Take My Breath Away

"Who is the 'old man' you referred to?" Hayden asked as he was surprised by Debbie's response when she answered his call.

"Never mind, I was referring to no one in particular," Debbie replied casually. "What made you call?"

"I've been in Y City for a couple of days now. I have no plans tonight, so I'm thinking maybe we can have dinner together."

"Oh, sorry. I'm out of town. I'm on a trip."

Hayden hadn't expected her response. For a moment, he was in a daze but soon realized that Debbie was such a travel gal. He remembered how much she enjoyed going to places. She had visited different tourist destinations, more than he ever had. He envied her determination and her free spirit.

"Oh! I see. It's okay. Anyways, my schedule will be cleared out early next month. How about I take you to England for a vacation then?"

"No, thanks." Debbie turned him down immediately. "I've been busy lately. I have all these different classes every day. I had to make time for this trip."

Debbie was telling the truth. When her trip was over, she would once again be occupied with dance, yoga, English, and other classes.

"Debbie, don't lie to me. I know you. You always hate studying. You're just trying to blow me off by making up those classes."

"No, I'm not. That's the old me. People change. Now I have yoga, dance, English, Advanced Mathematics, and so on, but I don't learn martial arts anymore."

For a moment, there was only silence at the other end of the line. "You used to say you will never quit martial arts. My mom and I once asked you to quit, but you refused. Why now?"

Hayden knew how much she used to hate those classes she just mentioned.

Debbie smiled and said, "Because I don't have to protect you anymore." One of the reasons why she had worked hard on martial arts was to protect Hayden and his sister, Portia Gu, who was frail like a willow leaf.

Debbie and Hayden started dating when she was 16 and their relationship lasted for two years. Just a few days before her 18th birthday, for some unknown reasons they broke up. During those two years, being his girlfriend, Debbie was the one who had protected Hayden and his sister, although she herself was a little girl.

In return for her bravery, she got ridiculed by Hayden himself. "You are not womanly at all," Hayden had said to her.

Debbie's reply on the phone made his heart tighten. "I'm sorry, Deb. I didn't treat you well before. I didn't treasure what we had. I've regretted it. I've missed you for the past three years. Can we start over?" Hayden apologized, his voice full of remorse.

He had been involved with dozens of women after Debbie had left him, but none of them truly loved him as Debbie had.

She was so thoughtful in a way that, even though she didn't know how to cook, to make sure he ate well, she used to bring takeouts to his workplace.

Moreover, she changed her character for him. She was perky, but when she learned that Hayden's mom liked quiet girls, she had always reminded herself to be quiet in front of his mom, just to get her approval.

On ordinary days because Hayden's family was wealthy, he got kidnapped or blackmailed a lot, or sometimes into some other kinds of trouble. All those times, Debbie tried her best to protect him, no matter how dangerous the situation was.

She used to get drunk easily, but every time Hayden had to drink at a dinner party, she drank his alcohol for him, just because drinking was bad for his health and she wanted him to stay healthy. Thus, at first she could only handle 50 grams of alcohol, but gradually, she could handle more than 1 kilogram of alcohol.

She had done so many things for him.

But now it was over. Hayden had lost her, that girl who had loved him like a fool. Now he was back, and he wanted her back. He promised himself that he would never let her go this time.

"Hayden, it's too late." Every time Debbie mentioned his name, it hurt. She was the one who gave and gave in their relationship, but in the end, all she got was a broken heart.

It still pained her when she reminisced about their past, but she was over him now. She had moved on. Except for the pain, she didn't have other feelings for him.

Debbie ended the phone call and continued roaming the streets as if nothing had happened. When she passed by a dessert bar, the delicate desserts in the glass cupboards drew her attention. There was cake, icy pudding, and multi-layer steamed bread. Durian flavor was her favorite. She remembered how Hayden hated it. Every time Debbie ate a durian snack in front of him, he would say it smelled disgusting and that she would get fat from eating too many snacks. He had even told her not to eat durian snacks in his presence.

