Chương 7: Chapter 7
The young man got up and reached for the bag of wine that Kate had reluctantly shared. He pulled out one of the bottles, saw the label, and chuckled, showing his pearly-white teeth. "Heh, what a strong wine you've got here. You really want to get blackout drunk, huh?"
He then opened two bottles of wine with practiced ease and handed Kate one bottle like a gentleman. "Here's yours, I'm guessing you have a lot of reasons to drink right now. You must be exhausted from everything weighing on your mind. Get drunk with me and forget about all of it, alright?"
Kate hesitated for a second. After all, getting drunk with a stranger was not the safest thing in the world. But the man's gaze was reassuring, as if wordlessly telling her that everything would be fine. At least for tonight.
Kate bravely grabbed the bottle and took one big gulp without even thinking twice. She winced when she felt the burn as the alcohol hit her throat. But that quickly faded and she was soon relaxed enough to continue drinking.
This time, she savored the sweet and tangy flavors of the wine as it spread through her mouth before finally swallowing it.
The mysterious man had been carefully watching Kate. As she started to slump into the sofa, he said softly, "There you go. We're here to chill and talk about our problems after we get drunk enough."
Taking his cue from Kate, he also leaned back against his seat before downing half his bottle in one smooth motion. "Ahh… that hits the spot, nice."
Kate's eyes instinctively wandered over him , admiring how inviting his stretched neck looked had it been planted with a few hickeys. Luckily she caught herself before he noticed. She determinedly warded off the erotic thoughts that had entered her mind—she was here to get drunk and vent about her problems. Nothing more, nothing less. She took another huge gulp of wine.
This was her plan from the beginning, anyway. There was no difference whether this man was here or not.
She stared at the ceiling, preoccupied with her own thoughts, clueless to the man sitting across from her, oblivious to how his powerful gaze was locked on her. There was long, understood silence between them until Kate finally had the courage to ask, "What's your name?"
The man broke into a cheeky smile. "Never thought that Miss Chief Editor would be interested in me. Do you really want to know my name?"
"Tsk, forget it," Kate clicked her tongue and looked away. She wasn't in the mood to play along.
"Hey, don't be so tense, I'm just fooling around," the man said. "I don't think you need to know my name. It's unnecessary."
"Unnecessary? You already know my name and I'm not allowed to know yours?" Kate rolled her eyes. "I thought you wanted us to relax and talk about each other's problems. But you can't even tell me your name, how am I supposed to trust you to listen to my problems?"
"You can tell me all of your problems without knowing my name. You just need a person to vent to, right?Besides, we will never meet each other again after tonight. There is a beauty in anonymity."
When she didn't respond, he continued, "In fact, it's better if you didn't know who I am. Because that means we will always be strangers, and why do you care about what a stranger thinks about your life?"
Kate went silent for a moment and thought about what this mysterious man had just said. Somehow she agreed with him.
It was better to let her problems out to a stranger she had zero connections with. Because all she needed was someone to listen to her woes right now, right at this moment. She needed someone to know that she had worked her ass off for Matt, that she had done her best as a wife to make him happy despite her infertility. And yet, that still wasn't enough.
Tomorrow she would go back to being the assertive and capable Editor-in-Chief who almost never showed any weakness in public or in private. She would be the independent Ms Katherine Woods again. But today the stone wall around her had broken along with her heart. She felt awfully vulnerable and worthless.
Kate finally turned her head to the right towards the mysterious man and demanded, "Promise me that you will also tell your story after I have told you mine. I don't want to be the only weak one."
"Sure, I also need someone to listen to my woes anyway."
Kate nodded slightly. She lifted her glass and took a large gulp of her wine, her liquid courage. She waited until her throat burned again and took it as a sign that it was time to pour out whatever pains she had been keeping buried deep down. Across from her, the man mirrored her actions.
"Well, I don't know how to explain my problem," Kate sighed. "I've never told others about my worries or my pains because I don't want to appear weak."
"Then let me guess what your problem is," the man said as he looked into her eyes, looking deep into her soul. "It won't be difficult for you to speak once I know the problem, right?"
"Guess?" Kate frowned. "How can you guess my problem?"
"I can because it's so obvious. You're like an open book, Katherine."
"Then do it."
The man's smile broadened.When he spoke it was with confidence, as if he already knew the truth and wasn't simply speculating. "You are married to a useless husband who refused to find a job, so you have to work crazy hours to compensate for his laziness, right?"
Kate's eyes widened instantly. She almost dropped her wine bottle out of shock.
"H—How did you know?" Kate managed to ask. She was immediately on guard once more. "Seriously, are you my stalker or what?"
"Heh, I don't even need to stalk you to know." The young man lazily extended a finger to point at Kate's hand. "That ring tells me everything."
NEW BOOK ALERT!
Please check out CEO's Billion Dollar BabyMomma!
Chương 8: Chapter 8
Kate instinctively touched the ring on her finger. This man was surprisingly observant despite being drunk.
