by Alexia Praks
As per usual, the sisters were loud in the car, their conversations varying from free-range chicken to global warming to hot dude in silver Ferrari to poverty in Third World countries.
“I swear if those bastard millionaires and billionaires, like that silver Ferrari dude, only had the heart to help out a little more, those poor, starving children wouldn’t have to suffer through all the shit they have to go through,” Dara said with a passion.
“What about you, Alex?” Soriya asked. “You and your husband make donations and all that stuff, right?”
Alex, who was sitting in the front beside Chan, the driver, nodded. “Yes.”
Both Dara and Soriya, who were in the backseat, leaned forward with big, proud smiles on their faces.
“Really?” Dara asked, her eyes large. “You’re awesome.”
Alex laughed. “I’ll be honest, though. I don’t do much. Jayden and I just donate about a couple million to charity each year.”
Soriya nearly choked on her breath. “A couple million?”
Alex nodded with a smile.
“Alex,” Dara shrieked loudly, “that’s a shit load of money.”
“But it’s still not enough, is it?” Chan stated, her eyes on the road. “One has to wonder sometimes where all that money goes.”
Alex nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Ruby and her fiancé Alec run a charity, you know?”
Chan shook her head.
“Whoa!” Soriya made the sound, her eyes large with admiration. “Ruby and Alec are awesome, too.”
Chan laughed. When Soriya said the word awesome, it reminded her of cute, adorable Lilly. Then the moment she remembered Lilly, the image of her hunky father came to mind. Her smile disappeared immediately, as she was once again reminded of the small family in the café that Sunday a week ago. Lilly, her father, and the woman she assumed was Lilly’s mother made a perfect picture of a fun, loving family. The image only made her heart ache with regret once again.
That Sunday night, she lay there in bed, thinking about him. She knew their timing was off. She knew she was too late meeting him, by seven years or more in fact. Seven years ago, she’d been eighteen, the period when her life had been miserable, when everything was dark and every breathing moment was a chore, her thoughts encompassed with fear and loneliness.
She knew for a fact she and Lilly’s dad weren’t meant to be. It was a fact, too, that he was much older than her. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties and was riding the joy and success of his life. While she… she was struggling with a whole lot of stuff—emotionally, mentally, and financially. They were definitely at a completely different spectrum in life.
“Chan? What’s wrong?” Alex’s voice reached her ears.
She jolted back to reality. “Huh?” She glanced at her friend. “What? What did you say?”
Alex frowned, more than a little concerned. Chan seems to be spacing out quite a bit, she thought.
“The lights changed,” she said, pointing to the traffic lights before them.
Chan jumped. “Shit! Forgot.” She pressed her foot on the accelerator and then drove on.
In the backseat, both Dara and Soriya looked at each other, suspicious.
“She’s been like that ever since that day,” Soriya whispered to Alex.
The two sisters had resorted to titling Chandra’s Sunday lunch date with Jeremy to “that day” simply because they knew the date hadn’t gone well. This conclusion was, of course, surmised by the fact that Chan had looked depressed and disappointed when she returned home. The older sister even refused to talk to them about the date.
Dara nodded. “She looked as pale and sad as a ghost when she returned that day.”
Alex wondered what this was about. “What’s going on?”
The siblings flicked their gazes to Chan, worried their comments might have hurt their beloved sister in some way. When they saw her staring off to the road and her face expressionless, they sighed in relief.
Dara said, “We’ll tell you later.”
Alex saw the serious looks on the sisters’ faces and nodded in agreement.
A half an hour later, they found a spot in the underground parking lot of The Harrington Hotel and Resort.
“You didn’t tell me you were staying here,” Soriya said loudly as they all got out of the car.
“Sorry, I forgot,” Alex replied. “I didn’t think it was important.”
Dara gushed with delight. “It’s The Harrington, one of the top hotel chains in the world. The family is literally full of billionaire elites. Like literally celebrities in the business world.”
Soriya nodded furiously in agreement. “Like top dogs in the hotel chain business. Isn’t your company doing projects for them, Dara?”
Dara nodded enthusiastically. “Yep. We just signed a contract with them yesterday. We’re designing and decorating the interiors of their new hotel.”
“A new hotel? You mean where we used to live in our old house on Bay View Avenue?” Soriya asked, eyes wide with surprise.
