Chapter 2

The door opened, revealing the figure of a one hundred eighty-five centimetre black man standing in front of the door with half his body weight leaning against the side of the door. His facial structure was similar to Aura, only he was the male version and twenty centimetres taller than Aura. They both have something like a magnet that can attract everyone's attention to the two of them. Despite their appearance as black people in general, both Aura and Alan had the Chinese blood flowing in their DNA cells that they got from their mother's side.

"Where have you been?"

"I heard you just got proposed by a woman, Boss?" Alan strolled in casually, took off the baseball cap he was wearing, and then pulled the chair across from Keith, sat in front of him casually as if it were his own home.

"Aura told you?"

"Who else? Besides, I'm also curious. So what's your answer?"

"I dunno. No comment."

"Boss can say that, but what about the woman earlier?" Alan pointed his thumb back. "She's still waiting for your answer."

"Leave it, then," Keith closed his laptop screen, then leaned over to Alan. "Rather than that, I guess there are more important things I should ask you."

"Absolutely, you don’t know when to relax," Alan took out three photos from behind his jacket pocket. “I checked the person who ordered our weapons. Arthur Hermann. Manager in marketing at Hermann Co."

"Wow, what an unexpected coincidence," he said, stroking his chin, getting more and more interested. After he had just been proposed by one of James Hermann's grandchildren, he now discovered a new fact that the prospect who would buy weapons from him also came from the Hermann family. "How much did he buy?"

"Fifteen units."

"Too little," he took the three sheets of the photo, studying them carefully. The face line of the man in the photo looked hard and tense, walking into a dock at the port that was the place for the sale and purchase of his firearms when the photo was taken. "Try to find out his reason for buying weapons. I don't want us to get into trouble."

"I'm investigating, but I think it will take a long time."

"Take your time."

"Oui," Alan got up from his chair. "There is an uprising in the West Area. Do I need to take care of it, or do you want to solve it by yourself?"

"Is the Skylar group acting up again?"

"Well, I don’t need to say it again, do I?" Alan shrugged. "So what's your decision, Boss?"

"Just do what you like. Make sure to give them a final warning, or I'll take care of them myself."

"Okay," the man walked out of the room for a moment, then turned back to face him. "Our cafe will close soon. Should I ask the woman who proposed to the Boss earlier to leave?"

"Is she still there?"

Alan nodded.

"So persistent," he took a deep breath, getting up from his chair. "I'll take care of it."

"Just accept her proposal, Boss. It's not that difficult. After all, you never dated a single person—"

Alan stopped his words as he cast a sneer at the man. "About me seeing someone or not is none of your business."

The man whistled as he stuffed both hands into the pockets of his skinny jeans, ignored his irritation and walked away from the cafe. A little hesitant, he came out of his room, found that the woman was still in the same place as Alan had said earlier, sitting looking out the window. The woman's cold face looked sad.

"Just approach her quickly, Boss," said Aura who suddenly appeared behind him with her hands full carrying dirty tableware. "I've told her many times not to get her hopes high because you don't want to make a commitment, but she still insists on waiting for you here."

"Why do you two like to interfere with my private life, anyway?" Keith snorted in annoyance. "Si, si. I'm going there now. Are you satisfied now?"

"Woah, scary ...," Aura said in a flat tone, then walked into the kitchen room. "Don't put on such a scary face, Keith. Your future wife will run away!" said Aura again from the kitchen.

"Strai zitto! Who do you call my future wife, Bastard!"

His friend just laughed in response to his screams. He patted both cheeks, put on a cheerful face that he always used every time he greeted visitors, then walked over to the table where the woman was sitting.

"Excuse me, Miss Clark. I'm afraid we need to close our cafe now."

"Close? Ah, oh yeah. Sorry," the woman looked nervous upon noticing his presence, but covered her nervousness again with her calm demeanour, facing him. "So, can I get your answer?"

"My answer?"

"About my offer earlier," said the woman again. "I know maybe my proposal was rushed." 

"Indeed," he stood in front of the empty chair opposite the woman. "Can I sit here?"

"Go ahead," the woman cleared up her belongings that were scattered there. Not so much, really. There was only an iPad that he caught a glimpse of showing the woman's company's quarterly financial statements before being pulled away by the woman and tucked into her tote bag along with her iPhone and stylus pen. "I can't stay single nearing thirty."

Nearing thirty? Oh, right. She was five years older than him. He had time to see her brief bio on one of the sites he visited when he was looking for her background on a search site. He was silent, still allowing the woman to continue her words.

"How about this? We'll be married for a year, then after that, we'll divorce. As long as we get married, I will fulfil all of your needs. Money, house, whatever you want. All you need to do just tell me what do you want are, and I'll try to fulfil them."

"Do you mean, it would be like a contract marriage?"

"Exactly," the woman snapped her fingers and then rested her two hands that formed a pyramid on her table. "There's no need for you to do anything. You can still do your current job here. I will not restrain you. So how about that? Are you interested?"

"In exchange, will I get whatever I want? Anything?"

"Yes, anything. As long as I can still afford it."

"Give me time to think about it. This is too sudden."

"No problem," the woman reached for her tote bag, then got up from her chair, closer to him so that he could smell her Channel 05 perfume. The woman's lips drew closer to his left ear. "Just call my contact on my name card earlier if you still interested in my offer."

After whispering it, the woman moved away from him, then smiled. "I'm waiting for your answer."

The woman walked for a while, then turned to face him. "By the way, I forgot to ask your name. What's your name?"

"Keith…" he paused for a moment, realizing that he could not possibly use his mother's surname that was too flashy. Finally, he decided to use his father's surname. "Keith Gilbert."

"Keith Gilbert. Okay, I'll remember. Not a difficult name," said the woman again before finally completely disappearing from before him.

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