Page 5 of Billionaire’s Promise

“Friends,” he said.

That would be very nice indeed. If I could be his friend, and maybe more.

“Do you like KTV?” Kai changed the subject.

I had no idea what he meant. I had heard of MTV, but I had a feeling he was talking about something else. “I’m not too sure.”

“Come. I’ll show you.” Kai held out a hand and led me out to the living room. Being up-close to him made me realize how tall he was. A little over six foot, perhaps. And it made me feel a bit fuzzy, in a good way.

Kai turned on the television, along with two boxes that I had never seen before. As the TV came alive, the screen showed an original music video of a song by the Spice Girls without the singing voices. “Karaoke.” I recognized it right away.

“Yes, some people call it karaoke.” Kai gave me a microphone and a remote control. “You can find any song you want.”

“Any song?”

“Yes, any song. As long as you have the internet, you can connect to the server I subscribe to in China and download any song in the world.”

“Where did you get this?” Kai had these deep eyes that were like black holes that could suck out your soul. I shook my head to apologize for my behavior. If only Kai knew what I was thinking as I stared at him.

Someone as beautiful as Kai must get stared at a lot. On that note, I suddenly felt not as guilty.

“From China of course,” he explained.

Beautiful people are meant to be shared, no I mean stared at. Or shared. No, shut up.

“You brought this thing all the way from China?” Why would someone go through the trouble of shipping something like this over? “We have karaoke here you know?”

He turned his face and looked directly at me. “I know you have everything here, princess, but yours suck so bad.”

I was shocked but I didn’t know whether I was more shocked that he dared to suggest that our precious American products could possibly suck, or that he just called me princess again.

“Why do you keep calling me princess? Do you call every girl princess?”

He shrugged. “Not every girl. You know, when I was young, and reading those silly illustrated books about fairy tales…well, you’re exactly what I imagined a princess would look like.”

“I see.”

I shook off the thought of him being my prince and me being his princess and changed the topic.

Although I was genuinely curious about how the subscription worked, how artists get paid, whether it was legal at all…right now, I just wanted to enjoy the rest of my evening with this man. This man who had the ability to distract me from my pain, my grief, even just for a little bit.

My big brother joined us for a while before passing out on the couch.

I didn’t want the night to end. Chloe’s sudden departure had made me cling onto the present so much tighter than I used to.

The next morning, I woke up in my bed. The boys had gone back to their life, doing whatever they were supposed to be doing.

The last thing I remembered was leaning on Kai’s shoulder, singing to Jeff Buckley, wondering if it was less painful to die drowning compared to being burnt alive. And that his cologne smells ridiculously amazing, calming and addictive. I closed my eyes again, hoping that making a second, more realistic wish now, long after blowing out the candles would still count. I want to sniff him again.

Weird.

1

June

Did I have social anxiety or was I just an introvert? I don’t know. But my work required me to face the public sometimes, and to conquer that fear, I had to fight and convince the trillions of tiny reluctant cells within my body.

Sunglasses. Hat. Facemask. Check. Check. Check.