Abelle- A Chinese Romance

The Dangers of Falling for You (Part 8)

"Li Abelle!" I stop right in front of the door. What should I do? Shu told me not to open the door to anyone........but how does this person on the other side know my name? "Who is this?" I say in a very high-pitched and snotty tone. The knocking stops and the voice answers, "I know you're in there. Open up." I put a hand on the door knob and opened the door slowly. I look up into a man's face I don't recognize. His hair was sleeked back with gel and the man wore dark sunglasses with a long-sleeved coat and boots. "WHO ARE YOU?" I hissed. The man pushes through the doorway, but I fight back to close the door on him. I'm about to open my mouth and scream till I hear a familiar voice. "Let him go, Abelle." The door bangs against the wall and I step back in shock. James appears in the doorway with a grim look on his face. HOW DID HE FIND ME? DID LIU TELL HIM? IF SHE DID WHERE IS SHE, WHY DIDN'T SHE WARN ME?!? I stare at the man with the strange sunglasses who points a finger at me. "Is this the one?" James glances at him then back at me. "Yes. You may take a break now Qin. I need to speak to you Abelle."

I gaped as the man, the bodyguard Qin, glides past me and goes down the hall to the bathroom. "I didn't even recognize him." James takes me by the arm and drags me to the living room where he throws me down on the sofa. "DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I WAS ABOUT YOU?" James hissed at me. I looked up at James's face and I feel the color of my cheeks turn red. "SERIOUSLY ABELLE! YOU HAD YOUR WHOLE FAMILY WORRIED ABOUT YOU! WHY DID YOU RUN OFF LIKE THAT? THIS WHOLE TIME I THOUGHT YOU WERE ACTUALLY KIDNAPPED!" I sit up straighter in my seat and glare at him. As happy as I was to see him appear, I still felt the anger we had at our last conversation. "Did Liu tell you I was here?" James takes a seat on the arm of the sofa and sighs. "Yes she did...through an email." "So you just decided to fly over here without telling anybody right?" James scowls at me and says, "I have someone at the office that's taking over for me. Now explain to me what happened from that night you disappeared to now." I hear a toilet flush in the bathroom, Qin was going to come out. "Jack proposed to me in the suite.....but I...I just couldn't say yes to him." James rolls his eyes.

"That's what you ran away from?" I feel like pushing James off the sofa. He had no idea what happened in that suit nights ago, if I didn't leave Jack would've locked me in that suite all night! Thinking about Jack's lips on mine makes me shudder again. I stand up from the sofa just as Qin walks out looking relieved. Right now I'm just so confused...I'm not sure of what to say to James since Qin is in the same hotel room as us. I decided that it's time for me to go, I'm gonna have to break Shu's rule. I take a jacket with me and put on a pair of wedges. James follows me into the bedroom and looks around. He also notices the other bed that Shu sleeps in. "There's another person here too?!?" I put on my jacket and then laughed. "Yeah, Liu's boyfriend Shu brought me to Taiwan." I see the stricken look on his face and felt good about myself. Yeah that's right, I was with another guy here two nights ago. "So I guess you weren't kidnapped...." "Why would I be kidnapped?" I walk out of the bedroom without my purse and go through the living room where Qin looked at me with an odd stare. "Where are you going?" he asked. I stop in front of the front door and hear James's footsteps coming. "Away from here." I slam the door and run.

I walk out of the elevator calmly and out the hotel doors. No one seems to notice...that's good. I make a left turn down the street and walked casually. I take a glance back at the hotel I left and see Qin and James keeping up the pace with me. People hardly glance at Qin in his getup, but a few did stare at James as he walked by them. James wore a plaid shirt and jeans with sneakers. He had on a pair of sunglasses just like Qin. They're on my tail. My fast-moving feet take me to a small park. I walk slowly through the children's playground, the swings on the swing set remaining still until the breeze pushed them, the empty seesaws and slides, and the sand pits where shovels and pails remained. I find an empty bench and sit there to catch my breath. I can already hear James's angry voice in my head, "YOU RAN AWAY AGAIN!"  I hear footsteps behind me, the sound of crushed leaves. James takes a seat next to me, I don't react at all. I turn around and see Qin sit himself silently on the swings, he wasn't coming near us. "I knew you wouldn't speak until Qin was out of sight. I'm sorry Abelle, but you know that he's my bodyguard....he can't hear us right now." James takes my hand and forces me to look at him in the eyes. "Abelle," he starts to say but I shush him with a sigh. After a moment of silence I say something that I promised myself ten years ago. "James....remember the last day we ever spoke to each other at grade school?"