My Story: Flavours off the Heart

[ccsakura]

Hey guys this is my first fan fic that I have ever written so I hope that you enjoy it! This fic is going to be about cooking and the relation ship between the main characters of the story. I've just read the topic about using actors and actresses in their story, and all I have to say is that it is much easier to write a story when you have a face and a personality to go with the person you're describing!

Foreward

Main Characters:

Name: Charmaine Sheh
Age: 23
Occupation: Waitress
Hobbies: Eating, shopping and helping out at the orphanage, going on the net

Name: Julian Cheung
Age: 25
Occupation: Chef
Hobbies: Cooking, helping out at the orphanage, reading about cooking, basically anything to do with cooking, and making origami, going on the net

Name: Carman Lee
Age: 25
Occupation: Food Critic for a popular food magazine
Hobbies: Reading, and spending time with family, going on the net

Name: Louis Koo
Age: 25
Occupation: Manager for his father’s hotel ‘Jade Generation’
Hobbies: Eating going to the gym, spending time with family, going on the net

[ccsakura]

Chapter One: The Hired and The Fired

Characters:

Charmaine Sheh
Carman Lee
Julian Cheung
Louis Koo
Gigi Lai
Aaron Kwok
Marco Ngai

On a busy street, outside and a small up-beat restaurant, with faded signs there was a girl walking disappointedly away from the restaurant. The girl was dressed in a simple black skirt, and a white shirt that had the distinct logo of the restaurant on it.

Charmaine sighed; she couldn’t believe that she had just been fired, yet again. She really didn’t understand what her problem was every time she was hired at any restaurant. At first it would seem really successful with the employees and the boss enjoying her presence then out of the blue she would get fired with some lame excuse from the boss. She sighed again, this time the boss said that she ate too much during the lunch breaks. She turned around and took one last glance at the restaurant before crossing the road and setting off home.

Too bad, she thought, the food at this restaurant really was one of a kind, and the people were really nice, I’ll really miss their special sushi…

Ring, Ring

Hearing the ring from her phone she stands at a halt and fishes for her phone from her bag.

“Hello.” She greeted gloomily, she was not exactly in the best mood to talk.

“Hey, it’s me.” Says the person on the other end.

“Oh, hi Joyce.”

“Well, don’t we sound happy. Anyway the reason that I called is I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go shopping, I know that there is this really good sale on, and you can get a discount if--,” Joyce was suddenly interrupted.

“Joyce, I just got fired.”

“WHAT? AGAIN!”

Charmaine held the phone away from her ear before the ear drums burst, Joyce really was an over reactor, how Marco put up with her, Charmaine would never understand.

“Yes… again,” Charmaine replied in a wary voice, this really was not anything new. Last time she got fired was because she spent so much time talking to the customers that by the time the conversation was finished the food had gone cold and the restaurant had more loss then profit because of the amount of money that was wasted on paying the gas bills from heating up cold food, sure the customers kept coming back because they enjoyed talking to Charmaine, but the gas bill was always to much. And the time before that she was fired because…

“Because you kept on advising the customers on what to eat and what not to eat, because of the high cholesterol levels in them,” Joyce finished Charmaine’s thought for her, “ And the time before that--”

“OKAY, Joyce I really don’t need to be reminded.”

“Yeah sorry, but I really don’t know how you manage to do it, this must be a record. What is this the third or something restaurant in like… seven months? Whew girl you really are amazing, just not in the right way,” she hastily added. “Maybe this isn’t your type of area, perhaps you should think about doing something else?”

“I don’t know,” Charmaine considered slowly, “I’ve been around food all of my life I really don’t know what else would be appealing to me. I mean I love working through the day with the beautiful food aromas creeping up my nose coaxing me to keep on working hard, and telling me to encourage others to enjoy food just as much as I do. Anyway what other job would give me the opportunity to be around food like I can now?”

“God Charm, the way you talk about food, it’s a wonder you’re not a chef, then again I know why, you really can’t cook, which I find amazing especially considering the fact that you love food so much… So what are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know, look for another job I guess…” Charmaine pondered slowly, she really could not think of anything she would rather do then being a waitress, she could be around food all day and meet new and interesting people.

“Your lucky she’s not here.” Joyce said, Charmaine could imagine un-approving expression, as she understands who Joyce is talking about.

“I know I’ll definitely get an earful if she knows that I got fired again.”

“Why don’t you just accept her help, I mean she’s not a bad person and she’s definitely got you best interests at heart…”

“Joyce…” Charmaine said in a warning tone, she could talk to Joyce about anything but the topic of her step-sister is definitely not something that she would enjoy talking about.

“Okay. I get it; well I’ve got to go now I’ll see you later at home, okay? We’ll have a quick dinner before I leave for the plane.”

“Oh… you’re leaving again, how long is it for this time?” Charmaine asked. Joyce was an air hostess and she often left for long trips at a time. Charmaine could not stand the thought of serving all those weird and possibly dangerous people, thousands of meters in the air with no control over the situation, but Joyce loved her job, and was lucky because since she started air hosting she has only had one job, and she met the man of her dreams on one of her flights. She silently sighed in some way she envied Joyce her life was so simple compared to her own.

“I’ll be gone for about one and a half weeks, okay I really have to go now see you when you get home.” And with that she hung up the mobile.

Charmaine yet sighed again as she stopped in front of a newsagent and brought a newspaper turning it to the jobs section…


~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

In another busy street, stopping at a red traffic, a dark tanned man could be seen in his expensive silver car seemingly talking to thin air, but in reality talking to the person on the other end of his mobile.

“Louis, our top chef has announced that he wants to retire, we need to seek a new and worthy chef as soon as possible, and none of the other chefs in the kitchen at present have either the skills or the experience to take over the position.”

“Tell the H.R department to start putting advertisements for the position in some magazines, especially the ones that have chefs reading them like ‘Delicious’ and ‘Yumy Yumy,’ then get them to contact the previous head chef and get him to leave back some of his old recipes so that we can get the new selection to try and cook it.”

“Okay that will be done immediately, oh and your mother rang asking for you, I think she was interested to see if you were free to come home for dinner.”

“Thanks Marco, I’ll ring her back, I’ll see you in about fifteen minutes.”

Louis then hung up and started driving at the signal of the green light, at the same time dialing the numbers to home to speak to his mother.

“Hi mum,” he said after waiting for the maid to go and get his mother.

“Hello Louis,” his mother greeted back in pleasant tone. “So are you coming home for dinner?”

“I’m not really sure there is this really important meeting on tonight and my guess is that it will go on till at least eight tonight. This meeting is really important to ‘Jade Generation’ whether this meeting goes well or not could decide the whole fate of our hotel.”

Jade Generation is the hotel and restaurant that has been passed from generation to generation within the Koo family all the way from his first ancestors, during the age of the kings. It is a successful business and has been doing well since, not only from its long existence but also from all of its new and refreshing menus every season, which is a big thanks to the successor’s management over the past hundred years.

“Louis, honey I know that this hotel is important to you, but so is your social and family life. If I remember correctly then you haven’t had a proper meal with the family for the past two weeks…”

“That’s not fair mum, I was there last night…”

“Yes,” his mother agreed in an exasperated voice, “But after about five minutes of sitting there you and your father were so wrapped up in your talk about the hotel that you barely touched your food then when I finished eating you both excused yourselves and left to talk more in the study leaving me to help Jane clean up, your food barely touched, I might add,” His mother paused taking a deep breath before she continued, but what came out next was totally unexpected. “And Louis, must you wait till I’m on my death bed before you bring home a girl that will marry you!”

Her last words were almost a plea and Louis didn’t now what to say next, the only time that he had ever brought a girl home was his last girlfriend Gigi, and their relationship had not turned out as he has hoped. Although they still keep in contact their relationship had not turned out to be anything more then good friends.

He was about to reply when his mobile made a sound which told him that he had another call trying to get though. Apologizing to his mother and reassuring her that he would do anything within his power to come home tonight and have dinner with her without mentioning the restaurant once, he told her that he had to go there was another call trying to get through. After a last grumble about him taking after his father being a ‘workaholic’ she finally hung up. Louis shook his head at his mobile he loved his mother and all but sometimes she was just too much. Pressing a different button on his phone, he greeted the person on the other line thinking that it was Marco again.

“Yes?”

“Yes?...” was the reply that he got back, “Gosh Louis if I didn’t know better then I would think that you think that you are growing more ruder and more demanding day by day.” The voice on the other line said in a cheeky tone.

“Oh Gigi, I didn’t realize it was you, sorry!”

“Obviously,” Gigi replied giggling, “Anyway I rang to tell you some exciting news! Guess!”

“Guess? Well you know that I was never any good at these guessing games, but I’ll try anyway. Umm… You won the lottery…”

“No…”

“Aha you are electing for the next president of the United States? I got it this time didn’t I?”

“No.” Gigi said in a wary voice and obviously tired of his far out guesses, told him. “I’m coming back to Hong Kong!!!”

“Oh really when?”

“In about a months time… well that’s my boss I need to get off the phone before he decides that I don’t deserve this trip to Hong Kong. Okay Bye.”

“Bye.” After hanging up the phone Louis arrives at the parking lot of Jade Generation, and drives through with thoughts about his mother, Gigi and the hotel running through his mind.


~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

One week later…

Outside an international airport and near the parking looking a beautiful young lady was to be seen looking backwards and forwards around in the parking seeming like she was looking for something. Someone then taps her on her right shoulder, turning around to see who it was she was surprised to see no one standing there. She then resumes the task that she was doing, then somebody tapped her on her left shoulder, realizing who it was she turned to her right side. Her face broke into a smile when she saw her boy friend Aaron Kwok there holding a bunch of flowers.

“So how was your trip?” He asked, handing her the bunch of flowers and taking the suitcase into one hand and reached for her hand with his free hand.

Carman mentally frowned to herself, she wished that Aaron was more romantic or at least, less serious, maybe asking her if her missed him or something along those lines.

“Oh it was fun all of the food was really nice, I have a lot of valuable information.”

“So did you end up trying the raw fish?”

Carman once again frowned mentally, she hated anything raw, and Aaron should know that.

