'Love bites!' Stephanie thought in shock. She struggled to shift her sight past his neck and onto his arm, only to find hickeys there as well. Her heart sank and her face went pale.
Sensing her gaze on his body, Carlos checked his arm. He remembered that Debbie had deliberately left love bites there as payback for his torture. Without letting it bother him, he grabbed another clean towel and wiped his wet hair. Instead of explaining the situation to Stephanie, he asked her, "Do you have anything important to tell me?"
As an experienced woman who had dealt with difficult situations in business, Stephanie was able to quickly regain her composure. Taking a deep breath, she collected herself and asked casually, "Last night—"
"Stephanie," Carlos interrupted her coldly.
"I hope what happened last night won't happen again."
"I'm sorry, Carlos. I know that you are mostly busy. I shouldn't have—"
"I wasn't talking about picking you up from the club," he cut her bluntly.
Stephanie was silent for a moment. She understood what he was talking about. He was condemning her for taking advantage of her drunken state to kiss him.
Carlos wasn't planning on explaining anything about the love bites to Stephanie. He didn't have sex with Debbie last night. He had somehow managed to constrain himself in the end, but they had hugged and slept the night together. But it didn't make a difference to Carlos whether he had sex with her or not. Since he had been so intimate with another woman, he felt it wasn't proper to continue his relationship with Stephanie anymore. He declared, "I need to tell you something. We should—" 'Break up!'
Knowing the words that were about to spill out of his mouth, Stephanie cut in immediately, "It was just for fun, right? You like to play around with other women occasionally. Correct? Carlos, I understand. You don't have to explain yourself to me. We haven't gotten married yet, so I don't mind."
Carlos frowned. He was a little annoyed that she thought he was that kind of a man. "No, it wasn't—" 'Just for fun.'
"Carlos, you haven't had your breakfast yet. I'll go check if it's ready." She hurriedly left his bedroom, without giving him a chance to continue the topic.
After closing the bedroom door behind her, Stephanie supported herself against the wall in the corridor, gasping for air. She clenched her fists in anger. 'Who on earth is that woman? Who the hell left those love bites on him?' she thought furiously.
By the time Carlos got dressed and came to the dining room, the housemaid had already prepared the breakfast and laid it out on the table. Stephanie was not in the living room, or in the dining room. As he sat at the table, he asked the maid, "Where's Stephanie?"
The maid replied politely, "Miss Li is still in her bedroom. She said she would have her breakfast later."
Carlos nodded and silently ate his breakfast. When he was done eating, Stephanie had still not come down for breakfast.
He gracefully wiped his mouth with a tissue and headed to her bedroom. He knocked on the door once.
He heard a ruffling noise and then Stephanie opened the door, her face weary and gloomy. She was still in her pajamas. Seeing Carlos at the door, she forced a smile and asked, "Carlos, what's up?" Unintentionally, her eyes were drawn to the love bites on his neck again. Jealousy flooded her heart.
"Go eat your breakfast. I have to go to work. I'll have the driver take you to your company," Carlos said.
"Okay, thank you."
Without taking a second glance at her, he turned around, grabbed his coat and left the apartment.
After getting into his car, Carlos looked up at the window on the seventh floor of the apartment building. A small smile appeared on the corners of his lips.
Frankie Yang, Carlos' new assistant, got into the driver's seat and slowly drove the car into the morning traffic. From behind him, Carlos said, "Order a takeout lunch from the fifth floor of Alioth Building and deliver it to Room 701, Building No. 2 in Champs Bay Apartments. And get a soup which is good for hangover."
After a short pause, Carlos added, "Order a few more dishes."
Frankie Yang furrowed his brows. 'Room 701? Isn't his apartment on the sixth floor?' But then, a woman's image popped up in his mind. Frankie Yang instantly nodded. "Yes, Mr. Huo."
As soon as Carlos had left the apartment, Stephanie dialed James' number. When the call connected, she said in a seemingly calm voice, "Uncle James, it looks like Carlos is seeing some other woman."
"What?! Who?" James asked, taken aback. He knew that Carlos wasn't the type to play around with women.
