Episode 5: Alex Carl Beddington

“What do you want?!” Lily snapped furiously. This was the last face she would ever want to meet in her whole life. He was like a sign of bad luck. As a matter of fact, he is the bad luck, Lily thought angrily. The man pretended to admire the cupcakes on the display rack near the counter.

“I forgot to properly introduce myself yesterday, so I thought I’d drop by. By the way, you can call me Alex. Alex Carl Beddington.” He said. The grin was still on his face. Lily thought he looked stupid with that grin. No wonder she had felt familiar when she first saw the address to the mansion yesterday. The Beddingtons are a well known aristocratic family. They owned a shipping business and a number of other trades she could not remember. Her sister had once mentioned about them during their late night gossips. Now she also remembered Daisy mentioning about a son and heir to the family business. If only she could turn back time and pinch Daisy so hard for wishing to meet that son and marry him. That son who is now right in front of her eyes, who had ran over her bicycle and cupcakes with his red Jaguar the other day and also called her a bitch and sent her away with his guardsmen. Oh no, she totally didn’t want a guy like this to become a family!

“I don’t care who you are. What do you want from me? I don’t have the money to pay for your sick car.” Lily retorted. Despite the mocking tone she added into her voice, Alex didn’t give in this time. He, on the other hand, smiled straight towards her face.

“That is why I came, Lily. You have a pretty name, but pity it doesn’t suit the person.” Alex replied with his own hint of mockery. He had heard Veronica calling to her back in the kitchen just now, and of course there was this stupid name tag pinned to the front of her shirt. Lily cursed the innocent object for being in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

“Just tell me what you want, and get out of my sight.” Lily tried to control her anger. Veronica had tight principals of not getting into trouble with customers. This guy is inside her shop, so he must be considered as a customer. What luck!

“Look here, lady. Since your bicycle ruined my beloved Jaguar, so I demand you to pay for the repairs. But since you have no money sufficient for that, I offer you a deal. How about it?” Alex finally explained. She half thought he was joking. But this time he didn’t seem like he was, even though that hideous smile was still on his face.

“Look here, moron. Your car was ruined not because of me; it was ruined because of you. Why should I pay for something that was caused by you?!” Lily snapped back.

“If your bicycle wasn’t there, none of it would have happened.”

“If you had used your eyeballs, you wouldn’t have hit the bicycle!”

“Come on, lady. I’m offering you a deal. Either that or pay.”

Lily nearly lost her temper. The man didn’t seem to take notice of anything she said. Of course, who the heck was she to begin with! And she was also confused why Veronica stayed in the kitchen instead of helping her out here. Was it because of this rich moron?

“If you’re so filthy rich, why don’t you just pay for that stupid scratch yourself? Why bother asking me to pay? I didn’t even touch your stupid car!”

“Okay then, so you choose to pay. It’s about thirty thousand dollars for the scratch, and another fifty thousand dollars for ruining my birthday.” Alex calmly uttered with a flat tone and an emotionless face.

“What?! That’s absurd!!”

“I’ll send my men tomorrow to collect the sum. Thank you.” Alex started walking away towards the door. Thirty thousand dollars for a mere scratch?! Who was he trying to fool! But then again, it is an expensive sports car after all, what did she expect? Eighty thousand dollars altogether, that’s equal to her salary of working non-stop for about five years!

“Wait!”

Alex stopped near the door.

“Okay. Fine. Alright.” Lily took in a deep breath. “What’s the deal?”

*

To Be Continued...