Lena stopped laughing when the crowd went silent for a second time. This time, she was sure it had to be the Li family.
What she did not like was the sight of Becca. Wasn"t the woman suppose to be on a.s.signment? And yet she is here instead of chasing other people"s men.
Lena sighed.
Ming glanced at her and then took of sip from his gla.s.s. "Are you going to walk over there?"
"And?"
"Give the woman a big slap on her face."
"Please... I did that last time and I got the slap in the face. I know how to learn from my mistakes." Lena laughed.
"Ah... I do remember that. But if that does happen, then you can kiss a random stranger again. I will volunteer as tribute."
"Thank you for your volunteer. But this day and age, the woman doesn"t always have to walk to her man, we like it when the man walks to us instead." Lena gulped down the rest of her drink. She placed it back on the table. "Your necktie is crooked."
Lena loosened Ming"s necktie.
"My necktie isn"t crooked..." He was confused. He made sure he was in perfect shape whenever he went out. But then he realized what Lena was doing, seeing that Kris immediately walking over to them. "Oh... yes thank you for fixing my CROOKED tie."
Kris was wondering why he didn"t see Lena immediately. She was all the way in the back, opposite of him and a group of people blocked her view from him. Once he caught sight of her, he slowly walked to her. He picked up his pace once she saw that she was fixing another man"s tie... Ming"s tie.
He did not even notice Becca trailing behind him. Kris immediately walked up to Lena and placed his hand on her waist and she finished fixing up Ming"s tie for him.
Lena smiled sweetly at Ming. "There, all good." She patted the tie.
"Can I get mine fix too?" Kris interrupted.
Lena could already sense his hand on her waist and his glares at Ming. She also noticed the way Becca walked up and stood next to Kris, but not close enough to the man, respecting his s.p.a.ce.
Lena turned her body a bit toward Kris and smiled at him. She glanced at his perfectly made tie.
"Aw babe, your tie is fine. And we all know that if I am taking it off, it wouldn"t be here." She giggled and gave him a greeting kiss on the side of his cheek.
"Mhnnnh!" Becca cleared her throat.
Lena popped her head out from Kris big body. "Oh, Becca. I didn"t see you there."
"h.e.l.lo, Miss. Shen." Becca replied.
"Did you all come together?" Lena asked.
"Ah yes, I came with my Aunt and Kris."
"Oh...." Lena looked at Kris again. "Are you not going to stay with me tonight?" Lena made an innocent sad face.
Ming rolled his eyes, Lena had upped her game. He didn"t need to be feed with these two!
"Becca is not useless... she can drive a car. I can go home with you." Kris patted Lena"s head.
"But I came with Kevin. It"s okay, it"s not his car anyways, we can go home in that car." Lena replied.
"Kris, you only stayed with your mother for one night. Are you not going to visit her longer?" Becca spoke
"My mother is not a jealous woman if I stay with Lena, not like some people." Kris replied.
Lena wanted to laugh out loud, but she held it in. "Oh, I forgot, I still need to say h.e.l.lo to your mother and you need to meet my family. Becca, you can stay here and meet Ming Zhao, he"s lonely." Lena dragged Kris away.
"Oh, and Ming, how about some cookies as thanks?" Lena should at least thank him for using him.
Ming shook her head. Not because he did not want the cookies but he does not like the crazy woman that Lena leave him with. Hazel and now this woman who look like she can kill him with a blink of an eye.
"Ok, cookies then." Lena answered for him and continued to walk away, leaving them.
"Do I get some cookies too?" Kris asked.
"Do you want everything that I give to someone else?"
"Yes."
"Even if I shoot him?"
"...." Kris pondered. "Yes."
Lena laughed. "You can deliver the cookies to him if you want. And yes, you can have some too."
"OK." Kris replied.
He looked at Lena"s happy face as she dragged him to the crowd of the Shen family. He smiled. Lena did not see it as she was focused on walking but a few people who kept staring at the couple definitely say the emotionless Kris Li smiled at Lena.
"AHHH!" A girl squealed and pinched her partner. "Did you see that? He smiled at her. Aren"t they just a perfect pair."
"Look, look. Is Kris Li wearing a ring? I didn"t see that earlier when he came in."
"Oh yeah... it is a ring? Did the two of them get engaged?"
"Did they? There were no announcements."
Lena also wore her ring today. As they finally arrived where her family was, she already spotted Madam Li talking with her grandmother.
"Lena!" Grandma Shen shouted her name.
Lena went up to her grandmother and Madam Li. "h.e.l.lo, Madam Li."
