"I see that you are having a good time, Rohan," Andrew glowered at him.
"Just listening to your wife's adventures, Jordan," Maxwell answered mildly.
Celia grinned and continued, "We sorted it all out, though. I insisted on calling Sylby, of course. How distrustful of me!"
"You were just being cautious," Andrew said in her defence.
She beamed at him and patted his hand absentmindedly as she continued, "It turned out that Sylby would be gone for longer than she intended, so she chose to rent the place out to whoever might need it. She didn't want her paintings to feel lonely."
Andrew snorted, "Sounds like cock-and..."
"Her choice, babe," Celia said, and Andrew shrugged.
"She is very polite, though. She must have been itching to tell me to mind my effing business, but she was polite to me. Her name is Beatrice. She would only be here for a month. I like her. We are going to be friends," she decided on the spot.
"I thought Sylby was your friend? Why do you need another?" Jordan asked.
Celia rolled her eyes and asked Maxwell. "How do you put up with him?"
Before he could answer, she turned back to Andrew and said, "I can have more than one friend, babe. We can't all be like you, you know."
She said it with a poke of her tongue at him.
"What do you mean by..."
As the two of them exchanged banter, Maxwell smiled and enjoyed his drink.
With her pixie face and small build, Celia had his friend wrapped around her little finger.
She was the perfect match for his once-cynical friend.
Even he could see the influence she had on him.
Once again, Maxwell wondered if he would ever melt at the sight of a woman, just like Andrew did now.
Maybe once upon a time, he might have believed he might, but not anymore.
Andrew and Celia are two of the rarest people in the world.
Their type of fortune wasn't meant for everyone.
As Andrew grabbed Celia and the latter squealed while begging for mercy, Maxwell knew it was time for him to take his leave.
"I guess we will continue this tomorrow?" he said as he set his glass down on the table.
"Oh, did I interrupt your meeting? Oh, silly me. I have forgotten all about that," Celia exclaimed.
"What? No, you didn't interrupt anything," Andrew said as he drew her closer to himself.
"Not at all," Maxwell confirmed when she looked up at him.
"Celia insists we don't keep the staff up at night. See yourself out, Rohan," Andrew said with a smile as he made no move to stand up from his wife's embrace.
"Good night, Celia," Maxwell said as he leaned towards her so she could kiss his cheek.
"Goodnight, Maxie. Sorry about my husband's poor hosting skills."
"Hey!" Andrew said in protest.
Maxwell smiled and saw himself out as the couple became engrossed in each other again.
As he walked towards his car, he heard Celia's laughter ring out in the clear night.
It was a sound that warmed Maxwell's heart.
A sound of joy.
He wondered if he was capable of making a woman that happy.
He shook off the disturbing thought as he entered his car and drove down the artful driveway that led to the self-operating gate that was set far from Rohan's mansion.
The six-acre property rivalled his own home, but then he realised that his home was missing one vital ingredient: warmth.
Maxwell scoffed at himself as the gate mechanism let him through.
He wondered what was wrong with him today.
The fact that his mind wanted to go to a particular clip only angered him more.
He was not a man to sit around and think of silly matters.
Yet here he was wondering about what-ifs.
He firmly shut his mind against all forms of silly thoughts.
As he got to the main avenue, where other houses were, he could see the lights on in Sylby's home.
Just as his car approached the house, the front door opened.
**********
Reyona woke up to an incessant ringing tone.
She looked around blearily, and it took her a moment to realise that her phone was not beside her on the king-size bed.
She groaned out loud as she raised herself up, but her head protested.
"Uggh," she groaned as she saw the wine bottle and half-finished glass of wine on the bedside.
The phone rang again, and she was tempted to just smother herself with the colourful pillows strewn all around her, and get it done and over with.
"Leave me alone," she muttered with a groan.
Then she realised that the sound was not entirely coming from the phone that was on the pink rattan accent chair on the other side of the room.
Some of the ruckus was coming from the TV she had on.
She looked at the box of candied nuts beside the bed and shook her head.
An action she regretted immediately as she grabbed her head
"So much for cooking up a storm," she thought to herself.
She groped around until her hand was touching the remote, and she switched off the TV.
The blissful silence that followed was like water to her patched throat.
Then the phone started ringing again.
"Oh, I am going to kill that person," she vowed to herself as she painstakingly stood from the bed and shuffled towards the phone as fast as her aching head would allow.
She snatched up the phone just as the call disconnected again.
The fact that it was already past 10 a. m. was the least of her surprises.
She couldn't believe she slept through twelve missed calls!
She smiled and winced when she saw who the caller was.
The phone started ringing again before she could call back.
She dropped heavily into the rattan chair as she picked.
"Rey?"
"Go away, Toria," she mumbled.
"Reyona? What is going on? Why are you sounding like... Did that bastard find you? Did he do anything to you?!"
Reyona had to pull the phone away from her ear for a moment before her head would explode.
Then she put the phone on speaker as she said, "Toria? Toria, I am fine. Perfectly fine. This is self-inflicted. I think I got drunk last night."
That shocked Toria more than anything else.
"What? Who are you? What did you do with my sister?"