Forced by fate – Destined to be his Wife

“I need to go to the bathroom.” TangShi was aware that there was a weirdness between her and YuZhi this evening. A static, almost electric current between them and he had kept looking at her even when she was talking to Linlin, with a faraway look in his eye. Touches had been with restraint, and he hadn’t been all too close and feely like normal and it was painfully obvious. Sliding her to him was the first move he had made all night in getting properly close and it was starting to aggravate her. She wanted to cuddle up and have him holding hands and letting her lean on him like usual. She missed that kind of interaction from him.

“I’m coming. Need to powder my nose and replace the lip gloss Zhengy keeps removing.” Linlin shot up and followed her. Sticking her tongue out at her boyfriend as she darted out of his reach.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

“Not my fault it tastes so good. If you don’t want me to kiss it, then don’t wear it.” ZhengLi called after her and then raised a brow at YuZhi and nodded after them when they were out of earshot. “Dude, when are you going to stop with the restraint and kiss her already. It’s been obvious all night she’s angling for it, and you look like you’re seriously suffering from trying not to act on it. Don’t tell me you don’t see it or feel it, you’re hardly inexperienced in reading women and come ons. Even subtle ones from sweet innocents like TangShi.”

YuZhi exhaled heavily and sank down in his seat, his head chaos over the signals and thoughts he was having and shook his head. He had been doubting if he was reading her right all night and now ZhengLi was confirming it. She was shy, reserved, and had zero knowledge on how to flirt but he had still been picking up on it.

“Don’t please. I’m struggling as it is.”

“Stop overthinking. You’re married. You’re hosting an engagement in a week. She could be a real future for you if you just get over whatever is holding you back and grow a pair. Bro, we both know you’re crazy about her, just admit it and be done.”

YuZhi pressed his fingers into the bridge of his nose and massaged to relieve the growing tension from driving himself insane.

“I only really broke up with Rhea recently. I don’t want to be that asshole who jumps from one girl to another. What if this isn’t all that deep and some mental rebound?” YuZhi pointed out, knowing all his excuses about not trying with TangShi came down to lame reasons and only the Rhea issue held any water.

“You broke up months ago, your heart just gave in recently. There’s no reason to be held down by that or to think this is a reaction to it. TangShi likes you, it’s obvious and once upon a time, you were crazy about her too. Enough to keep looking for her after one night. I think it’s still in there, waiting to be let out.”

“I don’t know how I feel about her. It’s all a jumble of emotions with everything that’s happened recently. I don’t want to make a mistake and hurt her.” YuZhi sighed again, lifting a beer and took a drink of it, his head swimming with so many questions and options lately. He needed his mind to still. He had never been good at facing emotional issues and always run from them. Nowadays he was trying to face it head on but had opened a major can of mind worms and TangShi was right in the center of it.

YuZhi sat forward to continue, raising his palm to elaborate on some of these messy feelings he couldn’t quite untangle when he spotted a tall dark figure heading to the bathroom corridor that pulled his eyes after it and he sat upright in hostility. The familiar form and height of that man made him forget everything in the blink of an eye and pushed one dangerous emotion right to the forefront.

“What is it?” ZhengLi turned and stared after whatever he saw. Not sure what the sudden doom and gloom expression was and why he was now bristling like a psycho. Sensing the change in his normally aloof friend and wondering what heated him up in under a second to killer mode.

“Rong Cai. That asshole is here.” YuZhi snarled and got up to move around the seats to walk to the bathroom, knowing fine well Rong would stop TangShi if he ran into her. He wouldn’t bypass a chance to get up close and personal, and he hated the guy with a passion for even looking in her direction.

“The art school dude? The one that you think wants to bang, Tang?” ZhengLi stood up grinning and downed the rest of his beer. Smoothed his jacket with glee at the sniff of growing drama and wandered after YuZhi knowing this was going to be a show. If anything riled up the true emotions in one’s heart, it was the toxic stench of jealousy.

“Yeah, that asshole.” YuZhi spiked all over. His inner mood tightening, and a restless energy tensed up his insides as he headed after the guy.

TangShi and Linlin walked out of the bathroom into the dark hallway and TangShi collided with a tall man who was heading to the men’s room. Stumbling on unsteady feet and dizzy with drunkness.

