Chapter 7 LOAN SHARKS

California, USA.

"Long time no see, Rosalia." The man with the heavy accent said to Scarlet as he stared intently at her.

"Uhm, good evening, Chung Mei." Scarlet finally replied him, but not after beating herself up inside for coming to this coffee shop in the first place. At that moment, she wished she could rewind the hands of time to when Alexander asked to meet her at the coffee shop and she would then say no. But it was late already. Chung Mei already caught her.

"Do you know him?" Alexander asked her in form of a whisper, although it was loud enough for Chung Mei to hear. "If you don't, you can tell me. Or if he's threatening you or something like that."

"I know him," she replied with a faint smile and sighed before turning to face Chung Mei who gave Alexander a scornful look. "I… uhm, I looked for you for a while but didn't see you, so—"

"No, you didn't. I got to your former house only be told by the neighbours that you left. You packed out and left!" He said the last sentence aloud, hitting his fist on their table, which made their coffee to spill a little.

"Have some manners, man. Why are you causing nuisance here?" Alexander said to him with a stoic expression on his face which made Chung Mei to draw his attention from Scarlet to him.

"And who are you?" He asked him as he rested his weighty body on their table. If weighed, his arm was sure to weigh three of Scarlet's arm. He rested that arm on the table as he fixed his eyes on Alexander.

"I am speaking to her, because she's the one I have business with. I don't know who you are and I do not want to know. But what I want you to do is to mind your business and watch." Alexander scoffed, then chuckled as he heard Chung Mei say those words. He was a calm man, but atimes he could lose his temper if someone steps on his toes. This was one of those times, but he tried to calm himself down as usual.

"If you needed to speak to her, you could have waited for your time. It's rather impolite to interrupt a date with your stupid attitude." "Alexander," Scarlet called as she stretched her hand to touch his which was placed on the table. That was the first time she called him by name, so he was stunned as he looked at her back.

"Please, don't." She added, as she shook her head sideways.

"I'll handle this myself." Chung Mei suddenly chuckled loudly, bringing to them the attention of some other people in the coffee shop. His laugh was as thick and loud as his voice. He retreated from the table, arms akimbo, he faced Scarlet again.

"I am in no mood for the scene you two are putting up. What I want, Rosalia, is my money." "If you're going to question her, at least call her her actual name. Who the fuck is Rosalia? Her name is Scarlet, dummy!" Alexander snapped at him. Being someone that does anything to keep her head and herself out of any form of trouble, Scarlet immediately replied.

"Please. This is between me and him. Just watch us and don't say anything. Please." She said to him with pleasing eyes and after a short pause, he nodded and folded his arms, but not after looking at her and then at Chung Mei and back to her.

"When are you going to pay my money?" Chung Mei asked her again. This time, his facial expression had changed. He looked even more serious than before.

"I have waited enough, Rosalia. As if not enough, you ran away from your house so I would not be able to get in touch with you anymore. Did you forget that you're still in the same town with me?" "I didn't run away, Chung Mei. Things came up and I had to leave without any notice."

"I really don't care about that. When is my money coming?" The huge loan shark asked, as he moved closer to her like he was going to tower into the sky and block her everywhere with his huge body. "I'll pay it, I promise. I just have to get a new—"

"Of course, you have to." He said and scoffed. "You've been saying that for years. What I need now is a date. The date of payment is what I need. And think about it well, because it must not exceed this month." Scarlet cleared her throat like she was about to say something, but no words came out. She was not sure of when she was going to pay him. It was a huge amount of money, and even her salary for the month could not cover it all. To even make things worse, she would not be getting any salary at the end of the month since she had no job again. She sighed as she thought about this.

Chung Mei had let her live in the house her father and mother rented while they were alive. They paid the rent every year, but before they died, things had gotten really worse for them, so they asked Chung Mei to help them extend their pay till the following year. It was two days to the day of their payment that they got involved in an accident and they died. Chung Mei had been on Scarlet's throat ever since then. Every morning, afternoon and evening, he was in front of her door, banging it for her to come out and pay him his money. At a point, he told her to pay half and leave the rest, but she had nothing at all to put down.

Other loan sharks came over too, and this made life tiring for her. And one day, she fled from home and told no one about she whereabouts. When she eventually found somewhere to hide her head, she automatically changed her name from Rosalia Ambers to Scarlet so that no one would be able to trace her. But fate always has its way, and here she was with Chung Mei in front of her again, requesting for his money.

