“What are these for?” Scarlett stared at a whole row of luxurious sports cars in wide-eyed excitement.
“Racing cars. They’ve got a racing game here every Saturday night.” Sophie turned to her and explained.
“Ah. Got it!”
Even as Scarlett dealt with socializing with Jeff and Sophie’s friends, she couldn’t move her eyes away from the rows of high-configuration sports cars only 10 meters away. They were all modified supercars, some even outfitted with nitrogen tanks to speed them up. This was a visual feast– she felt her mouth grow wet with desire.
Scarlett narrowed her eyes. The silver car that stood parked on the far left captured her imagination. She breathed in deep and saw thick wads of dollar bills float down from the sky in front of her eyes. The sight of such ridiculous wealth completely took her.
After a while, a tall figure walked to them with his right hand inside his pocket. As he approached them, Scarlett noticed that he is wearing a fancy, dark purple colored suit and a clean-cut white shirt with collars wide open. He was not wearing a tie. His hair was slicked back, which made his chiseled face look even more attractive. His deep and dark blue eyes seemed always to be roving; they let everyone know that he is a notorious playboy. Even in the dark and from a distance, Scarlett could sense that this man had a very unusual temperament.
“It’s the last game tonight, you gonna play or what?” The man asked Jeff. His voice was magnetic but not as mature as the voice of a middle-aged man. You could still recognize in his voice a sense of disdain about the arrogance of youngsters.
“Haven’t you heard? Larry Stone’s gonna play the last game. You can’t even imagine how crazy he is when he’s racing his car. He’s a fucking maniac. I don’t want to sacrifice my life for this shit.”
“Oh! So our super racer Jeff Richards is afraid now?” The man smirked and lit a cigarette. At that moment, he finally noticed the unfamiliar figure standing beside Jeff and his girlfriend, Sophie.
“It seems you forgot to introduce me to this beauty here, Jeff.” The man glanced at Scarlett with lust in his eyes.
Jeff asked Scarlett to come over and said, “This is Scarlett Morris, Sophie’s friend in UI. Smart. And sexy too, as you can see.”
The man raised his eyebrows at the statement. Jeff then pointed to him and introduced him to Scarlett, “This is my best friend from childhood, Chuck Sandler. I thought every girl in this town knew him.” He laughed.
Chuck Sandler? The eldest grandson of the Sandler family? Scarlett had heard of this big name from Sophie. She had said that the Sandler family is an old and well-known business family in Irving. Scarlett still remembered how her jaw had dropped when she heard that the most popular local supermarket, T.B.S Empire, is run by the second son of the current Sandler family, Francis Sandler.
Sophie further explained that it was because the first son, George Sandler, took full charge of the family business and was in the power of the family, while Francis Sandler had been assigned a portion of the properties from the family and started his own business since the 1990s. He built a legendary empire with his talent in the business and his extraordinary networking skills– he handled with absolute perfection both gangs and the government. With the retailing giant T.B.S Empire, Francis Sandler’s fortune had surpassed that of the original family business. Now, when it comes to the Sandler family, people generally first think of Francis Sandler and the T.B.S Empire- a department store chain.
Scarlett turned to face the racing track again, and she even forgot to say hi to Chuck Sandler. “Oh, how I wish I could have one!” Scarlett stared at the glistening, silver sports car. Sophie heard her mutter and pointed to Chuck Sandler nearby. “That’s Chuck’s car, you wanna give it a go?”
“What? Is that possible? Could I really?” Scarlett raised her voice, and her heart was pounding with excitement.
“Are you serious? I’m just joking.” Sophie lit another cigarette, sucked hard, and whispered a warning to Scarlett, “Nobody dares to touch Chuck Sandler’s car!”
But Sophie knew what type of person Scarlett was– mama didn’t raise any quitter. Scarlett would never give up without even trying; whatever it was, she would give it a shot. Scarlett couldn’t suppress her deep desire. “Mr. Sandler, May I take your car out for a little spin?” She asked.
Still, Sophie was taken aback by her bold request. Hot ash fell on her left hand, and the pain and anger made her cry out, “Scarlett! Are you crazy? Girl, do you even have a driver’s license?” Sophie grabbed Scarlett's hands with full strength and tried to stop her from doing something wild.
But it looked like Scarlett’s words had successfully aroused the two men’s interest. Jeff was surprised and tried to confirm her words: “So… you can drive a car, eh?”
“I can race a car,” Scarlett wrestled her hand free from Sophie’s grip and pointed to the racers preparing for the race alongside the track, “Even better than those guys.” She looked surprisingly confident and proud.
Chuck Sandler stubbed out his cigarette; he looked at Scarlett and said, “I’ll give you a car. Do you dare to play the game?”
“Why not?” Scarlett had never been short of courage. She was a risk-taker through and through. She was not afraid; even if she didn’t believe in herself, she believed in that high-configuration sports car.
“Good!” Chuck Sandler clapped his hands, took a step forward, and led Scarlett to his car.
“So if you win, it is yours. If you don’t win, you don’t lose anything. But I’m not responsible for your life. What do you think?” Chuck Sandler said, with some admiration for the girl in front of him.