“No I didn’t.” She replied her thoughts still on Aarons questions, then she lit up what she’s about to say next would sure interest him. “Guess what?” Not giving him a chance to guess she continued, “That place that we met, it’s all changed now, they’ve put in all these other food shops and it looks so different now…”

“Hmm….” Aaron made a noncommittal sound, like his thoughts were on other things simply saying that he wasn’t interested.

Carman was hurt, she thought that he would at least be interested in what she had just said seeing as they did first meet there, her thoughts then wondered back to when she first met him.

It was about two years ago…

Carman was training to be a food critic and as a part of the course they were required to try different types of foods belonging to different cultures… all in all the she was pretty confident that she would pass with flying colors. When she ordered the food she turned back to the tables and to her dismay there was none left, she really didn’t want to go out to stinking hot weather again so she continued to look around for an empty table, then out of the blue as voice next to her says,

“Miss are you looking for a table, you could share mine if you like?”

At first glance at his serious and sincere eyes she had immediately fallen for him, they started to talk and she found that she had a lot in common with him. But now two years later it seems like he is a total stranger to the man that she fell in love with.
When he drove her home she said goodbye to him, and went up to the large and luxurious apartment that she shared with her parents.

Carman’s family was a well off family, with her father playing with stocks and shares, owning his own business her family could afford to live in comfort. When she was young her mother had died early of cancer, a few years later her father had once again married to a kind lady, although the lady had a child of her own she didn’t mind and warmly welcomed her into the family. But for some reason her step-sister wasn’t happy and moved out as soon as she could, Carman never understood why, they used to get along before that but after a while they started drifting as her sister became more and more distant to their family and eventually moved out, now they barely kept in touch.

After having a nice and cheery welcome back dinner with her parents Carman went upstairs and started writing her critic report, only to find her mind drifting back to the state of hers and Aarons relationship…

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~


Outside the main entrance of Jade Generation there stood a handsome looking young man staring at the sign to the entrance. The man was clasping and unclasping his hands in a gesture that could only mean that he was nervous.

Julian found a clean looking chair and sat down he sat at a chair that would face the entrance to Jade Generation. He couldn’t believe his luck one week ago after seeing the advertisement in the magazine about one of the top hotels in Hong Kong needing a chef urgently he sent in his resume and couldn’t believe his luck when he got a reply almost a day afterwards telling him to come in about a few days time to go through several tests to be selected. Now he was sitting outside of a place that he wished with all his might that he has a chance to work in, heck he even prayed to his guardian angel although he never believed in that sort of nonsense before. He nervously lifted his hand to wipe his brow one more time, only to see that he was shaking.

“Get a grip on yourself, Julian.” He said to himself loudly, causing passerby’s to give him stares. He quickly put his hand down and went back to clasping and unclasping it.

Looking at his watch he saw that he was about half an hour early. Looking around at his surroundings and his eyes falling onto the bin close-by he remembered back to the strange encounter he had last week with a very stubborn girl…

After seeing the ad in the magazine he immediately prepared a resume and to cautious to be putting his fate into any dodgy postman’s hands he went to deliver the resume to the hotel himself. On his way out at a close by stall he decided to buy a sandwich, but after eating half of it he was to nervous to finish it off, and was about to throw it into the bin but stopped when someone held back his hands to stop him from throwing it into the bin. He turned to see who it was, and was greeted by the accusing stare of a girl not much younger than him.

“Is there a problem, miss?” He asked politely shaking her hand off and moving his hand closer into the bin when she once again stopped him in mid action.

“Yes there is a problem,” She had replied in an accusing stare, “this is perfectly good food that you should not be wasting.” He didn’t know what to say, when she didn’t get any reply from him she continued. “There are thousands of people starving out there you have no right to waste food like that…”

Julian still couldn’t think of what to say next here was a perfect stranger coming up to tell him off, about a something that he never really thought was much of an issue. When he still didn’t reply, she gave him a bright smile, and dragged his hand out of the bin and while he was still holding onto the sandwich she held onto his hand as if afraid that he would quickly throw it into the bin if she let go, and started wrapping up the sandwich for him.

There was no way that he would eat that sandwich now that it made any contact with the bin, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. Just as she was about to finish wrapping it up, a man on a bike rode by breaking the connection between them causing the sandwich to fall onto the floor.

They both bent down to pick it up of the floor and he was about to throw the now dirty sandwich into the bin when she once again stopped him. He gave her a look of disbelief and said, “There is no way that I am going to eat that now, no matter how many starving children there are in the world.”

She looked at his face and her expression softened, “I guess, what a waste…” and with that she walked away looking lost in her own world.

Julian had never met anyone so weird. But at least she had given something to think about the next few days when he got nervous again.

He looked at his watch, there was only five minutes left, he got up and made way to the entrance of Jade Generation, once again praying to his guardian angel and promising that he would be more faithful if he got the job.

Two Hours Later…

“Congratulations, Mr Cheung and welcome to Jade Generation you have been selected to be our head chef. My name is Louis Koo, I am now your new boss I hope that we enjoy working together in the future.” And he held his hand out for Julian to shake.

Julian took his hand in his own and said, “Thank you, I hope that as well.” And with all the dignity he could muster he walked proudly out of the hotel and once he got outside, he jumped into the air punching it with his fist and thanking his lucky stars… and his guardian angel… and once again earning weird stares from passer-bys…

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Carman sits in front of her computer and logged into her favorite chat room, she never really liked talking on the internet before but since she made some great friends on this particular chat room she has learned to love it.

Candy is logging in…

Welcome Candy…

Carman scrolled down her list of friends until she saw one of them online…

Candy: Hey Chocolate!

Chocolate: Hey Candy, how was Japan?

Candy: It was great so many different types of foods and people.

Chocolate: That’s great! Did you end up trying that raw fish dish?

Candy: No the thought of it not being fully cooked really turned me off; I just couldn’t stand the thought that it used to swim around happily in the ocean.

Chocolate: All of our food used to run around when it was alive!

Candy: Yeah but it’s different when it’s RAW…

Chocolate: Okay… So did you get to go to the place where you met Aaron?

Candy: Yeah… it’s really changed but when I told him about it he didn’t even really care… sometimes it seems like out relationship is purely based on work.

Chocolate: Perhaps you should talk to him about it, I gotta go now, I hope that things between you and him work out!
Candy: Thank Cya!

After logging off Carman went to bed, wondering to herself why she can’t talk to Aaron as openly as she can to Chocolate about her problems, when Aaron is her boyfriend and Chocolate is just a friend that she has learned to like over the past months…




************************************************** **

Well what did you guys think of that? Please leave me a word of encouragement and maybe tell me if I should continue to post it here or not, or who you want to read more about!

Please leave any sort of comment so at least I would know if there are people out there reading my story!

[Sumary]

ccsakura you are doing a great job! I love your writing and hope you can update soon!!!!!

[Danielle Lin]

Hi ccsakura! Wow, what a big cast...

Hmm is this chocolate dude Louis or Julian? And did Julian bump into Charmaine or Carmen? So many unanswered questions update soon!

I wonder what's wrong with Aaron though he seems to be in his own little world... Post soon!

[ccsakura]

Hey guys thanks for reading and replying! You're questions will be answered soon, I'm not a very good writer when it comes to suspense! Enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 2: Looking for a job

Characters:

Charmaine Sheh
Louis Koo
Carman Lee
Julian Cheung
Joyce Tang
Marco Ngai


Charmaine sighed as she closed the newspaper. She had been searching for a job for about seven days and so far she has had no luck. All of the small family restaurants seemed to know each other every time she said her name after saying that she was looking for a job they would just widen their eyes and tell her hastily that they had no free positions left.

“What am I going to do now?” She asked herself, she couldn’t depend on Joyce to provide her money for the rest of her life. Tired of sitting around in a silent house she went to the computer and logged on to her favorite chat room…

Sweet Potato is logging in…

Welcome Sweet Potato…

A chat window appeared on the screen, Charmaine beamed when she saw that it was her favorite internet buddy, Jelly.

Sweet Potato: Hey Jelly!

Jelly: Hey Sweet Potato, how are you?

Sweet Potato: Well since I still haven’t found a job yet… guess what I’m doing?

Jelly: Why haven’t you found a job yet? I get it, you haven’t been trying hard enough, have you?

Sweet Potato: I have been trying it’s just that the restaurants all seem to know each other they won’t even give me a chance.

Jelly: Too bad… On a brighter note I started my job yesterday!

Sweet Potato: Oh yeah you told me about that… so how was it? Were you nervous?

Jelly: Yeah luckily everybody there was really nice; the boss is a really great guy as well.

Sweet Potato: At least things are going okay for you… Hey guess what? I’m on a diet!

Jelly: What again?! You’re always on a diet!

Sweet Potato: Well only because I need to, anyway you’re a good cook, got any good recipes for me?

Jelly: Yeah I’ll send them over to you later, I’ve got to go to work now, I’ll see you later okay.

Sweet Potato: Bye have fun at work!

Jelly: Yeah you have fun at home as well.

Charmaine logged of, and looked around her living room, usually there would be magazines sprawled all over the tables, and dirty dishes underneath them, her eyes wondered on to the floor and window, she has been so bored the last few days that she has been in a major cleaning streak, the floors were dustless the windows were crystal. Feeling frustrated Charmaine let out a scream as she stood up and walked over to her bookshelf knowing quite well that no one would hear her because they have all gone to work. She pulled out a book at random and walked back over to the lounge, sat down and flipped open to any page starting to read. After about five minutes of reading but not registering anything that she had read she let out another scream, chucked the book down and stared at the ceiling…

A few hours later…

Ring Ring

The sound of the phone call woke Charmaine up from her daydreaming; she slowly got up and walked over to the phone.

“Hello, Charmaine speaking.”

“Hey, Char, guess who this is?” The voice on the other end replied.

Charmaine’s face lit up, “Hey Joyce are you back?”

“Of course I’m back, so how have you been?”

“Joyce,” Charmaine started seriously, “I’m dying…”

“Dying? What are you talking about? Did you finish off all the food in the house?” Joyce asked, her tone giving off the idea that it was normal for people to confess that they are dying.

“No, I have not finished all the food in the house… I’m going to die off boredom.”

“Boredom? What do you mean? Haven’t you found a job yet?”

