10 'sHe did not just check me out!'s

October 24, 20XX (Wednesday)

On the Road

"Let me take you to dinner?"

"Why?" Mei Li's head instantly snapped towards the driver of the black sports car.

"Isn't it dinner time?"

"That doesn't answer my question…"

"Do I need to have a reason to ask someone out to dinner?" Yang's smile had returned to annoyingly irritate the brown-eyed painter. The fact that Yang did not even glance her way and just had his eyes steady on the road, added more to her irritation.

"I don't know, do you have one?"

"… I might…"

Mei Li waited for him to continue and when he did not, she settled to learn back on the seat and look out the window. It was already past 4 PM when they decided to leave the Louvre with Yang dragging the reluctant Mei Li to a car parked at one of the most expensive hotels near the Museum. Mei Li had no chance to deny anything, especially when Yang had not asked for permission in the first place… so here they were still bantering on the road stuck in traffic.

After a moment on the busy road, Mei Li watched as he got inside a building built specifically for parking the car. She could only watch helpless and unenthusiastic as he parked the car and opened her door with a signal for her to go out.

Why did her cell phone have to be out of battery? Why did she have to follow him? She could just stay in the car if he needed to do something.

"Let's go, we need to shop for the souvenirs for Mom, Dad, and Yue. I need your help. Think of this as your payment for the free ticket."

She was correct to suspect his free ticket! From the stories Mei Li had heard Yue told, he was one to take advantage of every possible situation with him benefiting more but... she could accept this deal. It was fair of him to do so and she had always liked the rest of his family rather than this man in front of her.

Mei Li got out of the car and walked with Yang side by side, marvelling at the nightlife of the streets in Paris. She would have thought it was romantic of him to do so if only this was not a repayment of the Louvre's free ticket, which she couldn't fully enjoy because of his numerous questions on every interesting art piece he could find.

Suddenly, Mei Li's internal monologue stopped when she saw the countless high-end fashion stores lined neatly towards the end of the street. She had seen many priceless art masterpieces just this afternoon in a form of paintings, sculptures, and etc. and she will probably see more art masterpieces in forms of fashion.

Like a lowly servant following the King, Mei Li slowly inched backwards to hide at the back of the 6 foot 2 inches giant with pretty blue eyes; feeling inadequate to the graphic T-shirt and thrifted jeans she was wearing. The only expensive thing she had was the red bottom heels on her feet.

"Stop hiding behind me." The rough voice interrupted her incoming internal monologue about money.

"I don't belong here…"

Yang's usual grin faltered, which Mei Li would have rejoiced if she had noticed but she was too busy berating herself about not dressing up more. She began to regret going out of the car. She should have waited there for Yang to be done.

"You could buy everything on one store if you sold one collection."

"Easy for you to say! You can buy the store in one hour but still have the capacity to buy four more stores!" Mei Li crossed her arms with a cute pout, mirroring the behaviour of Yue when she wanted to be pampered.

It was weird when Mei Li saw Yang's eyes glancing quickly at her bosoms and then returning back to her eyes with the annoying grin, surprisingly, nonexistent.

'He did not just check me out!' Mei Li shouted in her mind with disbelief. She quickly unfastened her arms and bite her lips in nervousness, not knowing the more she bit it the more it made the man beside her, crazy.

Uncomfortable and tensed, Yang hurriedly drags the beauty inside a store he knew his sister liked. A minute more of staring at the beauty and he'd make a voyeur out of everyone near.

Awkwardly, the two looked at each other with a signal nod. What the signal was, they didn't know but Yang sat at one of the sofas while Mei Li went to one of the sale ladies who was observing all the costumers that came in. Silently, she uttered a small prayer. It would not do her good if a person, female or male, would try to curry favour and fawn all over the CEO. She had heard how short tempered the usually smiling man truly is. In fact, he had inherited that attitude from his father and, as she had heard from the ramblings of Mother Zhao and Yue, both father and son were also rumoured to easily destroy lives just because people breathed loudly.

"Excuse me, will you help us for a while?" Mei Li asked in English.

"Of course, Mademoiselle! I am Jeanne and how may I help you?"

"Would it be possible if you come with me to the sofa so we can discuss it with him?" The painter pointed at the CEO sitting comfortably on the sofa.

Hopefully, this saleslady will not flirt with Yang. She didn't want to know how this CEO was rumoured to be the scariest of his peers.