Chapter Forty Six

Claire really wanted to pour her glass of wine on the egocentric man sitting in front of her. Honestly, she would have already left if the man were not the son of her father's friend. But the truth was that she was trapped here and condemned to listen to him ramble on.

"Well, in my view women should just stay home and tend their husbands and children, instead of working outside as some women do. Do you agree, Miss Claire?" The arrogant man continued his monologue, spittle flying out from his mouth.

"Um... Maybe." Claire answered mechanically as if she had done this a thousand times before. How miserable her life was! She was actually thinking, 'Fuck you. We are not primitive people. Fuck the idea of women doing only house chores, never any real work. If I were home-bound, how could I be on a blind date here with you?'

But instead of voicing her thoughts, she could only echo the man's words because her father had warned that if Claire ruined another blind date, he would marry her off next month to any random man.

She rolled her eyes helplessly. Was she really that old now? Why was her father always worried about her marriage? In fact, she had enough number of men pursuing her. She had to stop listening to the man's bullshit about male superiority.

"Miss Claire, I will help you run the company after we get married. You don't need to worry about that." The man continued, completely ignoring Claire's cold response. 'What the hell! I will be worried if the company is in your hands. It turns out all you are interested in is my company.' Claire complained to herself. She should show the man her true colors. She was not a submissive woman.

"I don't think I am your type. You want a meek wife cum housekeeper. But I am not interested in house chores. You should find someone else. There may be the right kind of wife for you out there, but it is just not me. Besides, I already have a boyfriend." That was the most Claire had managed to say tonight. She couldn't stand his bullshit any longer. If her father was to blame her for this, then so be it. These worries belonged to the future. But right now, all she wanted to do was to escape from this man.

"Miss Claire, your father told me that you were single." The man seemed not to buy Claire's story. He didn't think a strong woman like her would be anyone's favorite. "See. There he is. he is here to see me." Claire turned around and spotted Thomas entering. She saw him go in with other people, but it was too dark to figure out who they were. But she was in desperate need of a fake boyfriend, so she ignored the rest and waved out to Thomas.

"Miss Claire, are you kidding?" 'If that steely person was Claire's boyfriend, I have no chance of beating him and winning over Claire.' the egocentric man thought to himself. "Should we go there, Stephen?" Scott teasingly looked at Stephen. he remembered clearly that Claire had been quite interested in Stephen before.

Stephen frowned, looked at Brielle, and saw that she was not looking in Claire's direction. Instead, she was focusing on the bustling crowd dining there. "Let's go. She what she is up tp." Stephen clasped his hands around Brielle, who seemed lost in some fantasy, and shook her back to reality.

Thomas stood in front of them. After hearing what Stephen had said, he left the crowd and moved forward, but without any smile on his cold face. "Honey, you are finally here." At the sight of Thomas, Claire rushed into his arms without even noticing the people behind him. After all, she needed a fake boyfriend right now. She had no time to worry about the others.

Claire's hug shocked a lot of people. Thomas too was taken aback. Since when was he this woman's honey? "What the hell! What are you doing?" Thomas tried to push her away, but that only made her embrace tighter.

"Cold Thomas, help me this time. I need a favor." Claire pleaded in low voice, afraid that Thomas might reveal the truth. "LOL... Miss Claire, shouldn't you hug Stephen? What made you change your target?" After his brief of astonishment, Scott began to make fun of Claire.

Scott's sudden laughter scared Claire into letting go of Thomas right away. OMG, she was too busy trying to get rid of the mega-ego man to notice Scott's presence. Why was he here?

"Claire, why are you here?" Brielle frowned slightly. Her interest was piqued when she heard Scott mention Stephen. She was wondering what Thomas's girlfriend had to do with her husband. But it had never occurred to her that it was Claire.

"Brielle, I miss you so much." Then Claire pushed Thomas out of her arms, shoved Stephen aside and hugged Brielle. She followed it with a big kiss on Brielle's cheek. Stephen looked at his now-vacant hands and was totally and was totally confused. What was going on? Did Claire have a penchant for hugging people? One moment she was calling Thomas honey and embracing him tightly, and the next moment she was hugging and kissing Brielle.

By now, Chloe was staring intently at Thomas, her big brother. Wow, since when did Mr. Cold have such a hot girlfriend? How come she had never heard of it? It seemed that she would soon have a sister-in-law.

Thomas still wore a cold look and glared at Chloe. He knew what Chloe was thinking about. But even he himself did not know what was going on. Only God knew why Claire suddenly jumped into his arms. Scott stroked his chin contemplative. he believed something was going on between Thomas and Claire. But when did they hook up together? Why did he hear anything about it? It was so rare to hear gossip about Thomas. Maybe he could earn some bonus by selling the news to the media.

Stephen looked at the two women hugging each other. Finally, he understood why Claire always gave him a hard time... She was Brielle's bestie. No wonder she always had harsh words for him every time they talked. It turned out she was defending Brielle.

