! Everything I say is wrong. Better zip my mouth.'
A loud yawn broke the awkward silence in the living room. Debbie turned around and saw Lewis coming downstairs.
Lewis' eyes lit up with excitent at the sight of Debbie. He picked up his pace and ran up to her. "Debbie, you're ho today?"
"Yeah." The contempt was obvious in her voice.
But Lewis didn't care a bit even if he had sensed it. Instead, he tried to butter her up. "I can show you the hottest spots in town. How about I take you out for a drive? Or do you want to go shopping? I can buy you anything you want."
'Doesn't he know I'm his cousin's wife? How can he be so blatantly obvious?' "No way!" Debbie refused bluntly.
"Now wait. Don't be so quick to turn down. You know I'm a hottie, right?" Lewis said as he ran his fingers through his hair. A confident smile appeared on his bratty face.
Reviews
All reviews (0)