Chapter 161 - My First Kiss

"Who does that brat think he is!?" Mr. Long punched the wall when he saw that Reuben Ming had walked away after casually insulting him.

The woman by his side tried to wrap her arms around his waist but was pushed aside.

She stumbled a few feet away from him because of her high heels and glared at him with a hurt expression on her face.

"If you had just waited till we reached our room then he wouldn't have discovered us!?" He pointed his finger at her nose and accused her.

The woman's eyes widened and she clenched her jaw but did not say anything in return.

"Don't look at me like that! Now let us just hope that he doesn't reveal anything to my wife and her family!" He scowled at her with blazing eyes.

He then nervously wiped the sweat that had formed on his balding head and glanced at his phone.

"I'm leaving!" He declared and then strode away, leaving the woman frozen in the same place.

She watched as he took a different turn to avoid running into Reuben and then vanished from her sight.

"Heh! You think I was sleeping with you because I like it?" She sneered once she knew that she was left alone.

She was an intern at a news channel that was run by Mr. Long.

There was an opening for the anchor's position on a popular news show and that was the only reason why she was willing to sleep with this bald middle-aged man.

She had been working hard to get closer to him and a few weeks back she had succeeded.

Now all she had to do was keep him pleased until she signed the contract but today's incident was going to cause problems in achieving her career goals.

Remembering the disgusted look that Lina had shot at her, the woman gritted her teeth and walked to the room that they had booked earlier.

"Why should I waste the room that has already been paid for?" She rolled her eyes and strode away.

______

The moment Lina and Reuben had left that place and walked to rejoin the party, there was an awkward silence between them.

Both had multiple thoughts and questions that were swirling around their mind but they did not know how to ask them.

'We just kissed but what now? Are we still friends or do we start dating?' Reuben secretly glanced at Lina who had her arm wrapped around his.

'Kissing a friend is never a good idea!' Lina felt like hitting herself for doing what she had done.

She looked up at him and panicked when they made eye contact.

'Oh shit! Say something witty or funny!' She instructed her brain to make up something this very instant.

"So we kissed, huh?" 

The words that came out of her mouth were not what she had intended to say.

'Stupid brain!' She cursed her worthless brain and sheepishly chuckled when she saw his jaw drop.

Reuben's mouth was wide open when he noticed how she had just casually started talking about their kiss.

"Yes, we did." He cleared his throat and looked away to hide his cheeks which had turned a bright red.

"Ha ha… That was unexpected." She too looked away as she uttered those words.

Reuben peeked at her from the corner of his eyes and nodded.

"But I wouldn't mind doing it again." He whispered loud enough for her to hear it.

They had almost reached the banquet hall, another step and they could see everyone inside it but Lina's feet halted when she heard him. 

Turning her body to face him, she looked into his eyes.

"So this was not a mistake that happened in the heat of the moment?" She tilted her head and asked a stupid question once again.

Reuben's eyes narrowed when he heard her calling their kiss a 'mistake'.

"Kitten, I don't make mistakes." He held her close to his body and deeply gazed into her eyes.

Noticing his serious eyes, Lina was sure that he wasn't just saying that to make her feel better.

"I stand by my actions, now and forevermore." He spoke in a low voice as though he was making a solemn vow.

Bending down, he sealed that vow with a kiss on the lips and then he stood straight.

Lina gazed at his lips and then into his eyes which made her blush to no end. 

This resulted in her hiding her face in his chest just like the last time.

"Or was it that you disliked my kiss?" His uncertain tone made Lina's head whiplash as she glared at him.

"No! It was the best!" She blurted out in a panicked way.

'Not that I have any reference to compare it to!' She did not dare say those words in this situation.

'So naive! She fell into my trap within seconds.' Reuben chuckled when he saw her adorable face as she tried to defend herself.

Lina's jaw dropped when she realized that he had tricked her so she hit his shoulder and turned around to walk away from him.

She took a step forward but then stopped and looked over her shoulders.

"Come on!" She gestured with her hand and Reuben accepted it by grabbing her waist as they entered the hall together.

The people inside were having fun talking, eating and dancing that most of them did not bother to see who had arrived.

But there were still quite a few of them who had been glancing at the hallway that this pair had disappeared in.

Lina smiled at the new people that she had met tonight and then peeked at Reuben's face.

"What is it, Kitten?" He whispered as he led her towards the same table they were at before he left in his anger.

"You know that was my first kiss, right?" She bit her lips as she confessed this secret to him.

Reuben's body stiffened for a quick second before he nodded at her.

"I feel honored!" He said after he stabilized his emotions and then smiled as he looked at her face.

"Was I your first kiss as well?" The question that was in her heart surged out before she even knew it.

Lina was observing his every action and when she saw him halt in his steps, she too stopped next to him.

Her eyes scanned his face to see how he would react to her sudden query.

'Did I ask the wrong question?' She nervously waited for his answer but what she saw was not what she had expected.

Reuben's stoic face blossomed into a radiant smile as he recalled a certain memory from his teenage years.

His eyes twinkled and his smile grew bigger which attracted everyone's gaze. 

Feeling their eyes on him, he immediately went back to his stoic face and turned towards Lina.

"No. That was not my first kiss." He firmly replied to her question and this time it was Lina's turn to freeze.

She felt an ache in her heart that she had never experienced before.

It felt as though something had pierced her through but she did not know why she felt that way.

'What was I expecting his answer to be? We are just friends… who kissed? He could have kissed girls before me as well!' She chided her painfully throbbing heart.

'Get yourself together, Nana!' She calmed her mind and responded with an 'Oh' sound.

Reuben examined her face to detect any changes in her expression after his revelation but found none at all.

Her face looked just as it did before he had uttered those words.

"What are you looking at me for? Let's go!" She gave him her usual smile and tugged his arm to get him moving.

Reuben frowned when he realized that she did not care whether he had kissed another girl before her.

'Would I be this calm if she had told me that she had kissed someone else before me?' His jaw clenched when this thought popped up in his mind.

'But do I even have a right to be mad about it?' The next thought was even more daunting than the earlier one.

While he was facing a mental battle of what he should be feeling, Lina looked straight at the table with her cousins and smiled.

It would be more accurate to say that she forced herself to smile.

'I don't like him in that way so why am I annoyed that some other woman kissed him before me!?' She was disgruntled with what she was feeling right now.

She rolled her eyes at her fickle heart and let go of his hand when they reached their table.

Before Reuben could pull the seat out for her, Lina did it herself and scooted her chair closer to Stacy.

He was confused when he saw her creating distance between their seats but he did not have the time to think about that right now.

The reason for this was the vicious eyes of her brothers who were glaring daggers at him.

"What?" He asked as he sat down and alternated his sights between the twins.

"What is going on between you and our baby sister!?" Wade interrogated him without twisting his words.

Lina looked up when she saw the confrontational looks that Wade and Wayne were directing at Reuben and her first instinct was to help him out.

"We are just friends." She announced to everyone at the table and got mixed reactions from them.

Wade and Wayne scoffed indignantly while Stacy rolled her eyes.

However, the most bizarre reaction was from Reuben who stared at her as though she had just wronged him.