Chapter 40：I Love Him Now

Beauty checked her email. Nothing important was there. None from his brother or from Your Romeo.

"I think I'll be forgotten if I don't write first," she mused as her fingers tapped against her keyboard.

(Your Romeo,

Sorry, I was not able to write for days now. A lot of things happened. I think you're also busy since I got nothing from you. Anyway, I have a question. A little personal. Here it goes, how do you know you're in love with a girl? Or how does a girl know she's in love with a man?

Confused,

Beauty)

. . . . .

At this moment, Clarence was having a conference call with his parents and with some restaurant managers. Thus, Beauty was left waiting for Your Romeo's reply.

"Come on, Your Romeo, when are you going to reply?" the girl whimpered, eyes fixed on the screen, hoping for the Inbox font to thicken.

She fell asleep, waiting while her computer was still on. Suddenly, her mother came into her room, thinking she was still awake. Her mother heard a ding sound from her computer. A new email came from Your Romeo.

'Who is this Your Romeo? I don't like the sound of the name.' Bella said to herself.

With curiosity, she opened the email.

(Beauty,

I don't understand why you keep on asking me with such questions. Allow me to make a guess. You might be falling in love with a guy now. Is that Clarence? I assumed it's him for you didn't mention other man's name to me at all. Is he the person you are referring or someone else? I hope you would be honest with me; if not, I will not answer your questions.

Your Romeo)

. . . . .

Bella checked Beauty's email folders then saw a specific one for Your Romeo.

'She seems to be in contact with this guy for quite some time now. Do Mother and Father know about this? I can't remember them mentioning this certain Your Romeo.'

She also read the latest email her daughter sent to this person. She giggled while reading it.

"Oh my, my daughter has grown up. She has Clarence as a suitor, and she might be in love with him now. Who would not fall for such a refined man? It's nice to be young. I'll tell her Papa about this."

Before leaving her daughter's bedroom, she made sure to set Your Romeo's email as 'unread'. [1]

. . . . .

Beauty woke up later and saw the email. There was a satisfied huff as she was not left ignored by her close friend.

(You're really unfair. You're like a gossipy old lady. First, you have to read my questions again. I said, "How do you know you're in love with a girl?" I didn't say I am in love. I don't even know what is falling in love means. My second question was, "how does a girl know she's in love with a man?" So do you understand my questions now?

Beauty)

. . . . .

Clarence got the reply as he was about to close his laptop. As he read her mail, he was laughing to himself for daring to probe the girl through Your Romeo. He felt this alias came in handy sometimes. It could also be his folly.

"I thought it would work, but it's such an epic fail. Never mind, no need to probe. I believe she is now falling in love with me."

. . . . .

(Beauty,

Fine, I don't want to be called the gossipy old lady, and I don't think you want to be called the same way. So we'll just leave it that way. To answer your query, just search for it in your heart—if you miss him or not. Do you want to see him and hear his voice every day? Do you always think of him? If the answer is 'yes' to these two questions, then you're now in love.

Sleep well Beauty, the girl who is in love now. :-P

Your Romeo)

. . . . .

The girl was blushing as she read his reply. She asked the two questions to herself and realized the answer was really 'YES.'

That night, she hadn't had a good sleep. When Clarence came to get her the next day, he could not hold himself from laughing after he saw her messy state: her eyes had eye bags, her hair was a mess, and her pajamas were crimped. He was laughing for he believed his email was the cause.

Beauty was really blaming Your Romeo. She could not sleep because the question 'do you always think of him?' kept ringing in her mind and made her think of Clarence.

"Do you want to go now, or do you want to go back to sleep?" asked Clarence.

"Let's go now. I need money for my tuition fees so I need to work." Out of sleep deprivation, her tone was a little grouchy.

Her parents were just observing the two youths in front of them. They could not stop them from falling in love with one another. To counsel and guide them were the best they could do so they wouldn't stray away and commit something they would regret for the rest of their lives.

"Clarence, take good care of Beauty and drive safely. It's a long journey."

"Yes, Uncle, I will."

. . . . .

While Clarence was driving, Beauty got a text message.

"From who was it?" asked the former.

"Just asking… it could be John." Pang of jealousy hit his heart, making him grumble.

"Yes, it's really from him. Do you wanna ask some more?" She wanted to make him jealous, finding it amusing and funny at least.

"I have no right to invade your privacy." His heart was hurting all the more. His face was totally betraying him. He could not keep his calm.

She laughed loudly. "Haha, it was not from him. It's only Ronald asking what time we'll go."

She continued to laugh recalling yesterday's change of plans.

"You—you have the guts to test me and make me jealous." Clarence could not hold himself anymore. He gave the steering wheel a shove to park hurriedly at the street side. His burning gaze was warning her that he was ready to devour her. She felt afraid. He really wanted to kiss her now. Somehow, he held himself in check after seeing her scared face.

While holding the steering wheel, he knocked his head on it. The pain kept him from touching her. Scaring her was the last thing he would do.

"Beauty, please don't ever do this again. I beg you. You know how much I love you. I can bear other jokes but not this."

"I'm sorry. I won't do that again." She was remorseful. To see him angry was the least she wished to see. She admitted her joke had gone too far.

'Why did I want to see him jealous? Is this part of being in love? How can I tell him that I love him now?'

[1] If you guys were confused or curious, there is a function in email hosting sites where you can mark an opened message as unread. Just click the Selection box and press right-click. There should be a 'Mark as Unread' option. Very useful for emails that you accidentally opened.