"You broke it?" Cecelia could feel her chest tightening due to Erica's words. "You are a mother now. How on earth can you possibly still be so careless? Is there anything left of it?" she asked.
Erica responded, "I'm afraid there isn't any left. I accidentally spilled all of it over the floor."
Hearing this, Cecelia felt that it was such a shame. Then, she asked again, "That was Matthew's red wine, wasn't it?"
"How come you know that, Grandma?"
"Of course I know. Matthew had brought two bottles of wine for me before, and they were much more valuable than the one you just broke. He mentioned that he had a wine cellar and even asked me to choose a few bottles of wine when I had some spare time." As she told her this, Cecelia couldn't help thinking, 'Matthew is such a considerate person, and he also knows how to please me.'
"Okay," Erica mumbled, feeling so frustrated deep inside. At that moment, she was so depressed that wrinkles appeared on her delicate facial features. "I'm sorry, Grandma, but I have to hang up now so I could clean up the mess."
"All right. There's no point crying over spilled milk, so you shouldn't dwell on it any longer. There's nothing more you can do about it. That being said, since it was your fault, you have to apologize to Matthew when he gets back home. Don't be stubborn, okay?" Cecelia was a bit worried that Erica might start being difficult when she discussed this matter with Matthew.
Matthew probably couldn't care less about a bottle of wine.
However, he would certainly care more about her attitude. At the thought of that, Cecelia reminded Erica not to be too stubborn when she told Matthew what happened.
"Okay!"
After hanging up, Erica frowned as she grabbed the cleaning tools and began cleaning up the mess on the floor, albeit clumsily.
By the time Matthew finally came back, it was already ten o'clock in the evening. She was just sitting idly in the living room, staring blankly at the TV. As soon as she heard the sound of a car pulling over by the driveway, she immediately sprang up from the sofa.
Then, she quickly put on her slippers and hurriedly ran toward the door.
When she opened the door to the living room before Matthew came in, she saw him outside talking to his assistant.
Hearing the sound of the door being swung open, Matthew stopped talking with his assistant. When he turned to look at Erica who was standing by the door, their eyes met.
Feeling so guilt-stricken, Erica drew back her head and closed the door at once.
After waiting for a while, she heard footsteps drawing closer. So, she gently opened the door and beamed him a sincere smile. "Matthew, you're back from work."
An awkward silence filled the air inside the room.
Erica managed to react quickly. When she saw him come in, she immediately took out his slippers and said, "Matthew, take off your shoes and change into this!"
Loosening up his tie, Matthew could tell right away that she was fawning over him for some reason. In a rather cold tone, he asked, "What's up?" Erica clearly wasn't being her usual self.
"Well, there's something I want to ask you," Erica said. As she squatted in front of him, she raised her head and looked up at him.
"Fire away!" he simply replied.
"Remember how there's a limited edition Lafite 1961 bottle of wine in your wine cellar?" she asked very gingerly.
"Yes?" Matthew began to wonder what this could be about. 'Why is she asking about it? Could it be that she wants to drink it? That seems highly unlikely.'
"Well, how much is it worth?" she asked.
Without giving her any response, Matthew put on his slippers and walked toward the living room.
Seeing this, Erica went after him. "Why aren't you answering? Is it very expensive? Or did you forget how much it costs?"
The man then turned around and casually said, "Mr. Wang offered me $500, 000 to buy this bottle of wine last year, but I didn't sell it."
Erica was at such a loss. 'Last year... Five hundred thousand...' At that point, she was already on the verge of tears.
A bottle of wine actually cost $500, 000! She thought that Matthew was too extravagant. Although she had drunk red wine which was as expensive, it wasn't like she was the one who paid for it. This time, she was the one who had to pay for it. And she felt like she would have to give an arm and a leg for it.
After pondering about it for a while, she asked hypothetically, "Let's say that this bottle of wine went missing, what are you going to do about it?"
When Matthew heard this, he took a look at the girl whose mood swings were much like a roller coaster ride. With his face turning into a frown, he asked, "What on earth are you trying to say?"
