As they stood outside, several stark black and shining Bentleys slowly came to a halt in front of the office building. Percy walked up to greet the guests and Blair followed him closely. She had to be ready for her job.
The chauffeurs opened the doors and some blond-haired men clad in drab business suits got out of the cars. Blair recognized a couple of faces, and she was agape in astonishment. One of those men, a young one, considering the age of everyone else, was smiling at her. He was her friend, Orion. They had met in England. The older man in the lead among the guests was his father, who was a business tycoon. Though they had been out of touch, it was still a pleasant surprise seeing a familiar face.
Blair waved secretly at Orion.
What a coincidence!
Since she had to stay close to Percy to interpret for him, she barely had a chance to catch up with Orion. Orion understood.
Percy showed the guests around the office, and then they proceeded towards the conference room. Before the meeting started, there was a short break for everyone to settle down. Blair and Orion talked in a quiet place. "Hey... Orion, are you working with your father in business now?" she asked.
"Yes. My father is getting on in years. He doesn't look it, but he is not in too good a shape this year. As his only son, I think it is my duty to continue his business. To be frank, though, I don't want to become a businessman."
Blair smiled. "I understand. It's a pity that you can't surf as much as before. I know how much you love it. But hey, you can still do it in your spare time." Orion was a surfing fiend. When they had been in England, he had spent almost all of his free time at the beach.
"That's all I can hope to do, huh?" he shrugged helplessly. "What about you? How are things at work? It looks like we're going to see each other more often in the future."
"Yeah, you guys are stuck with me!" She smiled, "I'm doing fine, thanks. I'm head of the interpreters now, and well-paid. I like my job."
"That's good to hear. Hey, the meeting is about to commence. Let's go inside. By the way, I'm staying in Y City for some time. I'm thinking of buying you dinner after work."
Blair patted him on the shoulder with a smile. "This is my hometown. Of course it should be me treating you to a dinner. But to be honest, the cooperation between our two companies has just started. I think we'll both be very busy in the next few days. Keep in touch?"
"Sure."
They walked into the meeting room together, followed by Filberta and another female employee. Seeing them together, Filberta sneered. 'The guests have just arrived, and there she is, flirting with one of them already. What a slut!'
Time flies. Before Blair knew it, it was winter.
Wesley was busy every day. One of those days, Blair had her period. The pain confined her to her bed and deprived her of the desire to do basically anything at all. She merely lay there dejectedly, and browsed through social updates to kill time. Gradually, the hours passed and her stomach started growling. But she was in too much pain to get out of bed and cook.
All of a sudden, the images of every single kind of deliciously spicy food flooded into her head. She had a craving for all of them at once, but unfortunately, not a single one of them was in her apartment. It increased her broodiness. After a moment, she posted an update in Moments. "So hungry. I want to eat barbeque, roast meat, fondue, Japanese food, Western food, and what not!" Along with that, she also posted an image, where a cartoon rabbit holding a fork and a spoon was facing a plateful of yummy food.
Joslyn sent her a message soon after she saw her post. "Bless, where are you? Why did you skip your meal?"
"I'm home. I ate a little, but I'm hungry again now. It's like a black hole."
Miller commented on her post. "Where do you live? I can bring something for you."
Blair chose not to reply. She scrolled down to read others' comments. Most of the boys were joking and teasing. She didn't pay attention to any of them.
Joslyn sent her another message. "It's a pity that I'm visiting my hometown right now, otherwise I would have gone out to eat fondue with you."
"It's okay. I'll find something to eat."
"Good girl!"
"Thanks, Mommy Joslyn."
Even though she had promised Joslyn that she wouldn't starve herself, getting out of bed felt like way too much struggle to Blair, so she decided to try and forget the hunger. The only way she knew how to do that, was by going to sleep!
She put her phone down and closed her eyes. Surprisingly, she did manage to drift into sleep very soon.
The slumber seemed to last only for a couple of minutes, and then there seemed to be some knocks. She concentrated. Indeed, someone was knocking on her door.
Her bedroom door. It could only be Wesley. 'Is he back home?'
Blair sat up quickly, forgetting the pain in her belly. With her hair all messed up due to the tossing around, she opened the door.
Wesley was standing in the living room, wearing his uniform. It looked like he had run all the way up there; he was panting, and there were sweat beads on his forehead. Even his military cap, usually straight as the crow flies, was crooked from the running.
"We're gathering. Gotta go," he said in a rush.
"Huh? Wait, what?" Blair was confused. 'What does he mean? Why did he come back?'
Before she could ask anything else, Wesley turned around and pointed at the floor which was stained brown at regular intervals. "I'm sorry for the footprints. I was in too much of a hurry to change into slippers."
"Oh, don't worry about it," she replied sleepily. She didn't even know what was going on.
And just like that, the man was gone.
He hadn't even spent two whole minutes in the apartment. What had he come back for?
Blair was disappointed. She walked around slowly, turning off the lights in the living room. That was when she noticed a plastic bag on the coffee table.
Nope! She wasn't the one who had put it there. She had been in too much pain to even get up this morning!
She opened it. Inside were some take-away meal boxes, and she could also see some bamboo skewers.
The smell had already filled her nostrils before she opened the boxes, and she knew what was inside before looking at it.
It smelled like barbeque. Blair's hands shook a little from excitement. She had been craving for it so bad!
She opened one of the meal boxes. Yay! She had been right. Barbeque! It was wrapped in tinfoil and looked delicious.
So, that was it! Wesley had run home at such a late hour just to drop the barbeque for her?
And then, he had barely caught a break before leaving again in a hurry. Judging by his demeanor, he must have run all the way, on both the journeys! Thinking about this, Blair teared up.
'Boo...hoo... that silly man! He said that he didn't like me. Then why is he so good to me? It's so confusing.'
There were all kinds of veg and non-veg dishes in the boxes. She figured that Wesley didn't know what she liked to eat, so he had bought her everything.
Blair drew a tissue and wiped her eyes. Then she started to eat, and the very first bite she took made her certain that it was the best barbeque she had ever had.
There was too much for one person, though. When she was done eating, she was so full that she felt like her stomach was about to burst. And yet, there were still some leftovers, enough to easily fill the stomach of a grown man! "This was too much. I couldn't eat it all," she messaged Wesley.
She wasn't expecting a reply. But he did respond. "Get some rest. I'll finish what's left when I get home later."
'Get home? He is coming home tonight?'
Blair stood up from the sofa. She tidied the living room and got dressed before sitting back on the couch to wait for him. She wanted to be up and about when he came back.
However, before she saw Wesley, she fell asleep.
When the man got home, it was already about half past three in the morning and when he turned on the lights, he saw Blair lying on the couch, deep asleep and undisturbed by the sudden glare.
He dimmed the lights and walked over to her. "Blair," he called softly.
But she didn't respond.
He also noticed that there was only a soft blanket covering her. Wesley took off his uniform and cap and hung them on the clothes stand. Then, he scooped her up lightly in his arms, taking care not to wake her up and carried her towards her bedroom.
The familiar softness and fragrance from her body turned him on. His breathing became heavy.
Muddleheaded, Blair felt like she was moving in her sleep. Feeling slightly uncomfortable, she twisted and turned restlessly. Wesley held his breath, not to disturb her as he looked at her.
Luckily, once she became comfortable, she was quiet again.