"J—Just because I'm married doesn't mean that my problem stems from my marriage," Kate tried desperately to defend herself, she felt too exposed for her own comfort.
Honestly, Kate still suspected that he was a stalker. But then again, what was the point of stalking her? She was neither an important person nor a beauty worthy of being obsessed with.
She was just an ordinary working woman with too much stress weighing down on her shoulders.
"That's true," the man nodded as he took another gulp. "But relationships are often the main source of problems for a married career woman. Most of them are forced to choose between their husband or their job."
"I know that you must be earning a lot from your job as the Chief Editor, but you also work crazy hours because of it," the man commented. "So the only reason for your meltdown must be a fight between you and your husband regarding your work hours and his uselessness."
The man stopped to give her time to react. She raised a questioning brow as she waited for him to continue.
"Why do I think he is useless? Well, no self-respecting man will allow his wife to work like a robot if he is rich enough to support them."
Kate's jaw dropped as this young man explained his accurate observation of her, and that last sentence was a nail in the coffin.
It was true. No man would want his wife to work herself to the point of exhaustion if he was well off.
"But, I don't think you are crying just because you had a fight with him, right?" The young man said, pulling Kate back from her thoughts. "There must be something more. A deeper reason, a bigger problem."
"And why do you think that?" Kate asked.
There was a little uncertainty on the young man's face for a second, "Because you look like a tough woman. You won't cry over a small argument."
…
Kate scoffed when she realized that she couldn't hide anything in front of this young man. He looked like a university frat boy, the type of young adult who focused on partying all weekend and barely used his brain during classes.
But he caught her off guard with how observant he was.
"You're pretty keen for a drunk frat boy," Kate commented sarcastically. "Not bad, not bad at all."
"Heheh, I'm just drunk, not stupid," the man said. It seemed that he didn't take offense from Kate's comment. He was more amused instead, because it was the first time someone referred to him as a drunk frat boy.
But that was fine, they were supposed to be strangers, so they weren't supposed to know each other's identities.
"Well, if you must know, the answer is yes, it's not just a fight. It's..." Kate took a deep breath, wondering if she could really pour her heart out to this man tonight.. They were strangers, so there was no point hiding anything, they'd forget about each other tomorrow morning.
She took a deep breath and dropped the bomb, "It's because he cheated on me."
Kate waited for a reaction from the man across the table. But he didn't react, he stayed passive, as if he had predicted what she was going to say, as if it was something bound to happen.
Kate was a little disappointed that he wasn't at all surprised, but she continued nonetheless, "And he cheated on me with my own sister. The same sister I raised since she was a child."
"Now that's surprising," the man finally commented, shaking his head and taking another drink from the wine bottle. "I didn't expect him to cheat on you with your sister, seriously, that's messed up."
"But you still expected him to cheat on me?"
"Of course," the man said ruthlessly. "I mean, isn't it bound to happen? A useless man who is a failure at life cheats on his highly successful wife out of spite or boredom, whichever suits him best, and then acts like he is the one who got hurt the most when caught. As if he was the victim and not the other way around."
…
Kate sighed, "You're right. It was bound to happen. How could I have not expected it?"
"Still, it doesn't make him right. Don't worry, I'm on your side," the man reassured her. "So, what happened after you caught him cheating? Did he apologize?"
"Hah! As if!" Kate snorted. "He told me that he wants an open relationship, and I that should accept that he is going to fuck other women because… well, because he wants to!"
Kate was about to say that Matt cheated because she was barren, but that was something too personal and she was too ashamed to say it out loud. She didn't want anyone to know, not even a stranger she would never meet again.
"Unreasonable! don't tell me that you're accepting his open relationship bullshit," the man snorted in contempt. "Unless you want to do that open-relationship stuff as well. You don't, right?"
…
Kate stared at the man and almost said that she wanted to do the same.
It wasn't because she wanted it, no, she could never, but she wanted it as an act of revenge against that useless fucker called Matt. He cheated on her? Then she could do the same!
But in the end, her logic stopped her from saying something stupid, it was a good thing that she wasn't drunk as a dog right now.
"No, I don't want an open relationship. I just want to be in a relationship with one man that loves me, a normal loving relationship," Kate stated. But she was also unsure of her own statement.
"And that man, your husband, will you stay with him?" The man asked.
"Oh fuck no!" Kate denied vehemently as she shook her head, the thought of staying with him after that was outrageous. "I've already done so much for him and this is how he repays me? I'm not an idiot who would reconcile after he cheated and humiliated me!"
"Well, what are you waiting for then?" The man got up from the sofa and walked up to Kate. He stretched his hand and opened his palm. "Give me your ring."
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO
ForeverPupa
ForeverPupa
Do you like the story so far? Please support me with powerstone! Thank you everyone! <3
NEW BOOK ALERT!
Please check out CEO's Billion Dollar BabyMomma!
Quà tặng
-- Nhận quà Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
200+ Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
76 Đá
Quyền lực 
bình luận đoạn văn