Chapter 11 Finding A Boyfriend

• “Ms. Jones?” Matthew gazed at Lionel as he strode away. He bent his head closer to Yasmin as he asked, “Did the both of you fight?”
• “No!” Yasmin forced a smile onto her face. She was gripping her purse so tightly that her veins were starting to bulge out.
• Serena, who had been watching her with a pitiful expression the entire time, gave Yasmin a comforting squeeze on her shoulders.
• Just as they exited the alley, Yasmin spotted Lionel leaning against the side of the car, puffing away at another cigarette. Many girls gawked openly at his handsome face as soon as they walked past.
• “Mr. Collins,” Yasmin urged, frowning slightly, “we can take a cab back by ourselves. Please don’t trouble yourself with driving us home.”
• “Exactly! We live nearby, so we can just take a cab home,” Serena agreed hastily. Although she was quite taken by this handsome man, she couldn’t stand spending another moment in his cold, unfeeling presence.
• “Um...” Matthew wanted to agree with her first to gauge Lionel’s reaction, but just as he opened his mouth to continue, he heard a loud slam from the car. Momentarily shocked, he turned around and realized that Lionel had disappeared into the vehicle as he flung the door shut behind him.
• Matthew changed his mind hastily as he quickly professed, “I won’t take no for an answer! Come on, it’s already so late at night. There won’t be any taxis around.” Before the girls could protest any further, he spun around and boarded the car too.
• Yasmin was in no position to decline their offer. Thus, she exchanged a look with Serena as the both of them got onto the car without another word.
• Since Serena refused point-blank to sit next to Lionel, citing her fear of him, Yasmin had no choice but to sandwich herself between the both of them again. However, she could sense that Lionel was in a pretty bad mood.
• As they drove along in silence, Yasmin’s phone began to ring. She took out her phone from her purse and frowned when she saw the caller ID. Serena asked her in a hushed voice, “Is your mother calling you again?”
• Yasmin nodded miserably. Since she couldn’t exactly decline a call from her mother, she had no choice but to turn her phone into silent mode as she threw it back into her purse. After a few seconds, she fished it out again, feeling a little guilty as she noticed that her mother was persistent in her efforts of calling.
• Serena felt a tad bit worried, as she advised, “Pick it up! Otherwise, Mrs. Jones might...”
• Yasmin knew what Serena wanted to say. She bit her lips with worry before she finally answered the call. Instantly, she could hear the voice of her mother, screaming at her from the other end of the line, “Yasmin, are you going to be like this to your own mother? Are you going to act like your father now? The both of you are truly trying to kill me!”
• “Mom, stop it!” Yasmin shot a horrified look at Lionel— thankfully, he had his eyes shut as he appeared to be ignoring her. She lowered her voice as best as she could, hurriedly clamping her hand over the phone’s speaker, feeling so panicked that she wanted to cry.
• Seeing that Yasmin wasn’t trying to go up against her anymore, Clara stopped screaming. Instead, she started to sob miserably as she wailed, “Yas, I’m not trying to force you into anything. It’s just that the witch, Rosanne, keeps sending me text messages every day, in an effort to humiliate me! Not only has she stolen my husband, rather her daughter has stolen my daughter’s boyfriend too! Why am I such a failure? Why can’t I just die now?”
• “Mom, stop being like this! I’ll do as you’ve bid, alright? Give me the address right now—I’ll go for the blind date!” Yasmin could care less about answering her mother’s pointless questions. She heard her mother bang loudly on the table, panicking as she thought about the older woman’s fragile state of mind.
• “Yasmin, promise me that you’ll find yourself a husband who is a hundred times better than Henry Scott!” Clara continued to screech.
• Yasmin smiled bitterly. This wasn’t something that she had control over. Finding a man was different from picking out lettuce at the grocery store— besides, it would be practically impossible to find someone who was leagues ahead of Henry...
