"Hey, hey," she said, putting her hands up. "I get it. I just came here to give you the hairpin you bought today. You left it at my place. Well, I'll leave you to it. Don't stop on my account!" Debbie said in embarrassment. She put the hairpin down carefully on a table, covering her eyes. She kept her back to them the whole time. Then she walked out as quickly as she could. If Erica's words reached her ears, she didn't acknowledge them.
"Clack!" The door of the villa was locked.
Erica looked sheepish. She knew how it looked, and it was exactly what it looked like. She had been sitting on the table, and Matthew stood close to her, holding her waist. His jacket was sloppily thrown into a chair. His tie was on the floor, and a few buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned...
"Ah!" Erica screamed hysterically when she pictured that.
Matthew still stood where he had been, in a partial state of undress. "You know, we did nothing wrong. Mom should be embarrassed, not us."
"Matthew Huo, y-y-you—you—you go explain everything to Mom!" She was so flustered she could barely talk. A moment's indiscretion, and her reputation was ruined.
He casually started re-buttoning his shirt and asked, "Explain what?" In contrast to Erica, he was calm. He and Erica were married. What should he say to Mom?
Besides, he knew his mom, Debbie would love to see them being intimate like this every day.
"You know... tell her we were just kissing. Th-that's all," Erica stammered anxiously.
Matthew looked up at her and said indifferently, "I wanted more than kissing."
Erica brushed him aside and ran upstairs as fast as she could, as if there were a monster chasing her.
"I'm hungry. I'll whip something up. Want any?" Matthew asked behind her.
Erica refused without looking back, "No."
"Are you still angry?" The man was confused. Wasn't she fine just now?
Erica picked up the medical kit on the floor, stood on the stairs, turned around and glared at the man. "Yes! You dumped my macarons. You bet I'm still mad!"
Matthew was surprised that she was still not over that matter yet. Who told him women liked to dig up the past? 'Oh, it was Sheffield.
He was so right!'
Half an hour later, lying on the bed and browsing Weibo, Erica received a message from Matthew. It was a picture. She looked at it more carefully and found out it was a picture of hot and sour rice noodles. She scratched her head. Why would he send
something, Erica curled her lips and murmured, "That sounds good. But you don't help me with my studies!"
"What are you talking about? I support you as much as I can." Matthew couldn't believe his ears. He paid her tuition. Actually, he had paid for books, supplies, everything. He had bought her the camera she wanted. He had personally pulled strings and got her credits to transfer.
And now she was saying he didn't support her. What kind of crazy talk was that?
"Well, you don't help me with my homework. You don't allow me to take pictures of you, and then I had no choice but to use Hyatt as a model. That got me embroiled in a plagiarism scandal. If you had let me take some pics of you earlier, no one would have bothered me."
Even if Kaitlyn managed to steal her photos, Kaitlyn would have to explain everything to Matthew if he asked her to. Erica wouldn't have needed to be so anxious, and she wouldn't have had to bother Sheffield with it.
Another thing that made Erica angry was that Matthew didn't keep his promise. She did what he suggested, gave him what he wanted, but he still wouldn't let her take pictures of him.
Hearing her rant, Matthew smiled, probably because he was too angry.
"So, you think having your work stolen is my fault?"
The girl nodded affirmatively, "Yeah!" The man didn't want to talk to this unreasonable girl anymore.
When Erica was about to leave, she suddenly looked back at the man cleaning the table carefully. "Matthew," she suddenly called in a sweet voice.
Matthew paused for a second. She probably needed his help again, but he pretended not to hear her.