He Called Me Tacky, Now He Begs for Me

Chapter 2

Keith nodded eagerly and said, "Pretty girl, yes." He looked at me with a direct, childlike gaze, his eyes clear and innocent.

I could not bring myself to meet his eyes, so I dropped my gaze and said slowly, "Then, you should go back and talk to your family first, and if they agree, you can come and tell me."

After the party wrapped up, Spencer blocked me in the parking lot with a completely blank expression and asked, "Hazel, what do you mean by that?"

I looked away and replied with a faint, wry smile, "It means nothing. We are not right for each other. I was delusional to have clung to you for three years. Today, when you took off your matching ring, that meant we were done, and it is none of your business who I choose to be with now."

He paused for a moment and then let out a cold laugh. "Are you doing this to spite me? Hazel, do you not know your place? With me, you do not get to throw a tantrum. Even if you actually go to that i***t, I will not give you a second look."

I looked at him and said seriously, "Keith is not an i***t. He just processes things a little slower." Besides, I had already met Keith long before that, once when Spencer was in an unusually good mood and took me to a private cocktail party.

During the party, when an investor clinked glasses with me and I politely raised mine in return, Spencer's face immediately darkened, and he called me out in front of everyone, accusing me of being out of line and flirting with every man in sight, which made me so upset that I slipped out to the terrace to cry.

As I stood there, a voice suddenly came from beside me saying, "Pretty girl, why are you crying?" Startled, I turned and saw Keith, who had been tricked by one of the kids from his family and locked out on the terrace, but instead of calling for help, he had just sat in the corner hugging his knees until my crying woke him up.

He had the handsome features of a grown man, yet everything he said sounded completely innocent, and he asked me, "Pretty girl, can I go out now?"

I realized he was different, and that actually made me let my guard down completely. Seeing how pale he had gone from the wind, I quickly wrapped my shawl around him, and his ears slowly turned red as he looked flustered and avoided my eyes.

Later on, I ran into him a few more times, and he would only come over when I was alone, never bringing his bodyguards along.

When I asked him why, he dropped his eyes and said with a hint of worry, "They all say there is something wrong with my head, and if they see you with me, they will make fun of you."

I could not help but think about my own situation, because any time I said a little too much to another man, Spencer would get upset and accuse me of leading men on, and eventually, I just stopped talking to other men altogether.

Keith was the first real friend I had made in that circle.

I smiled and said gently, trying to put him at ease, "You are just innocent, and that is not your fault. I actually like talking to you, and the other day when I was crying after being yelled at, you were the one who kept me company, and I was really grateful for that."

Keith took my hand and gave me a warm, genuine smile, saying, "Pretty girl, if you come to my home, I will not bully you, and I will not let anyone else bully you either."

And today, at my most humiliating moment, Keith showed up.

Spencer's face darkened as he said coldly, "Suit yourself, but do not come back crying and begging me to take you back later."

*****

Two days passed without any word from Keith, and I figured his family must have said no.

I knew that even though he was not mentally mature, his parents cherished their only son and had never stopped seeking treatment for him after the accident, so it was only natural that they would not accept someone like me, an orphan with no family background to speak of.

Just as I was turning all of that over in my mind, Spencer's mother, Beryl Laurier, called and asked me to come over.

Though the Laurier family was not quite as powerful as the Zade family, they were still very wealthy, and Beryl had never approved of me being with Spencer, so she had always kept me at arm's length.

Now that she knew we had broken up, she was afraid I might have second thoughts and try to win him back, which was why she rushed to set up a blind date for him without wasting any time. The minute I walked into the Laurier mansion, I spotted Sharon Archer, who had that cool, intellectual look and carried herself with such quiet elegance, and since she also happened to be Spencer's college classmate, she was exactly the kind of woman he had always imagined marrying. If it had not been for me getting in the way, the two of them probably would have ended up together long ago.