Page 28 of The Holiday Disaster

I nudged him with my shoulder and rolled my eyes. “WellIbelieve that fate had a hand in it. Such a sequence of events needed to happen perfectly for us to end up where we are now.”

I thought back to the first day. We had been seated together and then gotten stuck in our taxi on the way to the hotel, which led us to having to share a room together. I had originally cursed my bad luck for all of it, but now I knew that luck had been on my side, after all.

“Does this mean we’re dating now?” I had to ask. I’d never had a boyfriend before and wanted to make sure we were on the same page. How embarrassing would it be if I was the only one thinking we were in a relationship?

Kingsley didn’t say anything and turned to face me. He grabbed my shoulders so that I was facing him as well.

I would have been worried about his lack of reply if not for the grin he still had on his face. There was a time in my life when I had gotten pissed off whenever I saw this grin of his, now it brought me a strange sense of comfort.

“Ethan Wang, will you be my boyfriend?” He sounded so serious and that had me bursting out in laughter.

“Do people even officially ask people out like that anymore?” I asked after I calmed down enough to talk.

“I’ve never asked anyone else out before, so I wouldn’t know,” he said with a shrug. “So, what do you say? Make me the happiest man alive?”

His words had me rolling my eyes, but I still nodded my agreement. “I’d love to be your boyfriend,” I said. I rubbed my hot ear with the cool tips of my bare fingers.

Kingsley pulled me close, bringing our lips together for a sweet kiss that I hoped was one of the many that were to come in the future.

When we pulled apart, I snuggled into his side again. His arm hung around me while I played with his other hand in my lap. “You know, you’re one of the few people outside of my family members who pronounces my last name correctly. Most people pronounce ‘Wang’ like ‘fang.’”

His chuckle vibrated in my ear causing me to look up. “I know. You used to get so mad at me if I said it wrong. You would insist that it was pronounced ‘Wong’ and wouldn’t answer me until I got it right.”

My cheeks burned at his words, and I kept silent. Kingsley glanced down at me and laughed at the confused expression I was making.

“Don’t tell me you don’t remember?” he asked as he pinched my hot cheeks. “You used to give me so much shit about it. If my parents or Valerie called your name wrong, you’d sweetly answer them without a single complaint, but to me? You’d scowl and act like I was your biggest bully if I did it.”

“I did not,” I muttered even though I most likely did. I didn’t remember what he was talking about, but I could see myself acting that way toward him.

My parents had wanted me to be bilingual, so they only spoke to me in Mandarin when Elliott and I were growing up. I didn’t learn English until I started elementary school, and the culture shock of hearing my last name in English was startling to say the least for a child as young as I was.

I’d always been proud of my last name, and to hear it sounding so harsh, the word became so jumbled that it didn’t retain its original meaning anymore. I had learned to stop letting the weird pronunciation bother me, but Kingsley must have been the exception.

That shouldn’t have been a surprise. Kingsley had always been the exception.

“I don’t really remember getting mad at you for that, but I could see why I would be. I’m sorry if I acted too outrageous.”

He raised a brow. “Well, I want an explanation. It broke my little heart to see that I was the only one being treated differently,” he said with a pout. I would have thought he was seriously hurt by it if not for the corners of his lips curving upwards in a smile that he was obviously trying to hold back.

He was teasing me again, and that brought me a strange sense of comfort. For him to act the same way even after confirming our feelings for each other was evidence that all his past teasing weren’t because he hated me but perhaps the exact opposite.

“Stop fooling around,” I said, nudging my elbow into his stomach. He finally released his smile and popped a peck on my cheek. “It’s probably because of your name. I was jealous.”

“My name?”

“Kingsley. Everyone properly says the king in your name. I was jealous and must have taken it out on you.”

“I still don’t get it.”

I saw the confusion in his eyes, and I sighed. He couldn’t have known what I was talking about, but it was embarrassing to spell out the reason for my childish jealousy. “My last name means ‘king’ in Chinese, and I was jealous that no one could say it correctly when they got yours right without even trying.”

I prepared myself for him to laugh, to tell me how childish my thinking was, but he didn’t do either of those. His smile was unrestrained and filled with so much joy as he looked at me.

“Do you know what my name means?” he asked, and I shook my head. I never thought to look it up, and I was kinda regretting that right now. “It means king’s meadow.”

His next words sent a shiver through me that had nothing to do with the quickly setting sun.

“See? We really are fated.”

---