“Yep,” I said with a forced smile. Of course, I swallowed down what was supposed to come after it; that his skin was just as thick.
Holden caught sight of my expression and immediately figured out I was mocking him. His eyes narrowed and he whined, “Scar! Why are you mocking me again-”
Suddenly, a pair of hands roughly shoved a piece of fruit into Holden’s mouth.
Holden frowned and chewed. “What is this?”
“Dragon fruit,” Ashton said coldly.
“Sh*t! I have trypophobia!”
After that, he made a beeline for the bathroom.
After a series of loud retches, the sound of the toilet flushing rang out.
Ashton glanced at me and shrugged innocently. “I had no clue.”
Holden walked out of the bathroom. “Sh*t. Ashton, are you a proper man or not? That was below the belt!”
Ashton leaned against the sofa wordlessly.
I burst out laughing. “Well, as the saying goes, do stupid things, win stupid prizes. God’s teaching you a lesson.”
Holden suddenly started babbling even more. “God? I fought God a long time ago and I’m only standing here because I won! If not, I’d probably have been chopped up and fed to the fishes. No one can teach me a lesson now unless I want to be taught.”
As he spoke, he returned to his comfortable perch on the sofa and lay down casually, completely making this place his home.
He almost seemed as if he were dozing off for a second before he bounced back up like a spring. After he sat up straight, he suddenly stared at me intensely, looking almost like a wolf staring at its prey.
“Just to remind you, if you keep staring at me like that, the man behind you is going to teach you another lesson.”
Holden was staring at me like a predator staking out its prey, and Ashton was like the hunter right behind him with his rifle pointed straight at Holden’s head. As for me, the poor deer stuck in between, I felt goosebumps beginning to rise on my arms.
It was already hard enough to hold back my laughter at the mere sight of Holden, so I really couldn’t find it in me to actually be serious on top of that.
Holden looked back and waved Ashton away. “I’m talking business here. Don’t butt in, buddy.”
He placed a hand on the armrest of my armchair and leaned over. His sentimental gaze was still staring into my soul. “You’re pretty good at keeping secrets, huh? I’ve known you for so long, and yet I’ve never known that you were such an artist.”
Ashton reached out and pulled him back. “Hey, watch it. Haven’t you heard that you should never go after your friend’s wife?”
“But-”
“No exceptions.”
Holden was speechless and sighed heavily in response. “All right, I see what you’re doing. I can’t believe I’ve spent the last six years helping you find your wife and this is how you treat me! What happened to us being friends?”
The two of them stared each other down, as stubborn as bulls. For some reason, the whole scene looked strangely comedic.
“Hey, hey, you’ve been friends for so long! Is it really worth it to fight right now?” I quickly decided to become the mediator. “It was just a joke! Just be the bigger person and step down, both of you. Let’s get back to business. Why were you talking about art just now?”
Holden was clearly still in a huffy mood and he said impatiently, “There’s an organization in Eastern Epea who’s been selling art pieces under your name. It’s really made a huge change to our currency!”
When we heard the word ‘currency,’ Ashton and I exchanged glances. Clearly, we had arrived at the same conclusion.
Suddenly, a familiar male voice called out from the doorway, “Oh, do you guys have a visitor? Maybe we should have come another day.”
I turned to see Nick and Rose walk in.
Nick was holding Rose’s hand and she was holding onto his arm affectionately. Every few steps, they would glance at each other as if making sure the other person was still there. It definitely seemed like they were on great terms.
I could tell from just Rose’s gaze alone. She was smiling so hard her eyes shone and crinkled at the corners.
Because of our past issues with Jackson, Nick and I weren’t exactly close anymore and we chose not to interact with each other if possible. All I heard about him was whatever I got from Cameron, and I was happy to hear that he was on good terms with Rose again. I was also glad to hear that he had managed to expand the company through the Walker family’s help and was extremely successful now. Apart from being happy for him as an older sister, I was also relieved to see that the two of them were so lovey-dovey.
