"No. What's up?" Ivan asked from the other end.
"Well, you have a lot of business connections. Could you help me get Carlos' phone number?" Debbie asked, embarrassed by her own request. She had asked Carlos for his number when she had met him in Y City, but he had refused to tell her.
'Unbelievable, ' Ivan thought. "Are you telling me that you don't have his number?" She had moved back to Y City to reclaim her ex-husband, yet she didn't even have his contact number.
"Um… He changed his number," she said, her voice feeble. Debbie had tried to contact him through his old number, but it was answered by a worker in ZL Group.
"Okay, I'm sending you his number."
"What?! You have his number?" Debbie was shocked. She wasn't expecting that.
"Yes. Our branch company is doing a project in co-operation with ZL Group. His phone number is on the company contract," Ivan replied, hiding from her that he had met Carlos just that night. He had never met Carlos before that night. Now that his company had become bigger, he finally had the chance to meet him face-to-face.
"Thank you, Ivan!" Debbie said, excitement clear in her tone. She was truly grateful to him.
In no time, she received a WeChat message from Ivan. It was Carlos' number.
She looked at the time. It was about ten o'clock at night. 'Is Carlos holding his soon-to-be fiancee in his arms right now?' she wondered with an ache in her heart.
It pained her to imagine him being intimate with Stephanie that way. She couldn't breathe at the thought of it. On an impulse, she dialed the number which Ivan had sent her.
The call got through very soon. "Hello?"
Her heart missed a beat when she heard his husky voice.
She smiled and glanced at her daughter, who was sleeping beside her. 'Baby, I'm gonna get your daddy back, ' she said in her mind. She touched her daughter's forehead gently and then walked out to the balcony. As she overlooked the night sky of Z Country, she said in a chirpy voice, "Hey, Mr. Handsome."
Carlos was a little taken aback. He removed the phone from his ear and looked at the number. 'So, this is that woman's number.'
He memorized it so that he wouldn't accidentally answer her call the next time.
"What do you want?" he asked coldly.
Debbie was hurt by how much he hated hearing her voice. But she cheered herself up and asked, "Are you in bed?"
"I'm busy. If you don't have anything important to—"
"Yes, I do!" she interrupted him quickly to stop him from hanging up. "I haven't been pestering you for the past few days and you haven't seen me walk the dog either. Are you curious about what I am doing now?"
"No," he replied bluntly, refusing to admit that he had indeed wondered about it.
"Oh, okay…" she said, sounding disappointed. "I came back to Z Country. I can't fall asleep. I miss you so much. What should I do?"
'She's in Z Country? No wonder I haven't seen her in a while, ' Carlos thought. "What does this have to do with me?"
"It has everything to do with you, Carlos. I really miss you. I miss the times when we were together. I miss your hugs, your kisses and—"
"Debbie Nian!" Carlos roared.
"Yes! That's my name, all right. But you'd better keep your voice down or your soon-to-be fiancee might not like it," she joked casually even though her insides hurt as she said it.
Carlos managed to suppress his anger and spat out, "She's not here—" He stopped mid-sentence. 'Why am I telling her this?' he sulked, touching the frown on his forehead. He quickly corrected himself, "I'm on a business trip."
'Hold on! What am I doing? Why am I telling her all this?' Carlos felt annoyed by how much his words were contradicting his thoughts.
A smile appeared on Debbie's face. "So, she's not with you right now? How about this? Give me your location and I'll fly to your place to keep you company. I know that you must be lonely right now."
"I'm. Not. Lonely," Carlos said very slowly. He was running out of patience with her.
"Yes, you are."
"Are you incapable of comprehending my words? I just said I'm not."
"I don't believe you, Carlos. I know about you, your cravings at night. You must be pretty lonely right now." She remembered about their nights together. They used to have sex every night, except on the days of her periods. She knew he was a man of strong sexual drive.
There was only silence on the other end.
Hearing no response from him, Debbie blushed and said in a hushed voice, "You always said that you loved sleeping by my side…" 'Oh my God! Am I seducing Carlos now?' She laid her hand on her chest, which was all but ready to explode. She continued to flirt with him.
Carlos closed his eyes tightly as she went on to describe their nights together. His mind kept telling him to hang up on the woman right away. But his body disagreed. He couldn't move his finger to cut the call.
He could do nothing but listen to her flirtatious words, painfully suppressing the burning lust she was triggering in him.
'All right, that's enough for today, ' Debbie thought, feeling hot from her own flirting. She touched her red face, unable to carry on. She changed the subject and said softly, "Carlos, although we have been apart for three years, I still love you. I have a lot of things to tell you. I haven't thought of another man in all these years. I've been waiting for you. Even when I thought you were dead, I was still waiting for you. I didn't know why I was waiting. I just did. I hoped every night that you would at least appear in my dream."
She began to sob lightly.
Carlos let out a sigh of relief. He had gotten hard from her seductive words. 'Thank God, she changed the subject, ' he thought. He would rather hear her story than her flirting.
"If you still don't believe me, I can add your WeChat account and send you some pictures of us together. Okay? Give me a chance, Carlos. Let me help you recover our beautiful memories from three years ago. Please? Mr. Handsome, please?" Debbie pleaded, breaking into tears.
Carlos remained silent. He gauged the credibility of her words. After all, his best friends had warned him to stay away from this woman.
"You are not engaged yet, right? Please put it off for a while. Just give me… Give me a month. I will help you regain your memory of me within that time. Okay?" Debbie didn't mind begging him, pleading for his time. She had to get him back somehow.
Carlos lit a cigarette. He couldn't understand his behavior tonight. He had a mountain of unfinished work, but he was wasting his time talking to this woman. Moreover, he would be engaged to Stephanie soon. It wouldn't be proper for him to keep in touch with this woman. He wondered if he had become a philandering man because of Damon's bad influence on him.
After exhaling a mouthful of smoke, he refused her ruthlessly, "No need to do that, Miss Nian. I believe I have always kept a high standard. I'm sure that I wouldn't have chosen to be with such a shameless woman like you in the past."
Debbie's heart constricted in her chest. She felt hot tears running down her cheeks. She was realizing just how much Carlos really hated her now.
But she kept pressing him without giving up. "Let me make this clear to you. You were much more brazen than me in the past. You know why I have the courage to keep pestering you now? It's because you did the same to me in the past. You taught me to never give up!" Debbie retorted. More importantly, he had treated her so well. That was why she wouldn't give up on him that easily even if she had to act shamelessly and swallow all her pride.
'I did the same to her?' Carlos knitted his brows. He couldn't even imagine himself pestering a woman. Why would he ever do that?
"You don't believe it, right? It doesn't matter. Just don't stop me from approaching you. I will surely make you love me again, Carlos." Whether he had lost his memory or not, she would make him fall for her all over again.
"Done?" he asked coldly.
"Yes," Debbie nodded helplessly. 'Ugh! This man is such a handful," she thought to herself.
"Then go to bed."
'No!' she exclaimed in her mind. She had managed to keep him talking for a while somehow. She didn't want her effort to go in vain.
However, before she could utter one more word, the call was disconnected.
Debbie sighed when she heard the beep sound on the phone.
Nonetheless, she couldn't give up. She copied his phone number into the WeChat app and found the WeChat account named CH. The profile photo was the logo of ZL Group. Debbie laughed lightly. This had to be Carlos' WeChat account. He was so easy for her to understand.
She sent him a friend request.
