My Darling, My Dearest

Chapter 107

Rachel squatted down to help him take off his coat, and Jack almost lost control of himself.

But she found it hard for her to take off his coat. "Your coat won't come off!" she complained as she shifted her weight off her injured foot.

Even though Jack was in a state of half-asleep because of the effects of the wine that he had, her voice still reached his ears. It sounded to him like the soft voice of an angel.

The scent of Rachel almost overpowered what was left of Jack's self- control that hadn't been numbed by the alcohol yet. It took his entire strength of will in order to control himself, and this was made even more difficult because he had never had a sex life for many years.

When she was finally able to take off his coat, the scent of her body faded, and Jack felt relieved as if he had finally reached the end of a great battle.

He took a deep breath and immediately felt drowsy. A short while later, he fell asleep where he was.

Rachel took his coat and brought it to the basket out on the balcony.

His coat reeked with the smell of alcohol. Fortunately, there was no trace of any vomit; otherwise she'd have to definitely throw him out of bed. ■d

But she remembered the story that Michael told her before. Jack had a bad case of sleepwalking whenever he got drunk so she decided to let him stay with her.

But she was not so stupid to sleep in the same bed with him. The last time she did, he pressed his body against hers.

She took out some extra quilts from the closet to make a comfortable makeshift bed on the bedroom floor.

If Michael found out that there was a woman who preferred to sleep on the floor than sleep with Jack in the same bed, he would laugh his head off.

Jack woke up early in the morning because of severe thirst. When he was about to get out of bed, he saw that Rachel slept on the floor. It stunned him right away and he didn't know what to say or do.

She might have allowed him to sleep in her room, but Rachel preferred to sleep on the floor than in her own bed with him. He immediately wondered what made her loathe him so.

Jack got out of the bed with a gloomy look and went out for a glass of water. When he got back, he stood in front of Rachel for a while.

But Rachel slept so soundly that she didn't notice him staring intently at her. She had her face buried in a soft pillow that made her look like a sleeping baby.

Jack watched her for some time and sighed helplessly. He bent down slowly to pick her up and moved her back to the bed so she could sleep more comfortably. ■d

If she was normally on guard against Jack whenever she slept, her defenses were not up when he picked her up.

She was in such a deep slumber that she didn't notice that she was moved back to the bed. When she was back on the soft bed, she turned over and placed her hands on her sides beside the pillow.

When everything seemed to be in order, Jack lay down beside her and turned off the light. But the lifting and the faded drunkenness made it hard for him to go back to sleep again.

He tossed and turned for some time until he heard her comfortable breathing. He calmed himself down and closed his eyes. A few moments later, he finally fell asleep.

The next day, Lea and Rachel were spending some time together. "Hey, what's on your mind?" Lea asked as she waved a hand in front of Rachel's face. "What's wrong? You look distracted."

Rachel took a deep breath and seemed to have returned to reality. She bent her head down and poked at the ice on her drink with a finger. "I didn't get to sleep well last night," she replied.

Lea took a slice of egg tart, placed it into her mouth and quickly chewed on it. "What did you do last night?" she asked and a naughty smile was on her face. "What prevented you from getting enough sleep?"

Rachel cleared her throat and coughed gently in an attempt to change the subject. Lea could have noticed something odd in normal circumstances, but now she herself was also a little upset about ■d

something, so she didn't notice everything that went on with her friend.

There was a momentary silence between them as they had different thoughts going on in their minds. "Rachel, do you remember Henry?" Lea suddenly asked out of nowhere.

"Henry?" Rachel asked as she squinted her eyes slightly. The look of trying to remember something masked Rachel's face as she tried to remember everything that she knew about Henry. "I think I do, but I don't really know him that well. Why, what's wrong? Wait. Let me guess. You're dating him! Am I right?"

Lea's face immediately turned bright red from her cheeks to her forehead. She coughed because of her initial surprise. She never expected Rachel to blurt it out so frankly like that. "We just met again, we're not dating...yet. We met each other before."

There was a pause as Lea's mind tried to determine how to best say what she had to say next. "I never expected to ever meet him again, and much less that I would meet him again so soon! And

he's Jack's friend. So...small world!"

"What happened between you two before?" Rachel asked in a teasing tone. "It sounds so interesting to hear."

"Well, it's a bit complicated," Lea replied as her face turned red. "I'll explain everything to you in detail later. Now, I just want to learn more about Henry."

Rachel smiled at her friend. She was amused at how much her friend blushed while talking about ■d

Henry. "I don't know a lot about him, but I am sure that he's not married yet," Rachel said with a smile.

"Do you know if he has a girlfriend?"

"No. I don't know if he has a girlfriend or not," Rachel replied with an inquisitive look. She looked at Lea with a jesting and surprised look. "Do you mean to say that Henry isn't single?"

"No. That's not what I mean. I'm just not sure if he is, that's all." Lea explained.

She took the cup of coffee on the table and took a light sip. "If he doesn't have a girlfriend or a wife, I am going to make the first move."

The thought of what Lea was planning to do made Rachel laugh heartily. "Why don't you ask him directly then?" she asked Lea with a smile.

"Stupid!" Lea rolled her eyes at Rachel. "It's embarrassing to ask him. He's not a teenager anymore. How can I just go to him and ask if he is single?"

