The date 3

"Hello grandma, yes, I'm fine. How are you doing?" Xinyi asked, wondering why the elderly woman was calling her so incessantly.

This usually happened when she wanted to demand something outrageous and Xinyi had no idea if she could fulfill her grandmother's wish if it equally turned out to be another request.

In the brightly illuminated office, the young lady's voice was smooth and soft as she put her work aside and leaned back into her seat, twirling on the swivel chair.

Her grandmother was a beautiful elderly lady who rarely interfered in the lives of her children or even grandchildren. She loved watching things happen from the sidelines because she wanted to see what they could all do on their own.

From a young age, she had married her husband though she didn't love him at first because he wasn't the person she'd been in-love with at the time. Madam Liu, whose maiden name was Lana Pao had gotten married to Jason Liu through an arranged marriage but after coming to know Jason, she'd eventually fallen in-love with him because he accepted all her tantrums and had been a very calm and reserved person that gained her approval.

At the time, Lana Pao had been the daughter of a very poor family who fell in love with her neighborhood best friend. Her parents were so poor that she couldn't even afford to go to college. She knew her mom had a very rich customer named madam Liu who usually purchased local medicinal herbs from her but Lana didn't think much of it and only lived in her own small world.

Then one day, Lana's father fell sick and her mom, Mrs Pao asked the Liu family for help. Mrs Liu's son, the handsome and reserved Jason Liu had insisted that he would agree to help them but the condition was that he wanted the pretty Lana Pao to marry him. He'd noticed her when he once dropped his mom at their store and had immediately fallen in-love with her beauty and charm.

Lana hadn't been told that it was Jason that wanted her as his wife.

She only knew her father was sick and in order to help him get treatment and also start a big business that could keep them financially stable, the Liu family would marry her to their nerdy son.

She'd cried for days and even threatened to hurt herself if her parents stood their ground but her mother's decision was final so that was how Lana found herself in the Liu family as a young bride.

She had hated Jason Liu and never even cooked for him, spoke to him or let him touch- talkless of kissing her. The amusing thing in all this was that Jason never once complained or treated her badly for how she behaved towards him. He let her do whatever she wanted.

He even indulged her by doing her bid around the house.

Unknown to Lana, she was beginning to like the reserved Jason as compared to her own ex boyfriend Matthew who was loud and obnoxious. Also, her ex boyfriend Matthew was equally a very jealous and possessive lover. Matthew even discouraged her from job hunting when she told him she wanted to save for college. He believed she would leave him in the trenches when she got the opportunity to further her education and meet more intelligent, interesting people.

Matthew believed Lana should get a small job that would provide her daily bread and whatever she needed as a supplement would be provided by him. The reverse was the case for Jason Liu, who told her he would support her in whatever she wanted to do, as long as she was happy.

Slowly, Lana found herself admiring Jason as he did his thing and eventually, she looked forward to the things he would do whenever he returned from work and the small things he would say to her.

She began to anticipate their little routine where he would sometimes call her to help him pass his towel which he forgot to pick from the room before stepping into the bathroom and sometimes their fingers would even brush in the process.

Whenever this happened, she would blush and quickly turn around so he wouldn't see her face.

Jason had also noticed these changes and he was very happy his wife was warming up to him but he didn't show any signs of it because he didn't want her to catch on that she was slowly beginning to fall in love with him.

Slowly he began to do things for her, like getting her gifts whenever he was returning from work, complimenting her on her dressing or the style she put her hair in, taking her out on small dates and seeking her opinion on things related to his work even though he already knew what step to take.

When he discovered that she was book smart, he immediately gave her a position in his workplace.

Slowly they began to go to work and come back home together.

They fell into a routine where they left for work together, did things at work together and came back home before she would cook for him and even sometimes pick the carrots from his plate because he didn't like eating so much carrots and unknown to Lana, she had fallen irrevocably in-love with her husband in this period.

Then one day, Jason Liu fell sick and left home to stay in one of his other residences, far away from his family home.

He didn't come home or show up at work for two whole days.

Lana who was so worried about her husband's sudden disappearance, called his friends to let them know that she hadn't seen him for two whole days and she found out from Jason's best friend that he preferred isolating himself from the world whenever he was sick. He also gave her Jason's location.

A heartbroken Lana had rushed to the location and when she found him, she'd accused him of hurting her feelings by not letting her know his whereabouts. Jason who'd just began to recover apologized and told her he didn't want her to fall sick while treating him and that only seemed to make her even angrier as she accused him of breaking her heart and not considering her own feelings.

Then Lana had decided then and there that she would leave him and move her things back to her family house.

She'd tried to storm off angrily, shouting at him that she no longer loved him but as she opened the door to leave, Jason grabbed her arm and kissed her to shut her up, elated that he finally got her to confess her feelings towards him. He'd hurriedly told her that he loved her too and pleaded with her that he wanted them to live like a proper couple and not just work colleagues.

Lana had immediately agreed, thankful that she no longer needed to constantly think of a reason to try and hang around him or have a skin contact with her husband — which usually made her tingle all over— or discreetly steal glances at him. That afternoon, they'd consumated their marriage in his other residence and ever since, lived as a couple very much in-love.

The Liu family had since then tried to devise various devious schemes behind Jason's back just to get him to divorce her but they never succeeded because he always took her back and supported her.

This was typical in rich homes but Jason stood by his wife and always took her side, having observed her and known the kind of person she was.

He knew what his family was up to and always stood by his wife, letting them know that he would never let her go no matter what they said or did.

Now years later, even after having children and grandchildren who were old enough to get married, she was still very much in-love with her husband.