Filed to story: A Second Chance with My Billionaire Love
Seeing Rosie begging for mercy, Max’s interest in her was piqued. He started brushing his thick mustache with his thumb, scanning Rosie up and down. “I’d believe it if you say your friend here is modest, but you… Just look at your body! You must have a lot of experience with men, huh? Do you really think I’d believe that you’re a modest person?”
Rosie’s face turned red right away, and she lowered her head shamefully. She wanted to defend herself, but didn’t have the courage to. She had indeed worked as a bar hostess for a while, but hadn’t done anything that was considered indecent. However, her strong principles had meant less business for the bar, so her boss had forced her to consume illegal drugs, which led to her addiction.
It was during that dark time that people from the Carmine Pawnshop lent her a helping hand, and Mr. Q gave her a chance at a fresh new start in life.
Despite this, her horrible past still haunted her, and even the mere mention of it made her self-esteem crumble.
“Judging by your silence, it looks like I was right…” Max grinned wickedly. “Sure, we could settle things peacefully, but first… you’d have to please my bro Ed right now, in the toilets. You’re experienced, aren’t you? If you satisfy him, I’ll let you guys go.”
“You scumbag! How dare you even suggest such a thing?!” Flossie snarled and gave him a quick backhanded slap.
“Why, you…!” Max was furious. Not only was his chest still hurting from Flossie’s kick earlier, his face was now burning from that slap. If things continued this way, he knew his reputation would be utterly ruined.
In a matter of seconds, the two parties broke into a fight. To onlookers, it looked like six burly men were trying to bully two little damsels.
“Don’t! Please don’t fight!” Rosie pleaded, her entire body trembling in fear. She knew how violent these men could be, but continued to shield Flossie regardless.
“Get out of the way!” Max was so annoyed that he grabbed Rosie by the throat and threw her aside like a broken doll.
“Stop! Don’t hurt my friend! You’ll regret this!” Rosie screamed as she struggled to her feet, enduring the intense pain in her limbs. However, she was far too frail, and couldn’t even get through the crowd. All she could do was scream at them to stop, but her voice was drowned out by the crowd’s cheers…
“What do I do… What do I do?” Rosie felt like crying; she had no clue on how to save Flossie. She quickly rushed out of the bar, hoping to get help from Carmine Pawnshop.
To her surprise, she ran straight into a hard, fleshy wall…
The person seemed to be making a call, and the phone in Rosie’s hand started chiming at the very same time as well.
“You must be Halston Guajardo. You were the one who called Miss Ellsworth, right?” Rosie asked nervously. Her eyes widened as she looked up at the tall man, then at the ringing phone.
Halston was wearing a long black coat and frowning down at her. He looked like royalty, extremely elegant and completely out of reach. He furrowed his brow and asked slowly, “So, you’re Ellsworth’s friend?”
“Uh yeah, kind of,” Rosie replied unsurely. She knew that Flossie hated her ex-husband, so she didn’t really want to engage with this jerk either. However, the situation was rather urgent, so she looked past his menacing aura and blurted out, “You’re just in time! Please save Miss Ellsworth – she’s surrounded by a bunch of perverts!”
“They’re trying to attack her?”
“Yeah! Right there! Just listen to the screams yourself… I can’t even get through because there’s so many people around!” Rosie was tearing up as she pointed towards the crowd surrounding the ‘arena’. She felt so useless for not being able to chase those thugs away, and couldn’t bear to imagine what Flossie was going through.
Halston turned to look at where she was pointing, and noticed that it was indeed quite noisy. The crowd would cheer with excitement every once in a while, and blood-curdling shrieks would follow right after.
To Rosie’s confusion, the man just looked amused, and grabbed a stool and sat down nonchalantly. After that, he even called a waiter over and ordered a Long Island.
“Mr. Guajardo, what are you doing?! How can you possibly be in the mood for a cocktail? Can’t you hear Miss Ellsworth getting beaten up? You need to save her!” Rosie urged hurriedly.
“No need, she can deal with this on her own,” Halston replied calmly, taking a sip from his beverage.
Rosie was enraged by Halston’s indifference, and refused to play nice any longer. “No wonder Miss Ellsworth hates you so much that she’d rather stay single than be with you! You’re nothing but a cold- blooded reptile! You have no heart!”
“What do you mean?” Halston was puzzled. He had only ordered a cocktail, so why was he now being called a cold-blooded animal?
However, he didn’t get mad, and instead asked curiously, “What did Ellsworth tell you about me?”
