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 Its companion, apparently unsociable, had withdrawn to a corner and coiled itself up there.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.

down as well. Trailed by the

of them had seen the Su family strut into the building like they owned it; now they saw them rushing out, looking mortified and

sure the meeting room door was shut. If either of the snakes managed to get out, they could cause all sorts of trouble and would be hard to catch again. Matthew watched, impressed despite himself, as his wife rounded

family had brought in, adding it to the third snake inside. Arching an eyebrow, Matthew asked,

little things?" Erica looked

weary smile took over Matthew's face. He sank into his seat at the table, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "This wasn't your attitude when your brother tried to get you to eat a peeled snake," he ventured. That had been during some kind of survival training class. In fact,

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

Erica wasn't afraid of any kind of snake, poisonous or

Matthew said. "You had that hole in your pants-that was from climbing onto the balcony of the Su family's house. That was when you put the snake on

in mock amazement. "Wow! You figured it out? I'm so impressed." Her husband was as smart as her father and

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

her dirty clothes. "Can I use a bathroom here? I

from

grab the box of snakes,

kept their distance. They

with false casualness. "So, are you

Of course not. I'll set them free later, someplace where they belong!" Erica looked

really couldn't do anything about her. A moment later, he

"Send someone here."

at ZL Group, and the CEO's special assistant

soon heard about the audacious deeds of Erica, grabbing snakes with her bare hands and bringing them into

in Erica's hands, she suppressed a shiver. To her credit, though, she offered a professional

and waved. With terrifying speed she approached

the three female employees in the special assistant area gasped and left their chairs, backing away as if they had