Take My Breath Away

"Good friends?" Wesley jeered at Blair, giving her a contemptuous look. "As far as I can remember, the two of you have never even interacted with each other that much at all. How would you be friends?"

Obviously, Blair felt so upset about it, but Wesley was only telling the truth. There was no way for her to deny any of that. With a soft smile on her face, Debbie tugged her a bit closer.

"We should actually be thanking you for being the reason why the two of us became friends, Colonel Li. You acted as the bridge. It seems to me that you don't really know much about women. We can become friends as long as we enjoy each other's company, even if we've just met. Isn't that right, B?"

And on cue, Blair instantly nodded and added, "Certainly." Then, she went ahead and told Wesley, "Adriana and Colleen are also here with us. Why don't you just leave us alone?"

Giving her a sullen look, Wesley couldn't do anything else but warn her, "Make sure not to let your guard down. Try not to fall for her tricks. Contact me if ever anything happens."

"Alright, alright, just go ahead and find the others," Blair insisted. Wesley had been keeping an eye on her as though he had been so anxious that she might end up flying away, much like a bird would. Seeing this as an opportunity for her to spend some time for herself, she did whatever she could to make sure that it was going to happen.

"They're still at Orchid Private Club right now," Adriana promptly informed him.

"I know. I'm gonna be heading there right away." Niles had actually told him about that on the phone already. It was just that he was still hesitating to leave Blair to herself. For that reason, he had been playing for time before he went to the club.

Be that as it might, when he was least expecting it, these three women had appeared and presented Blair a reason to be away from him for the time being. 'Oh, you bet I'm going to make her pay for this tonight!' Wesley thought.

Upon giving Blair one last good hard look, he exited the mall carrying a couple of shopping bags in his hands. Blair had been surrounded by the three other women.

Finally, she was able to let out a sigh of relief the moment Wesley had gotten out of sight. There weren't really many chances for her to go out on her own these days. So, she tried her best to grab onto the opportunity the second it presented itself. The other girls actually felt a bit sorry for her after seeing it personally.

"Blair, has Wesley always been like this? I mean, is he always keeping you in check?" Colleen asked her directly.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Blair replied in complete honesty, "Yes, he has always been like that, poking his nose into all of my personal affairs. It feels so suffocating. To tell you the truth, I've actually attempted to run away several times already. Sad to say, he found out about it and since then, he has gotten even stricter, wanting me to always be within his watchful eyes. As a matter of fact, he won't even let me go shopping on my own, let alone with other people. I have to wait until he's free to come along with me. Being an officer in the military and all, he always has his hands full with something and rarely has any time to go shopping with me, if at all. For example, I've had to wait for more than a month before we could visit the mall today."

Truth be told, Blair had been so desperate to talk to someone and vent out all of her

his made Debbie feel so downhearted. Even Harley was so down because Millie wasn't there to play with him. He kept on spinning around restlessly. Bringing her phone out, Debbie searched for Carlos' contact details and was about to dial his number when all of a sudden, a car rolled up and pulled over close to them.

She realized that it was Carlos' new Emperor. The driver promptly opened the back door for the passenger, and Carlos stepped out of the vehicle.

"Old man!" With all enthusiasm, Debbie waved at him as she sat on a bench.

Shifting his gaze over to the woman waving at him and her pet dog, Carlos politely nodded and paced toward the elevator.

Watching him head straight for the elevator, Debbie ran over to him, with a tight grip on the leash. Of course, it should go without saying that Harley ran quite fast as well. "Wait a second!" Debbie called out to him before the elevator doors closed.

Carlos held the elevator for them, As soon as they stepped foot into the elevator, it began ascending. Upon noticing that Carlos had loosened his tie a bit, "Are you going to come downstairs to take Millie out for a walk?" she asked him softly.

"Yes," he briefly answered. That was the reason why he had returned much earlier than he usually did.

"Oh, that's great. Then, Harley and I will wait for you to get ready."

"Alright." He didn't seem to have any problem with it.

Moments later, the elevator arrived on the sixth floor and the doors slid open. Carlos and Debbie proceeded to get off one after the other.

With the fingerprint scanner, Carlos opened the door to his apartment. But before coming in, he recalled that there was someone behind him.

He turned his head to check on them. Both Debbie and Harley had their gazes fixated on him. Given that he didn't have it in him to leave them there and keep them waiting outside, he was left with no other choice but to say, "Come in."

"Okay, thank you," she replied gladly. That was exactly what she had been hoping to hear him say.

The second she entered his unit, Debbie was astonished as she discovered that in spite of living within the same building, Carlos' apartment was much too different.

It was significantly more spacious compared to hers, probably about three times as huge.