“If I have then would I be talking to you now?” Charmaine asked sarcastically.
Joyce was taken back, Charmaine was not a sarcastic person be nature, she was usually cheerful and full of energy, saying what’s on her mind not caring if it offended others.

She must be really bored, Joyce thought to herself.

“How about you join Marco and I for dinner later? He won’t mind maybe he can help…”

“I’m on a diet, but I’ll be there,” Charmaine said quickly, anything to get out of this house. “Usual place? What time?”

“Another diet? Yeah usual place about five, well I’ll cya then…Bye.”

After hanging up Charmaine let out another scream, this time of relief and made way to her bedroom, to get ready.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Charmaine paid the taxi driver and made way over to the entrance of Jade Generation, because Marco worked here and Joyce was her best friend she often came here to eat.

“Hey Charmaine!” She turned over to direction that the voice was coming from.

“Hey Joyce,” She rushed over and gave her a hug like they haven’t seen each other for months, when really it was only last week.

“Now let me see you,” Joyce said and held her at an arms length away, a gesture like a long lost relative meeting her relative for the first time. “My, you sure have grown thinner and that diet seems to be working you cheeks seem to show more.”

Charmaine laughed, then put on a serious face, inspecting Joyce in turn, “My my, you sure look pale have the passengers on the plane been way to demanding…”

“Will you two cut that out.” Came a deep male voice from behind them, they both turned to see a tall man walking towards them, with a serious look on his face, but they both knew him well enough to see the twinkle in his eyes.

“Marco…” Joyce greeted sweetly, and ran up to give him a hug, then pulled away holding at arms length inspecting him like she was doing with Charmaine, “has your boss been working you to hard, I can see an extra wrinkle…”

Marco gave her a pained look, only to be met by a giggle. He shook his head in mock frustration and walked ahead to the restaurant himself, muttering, “When you girls have caught up on your chit chat join me inside.”

“Come on let’s go in Joyce before he bursts another wrinkle…”

Marco chose them a seat near the window looking down on the busy streets of Hong Kong. Charmaine sat next to Joyce who sat opposite to Marco. Joyce tilted her head to face Charmaine and said seriously, “You know you could always ask her for help, she could probably find a job for you in two seconds flat.”

“Yeah, I know… but the last time I spoke to her was years ago and it won’t be right to ring her again and ask her to find me a job… Everything will work out. So what are we going to eat today?”

“Well,” Marco said grateful for something to say. Every time he was with both Charmaine and Joyce he sometimes found himself feeling left out, because of all the attention Joyce gave Charmaine. But he wasn’t mad at her, there were just some people who would always walk through life with the spotlight on them, he knew two of those people one was his boss Louis and the other was Charmaine.

After ordering one of the hotels famous dishes they went back to their chit chat. “So how was the plane ride, Joyce? Met anyone interesting?” he asked her.

“No, but Shang Hai was really pretty though, I think that we should go there for our honeymoon!”

Marco gave her a loving smile, “Anything you want, but it may be hard since we are already going to Japan, Hawaii, Thailand and--”

Marco stopped, it was apparent why, on the other side of the hotel there was a customer and a waitress arguing about something, from snatches of their conversation that was heard it seemed like the customer was yelling at the waitress for bringing him the wrong food. Marco apologized and walked over to the table to try and solve the problem. Joyce and Charmaine’s eyes followed Marco as he went from the customer to the waitress trying to smooth over the problem, he called another waiter over and as said something in his ear, and the waiter retreated to the direction of the kitchens.

Marco then said something to the customer one last time then he and the waitress walked over to a private room. Five minutes later the waitress walked out of the room crying, a moment later Marco walked out of the room and headed back to their table.

“What happened?” Joyce asked curiously.

“Oh, the waitress gave the wrong food--”

“No,” Joyce interrupted, “I meant after you went into the room?”

“I fired her.” Marco said as-a-matter-of-factly. “This is third time she’s argued with the customers for the same reason this week.” He turned to Charmaine. “Come up here tomorrow and apply for the job.”

Charmaine looked at him shocked, if she didn’t know Marco better then she would have thought that he fired the other girl just so she could have a job, but she knew Marco work and social were two different worlds to him, and only in some cases should they mix. She recovered quickly. “I don’t know…” she began, “I might not get the job… and even if by some miracle I did they might end up firing in a few weeks time…”

Marco gave Joyce a look, Joyce turned to Charmaine and said, “You should get a job before SHE can do anything about it.”

“Okay, I’ll send in my resume tomorrow,” Charmaine quickly said, then went back to eating her lunch as if the matter was closed.

Joyce gave Marco a wink.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Charmaine sat in the lobby fanning herself; she was waiting for the results of the interviews with about fifty other people. She was shocked to see the number of people who showed up for the interview. She was nervous, Marco had come early this morning to pick her up to make sure she wasn’t late for the interview, and everything had gone fine until they asked her why she was fired from her old job, she could tell they were trying not too laugh when she told them.

Ring Ring

Charmaine looked around to see where to ring had come from, after looking at the look on the other people’s faces she realized that it was her phone. She reached down and took it out from her bag.

“Hello, Charmaine speaking.”

“Hey Charm this is Michelle.” Came the voice from the other end.

“Oh my gosh, Shelly,” forgetting where she was she let out a squeal. After getting looks from the other nervous people, she sat down and whispered into her phone, “When did you get back?”

“I got back this morning why are you whispering?”

“I’m at a job interview.”

“A job interview…Oh I get it you got fired again! Why?”

“I’ll tell you later the people here are shooting me daggers, I’m being too noisy.”

“Okay, how about I come to yours and Joyce’s place tonight and we’ll have a catch up session, okay?”

“Okay, see you then.” Charmaine hung up the phone and saw that most people were staring at her to hide her smile away from them she put her phone down on the coffee table and picked up the magazine next to it opened it to any page and smile into the magazine at the Victoria Secrets model that smiled up at her.

She looked up when one of the people that interviewed her entered the room.

“We are sorry, but due to the amount of people who came for the interview we can’t give you a result straight away. If you would go home now, we will try to get back to you as soon as possible.” The interviewer looked around at the people who were getting up to leave, and when she spotted Charmaine she gave her a wink and turned back into the adjoining room.

Charmaine sighed and headed for the elevator. What happened next happened so quickly that some people had trouble keeping up. When the elevator door opened Charmaine saw her step-sister standing there talking on the phone she quickly changed the direction that she was walking and headed straight for the stairs, thankfully her sister was to occupied talking to the person to notice that she was even there.

Whew…she thought when the door closed behind her. She leant against the door to catch her breath, and then sighed. The level she is currently on is level 32. She started making her way down…

Damn Jade generation for having so many levels in their building and being so rich… Damn Step-sister for showing up in the middle of no where… damn Marco for dragging her into this in the first place…damn the weather for being so hot…

[annalee]

This is a rather good story. I really like Charmaine's character. She seems very innocent. Update soon.

[ccsakura]

hey this is the is next chapter to my story I hope you guys enjoy it!

Chapter 3: Quiet Retreat

Characters:

Charmaine Sheh
Louis Koo
Carman Lee
Julian Cheung
Joyce Tang
Marco Ngai
Aaron Kwok


Louis stared at the mountain of paperwork on his desk.

How in the world was he supposed to choose one person out of the fifty that showed up today? It was an impossible task. He looked around the room in hopes of distracting himself from the horrible task at hand. His eyes wondered to the two glass window that hung on the two sides on his walls one faced the outside of the office; the lobby and the other faced the conference room revealing to him whatever was happening within either rooms. A person standing on the other side of the wall may just think that it was a normal mirror, but he knew better, no one else knew about the glasses that hung, he had strictly ordered that no one enter his room without his knowledge, he has been the only person in this room for over a year. And he planned to keep it that way through these glasses he has been able to see all that happens in his office when he was supposedly been working. He knew that only when the doors to his office were closed was, his employees been able to work in a natural way with no fear of making mistakes. His past ancestors had used the room as a means of escaping when unwanted guests appeared, but to him it was a way that he got to know his employees properly, their true personality not just the act they put on to get on his good side because they didn’t want to get fired. He knew that they feared him, in a way that he would never understand; this may be because all his life the people around him had believed that because he was higher on the social status then them that he in a way was more powerful perhaps even more dangerous then them because he had money and with money came power. They really had no reason to be afraid, he was younger then them, to them he owed them his respect, they had more experience then him, something that he could never catch up on.

This was a miserable topic to be thinking about, he shook his head willing his mind to think about something more cheerful.

He grinned to himself and stared at the mobile phone on the side of his desk, the girl that had come to the interview had left it behind when she left. He chuckled at the memory of the girl who was fired at her last job because they said that she ate too much during lunch breaks. Then when everyone was sitting there waiting for the results of their interviews she had been the one that seemed to be the least worried laughing and joking when her mobile rang.
She is the type if person that we need around here, he thought to himself.

He heard a beep his secretary was on the phone speaking to him, “Mr. Koo, Miss Lee is here.”

Mr. Koo he hated it when they called him that, Mr. Koo was so formal, he would prefer Louis to that any day, but then again he needed to be respected, his father had made sure of that.

“Okay, send her into the conference room, I’ll be over in a minute.”

Louis picked up his files and made way over to the conference room.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Carman looked at the luxurious surroundings around her.

Wow the Koo’s must be really loaded, she thought, then slapped herself mentally, of course they were loaded no one else could afford a to put in a twelve page advertisement for their hotel over a series of four months.

Other then being the food critic that everybody in the business knew as Candy, she was also the marketing manager for Aaron’s fortnightly magazine ‘Delicious.’ Her identity as Candy was kept a secret between her and Aaron, she was well known for her taste in all sorts off exotic foods.

She stood up as Louis Koo entered the room, “Hello, Mr. Koo,” She said.

“Please call me Louis,” He said reaching out to shake her hand, she’s pretty, he thought.

Cutie was the first word that popped in her mind, then she scowled mentally, since when had she used words like that? She gave him a bright smile and reached out to meet his handshake.

The minutes their hands touched they both said in sync, “Do I know you?”

Carman felt weird when she had shaken his hand something stirred at the back of her mind; it seemed as if she had known him before.

