41 YOU WHAAAT

Inside Maxen's car

Maxen pulled his ears away from his phone when Emily's scratching voice echoed, assaulting his ears with her piercing sound waves. He scrunched his face and rubbed his ears to alleviate the numbness it got from Emily's wailing.

"What is going on, Maxen? Can you tell me the whole story? So you're saying, you spent the night together and now everything's over between you? How could that happen overnight?"

"I don't know! You tell me. This is frustrating to me too. We were ok when we woke up. Suddenly, come breakfast time she's cold as ice. Then…" Maxen paused for a moment as that terrifying elevator scene haunted him for the third time today.

"Then whaaat?" Emily barked, her tone laced with impatience.

"Then when we're on our way to the basement parking… We were in the elevator… And we saw Fiona," Maxen almost could not get the words out of his mouth. He wiped his face with his big palm and pinched the bridge of his nose as he realized how he never had this level of stress so early in the morning in his life.

"Oh, fudge."

"Yes, fudge."

The white noise silence told Maxen that the gears in Emily's mind were working on the words to say to him. The silence also magnified his hearing that he could pick up the sound of Emily's fingers drumming on the table — the sound calming her and Maxen too.

"I can't help you with the Fiona part, Maxen. I know she's your favorite girl amongst your girls and if Olivia noticed your discomfort around Fiona, then it's your ghost to face."

"Wha- How did you know?" Maxen tilted his head and raised a single brow. He never mentioned Olivia's name so how could Emily even guess that he was talking about Olivia?

"Know what?"

"That it was Olivia?"

"Weeell, last week Ollie asked me a favor to set up a private room during the auction for his sister and I found out from my staff that she won 'Sir James' so I guessed you must have met her during the auction. Pluuus, last night when you punched the hell out of Lance... and 'O Sui' really? The list goes on, Maxen. It was obvious, silly."

"Does Ollie and Ava have a clue?"

"Nooo. I don't even want to talk about them. Just the thought of Ollie going berserk once he finds out about you poaching his dearest sister is sending shivers down my spine. Ay-ah! Let's save Ollie's feelings for later. Sooo let's focus on you and start with the basics of courtship, shall we? You can give her Tulips just to butter her up a little but that's not 100% foolproof. Remember who you're dealing with. A simple flower won't do the trick but it will at least show her how sorry you are. Okaaay?

"Oh, snap! You have a two-day training overseas, right? How are you supposed to bring that to her? And it's almost her birthday dinner too. What a bad timing Maxen Sui! How could you mess up on your what? Second day together?"

Maxen kept mum and continued to listen as Emily rambled on, "And please, if you're not serious, it's better to stop seeing Livi as early as now. She's waaaay out of your league, Maxen. We had lunch with her the other day, and woooah I can't imagine her standing beside you like she's one of your Barbie dolls."

Hearing Emily's words felt like a punch in the gut but he had to put it out there for his friends to see that this time, he's sticking to one person and that person is Olivia. "I'm serious, Emily. Never been this serious," Maxen declared. His tone, intense. His words, sincere. He smiled when he could feel her smile from the other line and so with much confidence, he added, "And she's not out of my league."

Emily blushed at Maxen's declaration. She never heard him speak straight from the heart like that before but she's not a good friend if she would not tease him a little just to get back at him for hurting all his past flings so she said, "Yes, she is! I was even thinking of setting her up with Tristan who, by the way, runs his own company. They're way more compatible than Livi and you in that aspect."

"Don't you dare Emily," Maxen growled. Of all the men in the country, why Tristan Yang?

Emily went in for the kill upon hearing Maxen growl on the phone and said, "Yes, I dare. You don't scare me. You should be the scared one. How does it feel, Your Highness? Finding someone you know you can't easily have? Hahahahahaha!"

