"What's going on with you two?" Alex asked the girls. He felt a bit guilty, but he was determined not to reveal his identity to Rose.
"Nothing," Suzan replied. Then she chirped up and said, "Alex, think about it again. Did you lose them somewhere else? You said that you lost them on the bus, but maybe you left them in someone's car at some point?"
Now, Alex was certain that he knew the girls' intentions. They're trying to find out if it was me who left the bracelets in the Maserati. Then they'll know who I am. I need to find a way to get these two off my back, he thought.
"I really can't remember apart from those two times. But I do remember that on the day we went to the night market, a lot of other people bought bracelets from the old lady. I found a few lying on the ground around her stall."
Alex's words rang true to both Suzan and Rose. That's right, they thought. It wasn't just us who bought bracelets that night. Other people bought them too. Then, the bracelets that we saw in Maserati might not be Alex's. They could belong to a different young man who, by coincidence, had also bought them at the night market.
The moment he suggested that someone else might have bought the same bracelets, Alex saw the girls' expressions change. They no longer looked at him with eagerness, as they considered the possibility that Alex wasn't their rich saviour.
Suzan and Rose looked at each other. They knew they were thinking the same thing.
They had both concluded that Alex was not the hero who had saved them that day.
Rose felt annoyed. Now she was sure that he was just a poor student at the university, and she had taken a long time getting dressed that evening to look her best to meet him.
She said huffily, "One last question. Suzan and I were kidnapped from the night market by Luciel Brennan. You were there, but did you do anything to help us?"
"I—" Alex was momentarily at a loss for words. He couldn't say that he had secretly helped them, and he couldn't say that he didn't do anything at all. Besides, Alex still remembered that Rose had told him that whatever happened to her had nothing to do with him.
"You can't say, right? Did you do anything at all to help us?" Rose sneered as she looked at him. "Joe asked you to go with us to protect us. How did you protect us? Hm? Tell us. Suzan, go back and tell Joe that his friend is useless. Tell him to have nothing more to do with him, so he won't be tricked by him in the future."
Suzan put her arm around her shoulder. "Rose, you—" Although it turned out that they were wrong about Alex's identity, it wasn't his fault. He had never pretended to be the rich guy who had saved them. Rose was being too hard on him.
"Alex, you leave now. I'll stay with Rose," Suzan said to him with a frown.
"Hmm—" he grunted in reply. He wanted to leave. Rose is so obnoxious, he thought. I don't think we'll ever get on well with each other. I think it will be much better if we don't meet each other again in the future.
Rose threw Alex's bracelets onto the ground. He picked them up quickly and blew off the dust. He put them in his pocket and quickly left the Angel Bar.
**
The next two days passed by relatively smoothly. Robert brought him regular updates about Lawrence Heights, the apartment complex that he was buying. He had to focus on all the information that he and the two other real estate professionals were giving him to understand everything fully.
In addition to reading all the information that he was given about Lawrence Heights, Alex also listened attentively to Ken Stokes's daily progress reports on the search for Debbie. They already had some information on her whereabouts, but it was limited. It still felt like looking for a needle in a haystack, and Alex reminded himself that he had to be patient. He chose to believe that no news was good news for now. He was sure that when Ken had more information, he would find her.
Sometimes at night, Alex would think about Debbie and feel very sad, but he told himself to be strong. Moping around wouldn't help him find her. He had to be proactive.
Luckily, the information that Robert brought provided a temporary distraction from worrying about Debbie.
After three days, Alex had read enough information on Lawrence Heights, but he felt he should go and see it in person.
He called for a cab and made his way there.
He had decided that he was going to rent an apartment in the complex as a university student who had just stepped into society. He wanted to experience the management of the property firsthand.
He made his way to the office on the first floor of A Block, which, according to the online particulars about the complex, was where the rental arrangements were handled.
When he walked into the office, he found a man and a woman arguing passionately in front of the desk. Neither of them paid him any attention as he entered.
"Ahem," he coughed, and finally they looked over at him.
His first impression of them was poor, and he frowned slightly. If this was the first thing potential new clients saw when they came to inquire about renting apartments, their impression of Lawrence Heights would not be good.
"Hello. Do you want to rent an apartment?" the woman asked Alex. Finally, she had regained her composure. The man stayed sitting to one side, picking his nails. He wasn't doing any work, and he didn't even glance at Alex. He was acting like he was relaxing in his living room.
Alex asked politely, "Hello. I've just graduated from university and I don't have a job yet. I want to rent an apartment, but I don't have much money on me, about a thousand dollars."