"You look pretty today." Madam Li replied.
"Is that him?!" Grandpa Shen cleared his throat and glared at Kris. He looked Kris up and down. And then, with his cane, he patted it on Kris legs, and shoulder before nodding. "h.e.l.lo Kevin."
"Grandpa, it"s Kris. Kevin is your grandson"s name." Lena tried not to laugh.
"I know that!"
"h.e.l.lo, grandpa... grandma."
Grandma Shen immediately smiled. He called her grandma!! That means good stuff. The young man is strong and not afraid. And seeing his tight drip on Lena"s waist... he was not going to let her slid off from his side.
"What"s his name again?" Grandpa Shen went close to Lena and asked.
"It"s Kris."
"Kris!" He grunted. "When can I just call him your husband?!"
Madam Li and Grandma Shen laughed.
"Grandpa... if you can"t remember his name, then you won"t be seeing any of my kids any time soon to remember their names also." Lena seriously spoke.
"I know his name! It Ken!"
"It"s Kris."
"I said Kris."
"Grandpa can call me whatever he wants to, it won"t change who I am." Kris replied and smiled at the old man.
Grandpa Shen cleared his throat again and tapped his cane stern on the ground.
Shen Ma and Shen Mo saw that Kris also arrived so they went to introduce themselves. Aunt Ma also introduced herself. Lena"s parents were also there.
"Where are the triplets?"
"Kevin took them to change their clothes." Aunt Ma replied. "They already made a mess."
"You stay here and I will go get us something to drink." Lena told Kris.
"Juice for you," Kris said. He saw that Lena already had a gla.s.s before so he did not want her to drink more than that. He knew she can drink more, but it doesn"t mean she should continue to keep drinking.
"Yes." Lena patted his shoulder and left him with her gang of families.
Once Lena left, her uncles did not stop asking Kris questions. How the Li company was? Does he work out? How many cars does he have? They made sure to not ask anything about Lena and them because they knew both of them had enough of those already.
Kris immediately replied to all the questions like he was in a meeting. Short, stern, and complete.
When Lena returned, she joined her family for a few for conversation. Everyone knew that Kris would be joining the Shen family in their outing tomorrow so they had him for the whole day tomorrow to ask him more questions.
After a while, everyone sat down in tables and Shen Mao went up and talked. A few other representatives went up and talked before dinner arrived. After dinner, it was a small party of dancing and more chit-chat.
It was not until then that the triplets made their appearance.
They saw Lena dancing with Kris. They all waited in a single line, waiting for the dance to end.
"Me next!" Jonah spoke, as he was the first one in line. He saw that Kris and Lena were going to dance again. "You have to wait in line, bro."
Kris glared at the three little kids and they all glared at him back.
"Kris... meet the kids, Jonah, John, and Joel."
"Hi." Kris greeted them.
The triplets avoided him. "We waited in line for you, can we please go next." They all said.
"Fine... but only one dance per person." Lena spoke.
"Yes!" They all saluted Lena.
Lena shook her head and held Jonah"s hand. "Kris, you can stay with these two."
"Stay?" Kris looked at the two devil children. Devil"s are not meant to stay together.
"Yeah, just remember what I told you last time."
"I thought that was a joke."
Lena just smiled and went to the dance floor with Jonah. Because he was short, she just held his hands and they danced like that.
As Lena was dancing, John and Joel forced Kris to be at the back of the line, saying there is no cutting in line.
Kris did not know what "Cutting in line" meant.
They two of them were whispering but it was a loud whispering so Kris could hear every single word they were saying.
"You think he is a big bad wolf?"
"But Mommy Lena says he"s not."
"He"s a big bad wolf... look at him."
They both stopped and looked up at Kris. Kris also looked down at them. They went back to whispering.
"See... he doesn"t smile. He"s like those people who kidnap kids."
"Do you think he will kidnap Mommy Lena?"
"We will beat him up tomorrow. Jonah says we can."
Kris was confused. First, why do they call Lena, Mommy Lena... and second of all, he does not know how to feel when he hears little kids are going to beat him up tomorrow. In his usual self, he would kill them.
But he feels like that"s not how normal people react to this type of situation. He went to his pocket and pulled out some candy.
"Do you want some candy?" Kris asked them.
They stopped whispering again and looked at the candies in his hand.
"Candy Andy never gave us candy."
"Candy Andy...." Kris wanted to laugh. What name will he be getting? "Well, Candy Andy is a douch*."
"Yes!" Both of them agreed and took the candy from Kris" hand. They opened it, stuffed the wrappers to their pockets, and popped the candy into their mouths.