"Yeah, I saw it. But still, you should have told me before you jumped on a plane and flew all the way here! What were you thinking?" Leena was in such a bad mood because of him, so she couldn't control what she said. The words just fell out of her brain and tumbled out of her mouth. To be honest, Gerard wasn't entirely innocent, either. He was highly irresponsible. But he didn't deserve Leena's scolding tone.
"I'm sorry! I thought that you would be very happy to see me, Mignonne. So I wanted to surprise you. But it appears I've upset you, right?" Gerard lowered his eyes in shame. He didn't even expect that Leena would be out of sorts when she saw him. He felt like he wasn't welcome here.
"No, forget it. Just ignore me. I'm in a bad mood." Leena was usually sweet and kind, so the hurt look on Gerard's face stopped her from saying anything more. After all, he was not wrong, because she did invite him to come here and visit her. But she didn't expect that he would take it this seriously. It was an 11-hour plane ride.
"Who's your friend, Leena?" Claire came out again, this time dressed more appropriately. she still felt a bit awkward about what happened before. Fortunately Gerard had seen nothing, and was still trying to sort out what happened. "I'm impressed!" she said.
"This is Gerard. He's a friend of mine. We met in France." Leena smiled and introduced Gerard to Claire, but her smile was bitter. She was still not happy about his visit.
"Oh! Hi! I'm Claire, nice to meet you." Claire introduced herself in English, because she didn't know a single word of French. She hoped that this man could speak English.
"Hello, beautiful lady, I am Gerard. Nice to meet you too." As one of the heirs of Blanc Group, it was almost required to be multi-lingual. So he answered Claire in fluent English.
"Thank you." Claire glanced at Leena, she couldn't help but be envious of her. Because all the men around her were elegant, handsome, and rich. How was she always meeting men like these guys? What was her secret?
Mignonne, is this your friend?" Gerard asked, looking at Claire with a gentle smile.
"No, she's my sister-in-law." Leena spoke fluent French. And maybe because she'd spent quite a bit of time in France, she had no trace of the usual foreign accent. "Oh? Sister-in-law?" This blindsided Gerard. He was convinced she wasn't married, that she was just blowing him off. Hearing that she had a sister-in-law was a little bit of a shock.
"Yes, sister-in-law, my husband's little sister." Leena had kept Gerard at arm's length ever since they broke up. They still remained friends, but it was hard to get excited about being around her ex. There was a reason they broke up, and that reason stood between them as a huge obstacle to rekindling any sort of romance.
"What are you guys talking about? Is that French? Wow, Leena, why didn't you tell me you can speak French?" Claire discovered one more thing about Leena that surprised and delighted her. Leena didn't care what Claire said or did, just as long as they weren't fighting. She was easy to please.
Leena turned towards Claire and said, "Oh. I was just explaining our relationship to him. But what do I do now? He's here, and I should make him feel welcome, but I would feel awful if I leave you here alone..." Leena looked at Claire with sad eyes. She was going to take Claire out for sightseeing, but Gerard threw a monkey wrench into the works. So much for a relaxing day!
That's okay. I told Louisa we'd go shopping, so I'll go with her. Have fun!" Claire waved her hand dismissively, and moved on. She didn't think that there was anything between Leena and this handsome foreign man. And there wasn't. Not now, anyway.
"Okay. Be safe, okay? You can borrow the car, and just use the GPS to find your way around. You get lost, call me." To be honest, Leena still expected a snarky remark, or for Claire to stir up trouble. But instead, she was just nice to her. She remembered how she promised Kevin that she'd be nice, and that stung a little. She wanted to be liked for who she was, not trapped in some grudging truce.
"You mean the Ferrari? That would be so cool to be seen in that." Claire wanted to drive the Ferrari because it was eye-catching and she wanted to show off. As the spoiled girl in her family, this was how she thought. Anything could be a status symbol.
Umm... You want that car?" Leena was a bit hesitant, because she was used to driving Ferrari herself. She didn't want to take the chance that someone else might scratch it, or worse, crash it.
Yeah...That's not the one you meant, right?" Claire was disappointed, but she couldn't do anything else. After all, it was Leena's car. She had no right to whine when she couldn't drive it. But she loved the idea of it, and it was flamboyant enough for her tastes.
"I didn't mean it that way. It's just that I'm used to driving it, and I'm not really comfortable with someone borrowing it. But if you really like that one, I'll use another one. Knock yourself out." She could tell how much Claire wanted to drive the Ferrari, and didn't want to disappoint her. So she let her borrow it. Leena could find another car easily.
"Yay! Awesome! Thank you so much!" Claire completely forgot the fact that she didn't like Leena at all. It seemed that an expensive car really could change her attitude. Who knew?
"You're welcome. Now hang out with Gerard for a sec. I'm gonna go upstairs and change. It won't be long." Leena stood up and made her way to the stairwell. The funny thing was that Claire was about two or three years older than Leena, but you couldn't tell by talking to her. She seemed seriously immature, with maybe a teenager's mindset. It could be that she was really spoiled by her family. Two people couldn't be more different than Claire and Leena. Leena lost her mother when she was just a kid. Her brothers spoiled her a lot, but it was still different from having a mother around to love and rely on. She was more mature than Claire, probably because she had to be.
"Of course! Go ahead!" Claire was on Cloud 9 when she heard she could drive the Ferrari. At this point, she'd probably agree to anything Leena proposed, no matter how outrageous.
"So, Gerard, are you my sister-in-law's classmate?" Claire watched Leena go upstairs and disappear from view, then she turned back to Gerard. He was gorgeous, but there was such a language barrier.
"Sort of." Gerard lost interest once he found out that he was totally wrong about Leena. So Leena was indeed telling him the truth. She was really married. He had to believe it, because Leena's sister-in-law was right here in front of him.
"Oh." The conversation had petered out and gotten a bit awkward. His vague answer was a little off-putting, and it sounded like he really didn't want to talk about it. So she just clammed up. At this point, she really wished Leena would hurry up and get back. This was not going well at all.
Fortunately, it didn't take Leena long to change into better clothes. She came down in a stylish outfit that was designed to turn heads, but might not inspire too many lewd thoughts. Not only that, but she eschewed makeup this time.
Leena handed a card to Claire. It was one she rarely used. Though the money on that card couldn't buy a whole department store's worth of clothing, it should be enough for Claire to use. And she had changed all her cards' password to Kevin's birthday in case she forgot the password. It should be easy enough to remember. "Here you go. It's a platinum card. Get yourself something nice. The password is your brother's birthday."