Arm in arm, Carlos and Debbie sauntered forward to stand in front of Curtis and Colleen. Grinning like a possum eating persimmon, Carlos enthused to Colleen, "When Curtis proposed to you before us, you two showed off your affection for each other as well. We were so jealous of you back then."
At the mention of the loving memories, Colleen smiled so broadly that her round eyes were reduced to slits. Curtis smiled as well. Then they looked each other in the eye, eyes full of affection.
The couple seemed devoted to each other, something that Debbie greatly admired.
The envy on her face didn't escape Carlos' notice. He held her hand tighter. 'Debbie Nian, from this day onwards, I, Carlos Huo, will not have you admiring anyone else…' Carlos swore to himself.
Before any of them could speak, a young man's voice came from behind their backs. "Hey! Mr. Huo and Mr. Lu. I've heard a lot about you two!"
Turning around, Debbie saw two men, one in a black suit and the other in white walking toward them.
It was Jared's brother, the guy in white who had called. Debbie knew who he was, but they were not acquaintances.
The man in black looked familiar to Debbie. She remembered she had seen him once on TV, and he was a colonel or something. 'In real life, he looks much more handsome than on TV!' Debbie thought, letting her eyes settle upon the man's face.
She was really surprised to see them here. Who was this Megan Lan? Why did the four richest young men in Y City all appear at her birthday party?
When he noticed his wife was drooling over another man, Carlos' face soured. At once he pulled her into his arms and announced in a cold voice, "This is my wife, Debbie Nian."
The announcement caught Wesley off guard. Among the four of them, he was the youngest, and this being a big bash, he had probably come prepared to mingle. The first in the group of four to have a girlfriend was Curtis. His girlfriend, Colleen, was 28 years old, two years older than Wesley.
But Debbie, if his memory wasn't lying, was only a college student and was only 21 years old!
Still single at 26, Wesley felt dejected to know that someone five years younger was in a stable relationship. Reluctantly, he stepped forward to stand before Debbie and made a military salute. "Nice to meet you, Debbie. I'm Wesley Li."
Although he was in a suit, it didn't look weird when he made the salute. In fact, he looked quite charming.
The man's loud and clear voice startled Debbie, but she immediately regained her composure and returned a not-so-standard salute. "Nice to meet you, Officer Li. I'm Debbie Nian. I've practiced martial arts for years. I'd like to challenge you when you're free some day."
However, Wesley's face changed dramatically at her words.
Some years back, he remembered a girl of Debbie's age standing before him and cheerily saying, "Nice to meet you, Officer Li. I'm your new neighbor. I may have to trouble you in the future."
Somehow, he realized that Debbie resembled the girl when she smiled.
Sadly, the girl got engaged to another man, shortly after Wesley had fallen in love with her.
Debbie was not a soldier and her arm went numb for maintaining the salute posture for two minutes. However, Wesley remained staring at her, without a word.
The atmosphere became really weird, but Debbie didn't know what was wrong.
The next moment, Carlos pulled her behind his back to stop Wesley from looking at her. His face turned sullen. "She's not her!" he told Wesley.
'Why did Carlos say that?' she wondered, but she noticed Wesley came back to his senses instantly.
He withdrew his hand, stepped back and adjusted his suit. To smooth things over, Damon reached his arm to hold Wesley's shoulder and offered, "Let's get going. Megan must be looking forward to seeing us."
Feeling uncomfortable, Wesley threw Damon's hand off.
"Why would you stick close to another man when there're so many good girls around here?"
he sternly reprimanded Damon. Debbie couldn't help laughing out loud at Wesley's words.
"Is it so funny?" asked Carlos, rolling his eyes.
"They're interesting guys," she replied.
"Sucks to be me!" said Damon dejectedly. "There are so many pretty girls in the world. And he thinks I like hanging around with him?! I guess he went mad because he's stayed in the army without seeing a woman for so long. He must have thought I had a thing for him!' he said to Debbie with a teasing smile.
Damon and Jared were actually brothers who resembled each other very much in character. Meeting Damon, Debbie felt close to him as if she were seeing Jared instead. "Yes, I know you obviously would't have a thing for him. You and Jared are both playboys and have dated countless women."
Damon's mouth gaped. Smoothing his blond hair, he murmured, "Really? I'm a playboy in your eyes? Fine! A playboy is much better than a gay to me."
While Debbie and Damon were chatting joyfully, a young girl in light green ball gown and a pair of glass shoes appeared in their sights.
Holding her hemlines in her hands, she ran happily towards them, her long black hair flying in the wind. A wide grin on her face.
When she came closer, Debbie finally saw how she looked. She had beautiful blue eyes and wore sparkling red lipstick.
Silently, Debbie praised, 'Wow, she's a fairly!'
Megan came to a halt and held Damon's waist. "Uncle Damon!" she called our cheerfully.
In return, Damon stroke her hair. 'Happy birthday, Megan," he enthused, gesture for his assistant to hand her the birthday gift.
Beaming a sweet smile, Megan received the gift with appreciation. "Thanks, Uncle Damon."
"Happy 18th birthday, Megan. This is the gift from Curtis and me," Colleen said with a friendly smile, as she walked up to hand over her gift.
"Thank you, uncle Curtis." said Megan, her smile even wider. She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on his cheek.
Then she turned to Colleen and expressed her gratefulness with a hug.
Meanwhile, Debbie watched her moves in awe. 'Is this girl that close with Curtis? She even kissed him in front of Colleen!'
After greeting Wesley, Megan walked towards Carlos and clasped his palm into hers. Acting pettishly, she said, "Uncle Carlos, I absolutely love this island. Thank you for such a fabulous gift. I love you "
As Debbie slowly turned to look around the island, her eyes popped wide in shock.
'I guess this island at least costs hundreds of millions. Is Carlos that rich to afford a whole island as a birthday gift?' she mused.
In particularly good mood, Carlos, smiled to Megan and introduced Debbie to her. "Megan, I'd like you to meet Debbie Nian. You may call her Aunt Debbie. Deb, this is Megan Lan."
Pretending that she just saw Debbie, Megan exclaimed, "Uncle Carlos, Since when did you have a girlfriend? You didn't even tell me!"
"She's not my girlfriend, She's my wife. We've already gotten married," Carlos explained.
Debbie flashed a big smile and reach out her right hand. "Nice to meet you, Megan. I'm Debbie Nian. Happy birthday."