Out of nowhere, Debbie suddenly recalled that night when she was with Carlos. She could tell that Carlos hated durian's smell too. But he had eaten the snack with her even though he despised it. She knew by the look on his face that he was just forcing himself to eat the durian snack.

Carlos had specifically ordered crispy durian cakes and durian pancakes for Debbie the other day when they were eating on the fifth floor of Alioth Building.

Maybe it was because he was several years older than Debbie, Carlos was thoughtful in many things. He would ask Julie to make durian dishes or desserts at the villa now and then.

When Debbie sneaked into Carlos' room for the first time, he had caught her immediately. After that, she had tried to sneak into his room again, but he never busted her. To think about it, Debbie thought maybe it was not that he didn't know that she was sneaking in. Maybe he had let her in on purpose.

Ever since she was young, Debbie was afraid of thunder and lightning. She had come to Portia Gu's bedroom in the middle of the night before when she and Hayden were still dating.

It was on Hayden's birthday. It was too late when the party was over, so Debbie stayed in Hayden's house. When she was sleeping alone in the guest room that night, suddenly thunder roared and lightning flashed. She was too scared to sleep. But she couldn't go to Hayden's room. That would be inappropriate. So she knocked on the door of Portia Gu's room and told her that she was afraid to sleep alone.

To her dismay, however, Portia Gu pushed her out of her room impatiently and locked the door. "Don't interrupt my sleep again!" she had warned her. She remembered how scared she was that night. She had to bear with the thunder and lightning and sleep alone while covered with three layers of blankets.

Recalling all this, all of sudden, Debbie missed Carlos, that overbearing, arrogant, hateful man.

Debbie stared at her phone screen. There was one missed call from Carlos. She made up her mind that if he called again, she would pick up the phone.

Two days had passed. Carlos still didn't call.

On the third day, Debbie had a big dinner that evening. She had eaten so much that after dinner she rubbed her stuffed belly and decided to stroll down the streets to hasten the digestion of the food. Then she came across an emerald store. She walked in and looked around. In the dim light, a lucky peace buckle caught her eyes. "I'd like to have a look at that one," she said to the bald, fat storekeeper.

"Sure. Miss, all the pieces in our store are genuine. This lucky peace buckle is exquisitely polished," the keeper grinned.

"How much is it?"

"$28,000. A good price."

Debbie's eyes widened. That was way too pricey for a lucky peace buckle. She knew a little about emerald. To appraise it's quality, she looked at the buckle against the light and found that it was not transparent at all. It definitely wasn't worth $28,000.

So Debbie put the lucky peace buckle back and said, "I'll look at some more."

Seeing her turn around, the storekeeper put on a hideous look on his face and snapped, "How can you not buy it after you looked at it?"

Debbie was confused, "What do you mean? Do I have to buy it after I looked at it? Why? I don't like it. Of course, I won't buy it." She thought the storekeeper was being ridiculous.

The storekeeper hit the table hard with his fat hand and announced, "Why did you look at it if you didn't intend to buy it? You must buy it!"

"How can you force your customers to buy things they don't want?" Debbie stopped to observe the circumstances of the store. Four sinister-looking men were playing mahjong seated around a square table near the entrance of the store. Hearing the conversation between the storekeeper and Debbie, they turned around and gave Debbie an ominous look.

"I'm forcing you to buy it. So what? Give me the money! $28,000. Not a penny less!" From the way Debbie dressed, the bald man could tell that she was rich, and he was going to rip her off before he let her leave.

Debbie wanted to leave the store as soon as she could, so she ignored the storekeeper and turned around to walk towards the door.

However, the storekeeper grabbed a remote and locked the automatic door. "You can't leave without buying it!"

Debbie's blood was up. "He keeps pushing me! This pig is looking for trouble!" She darted towards the bald man and clutched his collar. "Open the damn door!" she warned angrily.