“I… don’t think so,” Louis said slowly, “I would remember someone like you!” Louis blushed he couldn’t believe that he had just said that, he just spoke without thinking through what he was about to say, whew he hadn’t done that in a while… and now he knew why, it was to prevent him from saying stupid things that made him sound like an idiot. He felt another blush coming along…

Carman smile, how sweet…
Louis knew that she noticed that he was blushing, to think with this dark tan would hide that…

Carman tried to pretend that she had not noticed his discomfort and sat down gesturing for him to do the same; they opened their folders and started to discuss the marketing campaign.

“Well the aim of this project is to assure the customers that despite the new chef there hadn’t been anymore changes…”

That’s a lot to pay for reassurances, Carman thought to herself.

For the next few hours they were wrapped in conversations about the project…

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

“Thank you for choosing Delicious, Louis, we will do our best to set this project under way…”

“Thank you,” Louis said reaching out to shake her hand; once again they both felt the feeling of familiarity but decided to ignore it.

Carman said goodbye one more time and left, on the way to elevator her mobile rang from inside her handbag, she took it and put it to her ear, she knew that people were staring at her, she was practically the nosiest thing in this room, but she knew that it was only an act, she could tell that they were scared of Louis and she was right, from the corner of her eye she could see that the door to his office was still open.

He didn’t seem that scary, she thought then grinned; shy and cute was more like it. This time she frowned on the surface she had used that word again.

“Hello?” She said into her phone, her hello sounding more like a question then a greeting.

“Hey it’s me.”

“Oh hi… so what's wrong?” She asked the female voice at the other end, as the elevator doors opened and she stepped in.

“Have you heard, Charmaine got fired again.”

“She did? When was this?” Carman demanded into the phone. Although Charmaine never accepted any help from Carman, Carman still loved her as a younger sister, and Carman had an extremely over-protective nature.

“About two weeks, she just applied for a new one today…”

“Where at?”

“At Jade Generation, Marco introduced, her to the job. I hope she gets it.”

“Yeah, I hope so to, I mean this is what? Like the third time this year! I’m at Jade Generation right now, if she would accept it I would go in there straight away and tell Louis that her better hire her, but I know better then that she would never accept my help, and it would end up even worse if she finds out… hmm… Well thanks Joyce.”

“No problem, I know that we both have Charmaine’s best interests at heart, okay cya.” The line went dead.

Carman sighed and put the phone back into her bag and walked out of the elevator heading to the direction of her car. She had met Joyce on a plane a few years ago when she was on a business trip and they had become good friends over the short trip only later did she realize that Joyce was Charmaine’s flat mate. She wished she knew why Charmaine had suddenly drifted apart from her. She stopped in mid thought was that Aaron?

She had stopped at a traffic light and saw someone walking into a restaurant arms draped around a girl, from behind it really looked like Aaron she kept on following the couple with her eyes. She was then distracted by honking sounds around her, she looked up the traffic light had turned green; she looked back the couple one more time and drove on. She did a circle around the block until she found a parking spot that gave her a good view of the couple; thank god they had chosen to sit near a window.

She turned off her car and stared at the couple sitting there for a moment longer, she stared at them for what seemed to be like eternity then coming back to her senses, she looked away from the couple reaching for her phone and dialing Aarons number.

“Hello,” She trembled when she heard Aarons voice on the other line.

Get a grip on yourself, Carman!

“Hey Aaron, I just finished that planning with Louis Koo,” She said trying to make her voice sound as casual as she could, “Where are you at the moment?”

“… I’m in the middle of a meeting, look Carman this probably isn’t a good time to talk. I really have to go now.”

“Okay,” Carman said, relief flooded into her voice making it sound weak, but thankfully Aaron didn’t notice, “I’ll see you later then…” Before she could finish Aaron had already hung up. Carman smiled with relief, turning to start her car engine, then her smile quickly vanished, the man in the restaurant that she thought was Aaron was shutting his phone, and putting it on the table, he then reached over and placed his hands over the girl sitting opposite to him.
Carman’s mind went blank. Please God don’t let that be Aaron, she prayed, she wasn’t a Christian, but at this moment that didn’t matter. Well there’s only one way to find out she thought, and got out of her car locking it behind her made way over to the restaurant.

Carman jumped when she heard the honk of a car sounding very close to her. She apologized to the driver, in her haste in revealing the truth she had forgotten to check the road or traffic, which was quite stupid, seeing that this was the middle of one of the busiest streets in Hong Kong.

Get a grip Carman, She said to herself, If that is Aaron in there then he’s obviously not worth killing yourself over and if it wasn’t him then… then I’ll probably die feeling stupid.

She quickly checked to see of there were any cars and then crossed putting on her sunnies at the same time, if that was Aaron she would have to wait until she was able to gather enough courage to confront him.

She walked into the restaurant walked up to the bar and ordered a drink trying not to look to suspicious. After paying for the drink she went to find a secluded table where she could still see ‘Aaron.’

She sat down and braced herself, and stop drinking from her straw in mid breath.

It was Aaron.

Carman’s world seemed to have stopped, all her senses seem to have decided to stop, the voices around her had suddenly faded, and her vision seemed to have dimmed.

Air, she needed air.

“Miss are you okay?” said a young anxious looking waiter looking worriedly at her.

Carman was puzzled at first then she realized why, she was hyperventilating. She only did this when she got really nervous or sometimes really mad, or shocked.

Gasping for air she couldn't speak, she pointed towards the direction of the door hoping the waiter would understand, luckily he did. He gently lifted her up by her shoulders and helped her outside, before reaching outside, she glanced back at Aarons table and took her sun glasses of she shouldn’t have worried about it, Aaron’s attention was purely focused on the girl in front of him.

She found that she could breath easier when she got outside. Her breathing slowly evened out, she thanked the waiter, thinking to herself that at least all the men in this world weren’t cheating scums. Then she narrowed her eyes Aaron seemed like a good person when she first met him aswe—she caught herself in mid-thought, don’t think about him, don’t think about him…
Then she noticed that the waiter was still there, she thanking him one more time, assuring him that she was fine, and if he didn’t go back in there his boss might fire him, only then did he go back telling her that she should go and see a doctor.

After getting back into her car she sat staring at her steering determined not to look towards Aarons direction. Perhaps it was the shock but she did not feel sad, angry yes but definitely not sadness, or on the verge off tears like she thought she would be.

She just sat there and thought for a moment, it was time to make a call to a very old friend…

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Julian added the finishing touched to the dish that he was preparing. He stood back and glanced at it in satisfaction; he was a perfectionist when it came to anything to do with food, if the dish didn’t meet his requirements the he simply dumped it in the bin, luckily he didn’t make mistakes often.

He gave the dish to the young waitress and looked to see if there were anymore orders waiting, there were none. He glanced up at the clock, wow it was closing time already, time sure did fly when you’re having fun, he thought. Once last dish to make…

It had been almost a week since he had started the job, and he was as happy as can be. Every morning he woke up to the thought that he would be happy enjoying anther day of being in his most favorite place in the world, the kitchen. Well except for Friday and Saturdays that was, that was one bad thing about working in a hotel you had the worst weekends, but the pay was good, so that made up for it.

Julian looked at the ingredients that he had added to the tin wok, he was surprised that a modern and hi tech hotel like Jade Generation would have an old cooking instrument like the wok, but he was glad all the same some of the dishes that he had prepared have tasted a lot better thanks to the wok.

“Hey Julian,” said a voice from behind.

Julian turned to see that it was Louis, all the other cooks in the kitchen stared from Louis to Julian. Julian knew what they were thinking; how a person like Julian, so low in the social status got to be good friends with a person like Louis.

Personally he wondered the same thing, but Louis was the person that made the first move towards the friendship so he accepted.

“Hey, Louis,” he said his face lighting up, in his opinion this was the best way to end the day. Since he had started working here, everyday Louis came down to test his new dish. Being a cook sometimes was very repetitive cooking the same dish everyday, so Julian’s mind often wondered and he would think about a new dish.
Julian turned back around again and started mixing the ingredients together, a few moments later he was finished, he scooped the now cooked food into a dish and added the touch finishing touch to the dish. There, all done…

He then picked up the dish and got out two forks, then placed the dish between Louis and himself. They both stared at the dish. Julian didn’t think of a new recipe everyday but when he did it was always worth a try, on the days that he didn’t think up a new dish he and Louis would just chat. Louis would be sitting where he is now while Julian would be walking around making sure that everything was put away before he retired for the night.

Louis used his fork and dipped it into the dish, when he put it into his mouth Julian watched closely.

“Man this stuff is good!” Louis blurted with his mouth full. Julian looked at him disgusted, in front of other people he seemed to have the best manners, but in front of him he seemed to be any other typical male.

“What?” Louis asked, looking at Julian, he didn’t get why Julian was looking so disgusted. “The dish is good; man I’m glad I hired you!”

Julian laughed Louis was a very refreshing person to be around, sometimes he could seem like the cold rich son that he was or other times he was just a really good friend. Julian picked up the dish and tried it himself.

“Hmm…” he said tasting it carefully before he passed any type of judgment. “I think that it’s missing something.”

Louis looked puzzled for a second and laughed, “You are such a perfectionist! The dish is great!”

Julian smiled, what could he say he liked to hear praises. He then glanced at the clock it was time to get going.

He stood up, “It’s time for me to go home, are you going as well?”

“Nah, I’m staying here to do some extra work, you go on ahead.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he said heading towards the exit of the kitchen. “You better wash that dish after you finish…”

“Yes, mum,” he heard Louis reply sarcastically. He laughed and walked into the night…
~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Carman scrolled up and down the friends list on her chat window, she had been sitting here waiting for like an hour now, she had to talk to somebody or she would go mad.

Suddenly beside the name Sushi, the words changed from offline to online… she clicked onto Sushi’s name.

Candy: Hey Sushi!

Sushi: Hey Candy, I haven’t spoken to you for a while so how was Japan? I’m sorry I couldn't meet you.

Candy: Japan was good the food was nice.

Carman typed the words in quickly, Sushi lived in Japan they were about to meet when Carman when she had visited Japan but something came up and Sushi couldn't make it.

Sushi: So, everything going on okay between you and Aaron?

