In My Desperate Time

Frances Louis seems to be interrogating a prisoner.
I just come home late, but why does he stare at me every day like a strict parent?
“It is raining and I couldn't get a taxi, so I come back late.”
I say dully.
My face still hurts. I want to go upstairs and take a shower and then apply the medicine. I haven't looked my face in the mirror, so
I don't know how swollen my face is.
“You got off work at five thirty and it was not raining then.” Frances Louis chuckles, but with an air of danger.
It’s terrible that this man knows my schedule so well.
I can't say I went to Steven Song's house, so I lie, “I went shopping.”
“What did you buy?” He looks at my empty hand and stretches out his right hand to me.
Does he want to push me to death?
I didn’t go shopping. How could I give him the stuff I bought?
I roll my eyes to Frances Louis and say coldly, “I don’t have money. I can’t afford them.”
Frances Louis frowns. He grabs a black card from his coat and throws it to me.
“You can buy anything you like.”
His movements are perfectly handsome. It is true that the most handsome moment of men is when they swipe their credit cards.
Not everyone can have a black card. Frances Louis's black card can at least overdraw a few million.
If only I could pay him back with this card.
I roll my eyes, and the next second, Frances Louis says quietly, “don't have any evil ideas. You are my Frances Louis's woman
and can’t be too shabby.”
Oh, he is afraid that I would shame him.

I know he wouldn't take the card even if I gave it back to him, so I just take it. I don't want to spend his money, but what if I need
it in an emergency? I want to be kind to myself in the future.
“Thank you, boss.” I lift my face and smile sweetly at him, as conscious as a lover should be.
Now I finally understand that it is better to please someone as moody as Frances Louis.
“What happened with your face?” Frances Louis frowns and gently touches my face.
“Ahh...” I inhale and push his hand away.
“What happened?” His face becomes sullen again.
“I accidentally burned myself when I drunk coffee.”
I don’t want Frances Louis to know the truth, so I make up a lie.
But apparently such a clumsy lie could not deceive Frances Louis.
“You can burn yourself like this? Jane Noyes, are you being naive, or do you think I'm stupid?”
But I don’t want to tell him.
“Believe it or not.”
Then I go upstairs. Fortunately, Frances Louis doesn’t follow me. After washing, I put some medicine on my face and go to
sleep.
My face still feels very painful. I finally fell asleep after a long time. No sooner had I fallen asleep than there was a knock at the
door.
“Who’s there!” I shout at the door, “It’s late at night! You want to die?!”
“Frances Louis,” a clear and brief voice comes.
I wake up by the shock. I climb up from the bed and open the door.
I am sleepy and dizzy. I completely forget that this is Frances Louis's house and there are only two persons, me and him.

Frances Louis stands in the doorway in his dressing gown, his strong, tight chest bare, mostly outside, which makes me swallow.
Frances Louis is a man with beauty, ability and he is single, which is a fatal attraction to women.
And I am just an ordinary woman.
“What?” I yawn, asking him sincerely.
I have such a good attitude because I just yelled at him. I hope he can let me go for the sake of my lovable attitude.
“Drink with me.”
Frances Louis says and drags me upstairs.
But I can’t drink! I get a wine rash when I drink, and that will kill me!
Upstairs is a large platform, the left corner is full of plants and flowers, the top, with more than half of the place, is planted with
grapes. The grape season has passed and the vines are bare.
No moon tonight, but the stars are beautiful. It's nice to see the stars lying on the roof.
To my surprise, Frances Louis has refined interests.
Sitting at the little table, Frances Louis pours himself a glass of wine and drinks it to himself.
The wine he drinks is light golden. I thought it was champagne, but it smells sweet and fruity, which makes me almost drunk.
It smells so good.
Frances Louis chuckles and hands his wine glass to me.
“It’s a wine I ask the winery to make specially. Would you like to try it? No drunk, no wine rash. I took the wrong wine. This wine
is only suitable for women.”
I want to refuse, because it is too intimate to share a glass with Frances Louis.
But the appetite in the stomach is screaming for the wine. Somehow, I pick up the glass and drink it.
It tastes good. It’s better than I thought.

It has a sweet, fruity taste and a hint of wine. They mix together and they taste good.
“Very good.” I exclaim, and gulp down the glass without resistance.
“I’ll get a one more.”
He says and go downstairs.
Two minutes later, he goes back holding another bottle of wine.
I am an ordinary people and don’t know much about the wine. But what Frances Louis brought up, with such exquisite
packaging, is estimated to be hundreds of thousand dollars for each bottle.
Frances Louis opens the red wine and pours it into a glass, sipping it.
He doesn’t talk to me. I am bored and keep drinking the fruit wine. One after another, I have drunk more than half of the bottle.
My head is dizzy.
But I don’t feel that I would have wine rash.
There are two Frances Louis in front of me.
“Didn't you say I wouldn't get drunk? Why do I feel dizzy? Have you drugged the wine?” I murmur, unconsciously leaning my
whole body against Frances Louis.
I hear Frances Louis chuckle and he says to me, “do you think it is necessary for me to drug you? I said one drink won't get you
drunk. Look how many you've drunk.”
He makes me speechless.
Although I feel drunk, the wine wouldn’t get me rashes, and it tastes so good that I couldn't help pouring another glass.
Or, it’s because I feel sad. It is said that drink can drown sorrow. Recently there are so many disturbing things, I do not know
whether they can be drowned out.
My family, Andrew Malan, and the 900,000 dollars I owe Frances Louis make me breathless. But it is the presence of Noah
Jefferson that bothers me most.

He appears in my most vulnerable period, like a ray of sunshine shining into my dark life. I love Noah Jefferson, and even now I
can still feel the crush when I see him. But I don’t even have the courage to approach him.
“Frances Louis, do you know what it is like to love but not own?” I lean on Frances Louis's shoulder and suddenly ask
him.