Started With a Lie

Chapter Thirteen

Started With a Lie – Chapter Thirteen

“Happy birthday, to you! Happy birthday, to you! Happy birthday, dear Lee! Happy birthday to you!” the entire room sings and claps as Lee blows out his candles. When the song ends, everybody claps and Lee starts cutting the cake.

            “Whom are you going to give the first bite to?” someone shouts from the crowd. “Any special lady?”

            Lee has a small smile on his face—rare for him. I watch all this happen but I’m still shaken up. Everything I saw, everything I felt—was it real? Did I just imagine it because of stress? I have been sleeping late. I’m still shaking. My palms are sweaty. Did I really just see my so-called-dead father walk around in perfect health?

            “I would like to call up here my girlfriend, Ivory Flores!” I hear Lee yell. It doesn’t make sense. We’re not supposed to blow our cover. These people will think we’re together which will give us more people who expect us to be together. We weren’t supposed to tell anyone but Madam Jin. Everyone else was supposed to think I was just a friend that Lee brought along as a date.

             I move through the crowd to where Lee is—the smack middle of the crowd. The cake is the size of the large table in my living room. “What are you doing?” I whisper to his ear.

            “Oh, so now you come to me, huh? Where’s Mark?” He sees my straightforward look and then replies, “It’s fine. Most of these people are from foreign countries. And the rest, I’ll probably never see again,” Lee reassures. “It’s totally fine.”

            “It better be.”

            Lee smirks. “Everyone, this is my girlfriend.” He gestures to me and everybody gasps. They whisper and some even congratulates Lee. I’m too busy paying attention to the crowd that I don’t see Lee going ahead and smearing cake over my face.

            “Lee!” I shout. Everybody breaks into a laughter and smile at as. I guess they approve of our relationship. I take some cake off my face and smear it over Lee’s.

            Then, I realize how soft and clear his complexion is.

            Everyone’s chuckling and I am too. I haven’t laughed this much for a long time. After everyone’s done laughing, Lee orders a servant to serve pieces of cake. Everybody separates and eats their cake—continuing what they were doing before.

            Lee is eating his cake alone on the balcony. Why is the birthday boy eating alone? I wander off to him with my own cake. There’s a table on the balcony and I leave my cake there. I go stand next to Lee, who’s just staring out, looking at New York City.

            Everything is blurry of light because the rain is slowly still falling. It’s not heavy—but it’s falling.

            “Lee, why are you out here?” I ask as I rest my hands on the railing next to him. “The birthday boy shouldn’t be moping around all by himself.” Lee doesn’t face me. “Lee?”

            I get no answer.

            Something is wrong. I turn Lee’s shoulder and gasp. He’s crying. Lee—the cold-hearted, smartass-reply, and complete jerk—was crying right there in front of me. I don’t know why or how but when I saw his face, something inside me broke, too.

            “Lee’s what’s wrong?” I ask. He doesn’t reply. I shake him. “Lee?” He just grabs me and holds me close. His arms are wrapped so tight around me, like it’s the one thing keeping him from floating off Earth. I don’t complain, though. I just wrap my arms around him tightly.