Craving

Finally, they were en route home, for another eighteen hours' flight. Yu Bing found himself stealing a few peeks at the sleepyhead. After the engagement party, they had spent two days in the island and Yu Bing had invited Myra to be his dinner date in his attempt to secure a few business deals with potential clients. However, one business deal had went horribly wrong as they discovered the reason the potential client had wanted to sign the contract was because he had ulterior motives on Myra instead. Jealousy got the better of him.

He realised that it was possible that because Myra had been the first woman to have a sexual relationship with him, he perceived it arduous to accept that another person was after her attention, much less make advances on her.

After he called off the deal on the spot with Mr. Susanto, he had punched the wall in his frustration. She had pulled him away from putting a hole in the wall reminding him he was a black belt holder in karate, and that he should try to contain himself as they were in public and this would tarnish the image of his father's group. He had then clumsily commented, "Is that why you smiled at him? Because he's better than me?"

She tried to explain to him that it was not true and that she was only being courteous, but he was so mad that he had pinned her tightly to the wall and force-kissed her in his desperation. He felt bad that he had vented his frustration on her this way, and she had been in shock from the sudden and coercive kiss, that she didn't want to talk for some time. He had then apologised, and promised to take her on a proper date once they got back to their city, as an apology.

She had told him, "I'll think about it." And after that, she didn't come out from her suite for awhile, so he sent her a text message.

"Myra, are you there?"

"Sleeping."

"Who is this?"

"Situ Shao."

Since their relationship was mainly a secret between the two of them, he ceased to send any more text messages. Unknown to him, she was just pretending to reply with Shao's false identity, and she was adamant that she wasn't going to heed him any attention until she was ready to talk to him again.

They had ended up being paired again in business class, since it was a packed flight, and even the wealthy travellers in business class were plentiful. Once she was on the plane, she threw on her blanket and put on a sleeping mask to ignore him. Although only a day had lapsed since he had not seen her, he was already yearning for his lips to be on hers again. Even if their relationship had been faux, their kisses were real and he pined to kiss her again.

He questioned how it was possible that so many hours had passed since they had boarded the plane. At the stopover, she promptly left for clothes shopping, but returned to the VIP lounge at the transit zone of the airport to see him awaiting her, unexpectedly with a surprise for her.

"I'm sorry for being a jerk the other day," he said. "This is a peace offering from Yu Bing to Myra, in attempts for me to make amends with you. Myra, will you forgive me?"

She looked calmly at the autumn bouquet before her and pouted, "If it happens again, I'm really going to ignore you for months."

He kissed her suddenly on the lips.

"Let's take a few selfies, shall we?"

Yu Bing's mind was only filled with images of her right now, and how much he wanted to hold her tight in his arms and forget who he was, who she was, and most particularly the fact that they had seen each others since they were children. His unreciprocated feelings for Lu Lu, seemed to be buried and forgotten in the past few days that they had spent together, and this was something he couldn't fathom. How could feelings accrued for five years compete with almost a week with her? Furthermore, he had already been perturbed by the memory of them sharing two kisses between them three months ago. He couldn't grasp the meaning behind all this, and if he was just being fickle with his own feelings.

5 days later

Myra was occupied looking at the assignments and notes she had to catch up with while she had been on vacation. Too much for her little brain, she thought, and glanced at her phone.

Hadn't he said he would take her out on a proper date when he got back?? She stared at his phone contact, while checking that he had not asked her out on a date.

"When will you call?" she asked the phone screen, dazed. In her tiredness the phone slipped and somehow, she accidentally clicked the dial button next to his number. She gasped and frantically tried to end the call, but he was faster, and answered on the second ring.

"I was going to call you," his cold and sexual voice said over the phone.

"Uh... Yeah..." she murmured.

"Are you free for a movie?" he asked abruptly. Yu Bing wasn't very fond of talking on the phone, especially when he couldn't see Myra's pretty face or any of her facial expressions, to conclude whether she was happy or sad. But of course, Myra was a very expressive person, and she literally danced in her room, while exclaiming, "Yes, I will! I thought you would never ask."

"Is it too sudden if I pick you up in an hour?" he continued. "My meeting just ended early, and I don't have any more work on my hands for today, so I can go over to fetch you. Where are you?"

"Oh, I'm at home. I didn't have classes today. I'll get ready."

"I'll head over now, Myra."

As Yu Bing left his office early for the first time in his adult working life, all the staffs of his office were frozen by this action of his. "The Workaholic Son is going off work early?" they gasped.One older lady had the answer. "He's definitely dating, and in love."

"It's not Lu Lu. She's gone."

They all laughed in unison. Then, one nerdy boy declared, "Yippee, no OT today."

"You're all dressed up," he teased as he halted his car in her front lawn and got down from the sports car to open the door for her. She was wearing a casual top and jeans similar to his. He was really glad that she wasn't wearing anything that exposed too much skin, since he would be jealous over the male attention she would receive.

She nodded with a smile. In fact, it was because she had been in a rush to get her clothes ironed out by the maid, and she couldn't decide which dress to wear. Since it was just a movie at the cinema, she chose to put on something quick and easy. Also, it would take her hours to gussy up, so going casual was the way to go. From Yu Bing's response, she was positive he liked the way she was dressed. Perhaps, it complemented him, since he was dressed in casual wear too.

"Did you change out of your executive wear?"

"Oh, there was a special event at the office today. We're all asked to go casual. I just had an internal meeting with the heads of departments in the office, so it's fine to dress this way today."

"I see. I suppose I have a lot to learn, since I'm still in university."

He just smiled, and closed the door after she entered his car. At least she wouldn't be getting the bottom of her long dresses wedged in his car door. He had to undergo her wrath when it happened to her once in Bali with a rental car.