241 Sad & Extremely Lonely

"Don't worry about me losing. I can afford to pay. What about you? How can a poor student like you manage to bet not such a small amount on one inconsequential bet after another?" he asked her curiously.

Samantha Li, a mixed breed child of an Irish mother and a Chinese father, who had inherited nothing from her mother's ancestors except their famous temper, smiled at him evilly. She was twenty five years old, too old to still be a college student but then that was a long story.

"By now you should know enough to not stress about me. Are YOU worried that you would lose yet again?" she taunted him.

Giving her a thumbs down, he slid off the stool, walked past her to take up the empty chair next to Wei on the opposite side.

"Hi, I am Michael. What's your name?" he nudged him and asked with a smile.

"F*** off," Wei told him politely, without even looking at him.

Not taking offence to his choice of words, Michael tried again, "you look sad and a tiny bit lonely. Would you like some company?"

Wei raised his head and stared at the guy.

"I am very sad and extremely lonely. So much so that I feel like killing someone with my bare hands just to feel some warmth. Would you like to volunteer?" he said, maintaining the soft tone.

There was something in the way that he had uttered those words that Samantha got off the stool and dragged her friend away, right that minute.

"What? Don't tell me that you got scared of that good looking guy's threat. You did realise that he is half my size," he said in annoyance.

Michael was stoutly built, member of the Rowing club at the university and extremely confident about his 'core strength'.

"No, I got swayed by the truth of his words. Let's go somewhere else to fulfil our bet," she coaxed him.

A couple of hours later

Wei had finally managed it. He had numbed any and every sensation in his body. At the moment, he wasn't capable of feeling any emotion. Stepping out of the pub, he swayed slightly but the Earth was still firm under his feet. He looked around for a cab and luckily found one with someone alighting from it.

"Hey, watch where you are going," someone banged into him.

He had just entered the cab from one end while a scary looking woman got in from the other side.

"I entered first," he told her, slurring only slightly.

"Really? Where is the proof?" the young woman arched her eyebrow and asked him.

"Guys, I don't have the entire night while you squabble. How about the both of you get off and I find myself a new customer?" the irate cabbie told them.

"Where do you need to go? If it is the same route, we can share," the woman said quickly.

Wei's head was beginning to register its protest at being subjected to a large volume of highly concentrated barley in the past three hours. He just nodded and brought out his hotel's card key.

The woman looked at it and rattled off the instructions to the driver. She had recognised him as the man from the pub, earlier.

By the time that fifteen minutes journey got over, Wei's head was ready to come off from his neck anytime now. It had been swinging from one side to the other as the cabbie was showing off his motor racing skills on an overcrowded street.

If she didn't have to worry about her mother's phone ringing at the college dorm in exactly 25 minutes, she would not have ridden the same car as this man. That was the time stipulation which her mother had put on her every time she stepped out of the college hostel.

Gawhhhh! She could literally smell the misery coming off him. And Samantha ran away from all kinds of sadness, lest it recognise her and follow her home, again. Reaching the hotel, she nudged the guy hard but he seemed oblivious.

"Get him off my car," the cabbie said rudely.

She was tempted to just push him off the car but…

Sighing, she alighted and dragged out the man with her. Since she had the room key in her hand, she might as well do it instead of calling and explaining the situation to the uppity looking hotel and its staff. She hated calling attention to herself.

By the time, they reached the room, she was red in the face with the exertion. He was coherent enough to mumble something every few seconds but not enough to drag his own body weight till the bed.

"I should have left him at the cold floor outside the hotel. Me and my sucker heart for losers," she muttered angrily.