"Nope," Carlos answered coldly. He was not the type to be curious about everything.
Despite his answer, Debbie still chose to continue. While jogging along with him, she said, "The easiest way to lose weight is... to give your heart to me!"
Debbie herself burst out laughing at her joke as if Carlos was ready to give her his heart and soul.
Her breathing rhythm disrupted by laughter, she began to pant.
But she still laughed some more. Maybe it was to conceal her embarrassment. By the look of it, Carlos was impassive.
Unknown to her, he was thoroughly enjoying her lively company. Her smile was a ray of sunlight, working its way through his hitherto cold heart.
He slowed down and then came to a halt, staring at her with unrelenting, lustful eyes.
Debbie stopped as well. His intense gaze made her feel awkward. She scratched the back of her head and stammered, "I...I'm going back home."
All of a sudden, he took a step forward.
Startled, Debbie instinctively stepped backward. They repeated it a few times until her back bumped into a big tree. She had to walk past the tree if she needed to avoid him.
So she turned right in an attempt to walk past the tree, but he stretched out his arm to press on the tree and blocked her way.
Left with no choice, she turned left. Then again, she was blocked by him.
'Is this a Kabe-don?' Her mind flashed back to the study at his manor, where among other books, there were also a couple of Japanese poetry works. In wistfulness, she wondered how much better they'd have done together for all the three years she was away. Gradually, her heart began to race, her cheeks flushing with love.
She raised her head to look at him. "You... I..." She was lost for words.
He lowered his head and kissed her on the lips.
An intense, passionate kiss from a man long starved of love. 'He kissed me again!' She savored the moment, feeling electrified in his warm embrace.
'Oh my God! We are in public, and there are many people passing by!' she thought to herself. "What's rush with young people nowadays?
Don't they find it improper making out in public, when they could as well go home and do all they want?" "Do you know them? They must be from around here. This is so..."
Passers-by pointed at them and discussed with revulsion.
Debbie's face was flushed both from pleasure and embarrassment. She tried to push him away, but to no avail.
"Hmm..." Debbie protested trying to say something, but her lips were sealed by his. When he finally let go, he teased in a hoarse voice, "Stop moaning."
'What?! I'm not moaning! I'm protesting!' she thought.
She then stuttered, "I...I need to go. Let me go... Please."
She was so apprehensive of their public display of affection, even though she loved him from the bottom of her heart.
"Let you go?" Carlos said with a raised eyebrow. Seeing her red face, he decided to tease. "How about we go home together and...? Either to my apartment or yours. Wherever you prefer."
To his surprise, Debbie's eyes lit up at his words. She said with a hopeful expression, "Really? My apartment it is then. Let's go! Now!"
Words failed Carlos. He withdrew his arms and stepped backward.
Debbie's next move caught him off-guard. Without saying goodbye, she ran past him and dashed towards the apartment building.
'Is she playing cat and mouse?' Carlos thought to himself as he watched her receding figure.
He licked the corner of his mouth, where he could still smell her scent. He hated to admit that he was turned on.
Stepping into the elevator, Debbie rubbed her red cheeks, burning with embarrassment. As the doors closed, she heaved a deep sigh of relief.
'Jeez! I was such a coward!'
Just the thought of making out with him in public gave her goose bumps. If she hadn't run away, she didn't know how far he would take things. Her heart raced, her mind running wild with imaginations. She longed for more and badly wished it had all happened in the privacy of a room. They would have set that house on fire.
'Debbie Nian, go for it! He kissed you twice. This means he has a thing for you. Go get it, girl! The chemistry is just perfect!' she told herself.
Later, Curtis sent her a message saying that he had already made a reservation on the fifth floor of the Alioth Building.
When she met Colleen, they hugged and cried a river. Those three years apart had seemed like an eternity. Neither of them could believe they'd end up reuniting, right here in Y City again. That would have been the stuff of fantasies. Realizing that they both cried, the two women burst into laughter together. Curtis shook his head helplessly as he didn't understand their emotions.
"Aunt Colleen," Debbie called out playfully. Although Debbie and Colleen hadn't hung around each other often, they were pretty close. Maybe that was because they were both sincere and they both hated Megan. Women's friendship was a mystery of its own.
Colleen rolled her eyes and retorted, "Come on! Just by name.
Else, you'll make me feel half a century older." They both laughed their hearts out at her quip.
Debbie held her arm and said, "Curtis is my uncle, so you are my aunt. But if you don't like it, I can still call you 'Colleen' like before and call him 'Uncle.' I don't think he will mind me calling him that. Will you, Uncle Curtis?"
Curtis sighed with profound resignation. "No, I don't mind you calling me 'Uncle.' But you have to call her 'Aunt' as well. Otherwise, people will mistake her for my niece as well."
Seeing sense in what he said, Debbie protested, "That's not gonna happen!"
With a playful touch, Colleen pinched his arm, to which he smiled pleasantly.
Watching the peaceful couple, Debbie envied their love and commitment to each other.
After so many years, Colleen and Curtis were still head over heels in love. Debbie had never seen them have a disagreement.
In contrast, she and Carlos had disagreed almost every day.
Shaking off her thoughts, Debbie let go of Colleen and walked up to Curtis, who was holding a little boy. "Who is this handsome boy?" she asked. She lightly pinched his chubby face and smiled broadly.
It was the first time that she had seen her little cousin, who was even younger than her daughter. She reached into her clutch-bag and took out a chocolate bar for him.
The boy happily grabbed the bar and put it into his mouth, trying to bite, with the wrapping paper still on.
Debbie scooped him into her arms, unwrapped the bar for him and played with him, enjoying his excited gurgling sounds.
"Sweetie, what's your name?" she asked.
"He is Justus Lu," Colleen answered.
"Justus. Sounds good." Curtis held the chair for Debbie as she sat down with the boy in her arms.