True Love Waits

Chapter 1268 The Headache

Feeling a headache coming on, Matthew rubbed his eyebrows. "I'm not—"

Before he could finish saying, "afraid," Erica had closed in. "Oh, Matthew, it's all right! I know you're a man, but there's nothing shameful in being afraid of snakes. Rest assured, there's no danger at all. In any case, I'm not scared, so I can protect you!" As she said this, she hugged him, patted his chest, adjusted his tie, and fussed over his lapels, thus leaving a copious amount of wet dirt smudged across the front of his suit.

Matthew looked down at her hands, his face hardening with disgust. "Erica," he asked dryly, "did you think of washing your hands after handling those snakes?"

Her face was stricken with what appeared to be genuine shock. "Oh! No!" she stammered, backing off a step.

Meanwhile, one of the two snakes she had dropped was creeping aimlessly about the meeting room. Its companion, apparently unsociable, had withdrawn to a corner and coiled itself up there.

As for the members of the Su family, they were huddled together atop the conference table, looking quite ridiculous and pitiable. The security guard they had brought was made of sterner stuff and remained as calm as Matthew. However, since there seemed to be no actual danger, he simply claimed his own corner of the room and waited at attention there.

After taking in the scene, Erica went to one of the snakes and gingerly gathered it up from the floor. She made a show of inspecting the creature; by contrast, the snake seemed uninterested in any of the humans present. "It's so cute, isn't it?" asked Erica innocently. "What are you all so afraid of?" She'd been careful to get ahold of snakes that were not poisonous. Naturally, nobody else in the room knew that. With a casual air, she approached Phoebe, gently pointing the head of the complacent reptile toward her.

'How dare Phoebe tell on me to Matthew! Seems like she hasn't learned her lesson yet!' Erica thought. In recent days, Matthew had been sometimes warm and sometimes cold to her.

Erica had begun to fear, what if he dumped her because of the Su family? Her best chance of preventing that was to scare them all away!

And she seemed to be off to a good start; as Erica neared the desk, Phoebe was already screaming at the top of her lungs. At the last second the poor woman leaped from the conference table and took refuge behind Matthew, who stood like a statue, observing the madness. "Matthew...Matthew, help me! Please..." Phoebe cried hoarsely.

"Honey, don't help her! There's no need for that at all!" Erica countered, trotting after her.

White as a ghost now, Phoebe gave another scream and bolted from the room.

The door closed with a bang.

lowered himself from the table, then helped Fanya down as well. Trailed

for the employees at ZL Group. A great many of them had seen the Su family strut into the building like they owned it; now they

out, they could cause all sorts of trouble and would be hard to catch

had brought in, adding it to the third snake

such cute little things?" Erica looked down at the box and tapped the lid, adding, "Isn't that

when your brother tried to get you to eat a peeled snake," he ventured. That had been during some kind

of live ones!" 'Well, except for the poisonous kind,' she thought. Now those she did fear. Handling one wrong and getting

If everyone thought Erica wasn't afraid of any kind of

something out," Matthew said. "You had that hole in your pants-that was from climbing onto the balcony of the Su family's

it out? I'm so impressed." Her husband was as smart

erupted full-force. "Get out of here!" he snapped. He didn't want to see her

Erica trailed off, looking down at her dirty clothes. "Can

seat and stalked from the meeting room.

of snakes, then trotted after Matthew toward

employees milling about kept their distance. They were perfectly aware of what Erica

false casualness. "So, are

set them free later, someplace where

quietly. He really couldn't do anything about her. A moment later, he took out his cell phone, dialed a number,

"Send someone here."

Group, and the CEO's special assistant area was

the audacious deeds of Erica, grabbing snakes with her bare hands and bringing them into the office.

hands, she suppressed a shiver. To her

terrifying speed she approached Paige's

gasped and left their chairs, backing away as if they