Too Rich, Too Poor

Chapter 11

Ming's POV

I noticed how the security guards immediately surrounded us, expecting a physical fight to erupt between Kit and me any minute, but I had no intention of lifting a finger against Kit. I knew that he had every good reason to act the way he did.

I whipped out my handkerchief from my pocket and dried my face as flash bulbs from the paparazzi popped in quick succession on my face.

"Shit," I heard Kris muttering under his breath, "I will have a lot of explaining to do to Singto."

I had no idea who Singto was. I assumed that it was the name of his partner.

Suddenly we heard the microphone on the podium making high pitched ear piercing sounds indicating that someone was prepping it for use.

"Attention, ladies and gentlemen," said the emcee, "we regret to announce that due to the untoward incident that occurred earlier, the organizers of this event have decided to move it to another date. You will be receiving a notice very soon in the mail. We apologize deeply for this sudden turn of events. Thank you, and have a wonderful evening, ladies and gentlemen."

Wonderful was so way off target to describe the evening, I thought. If there were any entities who were having a wonderful evening they were the paparazzi and the newsmen who were covering the event. They were surely going to milk it to the last drop.

Kit's POV

I was not drunk. I was not even tipsy. But seeing the smiling handsome face of Ming as he escorted the main speaker to their table, and seeing how the main speaker seemed to be proudly showing off his drop dead gorgeous escort to everyone, something just snapped inside of me.

It was like I was actually outside my body, watching myself in slow motion as I got up from my seat and tossed the entire content of my champagne glass into Ming's smiling face.

I was already regretting my unpremeditated act of foolhardiness as I walked out of the hall, trying to be oblivious of the dumbfounded, stupefied faces of the attendees as I hurried past them. They were not even trying to hide how much they had been taken aback by my unthinkable act.

My driver who had not been expecting me to go back to the car so soon after he had just dropped me off, jumped out of the limousine and held the door open for me. He had a very startled look, but to his credit he did not ask a single question all throughout the drive back home.

I held back my tears until James my butler handed me my set of pajamas and wished me a good night. If he had been surprised at my early return, he managed to hide it very well. He was a very respectful butler, never one to ask intrusive questions or to hand out unsolicited comments or advice.

I usually do not take any pills to help me to sleep, but tonight I knew that I needed to take one.

Thankfully, since it was a Friday, I didn't need to rush to work the following day. I could sleep in as long as I wanted to.

The sleeping pill did its work and when I finally woke up the next morning it was almost ten.

I stumbled to the bathroom and let the strong steady spray of the warm shower wake me to my senses. By the time I went to the breakfast table I was fully awake.

James greeted me a solemn good morning which surprised me because he usually gives me a cheery greeting at breakfast.

One other unusual thing I noticed was how he placed the morning papers face down on the table instead of face up so that I can quickly glance at the day's headlines before I even start eating.

He pulled my seat for me and I thanked him as I tucked my napkin into my collar.

I took a sip of my orange juice before getting hold of the first of the three newspapers.

When I saw the headlines of the first one, I immediately understood why James had placed the newspapers face down, why he did not want me to see the headlines before I even sat on my breakfast chair.

There I was on the front page photo, in the act of tossing the champagne on Ming's face.

"LOVERS' TIFF SPILLS INTO THE OPEN" screamed the headlines.

I handed the paper to James without bothering to read the rest of it.

"Toss this into the trash," I instructed him.

"Of course," he said and after a moment's pause, he took hold of the second newspaper and asked, "would you like me to toss this into the trash bin as well?"

"I might as well look at the rest of the damage," I said, taking the second newspaper from him.

Just as I dreaded, there were two photos on the front page, one was of me splashing the champagne on Ming's face, and the second one was of Ming wiping it off with his handkerchief.

"JEALOUSY GONE TOO FAR?" the headlines of the second newspaper glared offensively at me.

I thought that it was time to place a long deferred call to my beloved father. There had been some gaps in his account of the Daichapanya Enterprises debacle that I had not been interested in knowing until now.