It was unknown if she had imagined it, but Sharon seemed to hear a soft chuckle coming from behind her. She forced down her frustration with a single, forceful breath, not letting her mind linger on the uncertainty of whether she was being mocked or insulted.
Nevertheless, with the answer she had come looking for, she doubted it for a second, doubting Alex, then doubted the conclusion she had reached in her mind about the reason for what had happened last night. After all, it had not been pain in her internal organs. That could have come and gone as a symptom of something manifesting briefly under the right —or the wrong— conditions. But this had been a pain both in her flesh and in her bones. One could have been explained from that same medical perspective, but not both at the same time.
So that brought her back to the impossible but reasonable conclusion she had reached. And if that was the case, with no ready-made solution, she was only left with one option.
Sharing fortune and misfortune…
Sharon did not care about anyone else's fortune, and she certainly did not want another bout of unexpected misfortune like last night. She did not want much. Having her life from a few months ago back, that was all she was asking for.
Taking a deep breath, as her heel tapped the ground and before she could start walking away, an inquisitive voice came from behind her, laced with curiosity while carrying an irritating smile:
"Where are you going with that determination? And with that?"
Sharon could almost feel Alex's gaze sliding to her hand as he added the last part.
Without looking back or down at the red-stringed white paper, Sharon dryly replied:
"To the kitchen to cut, burn or drown this thing since I can't find another solution."
"And why would you think about doing that, destroying something that is not yours?"
"Because I'm certain I did not imagine the words I saw a month ago! Because I do not deserve to share your fortune, the fortune of Alex Lenner! I am not worthy of the fortune of a Lenner like you. All I want is to never suffer like I did last night again! All I want is for what happened last night to never happen again! All I want is to have my life back, can't I?!"
Sharon exploded. Spinning around in the middle of her tirade, she glared at Alex, tired and frustrated, with a stifling anger she did not know whether to direct at him, at herself, or at the unknown person who had pushed her life to the edge of an abyssal pit.
Sharon felt very stifled, wronged by life's unfairness that pursued her even after she had worked hard to build her life, her career.
Looking at Alex whose smile remained faint but unabated as he simply ate while looking at her, watching the show, the thought that had been swirling in her mind for longer than she would care to admit involuntarily slipped past her lips:
"What did I do to deserve this?"
Alex's hand paused, the sudden onset of weakness in the sapphire blue eyes making his own brown eyes flicker with a penetrating gleam that disappeared right in the next instant. He looked down at the small wooden box and the red-stringed white paper, then picked up his laptop.
Sharon regained her composure and watched Alex type away on the keyboard, stung by his indifference, but unsurprised. She had barged into his life, even if pushed. But after what had happened, could she really ask for his sympathy?
But still, his indifference stung.
Sharon lowered her head, and for once, let weakness assail her in someone's presence instead of in an isolated corner. And in that moment, the stinging indifference almost felt comforting.
"Tut, tut, so fake…"
The words after the sound of rapid typing stopped made Sharon instinctively look up, especially when the words felt as though they had not been directed at her.
She saw Alex tilting his head before his computer, looking at something with interest.
Alex glanced at Sharon, focused on her chest, then looked back at the screen of his laptop. A second later, he commented with a shake of his head:
"Anyone experienced can see that it's fake. How did you get done in by someone with something like this? The size is almost right, but the shape…"
Alex gave Sharon a measuring glance once again, then shook his head, again, his disappointment bleeding to the surface.
Sharon's fleeting confusion turned into surprise before transitioning back into a thicker fog of incomprehension. She forgot about what she had been setting out to do, and tentatively walked back to the sofa.
Leaning in slightly, Sharon tried to take a peek at the screen of the laptop, wary that Alex might suddenly close it to purposefully keep the curiosity he had fanned in her unsatisfied. But as he didn't make any move, and remained focused on the screen with a look of deep interest, she suddenly got nervous. And in the next second, she was proven right to have been nervous. She saw the image on the screen of the laptop and froze, shocked, dumbfounded, or maybe both.
Right then, Alex turned to glance at her again, then clicked his tongue with the same look of disappointment after looking at her chest, just short of letting out the sigh of someone whose expectations had not been met despite not having had them too high already.
Suddenly, Sharon came out of the lapse created by her crashed mind and finally reacted. Her dazed mind resumed working, and she jumped forward to close the laptop displaying her picture.
She was fast, motivated by the panic and the peaking embarrassment, but Alex was faster, though he prioritized his food. Then, in a quick movement, he kicked the coffee table away, putting it out of Sharon's reach. Fortunately, the heavy table had a rug underneath that allowed it to slide away without scratching deep grooves in the floor.
Preoccupied as she was, Sharon didn't notice the weight of the table that had been kicked away. She missed her target, and crashed onto the playboy's lap.
Alex looked down at her, then back up at his plate and his glass. Fortunately, he had raised them up in the air, if not, he might have had to go hungry.
"Phew…"
After exhaling in relief, Alex looked down and smiled:
"Though I quite enjoy the soft feeling, I still stand by what I said earlier. Everything must wait for me to fill my stomach."
Sharon didn't react to the teasing, nor did she care about the close contact. She looked at the screen of the laptop out of her reach, then turned to Alex, her shock written all over her face, serving as the soil for the fear that had taken root deep in her eyes:
"You–! I–! How! How do you have this?! Is it you– No! How?!"