Dara shrugged. “I don’t know the full details yet.”
“Huh! Wouldn’t it be funny if it’s where we used to live?” she said, laughing.
Dara turned to Alex. “So, Alex, did you know I’m a designer and decorator now?”
Soriya beamed. “Just give her a call if you need work with stuff like that, eh?”
“You two stop harassing Alex,” Chan said as she locked the door. She shook her head at her sisters. Really, they were always like two excited pups trying to get attention. At home, they always bombarded her with their questions, hypotheses, suggestions, complaints, and whatnot. It was fun yet quite exhausting as well to be on the receiving end.
Soriya hugged her bag, containing all her essentials for tonight’s dressing, and giggled. Of course, she wasn’t likely to listen to her sister’s warning. It was just her personality to be friendly and outgoing and ask people lots of questions.
“Alex? Did you know we sold our house to the Harrington Group?” She eyed Chan, a sneaky smile about her lips.
As they headed toward the lift on the other side of the parking lot, Alex shook her head. “No, I didn’t know.”
Soriya nodded enthusiastically and continued. “A guy named Jeremy White works for the Harrington Group. He’s a hunk. He and Chan went—”
Dara jabbed her younger sister in the ribs with her elbow. She gave Soriya a look that told her to drop the topic. Soriya understood and sought to rectify her mistake immediately, her eyes large with worry on their eldest sister now.
“Ahh… Yeah… They have heaps of hunky dudes working for them, right? I mean, not just this Jeremy White, who I think is a jerk. Ha-ha-ha…” She even scratched her head in mortification.
Dara looked heavenward and just wanted to murder her sister for messing up big time. She stole a glance at Chan to make sure the sister wasn’t affected by the name Jeremy White that was injudiciously mentioned by Soriya.
They were in the elevator now, and Chan said, mystified, “You guys think Jeremy is a jerk?” Her face was flushed, and the younger sisters grew even more worried.
Oh my gosh! They’d really done it now. They had really upset Chan big time. Shit! The whole house was going to be walking on eggshells for at least a month now. Dead. Silent. Depressed. House.
“Well,” Dara said, “he is, isn’t he?”
Chan blinked. “Well…”
Alex glanced from one sister to the other, very mystified indeed at what was going on here, and she really wanted to find out.
Dara and Soriya were watching their sister intensely, worried now more than ever about their sister’s sensitive constitution.
“I think,” Chan said as the lift started moving upward, “that he’s all right. He’s a pretty nice guy. I mean, he paid for the meal, and he was funny.”
“Huh!” both Dara and Soriya said in unison, their faces expressing shocked surprise.
Chan jumped at her sisters’ loud gasp, frowning in confusion. �
�Are you guys okay?”
Soriya looked at Dara, and then both started laughing uncomfortably.
“We’re fine,” Soriya said under her breath.
“So your date with Jeremy was okay?” Dara went straight to the point.
It had nearly killed them for well over a week now, wanting to ask Chan straight out how the date had gone, but they were too anxious to do it, fearing they’d upset their beloved sister.
The two sisters were tense as they waited for Chan to clear the air for them.
“Yeah, it was a nice date,” Chan said.
At this point, Soriya gave up and glared at her sister for making them so worried. “Then why the hell did you look like shit when you came back?”
Chan blinked. “Did I look like shit that day?”
Dara nodded. “Yes, dear sister, you did. We thought Jeremy did something horrible to you. We were so worried and wanted to ask for ages.”
Chan managed to blush, embarrassed all of a sudden. “Sorry, guys. It was something else that came up.”
The door dinged open on the thirty-ninth floor, the top presidential suite, when Alex had had enough at being left out in the cold. She really wanted to find out what the sisters were talking about.
“All right, out with it, you guys,” she said.
The girls filed out into the corridor as Soriya offered to explain. “Chan went out with this hunky, funny rich dude, who is so not a jerk, named Jeremy White, who works for the Harrington Group. You know, the one who bought our house?”
Alex nodded. “Ah, I see. And the date went great? Yeah?”
“I said it was nice,” Chan said as they all headed to the door on the other side.
“Is that all?” Alex asked, laughing. “Just nice?”
“It’s Chan,” Dara said, her eyes looking heavenward. “Everything is just nice to her, even if it’s totally awesome.”
Chan laughed at that comment.
* * * * *
CHAPTER 16
