Chapter 57 - Text-it

After his daughter had hung up the call, Simon Yang pouted and turned to his wife who was putting moisturizer on her legs.

"Squirrel, did I do something wrong? Why did Nana hang up on me? She even yelled at me…" He hung his head and hugged Diane from behind.

Diane giggled and patted him on his cheek.

"I told you that she might be busy. But did you listen?" She smirked at him through the mirror.

"I was just excited to tell her the news that Wayne is going to return earlier than what they expect." He lifted her by the hand when he saw that she was done and they walked to their bed.

"Oh I know exactly what you were excited about." Diane stared at him intensely.

Seeing this, Simon just turned his head away from her sheepishly.

"I do not know what you are talking about." He solemnly shook his head.

-----

Last night, Diane had woken up in the middle of the night only to find that her husband was not by her side. She searched for him all over and found him in the kitchen, whispering on the phone.

Curious about who he was talking to so excitedly, this late in the night, she stealthily eavesdropped on his conversation.

"You sure no one will know about this? Especially that person?" Simon looked around when he said this. After making sure that no one was around, he continued.

"That doesn't matter, just make sure that it reaches her safely. Don't worry I will reward you handsomely." He listened to what the other person was speaking.

'Her? Who is Si talking to? Who the hell is this 'her' and what exactly is he sending her?' Diane clenched her palms, ready to burst in and beat her husband to a pulp.

"Good job Wayne. Don't worry I'll take care of him later. I am his father after all." He proudly rubbed his nose and hung up.

Diane who was rolling up the sleeves of her nightgown froze at this.

'He did it again, didn't he?' Facepalming herself, Diane quietly backed away from the kitchen when Simon was drinking water.

'I better run before he's done. I'll confront him about this tomorrow!' Diane scampered away to their bedroom and pretended to be asleep when Simon snuggled with her after he returned.

---

Back to the present,

"So you don't know what I am talking about? How about I spell it out for you?" She folded her arms in front of her chest and stared at him.

"I concede!" Not being able to face her sharp eyes, Simon admitted his defeat in a matter of seconds.

"How could I let him one up me? So I sent her something that would dazzle her for sure!" Simon's eyes sparkled as he told Diane why he did it.

Simon Yang hated it when his son would go on his vacations and buy Lina all kinds of presents. 

Before leaving this time, his son, Wind had declared that he would snatch away the #1 spot in Lina's heart that belonged to her father.

How could he just sit still while Wind weaseled his way to the top spot? So he had bribed Wayne to let him see what Wind had bought for Lina and he bought her stuff that was better.

"You know that your materialistic things won't secure a place in her heart, right? My Nana isn't that shallow!" Mommy Yang declared.

"I know she isn't, but seeing them she'll always remember me more than that guy!" Simon pumped his fists.

"That 'guy' is your first born child, you big baby!" Diane hit him on his head with a pillow.

"Plus maybe in the near future, that top spot may not belong to either one of you. So stop this childish competition." Diane rubbed his head and kissed him on the nose.

"What do you mean? Are you talking about Patrick? Nah that idiot is no competition." Simon said as he nuzzled his head in her neck.

"Oh Papa Yang! I'm talking about some guy who will whisk our Nana way from us." She giggled when she felt him freeze.

"No way! My doll is too young to find someone!" He stubbornly said and gritted his teeth.

'Whoever plans on snatching my doll away will have to face me and my army's wrath!' His golden eyes flared.

"Look who's talking! You were following me around like a pup when I was Lina's age. So don't be a hypocrite when it comes to her." She laughed thinking of the good old days.

"I still follow you around like a pup, my squirrel." He said with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"Yea more like a bloodthirsty hound." She replied sarcastically.

The moment these words left her mouth, Simon pounced on her, pinning her down.

"I concede!" Diane yelled while giggling.

'This is the one place where I can never defeat him.' She thought and tried to please the hound that was looking straight into her eyes.

---------------

On the other side of the world,

Lina reached home after her talk with Stuart and asked Mrs. Ping to prepare something light for her dinner.

She wasted her time watching the daily soap with Suzie until Butler Ping called them when the dinner was ready.