It seemed like Sushi had pressed some type of button when Sushi asked that question, for the next few hours she and Sushi were chatting about Carman’s latest discovery…

[ccsakura]

Chapter 4: I’m scared of the Dark.
Characters:

Charmaine Sheh
Louis Koo
Carman Lee
Julian Cheung
Joyce Tang
Marco Ngai
Aaron Kwok
Michelle Yip

Charmaine lifted and looked under the cushions on the couch…

“Where in the world is it?” She asked herself out loud. She had been home for ages now and was sharing dinner with Michelle and Joyce when she wanted to show Michelle the new case for her phone, but when she went too get it she couldn't find it anywhere.

“Where do you think you last saw it?” Joyce asked.

Charmaine stopped searching and stared at Joyce, “Joyce if I know where I saw it last then do you think that we would be on our hands and feet now trying to look for it?” Charmaine hated it when anyone asked that question, to her it was the most stupidest question in the world!

“Well, so you remember who called you last then?” Michelle asked her, this question wasn’t so bad, Charmaine thought and didn’t give Michelle the glare.

Hmm… the last person that called her… she gave a gasp… “I left it back at the hotel! Oh Shelly you’re a genius!” And with that she just ran out of the house in exactly what she was wearing.

“Hey Charm, you could at least get changed first!” Joyce called to her back, but when Charmaine kept on running towards the elevator Joyce gave Michelle a look, when Charmaine was in a mood like this an earthquake couldn't stop her.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Charmaine ran into Marco when she was about to enter the building just as Marco was leaving.

“Oops… Sorry, hey Marco!” Charmaine said recognizing who she bumped into.

“Hey Char, what are you doing here?” Marco asked curiously eyeing the clothes that she was wearing, she looked more like she was going to sleep, then going into a world-famous hotel.

“I left my phone here when I was here this morning… Could I go up and get it?”

Marco nodded and stared at Charmaine’s retreating back, he knew he couldn't say no. He turned around and headed towards his car then stopped turning to the side of the alley next to the hotel, he thought he saw a figure there, then shook his head it was 10 o’clock on a Tuesday night, who would be up at this time.

He kept on walking then looked up at the many stories of the building of Jade Generation Hotel/Restaurant, there were lights on spread out randomly throughout the many stories of the 35 storey building. Most of the floors in the building were for residents staying either for overnight or over a series of weeks. From the first to thirtieth story were the normal rooms and restaurants for the customers, from thirty onwards was the hotels administrative stories. Each five levels had their own power supply so that in case the power went off there would still be light or power on the next five floors. Marco shook his head in amazement all this had evolved from a paper and wooden house during the early ages of China.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Louis was once again sitting at his desk flipping through the many files of people wanting the waitress position in this hotel. He then heard the elevator doors open then shut, thinking that it was only the cleaners he paid no attention to it and went back to reading through the files. Then he heard the sound of somebody ruffling through the magazines on the table. Louis through the glass and saw somebody kneeling near the coffee table in the lobby moving around as if they were looking for something.

Curiously he stood up and made way to the lobby, getting closer he realized the figure was a female. She was wearing baggy pants and a sleeveless top, she looked totally out of place in this rich and elegant lobby.

She dresses like she’s getting ready to go to sleep, Louis thought stupidly.

He loudly cleared his throat, the girl jumped and immediately stood up. Louis recognized who she was immediately it was the girl from this afternoon. When he realized that he also knew what she was here for.

“Um… Hi my name Charmaine,” the girl started, she looked embarrassed, Louis could tell by the way that she was blushing. She was cute, he thought to himself.

“Yeah, I remember you from this morning,” he said, she looked surprised that he would remember her. “I know what your looking for as well, follow me.”

He felt the curious eyes on him as he made way back to his office, when they got to his office something clicked at the back of his mind. She was the first person other than him to be in this room for over a year.

He reached to the side of desk and grabbed the mobile phone that had a ridiculous pink flower case. He saw her eyes light up when she saw it, “Thank you so much,” she said and reached for the phone.

But before she could reach for the phone the world went black.

Louis blinked several times not that it helped, the world was still black when he opened his eyes. No the world wasn’t black, he thought, because when he looked out though the window and onto the streets the street lights were still there. The building’s power had gone out.

The girl standing next to him started screaming. Louis stood stunned for a few seconds the last time he heard someone scream this loud was when he was graduating from Uni, but those were screams of relief, these were obviously screams of terror.

Louis reached out and grabbed her hand which was still in mid air, where it was before the building’s lights had gone out. He grabbed her hand and held it in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. Before he knew what was happening Charmaine had grabbed his hand launched herself forward into his shoulder. He was glad that she was no longer screaming but she was shaking, he could feel it.

“I’m scared of the dark…” she whispered into his shoulder.

Louis reached out and patted her lightly on the back, for some reason he felt strongly protective of her. “Don’t worry… I’m here… I’m not going to let anything hurt you okay…” he said soothingly.

She slowly nodded her head, the tip of her hair tickling him slightly under his chin. Then he had an idea. Slowly he led her over to the window. When he got there it he pulled his hand from her and used it to gently lift up her chin and steered her head towards the window.

He saw her shaking slowly stop and a smile was starting on her lips. Louis felt immense relief, she looked fine now and she had stopped shaking altogether.

“It’s so pretty up here,” she whispered, as if afraid that if she raised her voice then the sight would disappear.

“Yeah it is…” He whispered back at her, he wasn’t sure if she heard she just kept staring out the window with amazed eyes…

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Charmaine looked out at the sight in front of her; the night scene of Hong Kong truly was amazing. The lights that shone from each of the windows of the tall buildings, like they were stars in their on way, an artificial way yet amazing all the same.

“Charmaine?” Louis said beside her, she looked at him and jumped he had found a torch and was shining it onto her.

She realized she was standing to close to him; she quickly took a few steps backwards.

“Are you okay?’ He asked gently. Charmaine looked up at him confused for a second, and then everything that had happened in the last few minutes came back to her.

“Can you promise me something?” She asked, he looked puzzled for a moment, he wasn’t expecting her to say that. Then his facial expression changed, he looked like he was considering her question.

“I guess…” He said slowly, “It depends what it is…”

“Can you promise me not to tell anyone that I’m afraid off the dark?” She said hoping that he would agree. At night she liked to sleep with an incense candle burning in her room, no one knew that she was afraid of the dark. She didn’t understand why, she suspected that it had something to do with the stories that her father had always told her about the dark.

“Oh… of course,” Louis said he was surprised he thought that she was going to mention about the job, but that was obviously not on her mind at this very moment.

“Thanks,” She said, smiling it seemed that the small torch had somehow emitted more light. Louis blinked and got back to business, he had to turn the lights back on.

“I need to go down and turn the lights back on can you stay here?” Louis asked. Charmaine stared at him she wasn’t about to stay at a totally alien place alone in the dark. There was only one torch and it was obvious that he needed to take it with him. She started to feel scared again.

Louis saw that she was getting scared again, “You can come as well.” He quickly offered.

Charmaine nodded quickly she was glad that he was the one that made the suggestion, and not her. Louis offered his hand to her and she held onto it, he steered her towards the door shining the torch out in front of him.

When they got outside, instead of heading for the elevators Louis made way for the stairs.

“Why aren’t we using the elevators? Don’t they have their own power source?” Charmaine asked she’s already had one experience climbing the stairs and she wasn’t about to repeat it again so soon.

“They do, but if they suddenly stopped then my eardrums might bust.” Charmaine blushed she knew that he was referring to her screams from before. She started feeling warm in a face, which could only mean that a blush was coming on. Louis gave her hand a squeeze.

“It’s okay to be afraid of the dark.” He said soothingly.

“Hmm… I know I’m a bit old to be scared of the dark… What are you afraid off Mr. Koo?” She asked back.

“Call me Louis.”

“Well what are you afraid off, Louis?” She repeated.

Louis thought for a second, then surprised himself by saying, “I’m afraid of change…” He didn’t know why but he just told her one of his most deepest secrets, he had only ever told one person that ever before.

“Change…” Charmaine repeated the word to herself and thought out loud, “I’m scared off change as well… My father was afraid off being forgotten.” Charmaine blinked in surprise she hadn’t told anyone that before, in fact she hadn’t spoken about her father for about three years. But when she was with Louis things seem to just pop out of her mouth. Maybe because of the way that he had held her in the dark before, Charmaine felt very protected. She changed the topic, “These stairs are so hard to climb, they are making my feet hurt, this is the second time I climbed them today.” She wasn’t whining, just making a statement that she hoped would steer him away from what she just said.

“Why didn’t you use the stairs before?” Louis asked curiously.

“I saw my step-sister.” Charmaine mentally slapped herself, once again she was sharing a piece of information that she hadn’t shared with anyone else for years.

“Your step-sister, whose she?” Louis asked, this girl seemed to be a lot more than meets the eye.

“Carman Lee,” She blurted out, may as well get it all out. She hadn’t met this guy for an hour yet and she was already telling him her most inner secrets.

Louis stopped in mid step, causing Charmaine to bump into him, he dropped the torch, the light went out. Charmaine’s grip on him immediately tightened.

“Carman Lee’s your sister?” He asked shocked, there was definitely more to this girl than meets the eye.

“Step-sister,” Charmaine whispered back, it was dark and now she was clinging onto Louis’s arm with both hands, she feel that she was about too shake any minute now.

“Carman Lee is your step-sister?” He repeated, he was about to add more then stopped, Charmaine was shaking beside him, only then did he realize that he had dropped the torch, he quickly bent down to look for it, Charmaine holding onto his arm bent down with him. He quickly found the torch and turned it back on.

Slowly Charmaine stopped shaking, he looked at her he would never have thought that a girl this age would be scared of the dark, he was about to ask why then stopped, she had already revealed too much too him already he didn’t want to sound intrusive, he was curious about her fear off the dark and Carman Lee’s relationship too her but he decided to change the topic. “By the looks of it we’re on level 20 already, just a little more…” they kept on walking in silence.

When they finally reached the bottom floor Louis goes into the kitchen and looks at the switches for the building, the only one that was turned off was the first one which directed the light on the 30 to 35th floor. Whoever turned it off sure knew what they were doing.

