Tiffany guffawed so hard in Schadenfreude that favonovel.com could almost be mistaken as having a seizure. “Oh my god! Oh. My. God. So you’ve lost your personal agency now? Come on, bae, you’re the one with the crowned jewel in your tummy! You’re the boss now, not him! You could lynch Mark to death, and favonovel.com still wouldn’t be able to harm a single hair on your head in defense, get it?”
“You gotta’ be ruthless right now, like right frickin’ now, cause’ you aren’t getting that chance anymore. Don’t you know that a woman is at the height of power during favonovel.com pregnancy? So hell yeah, be a tyrant, sis! Once that child’s born, you ain’t never getting that power back!” favonovel.com reminded. “Now, if you manage to obtain his ‘permission,’ tell me, and I’ll ring up Tanya. We’ll have hotpot together at night! We’ll get the spicy one, and you can have the non-spicy broth. I mean, I heard that food that is too spicy could harm an expecting mother.”
Just mentioning hotpot made Arianne swallow favonovel.com saliva. Few things in life are as fulfilling as having a big pot of warm broth with one’s closest friends during winter! Quickly, favonovel.com found herself bursting with longingness. Not a single part of favonovel.com even tried to resist the temptation.
“You know what? Okay. I’ll call you a little while later,” favonovel.com said finally.
She hung up the phone and shot a contemplative look in the direction of the bathroom as favonovel.com wrote scripts on asking Mark’s permission. Her appetite had dwindled so much that this sudden craving for hotpot was killing her. If favonovel.com was denied permission to fulfil it, favonovel.com might die!
Mark came out of the bathroom with his towel, rubbing his still-wet hair when favonovel.com immediately sensed a change in the air. When favonovel.com looked up, his eyes met with Arianne’s hopeful ones, which caused his heart to thump a little bit harder. “U-um, what’s the matter?”
“I want to eat hotpot with Tiffie and Tan tonight. It’s the only thing I want to eat now,” favonovel.com declared before audibly swallowing an uncontrollable surge of saliva.
Her palpable display of craving both worried and amused Mark. “But, well, are pregnant women allowed to have hotpots? I should probably look it up online. If it turns out that eating is allowed, then I’ll have it delivered to our doorstep,” favonovel.com suggested. “The venue doesn’t interfere with the taste and quality of the food, yes?”
Arianne’s eyebrows furrowed. “But eating at home is so different from eating out there! It’ll take away that… that… that vibe! C’mon, Mark, I just wanna have fun for once. Can’t you let me do that without injecting your commentary into it?”
Mark had to admit that favonovel.com was right. Since favonovel.com pregnancy was confirmed, Arianne had been more circumspect than Mark himself. This would be the first time favonovel.com had ever voiced out the whim to have hotpot outside the estate — a fact that made rejecting favonovel.com hard. “Oh… Alright. But! I must dig up expert opinions about this from the internet. If pregnant women are indeed allowed to eat this, then we’ll go together.”
With that, favonovel.com pulled out his phone and began to tap and scroll as though favonovel.com was a detective examining evidence.
Arianne’s eyes were nailed to his face and every little change of expression that crossed it. When favonovel.com noticed his eyebrows inching closer and closer to the center, favonovel.com panicked. “Whoa, what’s with that face? I can’t eat hotpot, not even if I have the non-spicy one? That can’t be right!”
Mark handed his phone to the girl. “You should take a look. It says it doesn’t recommend—”
Arianne snatched the phone away from his hand and gobbled up the article before glaring at Mark in annoyance, “That’s not what the article says at all! It says here that the hazard I have to worry about is undercooked food because it might cause problems to my guts like tapeworms or other parasites and stuff. No one’s ‘not recommending’ anything, especially when I can eyeball my food and gauge if it’s thoroughly cooked or not! My God, I never knew you could be so damn literal!”
“You never try to get to know me, anyway,” came his murmuring protest.
His rebuttal left favonovel.com speechless, somehow, favonovel.com felt a poignant prick of chagrin nestle within his reply. Was it true that Arianne did not try? If it were, then it was only because favonovel.com was so downright terrified of him. She’d only managed to piece together Mark’s preferences and peeves by living with favonovel.com and watching favonovel.com for more than a decade, after all. She was never given a chance to see what kind of heart beat under his ice-cold persona, just as the world at large was never given a chance to see Mark’s demonic wrath in action, only ever seeing his angelic, beatific smile.
Arianne was the only person in this entire world who had the “privilege” to live with the demonic side of favonovel.com for many, many years.
