Chapter 160: 'I Wouldn’t Have Known'

Luna sat in her hotel room and thought about her nan's words. The woman had bet her that Lisa would not contact her unless it had something to do with Ian, and she was right. For years, her nan had been trying to warn her about Lisa's fake sentiments, but it was the first time Luna had noticed it. Of course, the situation was a bit different. Her friend had received compromising photos of the man she loved, and she had no one else to turn to. Luna believed Lisa when she said that she had been helping her brother take over from their father, and she knew firsthand that the stress could be overwhelming. She herself was in the middle of helping Ian do the same.

Luna's phone rang and she had a mind to ignore it, but she needed to confirm it was not someone important. She was startled when the screen's display read 'Dr. Tavin Bell'. She answered the call and was greeted by the sexy and masculine voice that used to hypnotize her in the past.

"Hello Luna, how are you?" The man said. He sounded like he had either just woken up or was extremely tired.

"I am well. Is everything okay?" Luna asked.

"It's fine, it's just that, I haven't had time to apologize to you."

Luna's heart began to race. The night she had taken him home from the bar, he had drunkenly kissed her and surprising even herself, she did not fight it. Their kissing became more intense and before she could stop him, her shirt had already been removed. Had it not been for his brother's timely arrival, she did not know where the night may have ended.

"You were drunk. Trust me, it will not happen again," Luna said.

Tavin listened to the love of his life downplay their kiss as if it were nothing. When they had gotten to his apartment, he was no longer drunk, and he thought that she knew it. When he pressed his lips against hers, it was a moment of pure impulse, but when he saw that she did not pull away, he did not restrain himself. He had never touched her lips before, and they were so irresistibly soft that he did not want to let them go.

While his brother was worriedly knocking at his apartment door, Tavin was begging Luna not to leave. He was afraid that he would never have another chance to be with her, and now Luna was confirming his fear. He had only opened the conversation with an apology because he hoped that she would tell him that he had nothing to be sorry about. Sadly, it was not her choice of words, and for the first time since he found out she had feelings for him, he felt hopelessness regarding their relationship. Tavin apologized again and ended the call.

----

Luna flopped on her bed and held her phone close to her chest. For some reason Mina's words kept replaying in her mind. 'If it were me, I wouldn't have known,' the girl said. Meaning that if she were in Tavin's shoes, she would not have been able to accurately read the situation, but how could he not know how she felt, and moreover, how could he not know that they were dating? They had spent every waking moment together; they wore matching clothes, and they attended every function with one another.

Luna became a little angry at the thought. If Tavin believed that everything she had done with him was something she would do with anyone else, then what did he think of her? She had even slept beside him several times. Did he think she would have done that if he were just her friend? Luna stared at her phone and fought back the urge to call Dr. Bell and ask him directly, but the conversation would lead nowhere. In the end, he had given himself to another woman, and everything special she thought they would share with one another, had been stolen by someone else. Tears threatened to escape her eyes yet again, and Luna forced herself to sleep; her phone still clutched to her body.

----

Luna attended a seminar in the morning. She had been chosen to give a short speech and she wowed the crowd with her insights. Thanks to her recent interactions with Mina, Luna was able to get a glimpse into an under marketed demographic and she had been doing research into that specific group of people.

After meeting Mina, it occurred to Luna that there were men and women in the world who truly did not operate based on vanity. These types of people were less likely to make purchases based on referrals or brand and were more likely to lean toward hard results. In her home country and in many others, advertisements mainly focused on the 'prestige' of a product.

While there were a few manufacturers who emphasized on quality, they packaged it so tightly with the brand that it was hard to distinguish the two.

As an experiment, and as a cover for her relationship with Mina, Luna had planned to launch an unspecified product to test her theory. At the end of her speech, she welcomed investors and promised to share her findings with them. Even if the woman were not a brilliant psychoanalyst, she would still have hundreds of people throwing their money at her. Each one desperate for a chance to do business, no matter how small, with the Lee group.

Fortunately, there were only a few investors to take seriously, and Luna was able to distinguish them from the others based on the amount of information they retained from her speech. One of those men was Shai Cal, who had sent his assistant to inquire. Shai Cal was seen as a relatively aloof businessman and not unlike her brother, he had no real gossip or rumors surrounding him. Actually, there was one rumor that suggested he was impotent, but Luna had also heard the same thing about Ian and, although the situation that revealed it was grim, she now knew for a fact, it was untrue.