Meanwhile, Leon was displeased with Heather’s words. She was obviously daring him to drink, for her words reminded him of the humiliation he felt back when he tried to make Heather drunk. In the end, he was the one who got drunk instead. “One should be seen in a new light after days of separation.” His command of English was extraordinarily good.
“You’ll never drink me under the table.” While holding the bottle of brandy in her hand, Heather directly sat down across from Leon with a coffee table between them. For some reason, she looked cute while sitting on the stool, but no matter how cute she looked, no amount of that cuteness could hold out against the intimidating aura she gave off.
“Get some ice,” Leon said to her.
“It’s cold enough; it’s been in the fridge the whole time.” Heather looked at Leon coldly with a provocative look in her eyes. As someone who found Heather’s intimidating appearance cute during such a moment, Leon was a typical example of a person unafraid of death.
“Are you going to drink Louis XII cognac directly like this?” Leon asked while picking up the bottle of cognac. Upon looking at the bottle, Leon was rendered speechless. This 20-year-old cognac could potentially kill someone if it’s consumed directly, he thought to himself.
“I’ll drink it myself if you don’t dare to.” Heather looked down on Leon right away and snatched the cognac from him directly. The last time she had a good time drinking was the time she had a drink with Matthias, whom she lost to when it came to drinking. Come to think of it, it was laughable that Heather, who had a competitive streak, lost to Matthias in many aspects.
Leon braced himself and looked at Heather. Seeing how thin and frail she looked, he snatched her glass in resignation. “Since you want to, let’s just drink together.” There was nothing that Leon wasn’t afraid of doing. Furthermore, he was unwilling to be looked down upon by Heather.
Heather’s mouth curved into a meaningful smile. She knew that Leon couldn’t stand it whenever she challenged him to a dare. Moreover, drinking was a pretty good way to vent one’s emotions when they had a lot on their mind.
In reality, Leon didn’t like drinking with Heather. No one would keep drinking in silence without a word, and it was rather boring to drink for the sake of getting drunk. At this moment, Heather wore a poker face without even bothering to say a single word, and this caused Leon to be in no mood for drinking at all. He wondered who had offended her, though.
“Are you hungry?” Leon evaded the subject. Most of what they ate over dinner had been digested by now, so they would probably burn their stomachs if they kept on drinking like this. Leon looked at Heather with a helpless expression while thinking to himself, Sometimes, Heather is even manlier than a man. Can’t this woman take care of her own health?
“No, I’m not.” Heather’s answer wasn’t surprising at all.
“I’m hungry. I want to order takeout.” Leon picked up his cell phone directly to check if there were any food delivery options nearby.
“Do you think that there’d be any takeout services in this desolate place?” Heather stopped what she was doing and looked at Leon as if she was looking at a retard. She was sometimes both amused and annoyed by Leon, for he was practically incapable of living. Come to think of it, this apartment is indeed very much out of the way. Leon is such an active person; I wonder if he’ll feel depressed while staying here.
“Are you sure it’s really fine for you to settle me here, Heather? You’re even telling me that this place is desolate,” Leon asked in displeasure. Heather had stopped drinking, but the sight of her drinking cognac like she was downing water caused the corners of his eye to twitch rapidly.
“You can buy some books and read them here. This place is quiet.” Heather played with the wine glass in her hand. Since she had drunk a fair amount of alcohol, even the tips of her brows were tinged with charm.
Leon even felt his throat burning as Heather’s seductively charming face swam before his eyes. He gawked at her face; it was within his reach, but he felt that it was as far away from him as the remotest corner on earth. As his outstretched hand froze in midair, he gave a smile of resignation. “Reading? Just give me a break.” He knew without thinking what kind of books Heather would recommend him, and he had no interest in reading them at all.
“What about your takeout?” Heather raised her eyebrows at Leon. She smelled strongly of alcohol, but she also gave off an inexplicably alluring scent.
Thinking that he had gotten somewhat drunk, Leon slapped his head. He wondered why Heather looked so pretty before his eyes, for the sight of her devastatingly gorgeous face made him itch unbearably. “I’ll just cook something on my own.” As he tried to conceal his innermost thoughts, he shook his head while looking at Heather with a disdainful expression.
“No! We’ll be victims of food poisoning,” Heather objected as she recalled the pasta Leon had made for her back then. The pasta tasted so awful that she wondered how someone could be such a terrible cook. At that time, she thought that Leon was deliberately playing a prank on her. It never occurred to her how hard Leon had worked to make the plate of pasta, but the pasta tasted so awful that it almost made her cry.
“Don’t drink on an empty stomach ever again. Do you want to have a perforated stomach?” Leon asked fiercely while snatching the wine glass from Heather.
Heather stood up and came to Leon’s side directly. As they sat side by side at a close distance from each other, Leon grew increasingly nervous. Meanwhile, Heather noticed all the subtle changes in his expression as they were only inches away from each other.
“Sometimes, I don’t even know what on earth I’m doing. Everyone seems to think that I must achieve something.” Heather spoke in a childlike tone as her face took on a confused expression.