…

Cultural Center

*Beep beep beep*

Inside Emily's office on the Cultural Center's ground floor, she fell into another fit of hysterical giggles when Maxen dropped the call in a fit of rage. She didn't expect to see the day that Maxen would show a hint of insecurity. However, her little entertainment was cut short when she saw Olivia stepped out of her car outside and entered the Cultural Center from the clear view glass wall office where she worked as a curator. She promptly stood up and pulled down her skirt, fixing it before she sauntered out of her office and welcomed her guest.

Her fingers danced in the air as she waved to her new girl pal. "Good morning, Livi darling," Emily said as she air-kissed Olivia's cheeks. She rubbed her hand on Olivia's arm in silent comfort knowing what the latter had to go through that morning.

"How was your ride?"

"Traffic. Nothing new. I wish they would do something about it though," Olivia huffed before tugging her lips into a smile and her eyes sparkled with excitement when she asked, "Where is my boy, Emily?"

"This way, please." Emily mirrored the smile on Olivia's face. She just found out that Olivia won the bid on 'Sir James', beating Maxen for the first time. She gladly ushered Olivia to a private office down the hall where a single portrait stood in the middle of the big room where light naturally filtered in all thanks to the floor to ceiling windows.

"Hello, 'Sir James'." Olivia beamed like a child on Christmas Day when Emily pulled the cloth away which covered the portrait named 'Sir James'.

"I didn't know you were after this baby. A friend was also interested in this piece. Glad you beat him to it," Emily said oh so casually, trying to bait the fish by the mouth to gather more intel. However, Emily frowned when she saw nothing on Olivia's face. Oh, fudge. Maxen's done. She died a little over the turn of events between Maxen and Olivia as she remembered how she felt Maxen's sincerity over the line.

"I met that friend, Emily. His name is Maxen. You don't have to pretend that you know nothing."

Emily jerked, dropping the cloth in her hand. Okaaay. Livi's definitely mad, her searing tone was enough to burn Emily's skin a little. She stole a peek at Olivia who was studying the portrait up close with her arms crossed over her chest. Emily bent down and picked up the cloth on the floor, carefully choosing her words so as not to poke the bear. "Oh, you did? How was your meeting? He can be a handful sometimes, you know, spoiled little prince. Ha-ha!" Emily awkwardly said.

Olivia bit her bottom lip and thought for a second. Should she tell Emily what happened between her and Maxen or should she just keep it to herself? After all, Emily's loyalty leans towards Maxen since they were childhood friends.

"Is something bothering you, Livi darling? You can tell me anything," Emily sweetly sang, her hands clasped over Olivia's as she urged the latter to open up.

Olivia looked over her shoulders and her sight lingered for a second on the open door. Emily sensed Olivia's apprehension, so she walked towards the door's direction and closed it, giving them privacy.

"Heeey," Emily coaxed. At that moment, she could see Olivia's eyes turned glassy that she could not help but softly hug her new gal pal like a pillow. Since they were hugging each other, Emily arched her back to get a good look of Olivia's face and moved her gaze straight into Olivia's eyes and said, "Don't hold it in, Livi darling. I know we just met, but it's ok, I'm here to listen. Judgement free zone." Emily held her palm up in the air in a promise.

And as if on cue, the floodgates to Olivia's tears open, drenching Emily's silk top. Emily listened as Olivia silently cried on her shoulders not realizing that she was crying too. Olivia pulled away when all the weight in her chest disappeared, along with the tears in her eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Olivia asked, taking out a pocket square from her handbag. She wiped Emily's eyes and chuckled at the latter's ruined mascara.

"Because you're crying! You cried first," Emily retorted as she snatched the pocket square from Olivia and wiped her new gal pal's tear-stricken face too.

The two ladies shared a laugh at their silliness.

Feeling the genuineness of Emily, Olivia opened up to her and said, "I'm just mad at myself. You see, I met Maxen and we got comfortable with each other. Everything happened way too fast as one thing led to another. I can't believe I almost had sex with him."

"YOU WHAAAT?"