True Love Waits

Sighing, Debbie put the first-aid kit away and said, "Let's go. Let Evelyn be. She had a busy day at work, and I'm sure she's tired."

Carlos nodded and stood up from the sofa. "You wanna know what I think?" he asked Evelyn. "I think you need to play harder to get. String him on for a couple years if you want. If you get with him too quickly i might make you look desperate."

He turned to Debbie. "Honey, why are you staring at me? I mean it. We need to let Sheffield know that Evelyn's not that easy. Otherwise, he won't think she's worth keeping."

Debbie tried her hardest to drag the man out of the room as he prattled.

Carlos didn't want to leave the room yet. "I haven't hugged Gwyn yet!"

"Let the baby sleep now. You can see her tomorrow! Out!" Debbie insisted.

"Okay, okay." Carlos dropped the idea of hugging his granddaughter, but he was still angry with Sheffield. He continued, "Look, Evelyn. See this bruise? That was Sheffield. Tell him if he tries anything like that again, I'll beat the shit out of him every time I see him."

Carlos' voice trailed off when the door finally shut.

Silence reigned in the bedroom once more. Evelyn felt her head ache. She missed the calm, cold, decisive Carlos Huo. What happened to him? How did he manage to lose his cool?

Sighing helplessly, she tucked her sleeping daughter in and kissed her forehead before heading to the bathroom for a shower.

The next morning, at ZL Group

Evelyn called Nadia in and said, "Contact Theo Group and set up a meeting. I want to talk to Mr. Tang about his research projects." Actually, Evelyn didn't want to talk to him directly, so she asked Nadia to do it Nadia nodded, "Yes, Miss Huo."

Right then and there, Nadia dialed the phone number of the assistant to the CEO of Theo Group. "Hello, this is Nadia from ZL Group. My boss wants to meet with yours. When would be a good time to do that? Two minutes later, Nadia hung up the phone. "Miss Huo, they said...Mr. Tang is not in the office now. They'll call when he's back in."

Inexplicably, Evelyn heaved a sigh of relief. "Okay, thanks."

Nadia nodded with a smile.

supposed to be conducting a tour of the company. Sort of a check-up on how things are

the day-to-day business of the company in a long

each department. Evelyn wasn't on the list, despite her regional CEO title. But Carlos hadn't assigned her much work and she'd been there early

good

just took extensive notes. When she found a problem, she put it on the list so she

hand, she said, "Don't mind me. I need to hit the ladies' room first. You

"Yes, Miss Huo."

on that

hands and was about

and walked toward the source

diagonally opposite the bathroom, a girl in her early twenties was crying while complaining over the phone, "Boo...hoo...it sucks! I'm under too much pressure! I can't stand it here anymore. My supervisor is a hellish bitch! She always chews me out. I felt pretty good walking into work this morning, but then she yelled at me out of the blue. She's just a department supervisor! Did she have to treat me like that? I haven't been here even a year,

Evelyn silently listened to the girl's complaints. She more

supervisor yelled at her every day. It made working here a living

paused, waiting for the person on the other end of the line to say something. "I have to put

she turned around and was about to throw the tissue

long, brown dress with an asymmetrical hemline, silk scarf about her neck. On top of that, she had a pair of black high heels. She was wearing a set of tourmaline earrings, and

with arms over her chest, staring

off an aura of cool, and one of power, of a woman used to getting what she wanted. The other girl couldn't look her in the eye, and was

the woman didn't wear a work uniform or any work badge, she probably wasn't an

threw the tissue into the trash and

CEO stopped her with a

turned around. She asked

at work?" Evelyn

was canned for sure. 'Oh crap! If she goes

leader had some power, not to mention a department supervisor. If the supervisor