5:39 pm.Haven Hotel, banquet hall.
The hall itself was enough to accommodate a maximum of 300 guests.
A crowd was gathered around Amir and his family, and they all sang a birthday song to him.
Beside them was a birthday cake on top of a cart.
"Happy birthday to you~ Happy birthday to you~"
Nathan was dressed in a semi-formal attire; a black semi-fit long-sleeve with its sleeves folded, gray khaki pants, black shoes and a watch.
He was standing on a corner and pretending to be singing along.
"Happy birthday, Amir~~~"
Amir blew the candles.
"Woooh!"
There was a round of applause.
Clap!
Clap!
Clap!
Clap!
Amir"s parents and sister kissed his cheek and hugged him.
A person handed him a mic and the crowd stopped clapping.
"My dear family and friends, I would like to thank you all for coming to my birthday party despite your busy schedule, especially you: dad, mom and sis who flew from Muwin to come here for my birthday. I love you guys so much."
"What are you talking about? You"re my only son. Of course, we"ll be coming," said Amira.
There crowd chuckled.
"Anyway, as I said, I"m thankful for all of you who came here and I hope everyone will have a pleasant evening."
The crowd gave a round of applause once again before taking their seats. And although there were enough tables and seats for all the guests, there were a few that chose not to. A few of those people was Nathan.
Clap!
Clap!
Clap!
Clap!
Amir, accompanied by his mother and sister, then proceeded to visit the guests who were seated at the tables to greet and thank them personally for coming.
Everyone wore a smile on their faces.
Nathan swept his gaze over the faces of people.
"I wonder how many people actually want to be here, like in a genuine sense."
As much as he cared for Amir in his own way, today was his day off and he just wanted to spend it by resting all day in his apartment and reading.
"Drinks, sir?"
Nathan looked over at his shoulder.
There was a waiter carrying 5 gla.s.ses of champagne on a silver platter.
He squinted his eyes.
Back at Muwin, no one really drinks champagne and wine there, especially the people in the South.
The common choice of drink at Muwin was either beer or hard liquor.
He looked over at the people inside the hall.
About 90% of the adults were drinking champagne.
Nathan sighed.
"When in Rome, do as the Romans do."
He took one of the gla.s.ses and said, "Thank you."
The waiter left.
Nathan took a sip.
"Elk… Disgusting," he said under his breath.
Another waiter was pa.s.sing by and carrying appetizers.
It was a traditional Muwinian raw fish dish.
Aside from being a religious and conservative country, Muwin was also known for its fish dishes.
In fact, one of the slurs given to Muwinians is "fish people."
He grabbed a piece.
It tasted good but…
"What the f.u.c.k is this?! What kind of moron made this piece of s.h.i.t?!"
The taste was good, but the fish lacks freshness.
Back in Muwin, if one were to eat the best sea creature dishes in the city, although it was of high quality, it can be very expensive. This is why it"s better to go to the province, like Liit town, if you"re on a tight budget.
"Nathaniel, what are you doing there all alone? Come on over," a man called out to him.
Nathan looked over the person who called him.
It was uncle Abbas.
He was seated on a table with Kaaf and Kaab.
Among all of the people in his family, it was only his uncle Abbas that called him Nathaniel.
"Oh great. That meatball Kaab is there. Just my luck," Nathan thought as he flashed a very friendly smile and went over to them.
When he got to them, he immediately greeted them.
"Uncle Abbas, uncle Kaaf, Kaab."
Kaab was almost the spitting image of his father, Kaaf -- fat and short, like a meatball. The only difference between them was that Kaab was younger and was half Caucasian.
Kaab was also the same age as Amir.
"I bet every time this meatball looks at his father, he gets p.i.s.sed knowing that that is his future."
Another cultural practice here in Womania that he trained himself to adapt was hugging which is a way of greeting between close friends and family members.
Back in Muwin, no one hugs each other, except for lovers in private or when people experience something very tragic, like the death of a loved one.
He first hugged Abbas, then Kaaf, and lastly Kaab.
Kaab was eating something greasy with his hands and put it down before hugging Nathan.
"Nathan my boy!"
Although Kaab was the same age as Amir, he likes to address Nathan with "my boy".
And as they hugged, he tapped his greasy hand on Nathan"s back.
Nathan felt Kaab"s hand on his back.
He gritted his teeth as he forcefully suppressed his overwhelming desire to beat the s.h.i.t out of Kaab.
He never knew why Kaab hated him and he never bothered to ask.
When Nathan pulled away from the embrace, his friendly smile from earlier returned and he took a seat on the table.
"So how"s life back at Muwin?" said Kaaf.
"Everything is good," said Abbas.
"How"s the businesses that you"ve opened there?"
"It had its ups and down but we"re surviving nonetheless."
