Chapter 25: Chapter Thirteen-1

Chapter Thirteen “Happy birthday, to you! Happy birthday, to you! Happy birthday, dear Lee! Happy birthday to you!” the entire room sings and claps as Lee blows out his candles. When the song ends, everybody claps and Lee starts cutting the cake. “Whom are you going to give the first bite to?” someone shouts from the crowd. “Any special lady?” Lee has a small smile on his face—rare for him. I watch all this happen but I’m still shaken up. Everything I saw, everything I felt—was it real? Did I just imagine it because of stress? I have been sleeping late. I’m still shaking. My palms are sweaty. Did I really just see my so-called-dead father walk around in perfect health? “I would like to call up here my girlfriend, Ivory Flores!” I hear Lee yell. It doesn’t make sense. We’re not supposed to blow our cover. These people will think we’re together which will give us more people who expect us to be together. We weren’t supposed to tell anyone but Madam Jin. Everyone else was supposed to think I was just a friend that Lee brought along as a date. I move through the crowd to where Lee is—the smack middle of the crowd. The cake is the size of the large table in my living room. “What are you doing?” I whisper to his ear. “Oh, so now you come to me, huh? Where’s Mark?” He sees my straightforward look and then replies, “It’s fine. Most of these people are from foreign countries. And the rest, I’ll probably never see again,” Lee reassures. “It’s totally fine.” “It better be.” Lee smirks. “Everyone, this is my girlfriend.” He gestures to me and everybody gasps. They whisper and some even congratulates Lee. I’m too busy paying attention to the crowd that I don’t see Lee going ahead and smearing cake over my face. “Lee!” I shout. Everybody breaks into a laughter and smile at as. I guess they approve of our relationship. I take some cake off my face and smear it over Lee’s. Then, I realize how soft and clear his complexion is. Everyone’s chuckling and I am too. I haven’t laughed this much for a long time. After everyone’s done laughing, Lee orders a servant to serve pieces of cake. Everybody separates and eats their cake—continuing what they were doing before. Lee is eating his cake alone on the balcony. Why is the birthday boy eating alone? I wander off to him with my own cake. There’s a table on the balcony and I leave my cake there. I go stand next to Lee, who’s just staring out, looking at New York City. Everything is blurry of light because the rain is slowly still falling. It’s not heavy—but it’s falling. “Lee, why are you out here?” I ask as I rest my hands on the railing next to him. “The birthday boy shouldn’t be moping around all by himself.” Lee doesn’t face me. “Lee?” I get no answer. Something is wrong. I turn Lee’s shoulder and gasp. He’s crying. Lee—the cold-hearted, smartass-reply, and complete jerk—was crying right there in front of me. I don’t know why or how but when I saw his face, something inside me broke, too. “Lee’s what’s wrong?” I ask. He doesn’t reply. I shake him. “Lee?” He just grabs me and holds me close. His arms are wrapped so tight around me, like it’s the one thing keeping him from floating off Earth. I don’t complain, though. I just wrap my arms around him tightly. “P-Please,” Lee stutters—another rare thing. He only speaks suavely, never stutters. “Please stay like this for a while. And please don’t ask what’s wrong.” I nod into his shoulder but I already know what’s going on. Under his personality and hard cold presence, he is human. He has feelings. This is real. It’s probably because his birthday reminds him of his father. When I celebrated my birthday for the first time after my father’s death, everything felt so wrong. Memories had flooded me of the past and I just couldn’t feel happy. Rubbing my hands in circles on his back, I kept repeating, “It’s going to be okay, Lee. I’m here. It’s okay.” Lee pulls back and holds my face in his hands. “I’m so glad you’re here with me, Ivory.” Is he slurring? He rubs his thumb over my cheek. He presses his forehead to mine and I just stare at his blue eyes. No wonder everyone loved blue eyes. “I think I like you,” he murmurs and before my eyes can widen, he kisses me. The man who hated my guts is kissing me. And the scariest part is that I’m enjoying it. No, I tell myself. And did I hear that right? He… likes me? I push him away and he whimpers in sadness—I feel the same. “Lee,” I whisper. “We can’t.” But he’s not listening to me because he passes out. Wait, what? And then I notice the bottles of alcohol behind him. I knew he wasn’t being himself. I sigh. Wait, why was I sighing? Did I actually want him to sincerely kiss me? Yes. I shake my head and repeat, No. No. No. It’s winter and it’s cold. I don’t want him to freeze. I lean down and put his head on my lap. Reaching into his pocket, I get his phone and dial up the chauffer to pick us up. Everyone else starts to leave, too, since we already cut the cake. When the chauffer arrives, he helps Lee get to the car and I make sure I have everything with me before leaving. “Ivory!” Mark calls. I turn around, a step away from the door. He catches up to me. “Hey, I had a really fun time. It’s good to have someone to talk to. I don’t really have friends.” “Really?” I ask, shocked. “Well, I’m your friend.” I grin as he grins back. I grab a napkin from a nearby table and jot down my number. “Hey. Here’s my number. We should hang out soon. Oh, and it’s just as friends. I’m not hitting on you.” I chuckle. Mark chuckles, too. “I’ll keep that in mind.” We bid goodbyes and we wave before I run outside in the rain. It’s pouring heavily now. I hop in the car and Lee’s sleeping inside there. He’s soaked as I am. His hair is all over his face. I move his bangs to the side away from his eyes. He looks so sweet when he’s sleeping. I trail my hands away from his hair and to his lips—his soft lips that I kissed earlier.