Erica wanted to stop beating around the bush. Gritting her teeth, she finally said, "When I went to your cellar to take photos earlier, I accidentally... knocked it off and then bang! I broke it! Please don't be mad. I promise I'll compensate you for it. And I'll pay for the whole five hundred thousand. No, I'll make it five hundred and twenty thousand!" The price of a bottle of wine tended to increase up to 20, 000 per year. With that in mind, Erica thought that should be enough!
'So, that's what all this is about, ' Matthew thought to himself. As he continued walking, Matthew flatly said, "I have enough money." He wanted to tell her that he didn't want her money.
Hearing his response, Erica pulled a long face. She had a hard time dealing with such rich guys. Moreover, she was worried that things would just become even more troublesome. "Then what do you want me to do?" Erica asked.
Glancing at the TV, on which a zombie movie was playing, he said, "Turn off the TV. I'm going to tell you upstairs."
"Okay!" Erica ran to turn off the TV and put the remote control back in place. Then, she quickly went after the man who was walking up the stairs.
Before he could reach the top of the stairs, she ran toward him and caught up with him in just two strides. Panting slightly, she said, "Mr. Huo, please tell me!"
In contrast to her eagerness, Matthew was rather calm. "What's the hurry?"
However, Erica was feeling so uneasy. If it were up to her, she would like to get this over with as soon as possible.
They went up the stairs together, heading to the third floor toward their bedroom.
While Matthew was carefully taking off his suit jacket, Erica tried to take it from him. However, he didn't want to hand it to her. "You don't need to bother doing such trifling matters."
Erica was taken aback. Did he just refuse her act of courtesy?
Since Matthew didn't seem to want her help, she decided to just stand there and watch as he changed his clothes.
After he took off his jacket, he said, "Come over here."
Erica gladly ran toward him and said, "I'm here!"
Then, Matthew lowered his gaze and looked at his white shirt. "You do it," he softly said.
Erica was confused, completely clueless as to what he meant by that. 'What was he talking about? Does he want me to unbutton his shirt or unbuckle his belt for him?'
Forget it. She didn't have the time to be thinking too much about it.
In the end, she decided to just unbuckle his belt after unbuttoning his shirt.
Be that as it might...as soon as she grabbed a hold of his belt...
"What are you doing?" Matthew looked at her and asked in surprise. Never would he have expected her to do such a thing.
"I'm unbuckling it!" Erica flatly answered, thinking that she was simply doing what he asked her to.
"All right. Go ahead." Actually, he was just asking her to help him unbutton his shirt.
"Oh," Erica blurted out in an awkward manner, having some difficulty unbuckling his belt. It seemed that she didn't know how to do it. Even after examining the belt for a while, she just couldn't figure it out.
In the end, she decided to ask him. "Matthew, this is a bit tricky. How do you unbuckle it?" Finally, she lost her patience and ended up complaining to him.
Seeing this, he casually pointed toward an inner buckle and said, "Lift it."
Following his instruction, she finally managed to unbuckle it. She felt so relieved as well as a little depressed. "It turns out that it's so simple after all!"
"Yes—"
She seemed to have forgotten to hold his pants tight, so they dropped to his ankles.
Because of this, Erica's eyes became wide open in surprise.
Yet Matthew managed to remain calm. "Get me my pajamas."
But he didn't get any response from her, and there was a moment of silence which lasted a few seconds.
Looking in the direction of her gaze, he realized what she had been staring at. As he closed his eyes, he called out in a slightly angry tone, "Erica Li!"
"Ah, yes, I'm here!" It was only then that Erica finally came to her sense; her face flushed red. To hide her embarrassment, she quickly looked away.
"Get me my pajamas. I'm going to take a shower!"
"Okay, okay!" With that, she ran to the walk-in closet, covering her burning cheeks.
But instead of looking for his pajamas, she leaned on the closet to catch her breath.
After what happened, she probably wouldn't unbuckle his belt ever again, because it was so easy to take his pants off!