"I don't understand your world," Rachel said helplessly. In her opinion, it was not necessary to hide it since they could spend hours chatting with each other, anyway. But her point of view was limited by the fact that she had never been in love before.

"Well, anyway! That's it!" Lea said as she tapped her middle and index finger on the table top. "You have to help me find out if Henry is single. I think it will be easy for you since you can just ask Jack about Henry, right?"

But Lea's request was harder for Rachel to do than Lea realized. Rachel bent her down and ■d

pretended to take a sip of her drink as she reluctantly nodded to Lea's idea.

Fortunately, Lea was lost in thought and did not notice Rachel's strange behavior.

Lea leaned forward while still lost in thought, supporting her head with her hand under her chin. Then, without warning, she suddenly sprang up as if she remembered something urgently. "By the way, did you apologize to Jack? Tell me what happened!" Lea said excitedly.

The question of Lea came so unexpectedly that Rachel almost choked on her drink. She paused and forced herself to swallow what's inside her mouth. "Y-yes, I did," she stuttered.

The pair of beautiful eyebrows on Lea's face slowly rose as she suddenly noticed that there was something odd about Rachel. "What's wrong with you?" she asked with a puzzled look. "You look like you're hiding something."

Lea stared at Rachel very closely. She searched for clues to confirm her suspicion.

And Rachel suddenly blushed as Lea watched her closely. "I didn't get enough sleep."

"Does your foot still hurt?"

She felt that if she talked any further, she might end up giving Lea more clues to what really happened. She suddenly had the urge to cover her face with her hands as the event of the previous evening flashed suddenly in her mind. She remembered that she slept on the floor but when she woke up she was almost in Jack's arms.

She never realized that she could move a lot ■d

while she slept at night.

On the other hand, Jack had no choice but to leave a lot more than half of the bed to her. As a result, she barely pressed against him.

When Rachel remembered that disastrous early morning, she almost blushed even more. She recalled that she was about to get up quietly from the bed but Jack woke up at the same time as well.

They stared at each other for a long time without moving. Finally, Jack coughed a little and said, "My hand is numb."

Rachel stood up from the bed and didn't dare to look at Jack.

When Jack walked towards the door, he suddenly stopped and turned to Rachel. "Are you that angrily?" he asked. "You don't even want to talk to me, do you?"

"No, I'm not angry,"

she replied without looking at him.

Rachel finally said goodbye after enduring the embarrassment for a while longer.

It seemed that Jack was in a good mood that morning. He kept on smiling at her. "I'm going out. See you tonight."

"See you."

'What the fuck?!' she screamed in her mind. Her face suddenly turned red after she spoke.

Rachel was so immersed in reliving her memory of that early morning that she failed to notice that Lea had called her name several times ■d

already. When Lea raised her voice and called her once more, she finally came to her senses.

"Yes? Why? What's wrong?" Rachel asked as if she had been under some kind of spell.

Lea looked at her with eyes filled with suspicion. "Is that really because you didn't get enough sleep?"

'She looks like she's in love with someone,' Lea thought to herself as she studied her friend.

"Well... I really didn't sleep well last night," Rachel replied in a soft tone of voice. She looked like she couldn't believe what she just said herself.

The more Lea observed her friend, the more perplexed she became. She narrowed her eyes at her friend and was about to ask her something when a pair of hands reached out above Rachel's head. Lea was shocked; she suddenly stood up and reached out in defense of Rachel.

Rachel didn't know what was happening. She looked at Lea in a daze.

Before she could react, iced water streamed down her head. There was a sudden stinging pain on her face when a loud slapping sound filled her ears. It was then that she realized that someone had slapped her.

Everything happened so fast that she was not able to understand immediately what was going on. She heard Lea shout out a curse at someone. Three more slapping sounds cracked out loudly from somewhere near her.

Everything happened so fast. First, someone poured a glass of iced water over Rachel's head and ■d

gave her a slap. Then Lea reacted quickly and gave that person three slaps instead.

The other customers in the coffee shop was stunned. They all stared at the three figures with incredulous eyes, not knowing what was happening.

Even Rachel was badly startled at the turn of events. Everything happened in the span of a few seconds. When she recovered from her initial shock, she saw a woman that Lea had slapped three times burst into tears in front of them.

And Rachel recognized the woman despite her disheveled look. It was none other than Celine.

The pain in her face felt clearer as she raised a hand to nurse her cheeks. She stared at Celine with a look of mixed emotions.

Everyone in the coffee shop stopped whatever it was that they were doing and watched the spectacle before them. The waiters looked at each other in wonder. They had no idea what was going on and none of them dared to step forward to mediate.

The scene of the three women fighting made it look like it was a lesbian love triangle to some of the bystanders who watched them.

And the two of them were very beautiful and this helped attract more people's attention to the drama that unfolded in the coffee shop.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Rachel was slapped by Celine out of the blue, and yet the one crying was Celine.

'What a bitch!' Rachel thought to herself. She took a piece of tissue and wiped her soaked face and hair. Lea stood in front of Rachel and kept her out of reach of Celine. She crossed her arms across her chest as her lips curled into a sneer and an eyebrow went up in ridicule. "Why are you crying? You started all this."