"I don't know who it is. But…" she choked on her words as she thought about their conversation in the morning. "Carlos was going to break up with me. But I didn't give him the chance to say it out." At that moment, it dawned on her that Carlos wasn't sexually impotent as she had thought. It was just that he wasn't interested in her at all. The realization shattered her heart.
James knitted his brows. "I see. I'll have someone look into it. Just pretend nothing has happened. I will take care of that woman, whoever she is."
"Okay, Uncle James. But…I do have a guess as to who she might be," she said hesitantly. She'd had her doubts for a while now and she said it out loud, "Could it be his ex-wife? Debbie Nian?"
"Debbie Nian?!" James exclaimed, jumping to his feet. The sudden mention of her name startled him to his core. Through the receiver, Stephanie could sense the shock in his voice.
"Yes, it could be," she confirmed again.
"That woman…She…she's back in Y City?" James was flustered.
Again, Stephanie could sense his voice trembling, but she didn't think too much into it. "Yes."
"Did she meet Carlos?"
"Yes."
James felt his heart pounding so fast, and his blood pressure was shooting up. After a long pause, he calmed down and told Stephanie, "Leave this to me. I'll have you and Carlos married as soon as possible."
"Thank you, Uncle James."
After hanging up on her, James rummaged through his desk for his hypotensor, a drug to lower his blood pressure. He finally felt better after taking two pills.
'That bitch! She promised not to come back to Y City anymore. And she had the guts to come crawling back in secret. She even met Carlos! Dammit!' he cursed furiously, banging his hand on the desk.
In the afternoon, Debbie was woken up by the doorbell once again. Scratching her hair annoyingly, she went to the door and shouted in an angry voice, "Who is it?"
"Good afternoon, Miss Nian. I'm here to deliver lunch to you."
'I didn't order lunch, ' Debbie thought. 'Or did I?' She had no idea what was going on. Sighing helplessly, she opened the door. She recognized the man outside, though she wasn't very familiar with him. He was Carlos' new assistant. Suppressing her annoyance, she greeted, "Hello."
Frankie Yang smiled and handed the takeout boxes to Debbie. "Miss Nian, Mr. Huo asked me to buy you this lunch. There is a bowl of soup in there to sober you up from the hangover. Please have it before it gets cool."
"Oh! Um, thank you so much." This was unexpected. In a daze, she received the heavy carry bag from his hands.
"You're welcome, Miss Nian. I should get going now."
Debbie smiled and nodded to him politely.
Closing the door behind her, Debbie put the carry bag on the table and took out the boxes one by one. There were six main dishes inside it, and a bowl of rice and noodles. No wonder the bag was so heavy.
She recognized the logo on the takeout boxes. It had been ordered from the fifth floor of Alioth Building.
Her stomach rumbled and her mouth watered as she breathed in the delicious smell. She rushed to the bathroom to freshen up.
While she was eating her lunch, she texted Carlos via WeChat. "Thank you for the lunch, Mr. Handsome. It's delicious."
"Hmm," he replied shortly. There were no more messages from him.
Debbie scoffed. She had expected that Carlos would be more enthusiastic towards her after what had happened last night, but he was just his usual self.
Anyway, things had been going smoothly between them. Debbie was relaxed now. So, in the following days, she shifted most of her attention to the upcoming concert.
She had flown back to Z Country once to deal with some important work. After that, she picked up Piggy from the Wen family's residence and secretly brought her to Curtis' house in Y City.
By the time Debbie was done with all her work, two weeks had passed since she had last met Carlos.
She sighed in disappointment. Not once had Carlos contacted her. She had thought that he would take the initiative to contact her, but he was still as aloof as ever.
'I can't wait for him to make a move. It has already been two weeks. I have to do something myself!' she thought.
She pulled out her phone and sent him a message. "I'll be walking the dog tonight."
Two hours later, she received Carlos' reply. It was a simple "Hmm" again.
She was used to his cold attitude, but it still hurt when he acted like he didn't care.
'Ah, forget it! I hope I can see him tonight, ' she smiled to herself.