As he spoke, the woman kept checking her cell phone. She appeared to have no interest at all in what Alex was saying.
She pushed a promotional brochure in front of him and said, "Take a look at what's available yourself. There's all the information. Tell me once you've chosen." Then she turned away and looked at her phone again.
Alex sighed. The promotional brochure only gave a very brief overview for people to read quickly. There wasn't much information in it. He thought, as the office receptionist, it's your job to find suitable apartments for the clients, but you seem to think it's good enough just to shove a promotional booklet in front of them.
Alex started to look through the promotional brochure. He found that the information provided on the apartments was quite comprehensive, and there were also pictures. He glanced at it briefly and randomly chose one.
He was just about to speak to the woman about the next steps when a soft voice came from the door. "Hello. Is this the rental office?"
Alex turned around and saw a pretty girl walk in through the door. She was wearing jeans and a loose shirt. Her skin was so white that it shone, and her hair was rolled into a bun on top of her head.
The girl nodded to Alex in greeting, walked to the desk, and politely asked, "Hello. I would like to rent an apartment here. How do I go about it? Do you need to see identification? I can show you my passport."
Alex couldn't help but smile. The girl seemed very young and inexperienced. She had never rented a property on her own before, so she didn't know that she didn't need to hand her passport over straight away.
"I don't need to see your passport. What do you want to rent?" The woman working in the office was quite abrupt with the girl. She looked a bit jealous of her. She was even ruder than she had been with Alex. The man beside her looked at the girl for a long time. The woman had to gently punch his arm to stop him from staring.
The woman gave the girl a promotional brochure and said, "Look for yourself. Let me know when you've chosen one."
"Oh, okay," the girl answered obediently.
"I've chosen this apartment," Alex told the woman as he pointed it out on the brochure.
She told him, "This apartment has three bedrooms, two living rooms, and a bathroom. It's three thousand dollars a month. I need to see some ID, then we'll get the paperwork sorted out right now."
"Aren't you going to show me the apartment?" Alex asked. He was even more disgusted with her apathetic attitude. He asked himself, are these two employees just plain lazy?
"The promotional brochure describes it clearly. What you can see there is what you get," the woman replied. She felt that her approach was perfectly reasonable. "If you really want to see it, that's fine. Here's the key. You can go yourself."
She found the key and gave it to Alex.
He was speechless. They weren't afraid of giving keys out to anyone that asked. As the new owner of this apartment complex, Alex was deeply worried about this irresponsible attitude.
"Here's my ID." He handed the woman his driver's license and some recent bills. He had achieved his goal, which was to find out how the rental office worked and what the staff who ran it were like.
The girl who had arrived after Alex had been studying the brochure. She looked up at the woman and said, "I choose this one." Alex looked over and noticed that she had picked the same apartment as him.
When the girl realized that Alex had already chosen the apartment she wanted, she smiled awkwardly and said, "Oh, you're going to rent that one. That's okay, I'll have another look." She turned back to the brochure to choose a different one.
At that moment, a tall man walked in. He looked to be in his thirties. He was very smartly dressed in black trousers and a light blue shirt.
"Mr. Gellor." Both the office staff greeted the man with a smile.
The man was the rental manager at Lawrence Heights, Philip Geller. He nodded at the two staff members. Then he saw the girl standing looking at the brochure, and his eyes lit up.
"Hello there. Are you here to rent an apartment?" he asked as he walked over to the girl. His heart skipped a beat as he looked at her angelic face.
"Yes." The girl nodded. "I wanted this apartment, but this gentleman had already chosen it. Now I'm trying to decide on a different one."
"Oh dear." Philip looked at Alex and pulled him to the side. He whispered, "Sir, let me recommend a much better apartment for you at two thousand five hundred a month. Why not let this young lady take that one? It's clearly her first time renting a property on her own. Let's help her out."
Alex thought, that all the apartments have set rental fees that are laid out in the brochure. But as the rental manager at Lawrence Heights, you're choosing to secretly offer me a discount, so you can offer the pretty girl the apartment that she wants. Who's going to cover the loss of income?
However, as he had already decided to let the girl take the apartment, he told the manager that he would accept his proposal.
Philip walked back to the girl and said, "I have good news. This young man had decided against renting the apartment. It's available for you to rent."
"That's wonderful. Thank you so much." The girl repeatedly thanked Alex and Philip. She assumed that Philip had convinced Alex to let her have the apartment, and she felt very grateful to him for looking out for her.