"First, let's just go inside the box." Stephen didn't like the way other men were looking at Brielle. So he pulled Brielle back in his arms, disregarding Claire's plaintive look. Well, Brielle was his wife. Of course, he should be the one holding her. He had loaned Brielle to Claire just because of carelessness.

Claire didn't notice Stephen's action until he grabbed Brielle back. Her eyes widened in surprise. She couldn't believe that Stephen was together with Brielle. How had she not heard of it? Stephen had addressed another woman intimately just several days ago. Maybe he was playing the dangerous game of two-timing?

"Miss Claire, wait." The man, after being invisible all this while, finally found his chance to chip in. "What's the matter?" Claire had almost forgotten about the man. She frowned and asked with a voice laced with boredom.

"Do you really have a boyfriend?" The man asked diffidently because the men besides Claire were all so above-average and handsome. "Of course. I don't need to find a fake boyfriend. Right? Thomas." Then she nudged Thomas, who was standing close other and kept winking at him. Well, she was faking it, but so what? There was no law against getting a fake boyfriend.

Then Thomas saw a live example of blatantly lying through one's teeth. That was exactly what claire was doing. It turned out that she was doing. It turned out that she was just using him as an excuse to get out of date. He threw a cold look at the man. Then, without a word, he grabbed Claire's hand, turned around and walked away, giving the man no chance to ask any more questions.

Claire didn't see this coming, so the moment Thomas grabbed her hand, she was a bit at loss. That was the first time she had interlocked her fingers with a man's. Till she felt the earth from his palm, she would never have imagined that such warm could come from a man so cold.

'They are really seeing each other.' Scott pondered on this, his eyes foxy and cunning. Maybe Thomas was really in love. After all, he had never seen Thomas being so intimate with any woman before. But now he had held Claire's hand and gone off. That showed clearly how he felt.

"Hey, Dude I don't think you stand a chance there. You should just come back." Scott smiled charmingly at the frozen man, waved him goodbye a followed in Thomas's steps. Thomas was also a bit confused by his own actions. He disliked bossy women like Claire. But why did he help her this time? And when she threw herself into his arms, instead of feeling uncomfortable, he had felt happy. That had never happened before.

After several days of getting along, Brielle gradually got accustomed to Stephen's intimacy. But she still felt embarrassed about being intimate in public. Yet, she didn't reject him because she did not want Stephen to lose face in public.

"Claire is Thomas's girlfriend?" Brielle asked Stephen in a low voice. She turned around and looked at them curiously. "She is about to be," Stephen answered while grinding his teeth. His hand, which was holding Brielle, became tighter. His face turned evil.

"Stephen, what's wrong with you?" Brielle frowned and complained, after feeling the pressure from his hand. She wondered if Stephen was a bit crazy now. But her "Stephen" vexed him. She should call him "darling". Why did she address the others on the same was as she did to him?

Without saying anything, Stephen went into the box. he did not cast another look at Brielle, but poured himself a glass of cool spirits and gulped it down. Instantly, his throat felt cold and hot. Then he glanced at Brielle coldly, but still remained silent.

Brielle looked at him, a bit worried. She didn't know why Stephen had suddenly become angry. "So, Thomas, is this my future sister-in-law?" Chloe asked eagerly after seeing Thomas come in. She stared intently at Claire. Wow, she must be something to capture Mr. Cold's heart. After all, he had never let any woman get closer to him, let alone hold a woman's hand.

"Well... Well... It's not what you think." Claire hastily removed her hand from Thomas's big hand. OMG, she would rather die than have Icy Thomas as her boyfriend. being with an icy man the entire day would anyway crush her.

Thomas didn't explain, but walked over and sat down. He had to give some serious thought to his abnormal behavior. "it's just what I think. My dear sister-in-law." Chloe's words startled Thomas and he spits out the alcohol he had just drunk. He coughed to cover his embarrassment and chose to ignore Chloe's curiosity about Claire.

The was, Claire could experience first-hand what digging a grave for herself felt like. She looked at Brielle hoping to be rescued. Brielle thought in her mind, 'It's just a misunderstanding. Chloe shouldn't overthink it." If she continues to ask and fantasize about it, she could even get Claire pregnant in her mind.'

"Chloe, come here and sit with me." Brielle didn't know what was going on between Claire and Thomas. But since Claire needed her help, she would give her a hand. Besides, she may not know much about Chloe, but she was aware of how curious Chloe could be. She would ask Claire even more intrusive questions if she was allowed to continue.

"Claire, my sister-in-law. Let's go and sit with Brielle." Then, without waiting for her consent, she dragged Claire over to where Brielle was. Scott was the last to come inside. he glanced around and found the atmosphere to be quite strange. Stephen wore a gloomy and dark expression, sullenly sipping the wine alone. he seemed angry. he exuded coldness.

On the other hand, Icy Thomas wore a poker face as always. But the three women seemed quite harmonious together. It seemed they hadn't noticed the weird atmosphere there. Confused, he walked to Thomas, sat down, nudged him and gestured towards Stephen, asking silently what the matter was with him.