Take My Breath Away

"She's messed with Dad more times than I can count. Later, when she grew a bit older, she started doing the same to me. Every time I took her out of her playpen to play with her, she'd put her foot in my mouth. If you ask me how I got so strong and tall, I can tell you my secret—it's because I ate my sister's toejam," Gifford said.

"Hahaha." The crowd burst into laughter.

Matthew, on the other hand, wasn't laughing. He showed no emotion at all, as if pretending not to hear Gifford talking about his new bride.

"When Rika got older, Mom began to lose control over her youngest daughter. She'd argue about the smallest things, and was able to find the loophole in anything you said. She should have studied to be a lawyer. Of course, people usually couldn't do anything but give in, because she was really cute when she was like that. My dad was the only one in our family who could somehow intimidate Rika. Fortunately, Dad had retired from the military and had time to pull on the leash. Ever since I can remember, my sister spent all her time running all over creation, while my father spent all his chasing after her. By the way, Matthew, you need to hear this. Rika was probably a rabbit in her previous life, because she runs really fast now. You better get good at running whenever you have time. She likes to run off when she makes a mistake, rather than owning up to it."

Matthew remained silent, while the guests burst into laughter again.

Gifford seriously waved his hand to them and said, "I'm not kidding. My father was a good runner even before she was born. With Rika around, he learned to run even faster. Once, he chased after a thief who rode a scooter downtown. The thief couldn't go flat out without running into cars, but he was still fast. But my dad managed to catch up with it. So, you can imagine how fast my sister runs!"

On that day, Gifford told Matthew a lot of things about Erica, and at the end he emphasized, "Don't tell Rika that I told you this. She doesn't get mad, she gets even."

"Okay," Matthew replied curtly.

Gifford didn't know if Matthew was listening or not. That poker face didn't tell him anything about what was going on in Matthew's mind.

At Pearl Villa District

A mysterious figure made his way to the third floor bedroom and pushed it open, silently. There was only one person inside the room, standing in front of the windowsill,

his body is all corded muscle underneath his clothes. He's much hotter than my idol—Aaron Gao!' she marveled silently.

"Enjoying the view?" The man's cold voice interrupted the stunned woman.

'Enjoying...the view?' Erica immediately regained her composure and said with a red face, "I wasn't looking at you. Stop being so narcissistic!" She bowed her head and washed her face immediately.

'Wait, something wrong...' She squeezed the facial cleanser while asking, "What are you doing here, anywhere? I'm trying to wash my face."

"You're washing your face and I'm going to take a shower. That's why I'm here," he said in a somewhat mocking tone.

'Take a shower now?' She felt like her head was about to explode. Before she applied the cleanser to her face, she turned around and looked at the man. "Why shower now? I'm still using the room. Can't you wait till I finish?"

His lips curled into a sarcastic smile. "You came back much earlier than I did. Why didn't you do what you needed to then, before I came back? Why do it now? It's not like anyone was stopping you? What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? Or did you wait to take a bath with me?"

Before Erica could answer, Matthew took a look at the large bathtub and said, "I think it's big enough for the two of us. But you should probably shower before a soak in the tub..."

"Wait! I think you got me wrong. I don't want to bathe with you. Uncle Carlos and Aunt Debbie dropped in a while ago. They just left five minutes before you came back. I didn't have time to wash my face and bathe. Get it?" Erica tried to calm herself down.