“She said that you’re an iceberg! She wasted four years trying to warm your heart, but nothing worked! All you did was give her frostbite from your cold behavior… For a while, I was wondering if Miss Ellsworth was exaggerating. You did put in a lot of effort to get back together with her, which shows that you still have love for her… but she was actually right! You’re cruel and callous! You know how much danger she is in right now, but you’re not doing anything! How can you drink at a time like this? Even animals have bigger hearts than you!”
Rosie didn’t seem to be scared of the man at all, and finally scoffed, “Whatever. I shouldn’t wait around till you decide to save Miss Ellsworth, I’ll just do it myself!”
The woman gritted her teeth as she smashed a beer bottle and walked over to the crowd with her sharp, newfound weapon. She was worried that Flossie would get pummeled to death if they stalled any longer.
“Sure, good luck.” Halston smiled softly. He thought to himself, ‘This woman really is Ellsworth’s friend, huh? She’s just as hot-tempered as her, and Leia Osborne too. Birds of a feather, I suppose, but it is quite amusing.’
“Jerk!” Rosie yelled at him and spat at the ground. However, just as she turned back towards the crowd, a large object suddenly flew towards her, landing heavily at her feet.
“Ah!” Rosie was so frightened that she stumbled back.
Rosie soon came to realize that this ‘large object’ was, in fact, the arrogant Max.
“Ow!” Max yelped. His chubby face was bruised and swollen, and he kept whimpering in pain.
“What… What just happened?” Rosie looked confused.
Halston, on the other hand, continued sipping his cocktail, unsurprised. “This is her style, after all.”
Soon after, another person came flying over, landing right on top of Max. It looked like the ‘Ed’ that Max had mentioned. Another man came flying over, then another, and another, until there were six of them stacked on top of each other like building blocks, wailing and howling.
“The beauty won! She actually won! I’m rich, baby!” The few people who had bet on Flossie winning the fight cheered at the outcome.
“If you’ve won money, then share some of it with me! I don’t fight for free, you know!” Flossie growled and stumbled over to a man, grabbing him by the hair.
Immediately, the people around her backed away, staring at her like she was a ghost.
“Miss Ellsworth! Are you okay?” Rosie rushed over, helping the drunk woman stand. She looked her up and down, filled with disbelief. “H-How is this possible? You’re… not hurt at all?”
“Of course! I, Flossie Ellsworth, have never lost in a fight before! Besides, I drank, so my strength went from 30% to 80%! I can’t even pull my punches! These punks were unlucky to have met me!” Flossie leaned against Rosie, her face flushed red as she continued to brag.
She was actually quite fond of fighting. If she could solve a problem with violence, she’d definitely do it. She felt like being a pacifist was just a waste of her time and energy, but now that she was a mother, she knew she couldn’t settle her issues in such a way. That was why she always kept her strength to herself.
Now that she was given the opportunity, she was more than happy to relieve some stress, especially since she had been in a bad mood lately.
“I didn’t expect you to be so strong, Miss Ellsworth. I couldn’t tell at all! I even thought of you as fragile because of your background. You’re… amazing.” Rosie was staring at Flossie in awe.
“Amazing? Nah! I can even teach you a few moves if you’d like…” Flossie responded, quite happy after being able to swing her fists freely.
Rosie then whispered into her ear. “By the way, Mr. Halston Guajardo is here for you.”
“Who?”
“Mr. Halston Guajardos… your ex-husband.”
“My ex-husband? Are you mistaken?” Flossie, still tipsy, thought Rosie was joking. She scoffed mockingly, “If that fragile little rich boy dares to come to a place like this, I’ll write my name backwards from now on!”
“You really are drunk, Eener.” Halston approached them, smiling lightly at Flossie.
Flossie looked up in shock, looking as if she had sobered up right then. However, the alcohol hadn’t left her yet – her mind was foggy, and she wasn’t in full control of her body.
She reached over and pointed at Halston’s nose, turning to Rosie. “Girl, look, this… this is Halston Guajardo, my trashy ex-husband. Just look at him, he looks fine, doesn’t he? But the truth is… he’s not good at all! In fact, I’ve wanted to send him to heaven for a while now!”
As the woman rambled on, she really seemed like she was getting ready to kick Halston up into the sky.
“Hey, hey! Miss Ellsworth, be careful!” Rosie tried to hold Flossie’s arm to steady her, but it only caused Flossie to lose her balance and fall straight into Halston’s arms.
“Oh? Is this an attempt to seduce me, Ellsworth?” Halston teased with a smirk, holding Flossie gently by the waist.
“Hell no!” Flossie’s cheeks turned red, and she tried to wriggle out of the man’s grasp. “I’m disgusted by your touch, you shameless jerk! How could I possibly want to seduce you?! Let go of me!”
“How are you still so stubborn? You’re drunk, for God’s sake! Are you not tired of this?” Halston rolled his eyes and sighed wearily.