While Louis was inspecting the switches Charmaine was looking around at the kitchen the lights were still on, on this level. Looking at all the food utensils, she said, “I’m hungry…” She had already eaten with Joyce and Michelle, earlier in the afternoon, but all the excitement and confession had made her hungry again.

Louis looked away from the switches, and said without thinking, “I’ll make you something.” He blinked that was the second time today that he had spoke without thinking first, now he was really going to look stupid he hadn’t touched a pan for at least two years. It seemed that he only did stupid when he was around these two sisters.

“Oh wow…” Charmaine started, “You can cook? This will really be good… The famous boss off Jade Generation, cooking for me! This will really be something.”

Louis smiled, what could you say to that? He went to the humongous fridge at the corner of the room and started taking out ingredients for stir-fry, that was one dish that he could make well enough, might be nothing compared to Julian, but oh well.

Ten minutes later, he was sitting there with Charmaine praising him for what a good cook he was.

“Wow this is really good! I seriously didn’t expect you to cook this well!” In the kitchen where there were bright lights Charmaine was back to her normal blunt self. She stopped praising to stifle a yawn.

Louis looked at the clock it was twelve in the middle of the night already!

“Come on finish up I’ll take you home. It’s getting late.”

Charmaine gave him a look, he sounded like an over-protective brother. Then an idea came to her head. “Hey can I call you ca ca (big brother)!”

Louis blinked this girl never ceased to amaze him, but he would love for her to call him ca ca. She had a cute personality and already he was starting to feel a strong over-protectiveness towards her.

He smiled and nodded.

As they were on the car heading towards her apartment, she said to him cheekily, “Poor you, you know you’re stuck for life, being my ca ca is no easy task, are you sure you want to give me this phone number?”

Louis had given her the number to his cell when they had gotten into the car telling her that now that he was her ca ca he had to fulfill the requirements so she could have his number and call him whenever she needed him.

“I’m sure sure mui mui (younger sister),” Louis said his cheekiness matching her own.

“Turn right there,” She said directing him to her apartment. He stopped in front of one of those average looking apartments with only about twelve stories to it. Before she got off she looked at him seriously, Louis thought that she was going to mention the job interview, but she just said “Promise me not to tell anyone about me being afraid of the dark, okay?”

Louis hid his surprise, and nodded smiling slightly.

“Thanks,” she said and reached over and gave him a peck on the cheek.

Louis watched as she walked into the apartment, making sure that she got safely inside. He then smiled and drove off feeling that he had met two very amazing women today…

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Ring ring, the ring tone of the phone disturbed the peace of the otherwise quiet apartment.

Charmaine slowly opened her eyes and looked at the clock on her bedside table.

Oh my gosh, it’s ten o’clock already! Then she remembered that she had no place to be anyway…
Ring Ring, the phone went on ringing, Charmaine reached and pressed talk on the cordless, then put it to her ear.

“Hello Charmaine speaking…”

“Hello, Miss Sheh, I’m from Jade Generation and I’m ringing to inform you that you have earned the waitress position in our hope that we well enjoy working with you…”

“Oh my gosh…” Charmaine squealed into the phone, “Thank you so much so when do I start?”

“We were hoping that you could start tomorrow.” The voice said tonelessly on the other side.

“Okay I’ll be there!” Charmaine said then hung up. She then let out a happy scream…

[ccsakura]

Chapter 5: I know you!
Characters
Charmaine Sheh
Louis Koo
Carman Lee
Julian Cheung
Joyce Tang
Marco Ngai
Aaron Kwok
Michelle Yip
Raymond Lam

Charmaine woke up early and prepared herself for work, this was going to be her first day and she was really looking forward to it. Louis had agreed to take her to work, but told her that they had to enter the building separately, because they might think that the only reason that Charmaine had the job was because she knew Louis. Charmaine said to him that she didn’t care what they thought, but Louis had just said that he cared, and you should always have a good impression. Charmaine didn’t know what to say to that so she just agreed.

Louis was coming up to pick her up in an hours’ time so she got up early and got prepared. To be honest Charmaine wondered that maybe she got the job was because Louis was her Ca Ca. But when she asked Louis all he said was that he wasn’t the one that made the decision the company’s human resources had. Last night they had all celebrated, by going to the karaoke bar, she wanted Louis to come so that she can introduce him to her friends, but he couldn’t make it so he said that he would shout her and her friends to dinner tonight, but this time it was her friends who were busy, but she was determined to have fun all the same.

After applying a light touch of make-up and brushing her hair she went to have some breakfast.

Hmm… I think I’ll have pasta today… Charmaine was a bad at cooking so the fridge was always full on those two-minute pasta and spaghetti packages. Joyce could cook but she was often not home so Charmaine mainly lived off these packages for breakfast, but she would always go out for dinner, mainly alone.

After finishing up her pasta she glance at the clock another ten minutes left I better make way down.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Julian looked at his first order for the day, and moved to start to get the ingredients. The sounds of other cooks making and preparing their dishes were echoed all through the kitchen. Julian was surprised at how the other cooks in the hotel had managed to adapt to the fact that him Julian Cheung younger all of them had turned out to the main chef a position above all theirs, yet their age and experience had all surpassed his own. In fact the youngest chef that was here other than him was in his mid-forties. For some reason Julian felt somehow assured that in a good ten years time he may still be working here, and he knows that he will enjoy it. He finished the dish that he was preparing and handed it to the waitress. He glanced across from him to while he was getting the next order and smiled when he saw the other chef preparing a sandwich, looking at him reminded him of the girl that he met when he first came to this hotel when he first applied for the job.

Time seemed to fly… the next time he glanced up and looked at the clock it was lunch time. He sat down and started eating his lunch, although he was a cook he always liked to buy his lunch, this morning he had gone to the take-away store close to his home and had brought some chicken porridge to eat. He often sat alone during lunch times, the other cooks preferred to go home and eat with their wives, he of course had no wife he would just come home to an empty house. He took a spoonful of the porridge and almost choked standing at the door was the girl that he had met on the day that he applied for the position of chef…

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Charmaine glanced around the kitchen in disinterest, the rest of the hotel was interesting but she had come here with Louis last night so it wasn’t as interesting as it could be. When they got to the hotel this morning she had gone in first like Louis had wanted and after about ten minutes he came in as well, Charmaine being used to starting new jobs was not really nervous, but she still did feel better when Louis offered words of encouragement. Marco was assigned the job of showing her around the building, Louis said that it was okay for people to know that she knew Marco since he didn’t have a hand in selecting the new recruitment. She continued to look around the room in disinterest.

That was until she spotted the man sitting on his own on what looked like the staff’s lunch table. At first she was only looking at him interested because he was eating alone then when she actually paid more attention she realized that he looked familiar.

She walked closer to get a closer look. She got closer until she was sitting across the table from him. She suddenly remembered who he was.

“I know you!” She blurted. The man looked shocked for an instant, then stared back down at his porridge thinking off what he should say next. They hadn’t exactly met on the best of terms.

Julian looked the face of the girl sitting across from him, he was hoping that she wouldn’t remember him, I mean if the girl often stopped people from putting food into the bin, then surely she couldn’t remember every person that she stopped, he thought. The look on her face told him that she expected him to say something perhaps tell her that he remembered as well.

Before he could say anything thought Marco beat him to it, he mentally let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad you’ve met, Charmaine this is our newest cook, Julian Cheung. Julian this is our newest waitress Charmaine Sheh-Lee.” Charmaine gave Marco a dirty look.

“Er… I mean Charmaine Sheh.” Marco said clearing his throat, “Julian has been just a week or so longer than you have.” He said directing his last comment at Charmaine.

After Marco finished talking Charmaine’s gaze once again fell on Julian. Julian once again racked his brain for something to say, when nothing better came up he settled for;

“Hi, I remember you as well.”

Charmaine’s face lit up when he said that he remembered her as well. She liked it when she met old friends, so now that she met him for the second time and they were going to be working together she immediately considered him her friend.

“My name is Charmaine Sheh,” She said giving Marco a dirty look (Marco turned away looking sheepish,) then turned back to offer her hand to him giving him a warm smile.

Julian took Charmaines hand in his own and shook it, after letting go he let go and looked back down at his porridge he really didn’t feel like eating eat anymore, plus it had his spit in it from when he was choking it before. He picked it up and made way over to the bin with it. When he was about to throw it into the bin he felt a hand stop him in mid air. He looked at the person who owned the hand, her face looked at him accusingly, he then looked back at his porridge, he really didn’t want to continue eating it.

“Look Charmaine, I know that you have this thing about not throwing away food, but I really don’t want to eat this anymore, if it didn’t have my spit in it then I would give it to you.”

“So,” Charmaine started stubbornly, “It’s your spit there’s no reason that you can’t finish it, unless you were ill or something, but since you look perfectly healthy to me there’s no reason for you not to continue finishing it.”

“But…” Julian couldn’t think about what to say next, he gave up he didn’t want to stand here all day arguing about whether the food should really go to the bin or not, he gave up and headed back to the table to eat the rest of his porridge.

Ten minutes later he finished and gave her a glare only to be met by her cheerful smile…

“Think about it,” she said, “Next time when you watch T.V and you see those poor starving kids, then you won’t feel so guilty about the way they have no food and you waste it.”

Julian just stared at her, Man she was stubborn he wasn’t about to argue with her.

“Oh I see you two have already met,” said a voice from behind them.

“Louis,” Julian greeted, it was obvious by his voice that he still wasn’t very happy. And by the twinkle that he saw in Louis’s eyes he knew that Louis had witnessed the whole incident.

“Ca Ca!” Charmaine said, running up to him, and then she remembered that Julian was here and put her hand over her mouth.

Julian was puzzled not only had Charmaine called Louis Ca Ca but from her actions at the moment it looked like it was something that wasn’t meant to slip.

“It’s okay,” Louis assured her “Julian is my friend. Actually I came down here to ask him something. Hey Julian you know tonight, want to come out to dinner with Charmaine and I?”

“Er…” Julian started, he really didn’t particularly want to have dinner with Charmaine, but he was only going home to an empty house anyway. Louis would be there as well. “Sure, I’ll be there.”

“Cool,” Louis said, then turned to Charmaine, “You don’t mind if he comes do you?”

