"I have an international video conference later. Didn't you say you wanted a manicure? I can ask Megan to go with you." Carlos took out his phone and started to dial.
"Carlos, can you go with me? I can wait till your meeting is over so we can have dinner together," Stephanie suggested.
"It's going to be a long meeting. I was planning to have my dinner delivered." He proceeded to call Megan anyway despite Stephanie's reluctance.
Stephanie wasn't very pleased with his tone. "It's fine if you don't want to go with me. But why are you making my decisions for me? Did you even ask what I wanted? What if I don't want a manicure anymore? What if I don't want Megan to go with me?" Women tend to be capricious. One minute they want one thing, the next, they don't. Carlos never tried to communicate with Stephanie. He just decided things for her without a care for what she really wanted.
Carlos frowned at this but the person he was calling had just answered. "Hi, Uncle Carlos," came Megan's voice.
"Megan, Stephanie's going to get a manicure. I was going to ask if you could keep her company. I'll send the driver over." Again, Carlos decided for Stephanie.
Stephanie was pissed. She picked up her purse on the sofa and left the apartment with a grim face.
"No problem. My class just ended. I'm about to go home." Megan sounded upbeat.
Carlos looked at the door closed after Stephanie. "Okay. Bye."
After hanging up, Carlos went to the study. There was indeed an international video conference tonight, but he could easily bow out of it if he wanted to.
Upstairs
Blair was playing with Harley. Debbie took out some food from the freezer and asked her, "How about one soup and four dishes? Do you think that's enough?"
"Four dishes? There are only the two of us. Two is enough." Blair wanted to help her prepare the meal, but Debbie refused.
Debbie craned her head from the kitchen, giggling, "I forgot to tell you. I have a big appetite."
"Okay then. I'm not a picky eater. I can't wait to eat!"
"Okay, four dishes and one yummy soup coming up." Debbie cooked the soup first. While it was boiling, she started to prepare the other dishes.
An hour later, dinner was ready. She carried the meal to the table in the dining room.
Blair turned the TV off and went to the bathroom to wash her hands.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Without giving it much thought, Debbie went to open the door.
When she saw the man's face, her eyes widened in shock and she shut the door quickly.
'Crap! Wesley is here!'
Blair was still in the bathroom. Wesley rang the doorbell again impatiently. Debbie wasted no time in making the emergency call—Carlos.
Carlos was in the middle of the meeting. When Debbie's call came, he turned the video off and answered it. "Old man, help!" Debbie said urgently.
Three minutes later, the two women both stood behind the door, trembling from fright. Through the cat's eye, Blair could see Wesley ringing the doorbell again and again.
Suddenly, the ringing stopped. Then the two women heard two men talking.
Debbie knew that it was Carlos.
She opened the door swiftly. True enough, there stood Wesley and Carlos.
The door was only slightly open, just enough space for one to peek out. "Oh, Wesley, there you are. What brings you here? Are you here for me?"
"Blair, come out, now!" Wesley demanded loudly, as if he were talking to a clumsy assistant.
Debbie rolled her eyes at him. 'Am I invisible? Can he not see that I'm here?'
Blair listened carefully as she hid behind the door trying to figure out what was going on. Then she discreetly snuck into Debbie's bedroom.
Wesley impatiently pushed the door open and stormed in. In the tiny, quaint living room stood only Debbie and Harley. It smelled of a freshly cooked meal.
"Wesley, I'm having dinner. Would you like to join me?" Debbie asked him.
Wesley fixed his eyes on the closed door of her bedroom. Debbie began to feel nervous so she hastily said, "Wesley, why are you looking at my bedroom? I'm single, you know. I might get the wrong idea if you keep looking at my room like that."
Carlos, who remained in the doorway, frowned at this.
Wesley ignored her and stalked towards her bedroom. Debbie pulled Carlos inside and urged, "Hurry, you're on the clock! I'll love you even more if you can handle Wesley. He's about to trespass your woman's bedroom. Are you okay with that?"
Wesley already had a hand on the doorknob and was just about to push the door open, when Carlos called, "Wesley."
Wesley looked back at him, bewildered.
"It's not polite to walk into a woman's bedroom without her permission. I guess there isn't a bathroom in Debbie's room. Blair will come out eventually. Why don't you just wait and eat for now?"
This wasn't the kind of help Debbie had been expecting. 'Did he come here to help me or Wesley?' she wondered to herself.
After shooting Debbie an icy cold look, Wesley went to the bathroom to wash his hands, and then walked into the dining room.
Debbie's jaw dropped. 'He sure has no problem making himself comfortable now.'
What surprised her even more was that Carlos did the same thing. He sat opposite Wesley. "Ladle the soup," he said to her.
'What? The dinner is for Blair and me, okay?' she thought gloomily.
But she had to do what Carlos said, because she couldn't provoke them at this point. Putting two bowls on the table and ladling the soup, she placed a bowl of soup before each of the two men.
"It's not as easy as you think to send Wesley away. You'd better ask her to come out and have dinner if you don't want her to starve," Carlos added.
'Why did I ask him for help? He's completely unreliable, '
Debbie regretfully thought to herself.
Debbie didn't want Blair to starve so she went inside her bedroom, making sure to close the door.
Blair had heard every word they said at the dinner table. When she saw Debbie, she helplessly said, "He won't leave, and I have to go outside eventually."
Debbie looked at her sympathetically. "I feel for you, sis. But you can't starve yourself. Come on, let's eat."
A few minutes later
The two women sat at the table. The four of them ate in silence. They all wore strange looks on their faces, but the atmosphere wasn't all bad.
Wesley had come here with the intention of taking Blair back. But who would've thought that the night would end like this? Him sitting with the three of them to have dinner. Debbie thought how this all happened.
Carlos had come to her rescue, but she couldn't believe that he was just sitting and having dinner. A dinner that she had cooked.
Carlos and Wesley finished their dinner before Blair and Debbie did. As if out of manners, they both put their chopsticks down and started to watch the women eat. Wesley looked at Blair and Carlos looked at Debbie.
It was strange, to say the least.
Finally, Debbie broke the silence. She looked at Carlos and said, "If you let Wesley take Blair back, you have to stay and spend the night with me. Tonight."
"Okay," Carlos agreed.