When Carlos had finished dressing, Alicia had still locked herself in her room. Carlos went to knock at the door and said, "You are open-minded. There's no need to be ashamed of such a trivial matter."
There was no response in the room.
He continued to knock on the door, “Don't take it to heart. You can ask for that to me."
"Come out, it is my bad, I should not leave you alone."
The door was open. Alicia was angry with him and shouted out of control, "What’s your problem, running out to swim in the middle of the night?"
Carlos was stunned, “You know I have a problem."
“Yes, I know, but I didn't know you were so ill!”
"Do you know now? It's not too late to know. Don't be so hard on a sick man. Be gentle.”
Alicia must have had some brain trouble when she was thrown in the pool last night, so he came to him.
No, she hadn't been thrown into the pool before she came to him.
It must be because of the heavy rain in T city two days ago. It got into her mind by accident.
"Hurry up, I will take you to shop."
Alicia snorted, "No, my clothes have dried."
"Are you so sloppy? Not changing on such a hot day? Even if it's cool and dry, the smell of sweat is not on it."
She said, “Delete that recording, and I will do anything you say."
"Ok."
He took out the mobile phone and deleted it in front of her.
Alicia sighed with relief and pointed to the living room sofa. "Give me five minutes."
Two people together stepped out of the room, but bumped into Oskar, who was with a beauty. He greeted, “Good morning, Miss Alicia."
"Good morning."
"Did you exercise too much last night? Why is Miss Alicia so weak?"
He teased to ask Carlos, Carlos nodded, “Yes."
Alicia gave him a sharp pinch, and he smiled meaningfully. "We have to go out for a while. Please tell Wilfred and Otto that we will leave for B city at 3:00 PM."
"Ok."
Oskar showed a smile. When he walked away with the beautiful girl on his arm, he did not forget to tease Alicia, “Exercise more in the future. Carlos is strong."
Alicia was speechless. When she went out of the hotel, she asked Carlos, "How do you know the Oskar, Wilfred and Ottto?"
Carlos said, “Do you think I am better than them?"
Alicia had no answer. Though he was not as lustful and frivolous as the others, in other respects he was really no better than them.
Although the economy of T City was not as developed as that of B City, there were a lot of large shopping malls. However, after visiting several shopping malls, Carlos was not satisfied.
"Just pick one. It's not like I'm going to attend any grand ceremony. What about picking and choosing like that?"
Alicia was impatient. Carlos pursued perfection in detail, but she did not pursue it.
"How can we arbitrarily choose? No matter people or clothes, we cannot hold the attitude of compromise. We must choose our own satisfaction. You women, in particular, can't do it. Once it becomes a habit, your life is basically half ruined."
"Everyone knows it, but it is hard to do it. You frequently get married and divorced, it is compromise."
"It isn’t, it is just a kind of revenge on women. I want to torture every vain woman, let them know that you can't have love and money at the same time."
Alicia was surprised. This was the first time Carlos confessed to him the deep distrust of love.
"Did Dulcie leave you because of this?"
"No."
Alicia was again surprised, expecting to receive a rebuke or a direct indifference for her question. But he answered her, without elaborating, but at least confronting the sensitive subject.
"Then why?"
She asked, carefully, and though she told herself to stop, she could not conceal her curiosity.
"You know all about it."
Carlos gave her a light glance.
"Mother said she betrayed you, but I've always thought that's not the case. True love doesn't quickly transfer to another person."
"Not really. At first I thought there were other reasons, but that's what happened. She went off with my friend and didn't come back for three years."
She dared not ask any more questions as the sadness flashed through his eyes. To satisfy her curiosity, she could not do that.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The president's seventh bride