“I’m sorry.” She apologized politely, nodding her head and went to move by when the stranger caught her by the arm and tugged her back. Startling her so that she almost fell, and he caught her by the waist.

“TangShi? Hey… It’s me. Rong. Oh, and Miss Choi?” Rong beamed at Linlin and gave them both a curt nod before extending the hand from TangShi’s elbow to Linlin to shake and got nothing but a weird smile in response. Linlin eyeing up where his other hand was on TangShi’s hip and finding the atmosphere a little different to when she met him at the school. Suspicion spiking in her.

“Oh, hello. I didn’t expect to meet you here.” TangShi squirmed to get out of his hold, but he didn’t relent and instead placed his free hand on her opposite shoulder to pull her closer, so they were face to face. Trapping her securely. Only a foot at most in separation and TangShi pasted on a smile and threw Linlin a wary look. Rong Cai moved in, making it look crazy intimate and breathed his words almost into her ear. The stench of booze enough to make her choke, even in her own intoxicated state.

“You look pretty as always. I love this dress on you. TangShi why are you always such a head turner wherever you go? Such a naughty girl!” Rong was clearly drunk, and he swayed moving forward and almost head bumped TangShi in his efforts to look at her closely. Linlin reached out to shove him back, feeling this looked highly suspicious and knew the boys would get a wrong idea if they saw this. Her own warning signs going off that Rong wasn’t the nice guy she first met at the school.

“Yeah, she does, like always but that doesn’t mean you get to touch her. And the dress was from me. How about getting your fucking hands off my fiancée?” YuZhi’s aggressive tone and harsh words snapped TangShi to the right as she was yanked free of Rong Cai, shame washing over her and coloring her face as though she had done something wrong. YuZhi marched in and pulled her into his arm with anger and crushed against him possessively in a manor she wasn’t used to. She put her head down and looked at her feet, feeling guilty even though she hadn’t done anything wrong. Aware she couldn’t move or breathe properly and YuZhi was radiating furious energy.

“Mr. Leng… what a shock to see you wherever she is. Didn’t realize she needed your permission to talk to her friends. Why so mad?” Rong slurred, sarcasm evident and ZhengLi interjected before either YuZhi or Linlin said anything further. The air static and sparking around them.

“Mr. Cai, hi, heard a lot about you. I’m Linlin’s boyfriend and TangShi’s friend. Her fiancée’s best mate. How do you do?” ZhengLi pushed himself between them all, so he faced Rong and tried to cool things down. He was here for the drama for sure, but he also knew his friend was a trained boxer and likely to throw a few punches in his current green-eyed state of drunk.

“I’m TangShi’s friend too. A close one. In fact, we are working very, very, closely right now on a gallery show, isn’t that right, TangShi? We often eat together, chat….. What’s wrong with a little affection between good friends? It’s no issue when we’re alone, right TangShi?” Rong smugly grinned and reached out to stroke her hair with an obvious move to piss them off and YuZhi smacked his hand away in mid-air. A hard thwack that left a sting. The tension crackling around them as even Linlin recoiled behind ZhengLi and TangShi held her breath.

“Friend’s respect women who are about to marry their boyfriends. Don’t touch what isn’t yours!” YuZhi stepped forward, letting go of TangShi and shoved ZhengLi aside to square up to Rong’s face. Nose to nose, equal in height and figure and the corridor seemed to shrink to a suffocating level.

“Possessive. Thinking of her as an object, rich boy? I find it interesting how much of a threat you see me as. If you’re all happy and in love, why does my friendship with her bother you so much? Always bristling and intervening like you don’t trust her. Doubting what I mean to her? Maybe your gut has finally clicked onto something, huh?” Rong laughed in YuZhi’s face, spitting out any words he could to rile this bastard and hoping to god he threw a punch and showed TangShi what kind of silver spooned spoiled prick he was.

YuZhi bristled up, his body moving into rage mode, and he clenched his fists. All the signs ZhengLi needed to know that this was about to get physical, and he tugged YuZhi back and pushed him into TangShi and Linlin to catch hold of him. TangShi didn’t need to be told twice, shocked at Rong Cai’s lies, and slid her arms around his waist and began to tug him away. Tears brimming that this was escalating, and her only focus was getting YuZhi out of here unharmed. She couldn’t bear the thought of him fighting. Linlin stepped in front of him, catching his wrist and helping her to move him.