“No, of course not, the more the merrier!”

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Charmaine walked around the hotel restaurant waiting to see if the customers needed anything, but so far her job has been easy, she has only had to fill the empty tea pots and clean empty tables after the customers had left. Now all she was doing was walking around.

A few minutes later a dark tanned man walked into the hotel and sat at a table near the windows. Charmaine was surprised usually when a customer walked in somebody always rushed to serve them but when this man walked in everyone seemed like they were ignoring him, and Charmaine was sure that at least two of them were free.

She shrugged her shoulders and moved over to serve the man herself.

“Hello, sir” Charmaine began but was cut off when she was about to continue.

“My name is Raymond, please don’t call me sir.” The man said pleasantly.

“Hello Raymond,” Charmaine repeated, something tugged at the back of her mind when he said that his name was Raymond, but she didn’t pay any attention to it, at this moment in time the important thing is serving the customer. “Welcome to Jade Generation--” Charmaine was once again cut off in mid sentence.

“You’re new aren’t you?” Raymond asked pleasantly looking up at her for the first time.

Charmaine blinked in surprised, how did he know that?

“Yes I am new, how do you know that am I saying or doing something wrong?” She asked with uncertainty, he was the first person that she actually served and she wanted everything to go right.

“Oh, no you’re not doing anything wrong; in fact you’re doing great! It’s just that if you’ve worked here for a little while longer you would realise that I’m actually not welcomed here.”

Charmaine was taken back what was he talking about in a hotel every body was welcomed. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that, my name is Raymond Lam, heir of the hotel a few blocks from here, and son of Phillip Lam.”

Seeing that Charmaine still looked confused he continued. “The hotel named Sapphire Palace.” He said looking at her, he said it in a way that said, you must be dense if you don’t know where that is!

Charmaine smiled, “You misunderstood me Raymond,” she said emphasising the word Raymond, “What I meant was, just because you are the heir of Sapphire Palace and son of Phillip Lam, why shouldn’t you be welcomed?”

Raymond looked up at her as if she was crazy.

“Everyone who walks through that door is welcomed at Jade Generation, no matter if they were a beggar on the streets, or son of the multi-millionaire Phillip Lam.”

Raymond looked at her this time realisation coming on to his face, “Very right you are, what was your name?” he asked her.

Charmaine looked at him this guy gave her the creeps, “My name is Charmaine Sheh.”

“Charmaine Sheh, Charmaine Sheh,” he repeated as if trying to lock it into his memory. “I think that I will remember you forever.”

Right this guy is crazy… Charmaine said to herself, “Well Raymond, what would you like to eat today?” She wanted to get away from this guy as soon as possible.

“Well what do you think I should eat, Miss Charmaine Sheh?”
Charmaine blinked back in surprise the last time she had given a customer advice about what to eat she had ended up getting fired, she wasn’t sure what to do next but luckily a voice from behind her spoke.

“Well Charmaine, if Raymond wants to know what you think then tell him.” Charmaine turned around to see that the voice belongs to Louis, he smiled encouragingly and sat down, gesturing for her to continue.

“Well, why what do you think you should eat?” Charmaine asked stalling she had no idea about this man how on earth was she to know what he liked to eat?

“Well…” he started looking through the menu, “hmm… maybe I should eat some soup?”

Charmaine looked at him in disbelief, it was so hot outside that people weren’t talking to each other saving all the moisture in their mouth.

“Well Raymond are you hot?” Charmaine blurted, she was never good at hiding her disbelief. “Because if I were you the very last thing that I would order!” As if to emphasise it even more she used the order pad and fanned herself.

Louis looked at her impressed, Good on ya mui mui!

“Hmm… lets see then… how about I order, a sea food dish, er how about oyster?”

“I don’t know Raymond, from the way that your forehead and cheeks look a light pinkish colour it looks like you have just been sick, so I don’t think that oyster is the best thing to be eating… How about stir-fry everything the body needs and a simple dish.”

“…All right then stir-fry it is…”

“Okay then that’ll be ready in about fifteen minutes, is there anything that you would like to drink?”

“What do you suggest Miss Sheh?”

“Charmaine,” She corrected then tapped her chin with her as if pondering the thought, “I suggest Orange juice perfect for you to recover with all the orange juice.”

“Okay, that will be all thank you!”

Charmaine finished writing out the order then turned to Louis, “Anything for you then Mr. Koo?”

“Um… just a dish of stir fry, thanks.” Louis said giving Charmaine a wink.

“Yep, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Louis looked at Charmaine retreating back with pride his new mui mui sure was something.

“She sure is something, Louis,” Raymond said to Louis. “For once you hired a person that is worthwhile.”

“This is the second time I’ve hired someone worthwhile,” Louis corrected. When Raymond looked at him puzzled, he just simply said, “You’ll see.”

A few minutes later Charmaine came out with a cup of orange juice for Raymond saying that the stir-fry will be there in a few minutes. Raymond stared at the cup of orange juice.

Louis looked at him and laughed, “Maybe you shouldn’t off ordered orange juice, when you clearly drink more alcohol.”

Raymond gave him a look, but Louis was right, his usual substitute for water was Alcohol, and he didn’t even remember the last time that he drank anything as healthy as orange juice.

Well here goes nothing… he thought as he took a sip off the orange juice. It wasn’t so bad sure it was sour but a very nice kind off sour.

Hmmm, he thought, it’s actually quite nice!

Before he could make any type of comment Charmaine was already coming back out with the two stir-fry dishes. She placed them both down onto the table and told them to enjoy their meal and went to serve a close-by table who were ready to go.

Again Raymond looked at the dish in front of him, all his life he had been surrounding by riches all his life that a simple dish like this one was almost foreign to him. But the orange juice turned out to be fine so maybe this won’t be as bad, he thought.

He looked up at Louis who was eating the stir-fry happily, Well if Louis was enjoying it then he probably would as well.

He picked up the chop sticks and dipped into the food then into his mouth.

“Hmm… this stuff is nice, did you get a new chef? Louis?”

Louis laughed, “Our food has always been nice you’ve just never had the stir-fry dish before today. But yes we did hire a new chef.”

Raymond nodded and took in the piece of information, then glanced at his watch, “Well it’s time for me to go,” he said standing up. “It was nice meeting your new waitress, don’t let that one go Louis she really is something.”

Louis stared at Raymond’s retreating back and smiled he knew that Charmaine was ‘something,’ actually she was a little more than ‘something’ and at this moment in time as he was watching her serve the customers he couldn’t be more proud.

[LilxAznxGrlx215]

ccsakura, your story is sooo funny. keep up the good work. update soon!!

[ccsakura]

LilxAznxGrlx215: Hey thanks for replying to my story, if you want more frequent updates then you should check out: winglin.net/fanfic/SuongUyen

But here's my next chapter anyway!

Chapter 6: Earth to Cari
Characters
Charmaine Sheh
Louis Koo
Carman Lee
Julian Cheung
Joyce Tang
Marco Ngai
Aaron Kwok
Michelle Yip
Raymond Lam

Guest Appearance:
Roger Kwok

Carman waited patiently at the traffic light, praying that it would turn green before she lost her patience. When the light turned green the car in front of her showed no signs of going forward. Angrily she honked the horn of the car, and only stopped when the car started forward.

Earlier that morning she had gotten a phone call from her old friend saying that he had what she wanted. They had arranged a meeting place and now Carman was heading up to the top of the mountains, a place where she could have plenty of privacy.

She had asked her friend, Roger Kwok, who was a private detective, in fact, one of the best in the business, she had asked as an old favour to go and investigate Aaron. She knew that it was wrong of her to spy on him like that but she wanted to be sure and know all off the facts before she confronted him. She turned on the highway and headed up the mountain.

For the last days that she has been at work she had been avoiding Aaron, making excuses when he rang her and coming late and leaving early from work. She felt like she was the one who was doing something wrong instead of him. Carman turned again, this turn leading her to an even more secluded part of the mountain, she didn’t know what she was worried about it wasn’t like she was doing anything wrong. When she reached the destination a white van was already parked under a nearby tree. She turned off her engine and got out of the car heading over to the white van.

When she got there she paused before knocking on the side door, she took a deep breath; the last thing she needed was to start hyperventilating again.

Knock, Knock, she banged her knuckled against the side door of the van. After a few seconds the door opened.

She was met by the smiling face of her childhood friend Roger Kwok.

“Hey, Cari,” Roger said, using the nickname that he had given her when they were small. When he smiled the faint outline off the scar that reminded them off their childhood together was seen.

Carman smiled as she remembered how he had gotten the scar. As young children they had lived across the apartment from each other and everyday they would go hand-in-hand to school.

One day it was raining and they were on their way home then Roger wanted to cross the road to buy some ice-creams. The school that they attended together as children was on the same street as them so they didn’t need to cross any roads on the way to school. But that day Roger had gotten his pocket money for the first time, Carman still remembered how she had lectured him about saving the money so that he could be sure to get a spot in college.

“Roggy,” a five-year-old Carman had said to the five-year-old Roger, sounding very much like her father. “You can’t spend all your pennies the minute you get it.”

“Why?” Roger had asked back, although Carman was his age, it always seemed that she knew more than he did.

“Because, after you leave big-school, you have to go to an even bigger school, and daddy says you need a lot of pennies to get a spot! So the sooner you save the better. I already have ten pennies.” Carman bragged proudly, tapping her chest like she had seen the men do on T.V when they were bragging about how strong they were.

Roger slumped his shoulders and his face dropped for a second, then his face lit up and he said, “I’ll start saving next time daddy gives me pennies,” he said. Carman had given him a look of disbelief. Trying to make her believe him he had put a finger into the air and said in his most serious voice, “I promise Cari, please!”

After hearing him swear, she finally agreed. They joined hands again and then checked both sides of the road to see if there were any cars coming. They made it across the road and brought their ice cream, but on their way to the other side of the road again, they were both to preoccupied to check to see if any cars were on the road.

At five years of age Roger had pushed Carman aside when he saw the motorbike coming their way, Carman had landed safely on the pavement. Although the bike stopped in time the force of the wheel still hit Roger and he landed on his cheek on the pavement. Carman remembered crying when she was walking to him asking if he needed to go and see a doctor and saying sorry because she had dropped the ice cream.