"Are you here, woman?" Chung Mei asked as he clapped his hands together once in front of Scarlet's face to gain her attention. She had zoned out while he was speaking.

"Uh, yes. I'll pay on the last day of the month when I get paid at work." She immediately spat the words out as if she had planned them beforehand. It was after she said those words that she realized what she had done.

"Good girl." Chung Mei replied with a smile on his face.

"Your address." "Uh?" "Give me your address. If you run off again, I can trace you." He said to her.

"Oh," she said and gave him the address of where she stays at the moment. Giving her one last glare, he left. But that was after he painted two fingers to his eyes and then to her eyes as if telling her that he had her eyes on her.

"What was all that?" Alexander asked as soon as Chung Mei left their table to attend to what he came to the coffee shop to do in the first place before he saw Scarlet.

"I'm sorry for the embarrassment." Scarlet replied.

"I'm really sorry."

"No, it's fine actually. I'm just confused and I want you to explain to me what just transpired between you two. Did you just say you'd pay him money for something by the end of the month? With your salary? Now that you've been fired, you realize you won't get a salary, yes?" He asked her those questions with raised eyebrows as he moved his chair closer, even though the table was between them.

"Yes." She replied and sighed.

"I said that so he could leave."

"Who is he?" "He used to be my father's landlord before they died. We owe him two years rent fee and because I couldn't pay up, I kind of fled." She said the last part a bit silently and slowly, a look of deep embarrassment on her face. Alexander chuckled a bit to ease her from how she was feeling and he tried to crack a joke. "You're not a complete good girl after all." He said and she giggled a bit. "So… how do you plan to pay him?"

"I will."

"I know you will. I only asked you how." She paused for some seconds before racking her brain to give him a reply.

"I'll get a job and pay him."

"Do you want me to help? I mean, I could help if you let me."

"There's no need to, honestly. I can sort this out myself. It's not a huge amount of money." She said. It was a huge amount of money but she dould not tell him that, because she didn't want him to do her any more favours. That he resigned from his job because of her was still something she was beating herself up about.

"If you say so then."

"Yes. Thank you. I really appreciate all your kind acts towards me." She said and gave him a sincere smile. He simply nodded as he smiled back at her too. Then, he remembered something.

"Uhm, Scarlet?"

"Yes?"

"Why… was the man calling you Rosalia? Is that your third name I don't know of or something?" Her heart skipped a beat as she heard the question. She didn't want anyone to find out that she changed her name or to find out something about her past life. So she did what she thought was the best thing to do at that moment. She lied.

"Ah, no." She faked a slight chuckle.

"You know how landlords are. They have several tenants, so they mix names a lot." Alexander slowly nodded his head, but deep down, he didn't buy that. He still felt something wasn't right. The name sounded familiar to him, but he just couldn't figure out where he had heard it. If truly he mixed up her name, she would have corrected him the first time he called her that. But she kept answering him as continued calling her the same name. That means something. He thought. His thoughts were interrupted by Scarlet as she stood up and picked up her bag on the table.

"I'm really sorry, but I'm a bit stressed. I'd like to take my leave now."

"Oh. Sure. Thank you for honouring my call." Alexander said to her, though he was a bit disappointed that she was taking her leave already.

"Thank you for the treat." She replied, bowed her head a bit in respect and left the coffee shop immediately. As soon as she left, Alexander brought out his phone and dialed a number. The person picked on the first ring.

"Yes sir." The person spoke first.

"I need you to get me a background check on someone."

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Christopher was in his office going through something on his desktop. His full attention was on it when suddenly his door opened without a knock or any prior notice. He wasn't expecting anybody either, so the loud bang on this door pissed him off. He raised his head and his eyes went from his screen to the door. It was his new secretary whom he employed just a week back.

"I'm sorry for barging in, sir." The lady said, panting in between each word as if she ran all the way there.

"But there's a woman here who wants to see you. I told her she needed to schedule a meeting with you first, but she insisted on coming in herself. She is on her way—" Someone pushed her to the side.

"Out of my way!" Louise said aloud as she pushed the lady to one side and walked into the office in all her glory and her head up high.

"Mother?" Chris called as he stood up from his office chair looking surprised.

"When did you return?"