Take My Breath Away

"Boo...hoo... Carlos Huo, Mr. Huo, Mr. Handsome, I'm sorry. I made a mistake." Debbie held on to a holding bar near the elevator and cried, refusing to take another step forward.

Carlos ignored her pleas and dragged her into the cinema nonchalantly.

The moment they were inside, the cinema was bustling with moviegoers, but the manager received Carlos as soon as he appeared at the entrance and ushered them towards the biggest theater.

When the manager left, Debbie held Carlos by the waist and pleaded again, "Mr. Handsome, I realized that I was wrong and I won't do it again. Please, can we go now? It's creepy to watch horror movies at night. It may kill me. Let's go home. Please, please."

Carlos was unmoved and still acted indifferent. After dragging her to the center of the theater, he made her sit next to him.

The movie started soon. A scene of a dark graveyard first came into view. It made Debbie's blood run cold. "Carlos Huo, I have apologized. Why are you still doing this? I won't drink again, okay? Can you just forgive me, please?"

Debbie shifted her eyes away from the screen to Carlos. But the sound effects of the movie made her heartbeat quicken. She covered her ears tightly with her hands. For a while, it helped, but soon her hands and wrists went sore. Phobia and horror were driving her crazy. She had begged and pleaded, but the man seemed heartless to ignore her. "Carlos Huo, you are a freak! I'm fed up with you! I will divorce you! I will! Let's go get a divorce now!" She lost her temper.

"Sit well," the man said after giving her a cold glance.

Debbie stood up defiantly from her seat and tried to shut out the horrible sounds. "If you want to stay, fine! Stay! I'm leaving!" She threw the 8D glasses far enough out of sheer anger.

'I hate him! I hate his evil guts! I'll divorce him, no matter what!' Debbie thought as she stormed towards the exit of the theater.

To her dismay, the door was locked from outside. She slammed the door anxiously for a long while, but no one came to her rescue.

Frustrated, she stomped angrily on the floor, covered her ears, closed her eyes, and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Carlos Huo, you asshole! Let me out! Let me out now!"

She yelled and cursed. However, all her efforts were futile as if none of her words came across. Carlos remained nonchalant, sitting there, eyes on the screen.

Finally, Debbie had enough and started crying. "I want to get out... I don't want to be here... Hoo...hoo... I said I am sorry. Why are you so mean?" He had taken her to a cemetery one evening and scared the life out of her. Now he was forcing her to watch a horror movie in the middle of the night. She hated him with all her soul.

Before she knew it, Carlos was already standing in front of her. "Will you ever drink again?" he asked the sobbing girl who sat on the floor.

As long as she could get out of the cinema, for now, she would just say whatever he wanted to hear. "No, I won't. I promise, not ever," she replied, while what she actually thought was, 'Carlos Huo is a son of a bitch.'

"Will you get yourself into trouble again?"

"No, never again." 'If I get a chance, I'll have Carlos Huo's guts for garters.'

"Go to study overseas next year."

This time, no response.

"Go or not?"

"Okay, I'll go."

Then the door was opened soon. Carlos and Debbie walked out of the theater one after the other.

Back at the villa, Debbie, without turning back, ran to her bedroom and slammed the door shut behind her.

She threw herself onto the bed and cried. When she got tired from crying, she took out her phone and clicked on the Moments on WeChat and posted an update. "God damn it! It's torture when someone takes advantage of your weaknesses. I'll get my revenge sooner or later."

That night, she didn't intend to sleep. After a refreshing bath, she called Jared and whined about Carlos Huo over the phone for an hour. Jared was so tired of hearing it he almost fell asleep. "I'm going on a trip tomorrow." Finally, she changed the subject.

She had promised Carlos she would stay out of trouble, but she didn't say that she would stop skipping classes.

"Where to?"

"H Country. Are you going with me?"

Jared shook his head. "No. Maybe Kasie will go with you." He and Debbie had traveled together many times. He was kind of sick of it.

"Okay, go to sleep then. If you don't see me at school tomorrow, it means I have gone to H Country. Don't mention a word to Carlos Huo."

Debbie's last remark made Jared nervous. "You are going on a trip and you're keeping it from Carlos Huo? Are you looking for trouble?"

"It doesn't matter anymore. I am going to get a divorce when I come back. I can't stand that jerk anymore."

Sleep didn't come to Debbie until the wee hours of the night.

However, when Debbie felt drowsy and was about to fall asleep, a knock on the door alerted her. Cold sweats dripped from her forehead as she was totally frightened. She snapped her eyes open and asked, "Who is it?"

Her voice was trembling.

"Open the door." It was Carlos. Debbie bit her lips and didn't answer.

When no response came from inside, Carlos knocked again and demanded, "Open the door."

"No!"

"Look outside the window, there's a..."

He was cut short and wasn't able to finish his sentence because Debbie already rushed to the door and opened it. Seeing her red eyes, Carlos realized that she had been crying. He felt bad about it but said nothing. He walked past her and lay in her bed.

"What are you doing?" she asked angrily.

"Sleeping," he simply replied.

"Get out!"

For the first time in his entire life, someone told Carlos to leave. He didn't say anything. Nor did he leave.

Before he came to her bedroom, he had been pretending to be asleep and waiting her Debbie to come to his bedroom. After what had happened in the cinema, he had thought Debbie would be so frightened as to come to his bedroom and climb into his bed again. He had waited for more than an hour, but she didn't come, so he had to come to her bedroom instead. Thinking about it, he felt it was childish and lame for him to pretend to be asleep in his room.

"Come and sleep," he said, but Debbie didn't move, and he wouldn't get out of her bed. They had reached a deadlock. Carlos ran out of patience. He got up, strode towards her, carried her to the bed, and tucked her in.

She struggled and punched him. "If you move again, I'll get rough," he warned.

That worked. Debbie became quiet instantly, lying in bed with her back to Carlos.

Carlos Huo, you brazen, lewd, despicable, old man!'

She kept cursing in her head and slowly drifted into sleep.

The next morning, when she woke up, Carlos was gone. She packed her things and got ready to leave.

It was such a sudden decision Kasie wasn't prepared. She was occupied with some family matter and couldn't go with her.

At last, Debbie went to the airport alone.

The busy streets of Y City were filled with people going to and fro, minding their own private businesses. Debbie waited patiently for her flight bound for J City.

It was a long and tiring flight. Getting off the plane, she hailed a taxi and found the hotel she had booked online. The moment she tucked her bag inside the closet, she changed into a white casual outfit, put on sneakers, took her purse, and went outside to have some fun.

She treated herself to a share of stuffed tofu with spicy sauce and strolled along holding her food in her hands. When she spotted and interesting widget in a shop by the street, she stopped to appreciate it. As she was taking a bite of the tofu, her phone rang.

She glanced at the caller ID, swallowed the tofu in her mouth, and hung up. It was Carlos. She wouldn't take his call.

However, he seemed quite persistent. Her phone rang again and again and again. Every time she hung up, he would call again. When her phone rang for the 12th time, she picked it up immediately and said, "Old man, enough already. Is your company going out of business or something? Don't you have work to do? Why do you keep calling me? It's annoying!"

"Deb, it's me." The strange yet familiar voice sent her freezing on the spot. Debbie looked at her phone screen to check the number. It was indeed not Carlos. it was Hayden who was calling her this time.

"Oh, what's up?" Her tone softened. She threw the tofu box into the bin, wiped her mouth dry, and listened to him attentively.