43 A Shoulder To Cry On

"Are you okay?" he asked, full of concern over Dana who's sitting beside him in the backseat of the car like a statue, he can see her face is pale, illuminated over the yellow lights of the parking lot reflecting on the car's window.

Dana didn't answer and just stared at her hands on her lap that she kept on wringing.

He pulled a couple of hundreds of yuan from his leather wallet and handed it to the driver in the front, "Take this and go somewhere. I will just call you when I need you." he said in a flat voice.

"Do you want me to walk you upstairs to your apartment?" he asked gently to an unspeaking Dana.

Hearing Bobby's tender voice, her emotions overflow, and bawls her eyes out. She did a full blown ugly crying. It's disgraceful she knows, but she has no way of restraining the throbbing pain of seeing Grand with another woman in his arms.

Bobby said nothing and just pulled her shoulder and let her wail to her heart content in the nook of his arms. Her sobbing and the quiet humming of the aircon are the only sounds that can be heard inside the car.

When Bobby took her in his arms, her own arms encircled his waist, then she buried her face in his armpit, and wept.

Remembering the scene in the restaurant, she trembles.

They were about to get out of the restaurant but Julian called Bobby and pulled him in the corner. So, she stood up near the entrance of the restaurant waiting for the two men who were whispering with their heads almost bumping with each other when she heard a familiar voice behind.

She turned around to find the owner of the voice and came face-to-face with Grand and Li Na. They also came from the same direction she and Bobby came from. They must have dined in the restaurant too.

Dana stood motionless, trying to catch Grand's eyes but, she can clearly see that he is avoiding her gaze. Li Na spoke first.

"Oh hi, what was your name again? She was the girl at Bobby's birthday party right?" She asked Grand after she openly stared at her from the top of her head to the button of her shoes and then back to her face again, then she had the audacity to smirk at her like she didn't like what she saw.

"You are with Bobby?" he asked her matter-of-factly.

Seeing him asking a question about Bobby so casually when he would seethe in jealousy in the past whenever Bobby came into the equation, made Dana realize that he was over her.

She could clearly see that the girl named Li Na, linking arms with him, is the reason why he suddenly stopped contacting her.

Dana shudders with the pain thinking all of it now.

Bobby pulled and tightened his arms over Dana when he felt her shakes in between sobs. He gritted his teeth in anger towards the situation that drove her into this pain. A billowing surge of frustration for being not able to protect her from Grand's game, washed over him, that his body moves in a way he knows how to soothe Dana.

In the dim-lit car, he cradles her head in his palm, tilts her chin, and lower his face to hers, seeking for her lips in the dark. He was rewarded with her moist lips, parted due to heavy crying. The already opened lips welcomed his intrusive tongue without resistance.

She was catching her breath from all the crying she is doing when the arm that is holding her prop her head, she opened her mouth to say something when his lips landed on hers, she stiffens in shock.

She pulled herself from a daze when she felt a warm tongue swirling the insides of her mouth. She pulled back and pushed Bobby away.

When Bobby felt Dana went rigid in his hands, he released her lips and drew her closer to his chest, dropped a kiss on top of her head, and whispered, "There is no reason for you to cry."

Dana went limp inside Bobby's embrace. Her already muddled head completely lost the ability to think.

---

Grand shook off Li Na's hand that was gripping his arm like a hawk, as soon as Bobby and Dana were out of sight.

"Do you like her?" she shouted in anger.

She didn't care for their surroundings anymore, nor the people in the lobby that were throwing them a disapproving look. The alcohol, her bruised pride, and jealous heart are bringing out the worst of her.

"Shut the fuck up!" he hissed at her, trying to control stop her from making a scene. The receptionists are looking at them ready to call in the security.

"So, she's the one you want? Huh!" she said slurring her words, pointing her fingers at him. "Too bad, it looks like your best friend got her first," she said taunting.

Grand lost his patience with the drunk Li Na, grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the hotel lobby in the relief of all the employees on duty at the concierge.

The doorman opened the door wider than usual, for them to step out of the hotel premises as soon as possible, for rich people and their scandalous attitude is the hardest to deal with since it always involves lawyers threatening to ensure the virtue of their clients.

"Call your driver!" he ordered her when they reached the farthest corner of the hotel facade.

Li Na with her tears stricken face punched his chest while throwing curse words no fine lady with her stature should know nor use.

Grand seized her wrists and held them in place, "Call your driver now or I will dump you in the first cab that will stop on this curb."

His threatening voice must have reached her intoxicated brain that she asked him to release her hands so she could call her driver.

Grand watched Li Na's face trying to read her expression if she's telling the truth.

"I have no plan to make a scene anymore. Let go of my hands, you're hurting me!" she exclaimed with indignation.