Lina was wearing her Spongebob yellow pjs and her hair was tied in a messy bun as she sat at the table.

'Uncle Pat has been MIA for the past few days. I miss him!' She remembered Pat when she sat alone at the huge dinner table with no one there to give her company.

Patrick was still busy and unwilling to come back and Wade had returned to the Luo mansion to prepare for his trip. Whereas she did not want to think about the whereabouts of Mandy and her mother.

She silently ate her food and went back to her room.

After her shower, she sat on the ottoman in her closet, thinking of what to wear for the next day. 

'I really need to buy formals to wear to work.' She got a headache seeing all the clothes that would be wildly inappropriate for work and made up her mind to go shopping on Saturday, even if she had to do it all alone.

Having decided on what to wear, she walked to the dresser and sat down. She slowly finished her bedtime skincare routine and fell onto her soft queen sized bed.

She switched on her phone to check for any emails and replied to a few of them. Most of them were from Benji giving her regular updates about her Obsidia HQ over there.

*Ping* 

Lina received a *New Text Message* notification on her phone and switched to her messaging app 'Text-it' and opened the message from a person named 'Gwen-D-Lyn'.

[Hey girl! How's the new place treating you?] Her BFF Gwen had texted her. 

Lina, with her weird habit of nicknaming people, changed Gwendylyn to Gwen-D-Lyn.

Gwen and Lina had been friends since the day Lina's family arrived in America and she could be considered as one of Lina's oldest and best friends.

[It's fine. But I seriously miss you.] Lina sent multiple sad emojis to show just how much she missed her.

[Aww baby, I miss you too! Did you not make any new friends there?]  

[I did. A couple actually.] 

Lina told her about Steph and Leon and maybe even Julia in the future.

She loved making friends, but only wanted wholesome and positive friendships. Not ones where you need to constantly watch out for the knife that might stab you in the back.

[I heard Hitoshi-san and his team is gonna visit you. You know what that means right?] Gwen sent winky faces and teased her.

[I know! We are gonna have a blast! They'll be here the day after tomorrow and I can't wait!] Lina was excited to meet her team again. Especially one particular person from her team.

They spoke about a few more things and said goodbye when Gwen had other matters to attend.

'I can't wait till Sunday when I get to meet them again!' She squealed into her pillow and rolled on her bed.

She went to sleep with a wide smile on her face, thinking of meeting her friend once again.

-----

Morning came and Lina woke up refreshed today. She noticed that it was much earlier than her usual timing. 

Feeling her stomach gurgle, she washed up and sauntered to the kitchen to make her healthy smoothie.

'Maybe last night's dinner was not enough.' 

When she reached the kitchen, she saw that only the chef had arrived. He was a middle aged European man with sharp features and a head full of pale blonde hair. 

The man was shorter than her and he stood there blending her a banana smoothie. He smiled when he noticed her and pointed to the pan that was on the stove, he had already prepared everything for her.

"Thank you, Chef..." She stopped because she did not know his name.

"It's Pavlov Greene, Young miss." He smiled at her as he handed over the banana smoothie and blueberry pancakes to her.

"Do you want to join me?" She asked him, tired of eating all alone and he agreed maybe because he too felt bad for her.

They sat together and ate the pancakes, while Lina told him stories of her disasters in the kitchen. Pavlov laughed and he too told her of his funny fails.

He told her about how Patrick had found his cooking delightful on a trip to Europe and practically begged him to move all the way to this country to be the Yang family's personal chef. 

The proposal was tempting because he too wanted to challenge himself with new things and hence after a few negotiating sessions, he finally agreed and made the life altering decision of moving here. 

She asked him if he ever regretted leaving behind everything to start anew and he replied that he felt nostalgic about his birth land but that could not be considered as regret.

They finished their breakfast laughing and enjoying each other's company. She thanked him for the lovely breakfast and went upstairs to prepare for a new day at work.

When Lina left, Pavlov saw the empty plates in his hands and smiled.

'There are two young ladies in this family and both are poles apart. I definitely like this one better.' He nodded and put the dishes to be washed.