Take My Breath Away

The two men shook hands politely. Layne thought he recognized Dixon when he spied the man earlier. Now, after Debbie's introduction, he suddenly remembered who the guy was. "Dixon Shu... So you're the new secretary general of ZL Group?"

He didn't know Kristina knew him. It had never come up.

Dixon smiled politely. "Oh yeah. I'm lucky Mr. Huo hired me. It's an honor."

After a few pleasantries, Layne took off. Debbie held Kristina's and Dixon's hands as they walked into the private room they booked. Jared already ordered. "Hey, you guys finally... Wait... Kristina?!"

Before he could finish his complaint about the long wait, he widened his eyes in shock when he noticed who was with Debbie.

"Hi, big guy. Long time no see," Kristina said to Jared, smiling gleefully.

Jared shot to his feet. He strode towards them rapidly and asked in disbelief, "Ain't that the truth? Tomboy went AWOL three years ago, and then you ghosted us too. Kasie and I were left alone here. We wondered if you ran off with Tomboy."

Right on cue, Kasie chimed in, "Inside voice, dude. What the hell... Oh my God! Kristina?"

Kasie had a similar reaction to Jared. Finally, the five old friends were reunited. It felt like a lifetime had passed since they were all together last. The girls kept hugging each other, and being happy that they finally saw each other face to face. They didn't sit down at the table until the two men persuaded them to. Not only that, they didn't care how loud they were being, either.

During dinner, Kasie discreetly shifted her glance between Dixon and Kristina. She didn't want to re-open old wounds, but she had to know. She whispered, "You're married now, right? When did that happen? What does your husband do? And more importantly, why weren't we at your wedding? I sent you chat requests on WeChat, but you didn't answer back. I was hoping you'd come to mine."

Kristina looked at the beer in her glass. "I'm sorry. I dumped that account a long time ago. My husband got transferred to Singapore. He just got back this year. He's thirteen years older than me."

'Thirteen years older...'

the other friends all exclaimed in their mind.

Kristina didn't want to hide anything from her old friends. She continued to fill them in on what happened since they last saw each

a bank like Carlos someday. When you grow up..."

"When I grow up? Blow me! Maybe if Damon and I saw eye to eye, we'd be doing better." Jared felt annoyed thinking of his brother. Jasper had given the company to the two brothers to run. Everything went well except that the two brothers could never agree on anything. Every employee of the Han Group knew the two brothers always solved their problems with their fists. Rarely did a brother emerge from a meeting without torn clothing, a black eye, or bloody lip.

The room erupted in laughter. They joked and bantered with each other like they used to do. After a while, their topic focused on Debbie again.

Debbie was putting a slice of pork tripe into the hotpot when Jared suddenly asked, "Your husband has a bodyguard tailing you. To make sure James doesn't try anything, right?"

"Yeah." Debbie didn't even bother to raise her head. She was drooling over the delicious food.

"You've got him dead to rights though, right? Why isn't he in jail?" Jared asked, obviously confused.

Debbie picked up a slice of duck tongue. When she was about to eat it, she thought of something and lost her appetite. She put down her chopsticks, glaring at Jared. "Why did you have to bring him up? Carlos had someone deal with Glenda and Stephanie last time. He donated one of Stephanie's kidneys. To stop Carlos from donating her cornea as well, James knelt in front of me and apologized."

Kasie was confused. "Didn't James do everything? Why did your husband punish Stephanie instead?"