Page 79 of Well, That Was Unexpected

“I am totally the kind of guy who would try to have sex with you!” he says with faux indignation. “I mean, after discussing it with you very respectfully, of course.”

If I’d been drinking coffee, this is where I would’ve laugh-spit it everywhere. But I’m not so I just cackle out loud, blushing so hard I swear my cheeks are melting off. When I finally manage to catch my breath, I say, half cringing and half giggling, “I would be open to having that discussion.”

Now it’s George’s turn to go red. His face shines like a tomato under the sun, and the comment box has exploded and is just a continuous scroll going almost too fast for me to read.

LMAOOO—

These two—

I STAN!

“After we go out on a few more dates, though!” I add belatedly.

“As many as you want. And if you change your mind about it, that’s also legit. I mean, I—”

The door bursts open and we both glance up to see George’s dad and grandmother rushing into the room, out of breath. Ilook at George, who’s been sitting next to me the entire time. We wave at our phone cameras, turn them so that everyone watching can see that we’re actually sitting next to each other, and lean into each other.

“No—” Nainai says.

We kiss.

The internet explodes.

My hands are sweaty, my throat has forgotten how to swallow, and my heart thinks it’s a bass set being used at a rock concert. All the hallmark signs of nervousness. Despite everything we’ve been through, I am nervous as hell. I guess because this will be the first time that I’m seeing Shar minus everything else.

The last week or so has been a whirlwind of interviews and appearances. We foolishly tried grabbing a coffee at a small café in Kemang, a hipster area in Jakarta that’s frequented by celebs, and it took no time for someone to spot us and for a crowd to form around us.

At least it’s not crowds with pitchforks chasing us down now, but crowds who adore us and want us to take selfies with them. Our ShareIt live video has gone viral, and although there are still some haters, the bulk of viewers who watched themlovedus, especially Sharlot. My approval rating is the highest within my family among the eighteen-to-twenty-five-year-olds, our target audience for OneLiner. Speaking of OneLiner, it hit the #2 position on the Most Downloaded App yesterday, so Eighth Auntis (grudgingly) happy and Papa is (literally) teary with joy and pride.

They had a talk with me, and it was the funniest thing. It was so obvious that they couldn’t decide whether to praise me or scold me.

That was so brash, what you did, you could have—

Yes, you could have! But also it was great instincts. You knew your audience well, and you knew exactly what to say, and—

Yes, very good instincts. Really good social skills, which is so important in business.

So important! You’re not as clueless as everyone in the family thinks.

No, not as clueless, but still young. So brash.

So brash. But promising.

In the end, Papa patted me on the shoulder and told me, with tears in his eyes, that he was proud of me, which also made me teary-eyed. And now that I know I’m not—as Papa said—as clueless as I thought I was about business, I’m actually looking forward to learning more about the family company and how I can contribute to it.

My phone rings, and when I hit Accept, Eleanor’s face appears on my screen. “Are you there yet, gege?”

“Almost. Jakarta traffic, you know how it is.” I glance up at our driver, who’s expertly navigating the stop-and-go traffic.

Kiki’s face squeezes onto the screen and they both sit there just grinning at me.

“What?” I say. I can’t be too pissy; after all, Eleanor was the one who helped me get back in touch with Shar, and she wastheone who helped distract Papa long enough for me to let Sharlot sneak into the house to do our ShareIt event.

“Bow-chicka-wow-wow,” Kiki sings.

“Okay, gonna hang up now.”

“Wait, gege!” Eleanor shoves Kiki aside and puts her face all the way up against the phone so all I can see is one eye and half of her nose.

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