Love Began with the First Meeting

"And the person is..."

"Definitely not you!" Evelyn cut him off. Rolling her eyes at him, she tugged at Bess' arm and said, "Bess, let's go."

However, Bess was too dizzy to stand, having barely recovered from the last ride. Abruptly she wheezed and slumped back in the seat, one stiff, hand to her chest. She pleaded, "My lady, please spare me. I just want to save some energy to join the game in the evening. You don't want me to lose the game, do you?" Bess sprang up and turned to look at Ezra. "Please..." Bess winked an eye and gestured at Ezra with two very cautious nods in Evelyn's direction. "Well?"

Ezra shrugged his shoulders, allowing a simper to play on his face, pretending as though he didn't see Bess's cue. Bess always helped Evelyn to bully him. Adjusting his glasses, his face cracked into a smirk. He wasn't the kind of man who readily forgave those who had wronged him, especially the likes of Bess. Whether it was personal or impersonal, mattered very little, as he wasn't going to let this opportunity of revenge slip through his fingers. The memories of all the trouble she had caused him in the past was still fresh in his mind. If it weren't for Addison's help, he would have suffered a lot.

The moment Bess saw the evil smile on Ezra's lips, she immediately understood what he was calculating. Brows furrowed, she took a glimpse at Evelyn and jeered. Then she pretended as though she was going to follow Evelyn.

In his heart, Ezra cursed Bess for at least a thousand times, but on the surface, he showed none of it. Just as Bess had expected, Ezra dashed forward to take Evelyn's arm from hers. "I'll go with you, Evelyn."

"Hey! Ezra, are you crazy? I don't want you to go with me! Let's me go! Hey!" Evelyn yelled.

Leaning against the wall, Bess happily watched Ezra pull Evelyn away, who was still complaining without pause. Bess shot a meaningful look at Ezra and jested, "Ezra, how much will you pay me for the matchmaking? Ha-ha." Then, in a pensive mood, she looked up, eyes on nothing in particular, her fingers coming up to tap her chin. "Hmm... How about 880, 000*?

(*TN: a lucky number meaning getting rich) That's a lucky number, isn't it?" Bess snapped her fingers and her eyes lit up like fireworks.

"If you can get that sum of money out of him, I will give you double that," said the person watching Bess from behind, while she was floating in her dream of getting money from Ezra. "If you fail, then you can just give me half of that number."

Bess turned her head around and found Charlie and Elsa. Perhaps she didn't notice them because she was busy calculating the money in her head. Pouting her lips, she rolled her eyes at Charlie and said, "Are you crazy? I'm not dumb enough to bet against you. Although I may have had the slimmest of chances to win, with you betting against me, that chance has now come down to zero."

As a member of the Madness Is Good group, she may have not known Charlie very well, but one understanding about him was universal and widespread anyone who bet against him was doomed to lose. Only the mentally insane would bet against him.

"I won't intervene, I promise. If you like, I can even pretend that the bet doesn't exist until the results come out," said Charlie. All of a sudden, he pulled Elsa to close to his side. When Elsa was about to give him an earful, she noticed that he had pulled her away from someone who was about to bump into her. She was moved by the nobility of his actions.

Bess took a short glimpse at the hand that was around Elsa's waist. Strangely, she felt an emptiness in her heart. She simply felt charmed at how the most important women in Charlie's life, Evelyn and Elsa, both liked him very much. Charlie was the kind of person who could be the worst enemy to his opponents and the best friend to those he loved.

"Even so, I won't bet against you," Bess refused. "Ezra only cares about Evelyn. I know he is not going to spend a cent on any other woman except Evelyn."

"Right and concise!" Charlie replied while he walked away with Elsa to a quieter place she might enjoy.

"Did you know that she wasn't going to bet against you?" asked Elsa. "Yes,"

answered Charlie. He patiently explained, "You see, Ezra is a lawyer. He isn't a stingy man, but he isn't going to spend money unnecessarily as well. It is very likely that Bess isn't going to get any money from him. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Ezra even asks money from her..."

Elsa was quite curious about all the people of Madness Is Good. Ever since she was a little girl, her father worked in a big company, and she would hear stories from her mother about how some rich people bullied her father. But today, she had seen people from rich families with her own eyes. Surprisingly her perspective had changed. She found them to be sincere and reasonable, just as any normal human being. Nobody looked down on her because of her humble family background.

She spent the entire afternoon listening to Charlie's stories about the people in the group. They talked about the games industry and playing games with each other. The sun set in the sky, in the color of fire hearths and tangerine jellies. It sat within that sky, that summer- fruit hued throne, as if it looked over the world, stretching out with sepia tones to everyone below.

The mauve of the dusky sky intensified, and in just a while, the biggest star had set, giving way to a thousand others, like a battle cry to the gathering night. The time to bid farewell was at hand. Everyone said their goodbyes and promised to get-together again soon. Evelyn, Bess, Charlie and Elsa decided to ride back to school together, while the others drove back to their respective houses. They parted at the main gate of the amusement park.

"Evelyn, why do you look so angry?" Elsa noticed that Evelyn hadn't said a word on the way back to school. Normally, she would be in high spirits.

"I'm not," Evelyn replied, then she murmured to herself.

Charlie leaned back casually and looked at Evelyn's face in the mirror. "She lost in an argument! I'm sure she's mad!"

"I can't lose an argument I didn't have, Charlie!" Evelyn snapped back. Funnily enough, in the first half of the sentence she denied being angry, but her second reaction completely gave her away. When it came to Ezra, she seemed to turn into a silly state. Even Elsa, who was slightly slow in processing information generally, found the contradiction in Evelyn's words. She suppressed her desire to laugh so hard that her face turned red.

"SCREEECH..."

Suddenly, Evelyn slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to an abrupt halt, the inertia causing Elsa to jackknife forward in her seat. Fortunately, just before the collision between her forehead and the seat, she was pulled back by a strong arm.

"Charlie, you are an asshole!" Evelyn roared, after she got off the car, she slammed the door, completely disregarding the fact that she was parked in the middle of the road. Meanwhile, the other cars behind her had to stop or swerve away just to avoid careening into her

car.

"Beep Beep Beep Beep-"

Turning a deaf ear to the angry honks, Evelyn just walked to the pavement. Ever since she was a young girl, everyone in the family doted on her. Even after she went to school, no one had ever treated her badly. Those who disliked her would simply stay away from her. No one in her life had ever made her feel such embarrassment in front of others like Ezra did. 00000000