Imperfect Desires

In the silence of the night, Xiu continued to lay on top of Darren. He was still lying on the thick carpet without any intention to move or let her go. With his one arm was snaked around her waist, he ran his fingers through her beautiful, smooth hair with the other one. Xiu's head was lying on top of Darren's chest and she could hear his heartbeat changing rhythm.

All of a sudden, Darren thought of something, "Sweets, how did you enter my apartment?"

Xiu giggled before mumbling against his chest, "I thought if I'm the key to your heart than I should be the key to your house as well, right?"

"Huh?" Darren was dumbfounded by her response.

Xiu facepalmed herself before she looked at Darren's face and said, "To explain that, I'll have to rewind a little..."

 Going back to the time she ate ice cream with Xiaoli, Ah-Si, and Dylan, Xiu felt really happy but she also felt like something was missing. Her heart knew that the only thing missing at that time was Darren's presence right by her side.

As she thought of Darren, she left the three men alone. She only came back after 10 minutes and seeing her Dylan said, "Can you stay in one place?" He saw a square box in her hand and frowned, "What's in the box?"

"Whatever it is, it's not for you," retorted Xiu while she stuck her tongue at him childishly.

As they settled back in the car, Dylan plugged out his cellphone from charging and turned it on. The moment his phone turned on, it started vibrating over and over again. Dylan felt a sense of trepidation rising in his heart. And when he saw Darren's name in his call log, he almost threw the phone. 

"Ms. Bai Xiu, where is your phone?" asked Dylan with a trembling voice.

Xiu who was busy caressing the box in her hand while she smiled like an idiot on her own, turned her head slightly to look at Dylan and answered, "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" screamed Dylan making Xiu flinch back a little.

Xin Xiaoli who had been driving calmly, suddenly pressed the brake and the sudden jerk made Dylan's head hit the seat before him. "Li bro, why did you stop the car?"

"It's a red signal," answered Xin Xiaoli before adding, "Also, don't raise your voice at her." He looked back to glance at Dylan and continued, "If she cried, I'll make sure that Auntie Wei gets to know about every single girlfriend of yours in the past three years." 

Dylan gulped visibly but ended up choking on his own saliva as he coughed. "Bro, do you know how happy I was to know that you came to bail me out? I mean, you never even use your father's name for even your own sake and yet, you used Uncle's influence to get me out of the jail. I was feeling honored and so important. And now, you're giving un-related person like her significance over me?"

"She's neither un-related nor un-relevant," the answer came from Ah-Si instead and Dylan looked at him in disbelief. "Bro called her a sister. And if my brother says it, he means it." Of course, Dylan was aware of that but he didn't know why that person was Xiu of all people now? "Besides, the reason why we used dad's name to get you out is simple... The court procedure would have taken the time and bro didn't want you to stay in jail for even a second longer."

Xiu listened to them but she was a bit slow to process their words as she only asked her question when the car had resumed the silence, "Li bro, how did you use your dad's influence to get us out so fast? Is he acquainted with the higher-ups?"

"He's not acquainted with the higher-ups," replied Dylan instead of Xin Xiaoli and when Xiu furrowed her brows in confusion, he added, "Because he is the higher up!"

"Huh?" Xiu was confused.

But before she could ask anything, Dylan said, "Bro, can you drive fast and drop this rabble-rouser to her place? Her boyfriend has called me over a million times and by now, he'd on the verge of explosion."

Xiu clapped her hand happily and gave a thumbs up to Dylan saying, "For the first time, Didi is right. Take me to my baby. I miss him. Take me. Let's go, go, go!"

Dylan rolled his eyes at her reaction and more so because the Xin brothers only gazed at her with a doting look in their eyes even though she was really acting like a nuisance. He really couldn't understand what was happening anymore. Especially because that idiot Xiu didn't even know where she left her phone. Dylan could tell what must be happening with Darren but he still didn't dare to call Darren.

It didn't take long for Xin Xiaoli to park the car before Xiu's condominium building and said goodbye to her. Xiu skipped her way to the elevator, greeted the elevator attendant and happily came to her floor. Just as she was about to unlock the door of her own apartment, she stopped and turned to look at Darren's door. 

After contemplating for a minute, she rang the bell but got no response. Realizing that he wasn't home, she said to herself, "Eh? My baby is not at home. Should I leave the box at the door?" She tapped her chin in a thoughtful manner before shaking her head. "That won't be a good surprise."

With that thought in mind, she decided to punch in the passcode that she could think of. "My baby's birthday... 0114!"

*Beep*

The passcode turned out to be wrong, so she scratched her head and pressed in Darren's mother's birthday as for how she knew that she wouldn't tell anyone that she had her stalking moments as well. 

*Beep*

The passcode was wrong again. Xiu knocked her head against the door lightly as if that would give her an idea as she said, "Who else he loves the most?" Her eyes went wide as she pointed at herself, "Me. Haha. My baby loves me the most as well."

Xiu typed, "1225"

*Click*

The door opened and she jumped in excitement. It really turned out to be her birthday. How weird!

Coming back to the present, she beamed, "And just like that I knew that Xiu can not only open the door to your heart, she can open the door of your house as well."

Darren stared at her beaming face before asking, "But how did you know that you're supposed to use Chen Xiu's birthday or Bai Xiu's?"

Xiu gaped at him as she sat on his stomach and hit his chest saying, "How can you not know this?" Darren raised his brows at her while she said, "Both Chen Xiu and Bai Xiu have the same birthdate. Only the year is different. My birthday even in this life is 25th December."

"What?" Darren was really shocked to learn that. He never imagined that such a coincidence was even possible.

"OMG! Baby, you don't even know my birthday?" asked Xiu in an exaggerated manner. She hit his chest again, "How could you?! You only care about Chen Xiu and not me." In her complaining, she even forgot that she was Chen Xiu as well. She only remembered that she was Bai Xiu now and it hurt to know that he only cared about a dead person!

Her punches were so light that Darren didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he held her hands, caressed the side of her face and replied, "I was a dreamer, Chen Xiu was a dream. A perfect dream of mine. You..." his thumb pad rubbed her bottom lip as he continued, "You're not so perfect but you're real. You're my Sweets for whom my love might not be perfect as well but I promise, it's as true as it can be."