43 NIGHT OUT
"How are you?" Li Jun asked after entering her apartment at Tian Long's residence.
Wang Xiu was busy choosing what to wear for tonight with Honey. After being fired from work, she immediately called her best friend to have a drink together.
"Where are you going?" Li Jun asked again when his first question was ignored by her cousin.
"I'm going out with Honey." Wang Xiu answered wearing an ebony string-strapped satin dress cut short at her thighs that showed her legs.
Wang Xiu twirled around quickly to look at her clothes in the mirror. She fixed the straps on her dress and pulled her skirt down with her hands from her buttocks to her thigh.
Li Jun watched as Wang Xiu made herself look beautiful in front of the reflective glass. He quickly closed his eyes to stop himself from lusting more at the sight of the woman's charm. Swallowing hard and clearing his throat before he could talk again.
"Do you need a chaperone?" Liu Jun offered with a wide grin on his face.
Wang Xiu laughed loudly at the man's mockery of her going out drinking. She knew that Li Jun thought she and Honey would get themselves "wasted" after her sudden unemployment.
"We're going to a "ladies bar". Do you want to come with us?" Wang Xiu curved her lips mischievously.
"No!!!" Li Jun shrugged his head hard.
"I thought so…" Wang Xiu giggled and began to put her shiny red lipstick on her rims.
She grabbed her black long coat from the couch and stepped towards the door to quickly say, "Bye!!!"
"Xiu???" Li Jun called the woman who immediately halted and swerved her body around.
He hastily walked towards Wang Xiu and wrapped his arms tight around the woman's torso. Sensing his cousin's body became rigid in his embrace, he gently caressed Wang Xiu's head with his hand.
"I'm here if you need someone to talk to," Li Jun proposed with his soft deep voice.
Wang Xiu felt her heart melt from the warm gesture. Li Jun's familiar embrace has always been her source of comfort. She stopped herself from wanting to hear his beating heart that used to throb intensely for her.
'He has a girlfriend now,' Wang Xiu reminded herself.
She questioned herself why she has to admit she has feelings for Li Jun. It was easier when she denied it. When she repeatedly set her mind to say they were "cousins" whenever they got too close to each other.
Before there was no hope.
But now all her heart says...
It's too late.
Wang Xiu shoved Li Jun's chest away from her body and turned away to face the door.
"I'm okay," She coldly answered, "Lock the door when you leave.
Wang Xiu left Li Jun with a heavy heart. She promised Jiang Ru not to do anything to divert the man's attention to herself and if she has to be colder than before, she needs to do it.
Besides, she has more problems now. She needs to find a new job fast.
π - π - π
The night street is filled with different bars with different accommodations. There were gentleman's bars and ladies' bars standing side by side with each other. But unlike the pub with women dancing on poles with loud signs at the front, the club for women is more discreet hiding in basements or behind forefront dancing bars.
"Is this supposed to be your bachelorette party???" Honey asked loudly in Wang Xiu's ears.
The music from the club was louder as Wang Xiu and Honey sat at the front of the center stage where a pole was hoisted to make the men dance provocatively in front of the customers.
"No!!!" Wang Xiu replied, giggling while staring at a muscular man wearing tight black underwear, "I got fired from my uncle's company."
"What???" Honey's eyes broadened from shock.
"I got fired from work." Wang Xiu repeated, putting his lips near Honey's ears.
"I heard you the first time. But DAMN SHIT!!! They fired you???" The lawyer exclaimed, not believing her best friend's shocking news.
"Yes, my grandfather and uncle did." The woman replied, nodding her head.
"Let me guess, you told them you are going to decline that asshole's engagement???" Honey asked to confirm her thoughts.
"BINGO!!!" Wang Xiu laughed and took a shot of tequila from the glass that she immediately followed with salt and lime.
"That shouldn't be a reason to get fired." The lawyer took a sip from her glass of margarita.
"I got hired because of nepotism. If I don't do what they tell me, I'll be kicked out of the job easily." Wang Xiu explained, watching a blonde man stretch his muscular body in front of her.
She quickly took a lump of cash from her purse and slipped 100 yuan on the stripper's tight undergarment while biting her lips and enticingly stared at the man's bulging muscles.
Honey rolled her eyes watching her best friend flirt on men with almost nothing to hide. She knows this is a sign of the woman's rebellion. Burning money to men her best friend knows she can easily have for free if she wants to. And she predicts, later on, they will end up with the stripper's numbers again but her best friend will end up sleeping with the waitress.
"Are you two having fun???" A man asked, greeting the two women occupying the table in front of the stage.
"Jiang Ru???" Honey's eyes widened, noticing the man standing beside their table.
"Hey!!! I thought you wouldn't make it." Wang Xiu welcomed the CEO with a cheek-to-cheek kiss.
"This is my scene, you're the one who got lost here." Jiang Ru pointed at the women with his hand. "So what are we celebrating today???"
"I got fired from work." Wang Xiu answered with a loud laugh.
"And you're happy???" Jiang Ru raised his brow at the woman's reaction.
"She's crazy!" Honey reacted and took another sip from her cocktail.
"I assume it's because you declined to marry Mr. Yang. Am I warm enough???" Jiang Ru asked, rubbing her palms together.
"You are not warm, you are hot, babe!!!" Wang Xiu drank a shot of tequila from the small glass and licked the back of her hand before sipping lime on her hand.
"Hot like Mr. Yang??? Why are you rejecting the marriage again???" Jiang Ru waved his hand at a nearby waitress and ordered his drink.
"Because of CEO Yang Fei Hong." Honey answered when Wang Xiu suddenly became silent from the question.
"What's with your future mother-in-law???" Jiang Ru continued to question the woman who slipped another yuan to a stripper who approached their table.
Wang Xiu ignored Jiang Ru but the CEO sought to know the reason.
"Xiu???" Jiang set his hand on the woman's shoulder.
"I had a "thing" with CEO Yang Fei Hong." Wang Xiu replied that it made Jiang Ru laugh.
"When??? At your uncle's birthday party???" The CEO's forehead wrinkled from nosiness.
"No. It was after you and me." Wang Xiu referred to a time almost ten years ago before the start of college.
"Did you know about it, Honey???" Jiang Ru veered to face his ex-girlfriend.
"I only learned about it when Mr. Yang shockingly showed up at our hotel room to tell Wang Xiu to "stop fucking my mom"," Honey snickered recalling the time they were visited the fellow lawyer.
"And he still asked you to marry him, knowing you slept with his mother???" Jiang Ru's orifices broadened from the unbelievable realization.
"He's angry with his mother. It's his way to get back at her," Wang Xiu clarified Sheng Zheng's unusual proposal of marriage.
"And you refused the marriage he trapped you in because you don't want him to use you in his revenge???" Jiang Ru asked, sipping on the glass of martini the waitress brought, "Did you have feelings for CEO Yang???"
Honey was surprised by the question. She didn't bother to ask her best friend about having feelings for the CEO while Jiang Ru thought about it.
Wang Xiu didn't answer and took another shot of tequila to avoid the question.
"The Wang Xiu I know wouldn't be bothered marrying Mr. Yang if it's going to help you become a CEO unless you feel something about your future mother-in-law." Jiang Ru sipped into his glass of martini after delivering his speech, "So what's your plan now?"
"Find work." Wang Xiu shortly replied, staring at the man beside her.
"Come work at my company." Jiang Ru offered with a sincere smile on his face.