“You aren’t drunk right now, are you?” Leon was somewhat worried, for he had never seen Heather behaving this way. He had never thought about how to deal with her when she was drunk.
“No, I’m not.” Heather kept staring at the cognac on the coffee table without glancing at Leon, whereas all Leon saw was her. “Can I speak my mind to you?” She turned to look at Leon with an innocent look in her eyes.
“You don’t have to pretend in front of me.” Leon pretended to be composed as he couldn’t wait for Heather to have a heart-to-heart talk with him.
“I’m at a loss right now, and I don’t know what on earth I’m doing. Can you tell me if you really enjoy being a businessman?” Heather looked at Leon curiously. However, Leon was so tall that she had to put in some effort whenever she looked up at him, whereas Leon could easily see her every move.
“Of course not. I want to be a traveler who travels all over the world.” Leon liked to be on the road to any place that he was unfamiliar with. In other words, places that he had never been to attracted him greatly.
“That’s not a bad idea.” Heather tilted her head to one side in a seemingly cute manner. “I’ve never thought about what else I can do other than being a businesswoman,” she answered, distressed. She had never thought about this question, for she thought she was born to be a businesswoman.
“Heather, I’m forced to be a businessman because I have no other options, but nobody is forcing you to be a businesswoman. Every choice you make at present is of your own free will,” Leon commented penetratingly. Leon sometimes had a sharp tongue, especially when he wanted to divert his attention from Heather.
“Do you mean that I have a competitive streak?” Heather looked at Leon in displeasure as if she was unsatisfied with his reply.
“Do you not?” Leon looked at Heather fearlessly as he was unafraid of being killed by the look in her eyes.
“All right, I have only myself to blame.” Heather didn’t want to argue with Leon either since there was nothing wrong with what he said. She didn’t want to be someone like Matthias, for he deceived himself as well as others. “In that case, let me ask you a question about relationships.” She sounded calm, and it seemed as though she had nothing to do with what she would be talking about.
Leon’s heart skipped a beat. As he stared at Heather’s good-looking features, he didn’t want her to worry about relationship problems, nor did he want her to be heartbroken for the sake of another man. “You know that I always keep a playful attitude toward life. I can’t give you any good answers if you ask me questions about relationships,” he replied frivolously since he was uninterested in discussing relationship problems with Heather.
“If someone keeps saying that his first love is his only glimmer of hope over all these years and that it was precisely because of his first love that he was strong-willed enough to pull through and undergo a complete transformation into a successful person…” Heather began slowly.
Leon looked at Heather in bewilderment, for he didn’t understand what she was talking about. For some reason, he felt that she sounded rather weird.
“In that case, do you believe that this man really loves his first love? Does he love her, or is he just obsessing over her?” Heather narrowed her eyes. The alcohol had gone into her head, but she was still sober. Nonetheless, there were many things that she couldn’t help but want to say.
“He loves her, I guess. Don’t people say that love will make someone better?” Leon furrowed his brows. He then thought to himself, Could that man be Locke Group’s president? Is Heather his first love that she’s talking about?
Heather looked at Leon thoughtfully, for she felt that his answer was somewhat perfunctory. “Are you sure about that? If he really loves his first love, why didn’t he come to her earlier? Why would he wait for many years until his first love found her Mr. Right?”
Upon hearing Heather’s words, Leon got even more confused. He thought that Heather was the first love she was talking about, but judging from her words, she couldn’t possibly be the first love. If that was the case, why would Heather ask such a question? “He probably feels inferior and thinks that he isn’t worthy of his first love, so he worked hard for many years to present himself before her in the best way possible. Men are too proud at times, and they always want to give the woman they love nothing but the best.”
Unbeknownst to Leon, his answer happened to coincide with Matthias’s. The puzzlement in Heather’s eyes grew. Could I have really misunderstood Matthias’s feelings for Myra?
“He never seeked his first love for so many years. Shouldn’t he worry that his first love would be together with someone else? That happens to be the case, you see. His first love fell in love with somebody else, and he’s destined to remain single.” The look on her face turned serious. This time, she didn’t feel drunk at all; on the contrary, she couldn’t believe that she was wrong.
“This is possible if a man firmly believes that his first love will stay faithful to him and keep waiting with her original desires unchanged. This can only prove that the man is rather conceited and bumptious, so he ended up with a slap in the face by reality.” Thinking that he might make the same mistake like that man, Leon rationally analyzed the situation for Heather.
“I will never understand men.” Heather smiled helplessly as she recalled the words she said to Matthias in a staunchly self-righteous manner. As it turned out, she was the wrong one. Is this the difference between men and women? She shook her head as she couldn’t find an answer to this question. Could I be wrong? Even now, she still couldn’t believe that she was wrong.
“In that case, may I ask you a question?” Leon asked while mimicking Heather.
“No.” Heather gave a sly smile. At this moment, Leon looked silly and yet cute.
Leon looked at Heather with dissatisfaction. Why does she have the audacity to cheat like this? he thought to himself. He decided to ignore her and asked, “What does the man and his first love have to do with you? What role are you playing in their story?”
He even has the nerve to ask that question, Heather thought to herself. Her expression had softened at first, but it froze again because of Leon’s sudden question.