"Knowing you, I"m sure it will be successful. You"ve always had a talent for that. Any plans to expand or make branches soon? I would like to make an investment in your businesses."
"Those businesses are barely 2 years old. It"s still too early. Probably 2 or 3 years from now. But rest a.s.sured, you will be among the first people I will contact once I plan to expand."
"Thank you."
"What about you? How"s yours?"
"Same as always."
"That"s good to hear."
Kaab suddenly entered the conversation.
"Father, our news publishing business took a hit these past few days, thanks to the article that Nathan"s team posted last Wednesday which caused a number of the people visiting our site to drop by 10%. Fortunately, I was able to spot it right away. If not, who knows how much more damage it would"ve caused."
Abbas raised an eyebrow.
Kaaf sighed deeply and said, "Kaab, we"ve already talked about this."
Nathan, who was listening, pursed his lips.
"My G.o.d, what"s the problem of this meatball?! I already issued an apology last time!"
He took a deep breath.
"Uncle Kaaf, I"m really sorry about what happened. It"s --"
Kaaf raised his hand and said, "Let"s not bring that up anymore. It wasn"t that of a big issue. It"s part of the nature of business -- there will be good days and bad days. Let"s just continue working hard in increasing our audience. But enough of that. Now is the time for a celebration."
Abbas didn"t say anything and looked at Kaab.
He was well-aware of Kaab"s animosity towards Nathan.
He had thought that after 3 months, Kaab and Nathan would be close by now.
However, it seemed that wasn"t the case.
"Well, if it really isn"t a big issue, there"s no need to worry then," Abbas said and smiled.
"It really isn"t," Kaaf said and smiled as well.
Tch!
Kaab made a clicking sound with his tongue.
Meanwhile, Nathan wanted to go home already.
"This is such a waste of time."
He secretly glanced at his watch under the table.
5:52 pm.
"Once it reaches 6:30 pm, I"m f.u.c.king going home. Ugh... I need to distance myself from this father and son while I"m still here."
Abbas looked over at Nathan and was about to bring him to a corner to console him.
"Uncle Abbas, uncle Kaaf, please excuse me. There"s someone I saw earlier that I needed to talk to," Nathan said and made a smile which hinted that it was a woman.
"Sure. No problem, Nathaniel," Abbas said with a smile.
"Yes, yes, have fun," said Kaaf.
Nathan got up and left.
Kaab was about to follow him but was stopped by Abbas.
"Kaab."
"Uncle?"
"How"s that lovely friend of yours you introduced to me last time? It"s been a while since I"ve seen her."
***
Nathan maintained a cool expression as he made his way through the crowd. However, underneath it was a raging storm that could explode at any moment.
"Calm down… Chill… Calm down…"
"This is part of life"s struggles."
"One day, once you earned enough money, you can live the peaceful life you"ve always dreamed of."
"When that time comes, you don"t always need to bow down to anyone anymore."
"This is for that future."
When he was already far away from Abbas, Kaaf and Kaab, he stopped and looked around.
He did make that excuse earlier so he had to at least show it.
He searched for a woman to talk to.
The guests consisted of people of different races.
Although there were a number of beautiful Caucasians and black women, his mind was still trying to adapt to the beauty standards of Womania.
So for now, he decided to only look for Asians.
"Fat."
"Too beautiful."
"Is that… Is that an Asian land whale? How the f.u.c.k did that even happen?"
"Resting b.i.t.c.h face."
"Too beautiful and also too much makeup."
"MA"AM community."
"Taken."
"Fat."
"Lesbo."
"Hmm… Borderline fat? She"s cute though. Ugh… Pa.s.s."
"Cake face."
"Lesbo."
"Another cake face. My G.o.d, is there a circus nearby?"
"Too beautiful."
"Lesbo."
"Another MA"AM community."
"Too beautiful."
"Fat."
"Crazy."
"Fat and short? My G.o.d, kill yourself, meatball."
"Fat."
"Uh… Yup, married."
"Too beautiful."
"Ugh... Cake face again."
"Fat."
"Too young."
"Oh… is that a Kung Fu b.i.t.c.h? She"s perfect."
He finally found a person.
It was a skinny Xudonian woman in her mid-20s about 5"4" tall with gla.s.ses standing on her own and drinking champagne.
In terms of beauty, she was a 6 at best in his opinion.
Even though he only goes for women who are between a 4 and a 6 in his opinion, he had his standards.
He worked hard to where he was right now so there was no way he was going to lower himself.
He tried to see if she had a ring on her finger or was with someone.
He didn"t want to cause any drama.
He was too lazy for such a thing.
After observing for 20 seconds, he concluded that she was safe.
"Now what script should I go with?"
*********************************************
Author"s thoughts:
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading!
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