Take My Breath Away

Erica's eyes lit up. "Of course, I'll go with you. I haven't seen my brother in such a long time. Besides, I'm all out of money. I need his to replenish my allowance," she said, winking at Sheffield. She was actually desperate for some financial support. Her father was strict and wouldn't give her a penny more than her monthly allocated allowance.

Sheffield was surprised. As far as he knew, they were a military family. And Gifford was loaded. How could Erica not have any money?

"Really? Do you need a loan? I can help," he offered.

"No! Thanks, though. You just need to take me to my brother. I can get some from him."

Gifford hadn't told her that he was on leave. Now that she knew he was back, she would show up to surprise him.

"All right, I'll take you to him," Sheffield nodded in agreement. He turned to Matthew. "Matthew, join us."

Matthew asked instead, "What's Evelyn's plan this afternoon?"

"She is coming with me."

"Fine, then."

After spending some time at the apartment, at noon, the four of them went to Orchid Private Club. When they arrived, they found Gifford and Joshua lying lazily on the sofa, talking.

"Evelyn!" The two gentlemen shot up to their feet and greeted her.

Evelyn smiled and said playfully, "I'll be intruding on your guys' get-together this time."

"Please, you are always welcome. You're one of us. We haven't had the chance to meet in a long time. Come, sit with us," Gifford said with a grin. His white teeth shone brighter against his tanned skin.

As he was about to settle down on the sofa, a clear voice came from behind them, "Gifford! My dearest brother, I've missed you so much!" Erica stormed into the room. She grinned widely at him, thinking, 'Ah! There is my dear allowance!'

She passed through the crowd and threw herself into her brother's arms.

Gifford was dumbfounded. Holding his younger sister in his arms, he wondered how she had gotten wind of his return. The corners of his mouth twitched. "How did you know I was here?" he asked.

'She definitely has an ulterior motive for addressing me so nicely.'

Erica blinked innocently. "I came back with Mom and Dad."

And how lucky she was. If she hadn't come, she would have no idea where to get her allowance from. It had been a long and painful process to persuade Wesley into bringing her along. Now that her brother was he

to the restroom. By the time he was done, three of the others were already at the automatic mahjong table.

The seat opposite Joshua was empty.

Matthew was sitting on the sofa busy on his cellphone. Gifford asked him, "Matthew, don't you want to play?"

"I have something to deal with. You go ahead," Matthew said without looking up from his phone. Since he was not in the office, he had to deal with all his business matters on the phone.

"All right!" Gifford took the empty seat.

After Sheffield briefed Evelyn about the rules, including what was a win and what was a pung, they started to play.

The game-play went normally at the beginning.

But Evelyn had never played mahjong before, so she continued to lose.

Sheffield felt heartbroken seeing her lose again and again, so he sneaked up to her when she went to the ladies' room and whispered a trick in her ear.

Half an hour later Evelyn cleared her throat and announced, "Sheffield cooked fish for lunch today." Both Joshua and Gifford looked at Evelyn, confused.

Sheffield, who was sitting opposite her, discarded a tile. "One Bamboo!"

Evelyn was quick to react. "Pung!"

Meanwhile, she discarded a tile too. "Two Bamboo." Joshua and Gifford had no idea what was going on. Since she was trained by Sheffield, she had his M.O.

After a while, Evelyn said, "The earrings I bought the other day look great."

Sheffield discarded another tile. "Three Character!"

"Kong!" Evelyn called. She grabbed the three-character tile and put it next to her own three three-character tiles, all face-up.