Chapter 59
Seoul, Korea
Hotel’s World Cuisine Restaurant
William Lee sat at a table in a private dining booth with a laptop open. Absently he dipped French fries in oyster sauce before shoving them in his mouth with one hand. The other hand was taping away on his laptop, doing the impossible, they say.
When a file landed on the table, he didn’t startle.
“Please, sit,” Will greeted, motioning towards the seat across from him.
Lula wasn’t amused. “In there is your background with my client. You are not lovers or former lovers, you are not in a relationship, you are just friends. Do you understand?”
Will looked up at her, closing his laptop. “Sit, you look tired.” He motioned a waiter over. “Lièvre à la royale, Consommé, Coq au Vin, Eggs en Meurette, Choucroute Garnie à l'Alsacienne, deux,” he ordered, holding two fingers up.
The waiter nodded then hurried off to put in the complex French cuisine order.
“Classy order for a man wearing pajamas and slippers in a four-star restaurant that’s dipping McDonald’s French fries in oyster sauce from a packet,” Lula pointed out.
He smiled. “I’m classy like that, or did you forget?”
“You are many things, but classy is the last thing I’d ever call you,” she retorted, taking the offered seat with much reluctance. “I should thank you-” she started.
“Someone once told me,” Will interrupted, “that apologies are useless because they are much too common in the world anymore. Even if your gratitude is earnest and sincere, it means very little to anyone anymore. Instead, show gratitude with a smile over a meal with an old friend.”
She gave him a look. “I am not your friend.”
“Ex-security, ball-breaker, wicked witch of South-Central France? Take your pick of whichever you want to call yourself when it pertains to me and our past,” he offered, pouring her a drink from the bottle on the table. “Call me whatever you like but I shall always call you Devil in the Morning, Lethal with a Baton, Breathtaking in the Moonlight, and Destroyer of my Heart.”
Lula rolled her eyes. “Maturity at its finest,” she dryly commented before taking a drink then made a face. “Chocolate milk, really?”
He smiled wide. “You know I’m a simple man, Lula. And you could never appreciate that.”
“Simple is not hacking the lighting system on the Eiffel Tower and nearly all of Paris and changing the colors to magenta-”
“For your birthday,” he reminded her. “Most women get flowers-”
“I did. Remember? You bought me Kairaku-en, Kenroku-en and Koraku-en,” she reminded him. “The Three Great Gardens of Japan, that weren’t for sale but you somehow managed to buy them for me,” she said.
“And yet you weren’t appreciative in the least,” he said.
“It is hard to appreciate when it is excessive,” Lula pointed out.
“Romantic,” Will corrected. “What is the point of having all the money in the world if the woman I want to send it on won’t let me spend it foolishly on her?”
“Which woman are we talking about?” she asked. “The model Song Rong? The aspiring singer Tan Xiulan? Finger painter Kong Qi?”
The corners of his mouth twitched; she kept up on the rumors when it came to who the tabloids said he was entertaining, and that meant something.
“You forgot the actress Wei Shan,” Will pointed out with a smile.
“Lesbian and we both know it,” Lula scoffed and he nodded his agreement. “Lai Qiuyue was interesting though,” she commented, stealing some of his fries.
Will rolled his eyes. “Interesting as in tried to kill me by driving through a crowd of people when I wasn’t even there and taking out my third double in the process?” he retorted.
“Yes, by far the most interesting of the lot,” she agreed. “And that double was rubbish. How they ever thought he was you was beyond me. He was three inches shorter and had brown eyes.” She dipped some of the fries in the oyster sauce before shoving them in her mouth then made a face. “You have the strangest taste in food and it hasn’t improved at all.”
“I know,” he said. “Oyster and soy sauce were the easiest to steal growing up so everything was drizzled in it to make it edible. All the money in the world won’t ever make those memories go away, and I wouldn’t want it to. It keeps me grounded, I think.”
Lula nodded; she knew that already.
When nervous or anxious, William Lee rambled because the silence he wasn’t comfortable in. That was why he spent so much time in the server farm at work; the continual hum of machines filled the silence. Lula was the only person that ever understood that and would make sure there was never silence when she was around; she’d hum under her breath so he knew she was there and not feel alone, regardless of how much he had annoyed her that day.
“Even if thanks are redundant in your opinion,” Lula said.
“I was quoting you,” he pointed out.
She glared at him. “Yes, I know. Either way, I am grateful your annoying self has done what you have for us when it pertains to this job. For the first time, since you, I wasn’t prepared for everything it entailed.”
Will offered a smile. “You’re perfect, Lula Yasuhiro, even when you epically screw up you are perfect in my eyes,” he promised and she threw a French fry at him. “Perfection is overrated without its flaws. The backstory, will it hold up?” he asked, reading through the file she provided, changing the subject. “Won’t my playboy behavior and history with the media and tabloids ruin your client’s squeaky clean image?”
Lula smirked. “Possibly, but the media and nation knows she’d never entertain a bad boy, regardless of how Saint like he truly is behind the scenes.”
He gasped, as if offended. “You should be ashamed of yourself, Lula Yasuhiro. Flirting so openly with your client’s short term, claimed, red carpet date is truly unprofessional.”
She chuckled. “You’re an idiot.”
“Genius, but you can call me anything your little carved from ice heart desires.”
“For a genius you have really bad taste in women,” Lula reminded him with a smile, but it was completely fabricated and they both knew it.
The biggest mistake Lula Yasuhiro ever made in her career was falling into bed with her client…
A mistake that is haunting her because no matter what she does William Lee is right around the corner making sure he was inserted into her life whether she wanted him there or not.
“What’s wrong?” Will asked, his smile falling. “You don’t truly believe I think your heart is made of ice, do you?” he asked when a tear gathered at the corner of her eye.
She chuckled, dabbing away the moisture. “Not at all. I’m just tired, William. That’s all.”
Will offered a smile; she only called him William when on the verge of emotionally losing it. “Did you have plans this evening?” he asked.
“I’m not going on a date with you,” Lula said.
“Not a date. I just need a driver, and after Lucien nearly made me puke on the way to the hotel with his James Bond style driving, I rather have safe than fast at the moment. Will you humor an old friend?”
If he had an ulterior motive, Lula didn’t know, but it was the least she could do for him.
“Have I ever not humored you?” she offered, and he smiled wide.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
