Highstrung Robot

Chapter Four: Dangling by a String

Jake stared at her with an uninterested expression. "I'm not liking you very much right now." He leant back against the wall they were standing by, putting a hand back into his pocket.

"I could leave you alone. Then more single men would start talking to you. Do you want that?" She asked, raising a brow.

"Honestly, I think it would be worse for you than it would be for me if you left me alone. You will not like how I handle the situation. At all." He said honestly, looking around the room of people.

"Ugh, just please, PLEASE don't mess anything up..." She said right as the dinner bell rang, then all of the guests shuffled into the big dining hall.

"I make no promises." He said under his breath, tailing Addie as people went into the dining room and started taking their seats.

Addie trailed behind a crowd into the room, walking towards two seats in the middle of the table.

Jake follow suit, restraining himself from pushing people out of the way as he walked. "If people could just move their asses, this wouldn't be such a long endeavor." He mumbled, keeping right behind her as they reached the table.

She pulled the tall seat out for herself, sitting down and scooting back into the table, unfolding her napkin and placing it on her lap. The man at the head of the table, General Zhang Wei, stood up, clinking his fork with his glass of champagne. "Nǚshìmen, xiānshēngmen, wǒmen jīntiān jùjí zài zhèlǐ, xiàng shòudào hé pòhuài yǐngxiǎng de péngyǒu cǎiqǔ xíngdòng."

Jake had taken his seat next to her looking at the man standing up with a straight face, whispering to Addie, "Is something actually going to get accomplished from this or are they just making plans that will never happen?"

"We'll just have to wait and see. I know General Wei means business though." She whispered back to him, returning her focus to the Chinese general. "Wǒmen jīhū suǒyǒu de rén dōu zài huǒxīng shàng àiguò, suǒyǐ wǒmen xūyào quèbǎo zuì kěnéng de shēngmìng dédào zhěngjiù. Xiànzài, ràng wǒmen chīfàn, xiǎng xiǎng wǒmen kěyǐ bāngzhù wǒmen de tóngbāo de fāngshì."

Everyone in the hall raised their glasses for a second before putting them down and starting up conversations with one another about the subject at hand or causal things. Jake, looked at his untouched glass with a conflicted gaze. "I'm not sure I really want this." He turned to look at Addie and smirked. "You're not supposed to drink that missy. Still a year too young."

She raised the glass to her lips and took a sip, staring at it widely with bright eyes after she did. "Oh my god...it's so good..."

Jake chuckled at her expression. "You can't drink that!" He grabbed the glass from her, taking a small sip. "It's okay. You just haven't had other stuff like this so you must think it's absolutely amazing." He set the glass down away from her, shaking his head amused.

"Hey!" She grabbed his glass, taking another sip of it, almost melting at the taste. "Hmm, reminds me of peaches..."

"You need to stop. Your being so reckless." He took his glass back from her, draining it and setting it on the table, still looking extremely amused. "There now you can't have any."

"Oh come on! It's not like I'm gonna get drunk after a couple sips." She reached for her glass on the other side of him.

Jake slapped her hand away, picking up the glass and draining that one too, putting the empty glass back on the table. "You haven't had alcohol before so you don't know how much you can handle. A couple of sips may not get you drunk but after a few glasses full of this stuff, you sure will be. It may not be the best stuff in the world, but it's very strong."