• “Yasmin, the man’s name is Sean Cohen. This Friday, you’ll be meeting him at a coffee shop on the third floor of Jade District plaza—got that?” Clara rattled off the address in a single breath. She warned her daughter not to put on makeup again before she hung up the call.
• Yasmin looked down as her fingers tightened around her phone. Looking at its dark screen, she suddenly felt a lump in her throat.
• It was very quiet in the car. Nobody spoke a word until they had pulled into Yasmin’s driveway.
• Yasmin thanked Matthew briefly. She turned to say goodbye to Lionel, but his eyes were still shut while his face had taken on its usual aloof expression. Thinking that it was best to avoid him, she got out of the car immediately.
• Serena felt a little worried for her as she got out of the car after Yasmin. When Yasmin got home, she immediately hurried herself to make a phone call.
• The call went through almost immediately. A middle-aged woman spoke up in a panicked voice, saying, “Yasmin, I was just about to call you.”
• “Ms. Quinn, what happened to my mother?” Yasmin asked worriedly.
• “Who else but Rosanne, that little wench? We ran into her at the park today— I tried to steer your mother away, but Rosanne caught up to us almost immediately as she began to mock your mother. Your mother has passed out in a fit of rage.” Helen was a relative on Clara’s maternal side, and she used to work as a nurse. Subsequent to Clara’s unfortunate accident, Yasmin’s uncle had hired Helen to care for her.
• Hearing this, Yasmin sucked in a deep breath. A conflicted expression passed over her face. A long while later, she finally spoke up and queried, “Ms. Quinn, could you speak to my mother and advise her to move to Greenlake City?”
• Helen sighed deeply. “Yasmin, you know your mother’s temper best. She has always been a rather prideful person. She would never shift out even if you went down on your knees to beg her. Besides, your father—”
• “Ms. Quinn, I don’t want to hear anything about that jerk!” Yasmin raised her voice a notch as she interrupted Helen angrily.
• “Yasmin... oh, alright then. I won’t say anything more here. Don’t worry about your mother— I’ll take good care of her. Your mother won’t be able to take any sort of excitement these next few days, so try not to go up against her!” Helen nagged at Yasmin for a little while longer before she finally hung up.
• Yasmin crouched down as she soon hugged her head to her chest in despair. Although she remained quiet without a sound, her shoulders told otherwise, as they were shaking with silent sobs.
• “Yasmin,” Serena squeezed her shoulder comfortingly, “don’t worry! Everything will get better soon.”
• Yasmin shook her head. When she looked up, Serena could still see the streaks of tears on her face. Yasmin’s beautiful eyes were full of hatred. “It has been six years— six years since that incident happened, and six years since I last met him! I hate him so much!”
• Serena and Yasmin had been roommates in university and they had been hired at Miller Corporation together. They were extremely good friends, and Serena had a vague understanding of Yasmin’s family situation. In the past, Yasmin had taken great pains to hide her father’s existence from her friends. Tonight, however, Clara’s words might have awakened something in her— Yasmin was bringing up her father voluntarily for the first time.
• “Yasmin, actually... oh, let’s not think about it anymore. Go and take a shower. I’ll stay with you tonight!” Serena had wanted to give her a good lecture, but she knew how Yasmin would react. Although Yasmin looked rather mild-mannered on the surface, she had inherited her mother’s awful temper. Besides, Yasmin’s father was in the wrong, and there was no way that Serena would be able to convince Yasmin to forgive him. Hence, she decided to change the topic.
• By the time Yasmin got out of the shower, Serena was rolling all over the bed, looking at her phone with a lovesick expression.
• Yasmin tugged the towel off of her wet hair and flung it aside. Joining Serena on the bed, she asked, “What are you looking at?”
• “Take a look at this. What a gem!” Serena passed the phone to her with an awed expression that one would assume while handling a 24-carat diamond. “Look at Mr. Holloway’s face— look at his body! It’s enough to drive anyone insane!”