Carman smile to herself a week later after coming out of the hospital Roger had offered to go across the road again to see buy the ice cream that they didn’t get to finish last time. He had brought the same flavor while she chose a different one saying that if she does everything the same as last time he wouldn’t be able to walk her to school for a week again. Roger had laughed and said that even if he broke his leg and was in a wheel chair he would walk her to school for the rest off his life. And he did, they even went to the same college together and he drove her there everyday, he was also the one who taught her how to drive saying that he can’t drive her every where all her life.

She smiled to herself, she and Roger went back a long way.

“Helloooo… Earth to Cari!” Roger said waving his hand in front off Carman’s face.

Carman snapped out of her trance, looking at Roger again this time that she was here to see him was serious, in a way it would change her life in an unpleasant way.

“Hey, Roggy,” she said, hitting his hand away. “So do you have what I need?”

“How about a ‘How have you been, Roger?” Roger said not using the nickname that Carman had for him, she remembered then when they were in high school he had begged her not to call him that because it was way too uncool, he then answered himself, “I’ve been fine, Cari thanks for asking.”

He stopped when he saw her face then frowned, “You won’t like it a bit Cari. Come on in.”

Carman climbed into the van as Roger reached over and grabbed a white envelope. “According to what you told us, you guys have been dated for about two years. And from what we found out, he has been cheating on you for about eighteen months with three different girls. Each one lasting for no more than three months, these are the photos that we were able to find.”

Roger handed her the white envelope, she took it with trembling hands, and with those trembling hands she took out the photos and looked through them. The photos all showed Aaron with three different women; in one he was kissing one of them, another they were dancing, and another they were having a romantic candlelight dinner. Somehow the girls in the photos looked familiar.

Silent tears were now falling from Carman’s eyes now; she couldn't hold them back any longer. What hurt the most was all of these photos were taken at places that Aaron and she used to go together. Carman took the tissue that Roger offered to her, and asked, “How can he do this behind my back like that?” It took her a long time to get the words out, but Roger waited patiently.

“Well we looked back at the records; most of the times, he met these women when they came up to your company to apply for jobs.” Roger gently said, as if afraid that she might start sobbing hysterically any minute now.

A puzzle at the back of Carman’s mind clicked, no wonder he went through so many secretary’s in one year, Carman thought that they just didn’t meet up to his requirements, she laughed to herself, so this was why.

Why, this word was very important to Carman right now.

“Why?” She said out loud to Roger.

For a moment he didn’t answer and then when he did it seemed that every word had been replayed in his mind until he was familiar with them before he said them out loud, “That, is something that you need to find out yourself…”

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Roger had followed Carman home, after she had declined his offer to give her a lift home. Being worried that she might not get home okay he had trailed her until she got home. Carman had always been the stubborn one out of the two, whether it was about school or just daily life things like making sponge cake she wouldn’t stop trying until she got it right. Roger smiled to himself; he had gained so many extra kilograms that week.

Roger drove away as Carman entered her apartment building, when he had broken the news to her he was worried about how she would take it, he knew that underneath that entire strong act Carman was just any other girl, who needed someone to be there for her when she was sad.

Roger racked his brain trying to figure out who, although he and Carman don’t see each other on a daily basis, they still kept in contact, ringing each other every other week. He remembered that when Carmen’s father first married Charmaine’s mother he remembered how she was so stubborn she was trying to get Charmaine to accept her. Then she succeeded, but then Charmaine had drifted away, and for the first time Carman had given up.

Roger remembered to the time that Carman had taken Charmaine to the park to play with them.

“Come on Cherry, I’ll push you on the swings if you like.” A twelve year old Carman had said to a nine year old Charmaine, using the nickname that they had made up for each other.

Charmaine’s face had lit up making her eyes really shine, “OH…” She had said excitedly, “Can you? Can you Cherry?” Roger was always confused when she called Carman that, at first when he first heard it he thought that Cherry was the name that Charmaine was called then he figured that as long as they were addressing each other they used Cherry as a reference to each other.

“Sure I can, big Cherry will swing little Cherry.” Carman said with love for the bubbly nine year old that had big bright eyes, and always brought a smile to her eyes when she saw her.

Carman really did love her little Cherry, Charmaine. Roger smile to himself, he remembered that he felt so jealous of Charmaine that day because Carman had paid so much attention to her, forgetting him altogether.

Then he frowned, he remembered that Carman had come crying to him a few years later, when Charmaine had moved out, she was so confused believing that she wasn’t a good enough older sister and blaming herself that Charmaine had left home. After hearing about it Roger was furious a Charmaine for making Carman so sad, but after becoming a detective he had decided to investigate, and now he knew why. He hadn’t told Carman because he believed that Charmaine would eventually tell her herself one day.

Roger shook his head, two amazing women conflicted by their emotions that seem to be forever changing and a great puzzle to everyone… perhaps even themselves.

An idea flashed into Roger’s mind, that’s it, she’s who I should ring, she should be able to help.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

Charmaine sat down and rested her legs along another chair, it was her first day and although it had been very enjoyable, she couldn't help but thank god that it was over. She took off the over-vest that the waitresses here had to wear over their white blouse and lay it on the chair and lay down.

It was a few minutes after work, she had changed from her work skirt to another skirt, and decided to wear the same blouse to dinner with Louis tonight, now she was resting as she waited.

“Chair hog…” a male voice from her right side stated.

Charmaine sat up straight and saw Julian sitting at her other side, looking at her with a look of I-feel-like-fighting on his face.

“I am NOT a chair hog,” she retorted, all ready for an argument.

“Not a chair hog,” Julian repeated, with a look of disbelief, “You alone take up five chairs, I don’t know but as far as I know most people only take up one chair when they are sitting down.”

Charmaine looked at him with great dislike on her face, “I do no--” then stopped herself in time, the position that she was just lying in truly did take up five chairs. She looked at him to see a look off triumph on his face. “Fine then even if I was taking up five chairs, it’s not like there is anyone her to use them anyway, they have all gone home.” She made a face at him that clearly indicated that she had won and resumed to her position before she heard him.

“Well I wanted to sit there,” he said, clearly ignoring her sign of end-of-argument.

“Well you still have a spot to sit don’t you!” Charmaine said exasperated.

Julian couldn’t think of anything to say to this so he just changed the topic, “Louis is late today,” he said looking at the clock.

Charmaine sat up, and looked at Julian with wide eyes, “Maybe something happened to him…”

Julian chuckled, “There isn’t much that could happen on the path between his office and the kitchen, I mean all you really need to do is take the elevator then walk a few meters, trust me Charmaine nothing happened.”

“You never know,” Charmaine said stubbornly her eyes still wide, “there are so many different types of people in a hotel, anybody could see that he is rich and try to kidnap him then ask for ransom money.”

“You have such a wild imagination,” Julian said then looked at her, “Then may I ask you Miss Sheh, even if they could get outside how are they going to pass security dragging him out?”

Charmaine couldn’t think of anything to say to this so but she didn’t need to a few seconds after Julian stopped talking her phone rang.

“Hello, Charmaine speaking.” She said giving Julian a dirty look; this is the perfect time to think of a good comeback.

“Hello, Charmaine.” Said an unfamiliar voice on the other end.

Charmaine frowned, she only gave her number out to people that she knows very well how did this stranger get her number, “Who is this?”

Julian frowned on the end of the table.

“You may not remember me,” the unfamiliar voice went on, “But my name is Roger Kwok.”

“Roger Kwok, Roger Kwok.” Charmaine repeated the name in her mind she had a feeling that she did know this guy, maybe at one of the places that she used to work at.

“I’m you step-sister, Carman Lee’s childhood friend.”

Charmaine knew now that it wasn’t anyone she used to work with, she had flashbacks of a young boy walking hand in hand with her sister to school every morning.

“Oh I remember you!” She said in a cheery tone, then said in her bluntest tone, “Why are you ringing me?”

“You sure don’t walk around the block do you?” Roger said with a little awe in his voice, “The reason that I rang you because Carman just found out that her boyfriend is cheating on her.”

Charmaine stared at the phone in her hand for a moment then said just as bluntly into the phone, “And why are you telling me this?”

Roger sighed, Charmaine always known that Carman and Roger were very close friends from childhood, Charmaine used to think that they were going to get married when they grew older.

But I guess when you know someone so well then living the rest of your life with them would be just too boring, she thought to herself.

“Well,” Roger continued as if not sure how to say what he was going to say next. “You know that Carman had always loved you a lot since you were kids; she is very over-protective of you. And I was just hoping that if you get a chance to speak to her then she might listen to your advice.” He said it all very quickly.

Charmaine once again stared at the phone in front of her not sure if she had heard properly, then said back into the mobile, “I will think about it,” was the best she could offer, she hasn’t spoken to Carman for over a year now, she wanted to help her though, perhaps to pay for all the times that Carman had been looking after her, but she didn’t even know the first thing about what she was going to do next.

After she hung up with Roger she lay back down on the chair totally forgetting that she was in the middle of an argument with Julian and not even noticing that he was no longer sitting on the other side of her.

~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~

In the meantime, Louis was on the internet chatting with a friend that greatly needed his help.

Chocolate: Candy I know you’re crying right now, even if I can’t see you I can tell. But you need to wipe your tears and go confront Aaron.

Candy: How can I do that he doesn’t even know that I’ve got these photos?

Chocolate: It doesn’t matter how you got them what matters now is that you’ve got them, and he has been cheating on you for at least a year and a half now, you need to go up to him and confront him, he at least owes that to you!

Carman stared at the words on the screen, he was right of course. She sighed, said goodbye to him promising that she will take some action. She picked up the keys on her desk and headed out to the door, her parents were out at a business diner party and she was alone, she needed to get out of the house and be around other people.

Louis presses the button on the elevator to go down to the kitchen floor, and sighed. He knew that Candy and Aaron’s relationship was bad but he didn’t realize that it was this bad. He hoped with all his heart that everything worked out for his internet buddy.

[LilxAznxGrlx215]

hope you update soon!!! hehehe your story is gooodd.

[nher]

Yeah, I really like your story. I like all the characters in there. They're so weird--but a good weird, you know? Keep up the good work!