Scarlett touched the reflector of the car and looked up with a smile, “This car is worth more than my life, I dare not want it!”
Chunk touched his chin and asked curiously, “Then what do you want?”“This one.” She pointed to the reflector, and she was estimating its worth. “So, what do you think? What’s this worth, like 15k?” She grew excited at the thought of the fortune awaiting her.Chuck was surprised at her choice, “Ya know, you’re pretty bad at business. I gotta hand it to you.”“Deal? Or no deal?” Scarlett had her own set of principles.“Of course!” Chuck Sandler couldn’t wait to watch the show.The final race was just about to start. The cheering crowds were full of excitement; people screamed and shouted to no end.
Although Scarlett had made a fortune, she still kept a low profile. There was only one person she wanted to share the news with her younger brother, Skyler. So, she gave Skyler a call and asked if they could get dinner in the coming week.Scarlett arrived at Skyler’s lab 20 minutes earlier than their appointed time. She leaned against a tree and played some games on her phone to pass the time.At a top science and engineering school like the one Skyler went to, there were usually many more male students than female. So, as one would expect, Scarlett drew a lot of attention on such a campus.The school was always worried about the disastrous consequences of having such a hypermasculine institution– it further discouraged women from entering STEM fields when they saw how skewed in favor of women the demogr
You have to think of yourself now. It’s your time.”“Do you think it really necessary? I mean, it’s just… a language.”Skyler’s face grew serious at once, “Don’t you want to study further? You could become an expert in no time! I’m sure you’ll find work somewhere, or you could even become a Russian professor at the college. Just like mom!”“How boring it is to be a professor!” Scarlett didn’t think that becoming a professor would be all that exciting to her. That wasn’t really her goal, as far as her career went.“Alright, even if you are not going to be a professor, it’s still necessary to further your education. It’s quite possible that you could be an int
Half an hour later, Scarlett found herself in a luxurious salon. She decided to shut her mouth and just let the hairstylists work their magic; their imposing scissors scared her a little bit, but she decided to let whatever was about to happen just happen.She was actually happy to get a haircut in this expensive salon that was way out of her budget, and she decided that even if the stylist shaved all of her hair off today, she would not utter a word of complaint.After about two hours, the hairstylist announced that she was done.Scarlett looked in the mirror to find that her dark brown hair had turned from straight to wavy. The stylist had cut her hair a little bit shorter and given it a perm. It seemed like the stylist had achieved the best combination of sexy and adorable. Scarlett was quite satisfied with her n
Allen belonged to the latter category. After one shot, the reds were all scattered.Scarlett observed the balls on the table and then bent down. The thigh-high slits of her dress caused her some trouble; she was extra careful not to risk any accidental exposure.She bent over to find a good position, and her chest almost touched the table. She bent her left arm and used her left hand to fix a position for the cue and her right hand to hold the cue on its back.She didn’t grab the cue tightly because that would decrease the speed of the shot; she didn’t weigh down the tip of the cue either because that would shake the target of the shot.After she thought she was perfectly ready, she squinted her eyes and struck promptly and with confidence. It was smooth and
Chuck shook Scarlett and said, “Hey, this is my uncle Francis. You sleep in his house tonight!”Scarlett was so drunk that she could not see the man clearly, but she tried to raise her head and nodded at the man, “Hi, Francis!”Francis stared at her but didn’t say anything. Chuck hurriedly took her into the house and threw her on the sofa, fearing that his uncle would reverse his decision to let Scarlett stay at his place for the night.“Uncle Francis, I’m so sorry to bother you. But I can’t take her home since…you know, well, Tiffany is around. She’d get mad. But I don’t think I can let her sleep at the hotel alone either. So…please take care of her for the night. I will come to pick her up first thing tomorrow morning!” Chuck thought h
Then, without wasting so much as a second, she got out of the car as quickly as possible. She breathed a sigh of relief. It had seemed to her like the morning would never come to an end, but somehow, by god’s grace, her gravely embarrassing morning had finally come to a close.As soon as Bell met Scarlett in the classroom, she started gossiping about what had happened last night. Even after Bell spent a lot of time interrogating Scarlett, nothing interesting slipped from Scarlett’s mouth.Finally, audition day came. Sophie had recommended Scarlett for a part-time gig as a model, but Scarlett still needed to try out at the casting call first. Scarlett chose a high-waisted dark-blue chiffon dress for the audition. It was one of her favorite dresses– she reserved it for wearing only on important occasions. It was cinched at the waist, so it showe
Scarlett looked at the solemn building, with crowds constantly entering and leaving. She began to wonder about the wealth contained in that building. How big was the Sandler family fortune?John took Scarlett to the director, spoke a few words to her, and then left. The director didn’t seem very harsh, and Scarlett wasn’t going to work under her anyway. To the director, Scarlett looked smart, agreeable, and pleasant overall.“The meeting is starting at 4:10, you can familiarize yourself with the documents in the meantime.” The personnel director handed the documents needed for the meeting to her, including the Russian version. Scarlett needed to memorize a lot of business-related Russian vocabulary within an hour, but it was not a big problem for her. She felt quite confident in her Russian abilities. Her mother had, after all, been a pr