So Chloe spent a whole week struggling in the pain of the breakup and the gossip among the colleagues in the company. It seemed that the gossip was a good way to take her mind temporarily off the breakup.

Chloe recalled that everyone was telling her that Christopher was so very considerate actually, he asked sick leaves for her himself, came to the company together with her, and never hid his affections for her, though probably only she herself knew it was not like what they were imagining.

“What are you thinking?”

“Mr. Cleveland.” Chloe gave a start and sprang to her feet.

“Desertion during work, I can deduct your wages until there is none!” Christopher was acting angry though he was only joking, and apparently Chloe didn’t get the joke. She looked down on the ground and looked awkward like a kid who had made a big mistake, “OK, you are still afraid of me.”

He turned sighing and headed for the meeting room with his laptop in his hand, which reminded Chloe that there was an important meeting today.

The work assigned to her was getting less and less, which Chloe found curious but didn’t how how and who to bring it up to. So, she just got the work done, clicked into a video and lay back on her chair. The meeting usually could go for about a whole afternoon, and Christopher wouldn’t be able to get out for quite a while.

Her phone just rang suddenly. She glanced at it and found the name on the screen, which kind of put a smile on her face.

“Hello, Cherie.” Cherie had a great name, she told Chloe that her parents gave her this name in the hope that she could grow up to be a quiet sweet girl, but now it turned out that she had grown up into the opposite.

“Chloe!” Chloe couldn’t help grinning when she heard her Valley Girl accent, “I heard that you were dumped by that jerk Liam?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Hey, listen to me, it’s nothing to be mad or sad about! Come and hung out with me tonight! Say goodbye to that reckless and ungrateful jackass and meet the right one with me!” Cherie had always been a cool girl, and the familiar way she spoke made Chloe miss her even more, she could now run to her and tell everything about Liam on her!

“Oh, right, when did you come back?”

“Well, just a few days ago, I was sent to France and felt so freaking desperate! Without you, my life is virtually meaningless for sure!”

“Oh, you stop it.”

“Yeah I mean it, trust me. The food there was so ugh, you can eat the food once or twice, but not everyday!” Cherie had boosted Chloe’s confidence about her own cooking.

“Maybe I can go to your your place and cook for you someday!”

“Sure!”

“Oh, I got to hang up, time to work. Pick me up tonight at the Cleveland’s, see you!” she hung up hurriedly and saw Christopher walking over from the other end of the corridor, seeming so intimidating

“Mr. Cleveland? Um, I.. I won’t go back tonight probably...”

“...” he frowned, “going out? With whom?”

“A friend, just returned from abroad.” Chloe didn’t indicate it was a he or she, which sort of upset him.

“Is it safe?”

“My best friend, yeah it’s safe! I’m going this afternoon so...”, she paused, meaning that so you don’t have to wait up or take me off work with you.

“OK, I got it.” Christopher walked into his office, recalling that she seemed very happy on the phone just now and couldn’t help frowning. On the monitor screen, he saw Chloe smiled so happily with her phone in hand.

After work, Chloe took the elevator down and walked into a red BMW, and everyone in the company saw it and started guessing: was it a man or woman in the car? How could the person just take Mr.Cleveland’s girlfriend away under his nose!

Afterwards, they saw Christopher left the company with a sullen face, so everyone was guessing that that the two had broken up.

“What do you want for dinner? I’ll take you.” Cherie said like she was a queen and handed the roses and gifts she had prepared for her, while Chloe was so excited and considered herself to be the luckiest girl.

“Oh thank you so much!”

“You don’t have to do that with me.”

“OK.”

“Maybe I’ll find someone to teach that jerk a lesson or two!” Actually Cherie had shown much restraint on her violent ways of doing things due to Chloe’s influence, but you can never change a person the way they are completely. Chloe just frowned.

“It’s OK, I don’t want to talk about him or hear anything about him now.”

“OK. Then let’s talk about something else only you stop being sad about him.” Cherie commanded as she drove the car. Chloe smiled and felt as if she’d been back in high school again.

Chloe was sixteen that year, new in high school, the first time she had met Cherie.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

“Cherie.”

“Good.”

“you are not afraid of me?”

“Why should I be, afraid of you?” Chloe looked at Cherie with her big watery eyes and cute chubby baby cheeks and had no idea what she was talking about, which Cherie still remembered till today.

“Because I fight with other kids, I smoke, I go to the pub and the internet bar, I got tattoos on my shoulders and way too many holes in my ears.” Cherie was kind of wanting to scare her though what she said was still a fact, but Chloe just shrugged and didn’t care.

“You got tattoo? Does it hurt?”

“Yeah, it was fine.”

Chloe looked at Cherie with such innocent eyes and Cherie blushed all of a sudden and felt so nervous for no damn reason. She never dared to looked into her eyes again then.

Later that year, one day, Chloe was walking home alone and cornered by several girls on the road, with the reason being that one of these girls’ boyfriend got a crush on her. Chloe was beat and got bruises and cuts all over, her face covered with some red scratches.

Cherie saw her sitting there weeping alone on the roadside when she was leaving the campus. She felt sorry for her and went up to comfort her, but Chloe burst into tears.

“Who did this?”

“I... I don’t know who... what should I do now? I don’t want my mom and dad see me like this...” Chloe now was helpless like a stray cat.

“Come to my house then, you can call your mom and dad later, telling them that there is an assignment that needs two persons to finish, you can live in my house these days.”

So Cherie picked her up to her house.

Cherie cleaned her and applied medicine. She also called her friends in her class and asked who started first.

“Tomorrow you’ll teach these bullies some lessons. If anything bad arises, just say it is me, I’ll pay you when you are done.” Cherie arranged everything behind Chloe’s back. She knew Chloe wouldn’t approve if she told her what she wanted to do.

The next day these girls, of course, did not show up at school. An eye for an eye, that was Cherie’s philosophy.

“Did you ask your people to beat them? How could you?” It was Chloe’s reaction when she knew about the truth.

“Because they beat you in the first place.”

“Don’t do that anymore!”

“So you want me to watch you being bullied. No.” Cherie had her own way of dealing with things, if you attack I’ll just pay you back.

“... thank you Cherie.” Chloe saw her face flushed with anger and stopped scolding her finally, “I was just worried that your school work may be affected by this incident.”

Chloe lowered her voice but Cherie still heard every word she said, and her face got even redder.

“You don’t have to worry about this...” Cherie softened her tune and felt she had found the first real friend in her whole life.

In the car, an old song suddenly started to play, it had been there favorite in all those years.

“You are still who you were.” Chloe sighed, her personality and her favorite songs, were still the same.

“You too.” Cherie glanced at Chloe again, her face was not so chubby as before and her eyes were gentler. They’d all grown up.

After dinner, Chloe was taken to the mall. Cherie said she wanted to make up for her, and that she couldn’t believe she wasn’t be able to be there for her when Liam dumped her.

“You don’t have to! Really!”

“Keep saying it and I’ll spank you right here right now!” she took Chloe’s hand as she was saying and wouldn’t let go.

In the end, Cherie’s threat worked extremely well. Obediently, Chloe was taken in and out shops, and changed into and out of clothes, and watched her swiping her card.

“...I think you’ll be broke if you keep doing this...” Chloe reminded her kindly.

“Don’t worry, for you, I’m willing to go broke for you! Moreover, I saved it up for you specially when I was in Paris, for the purpose of buying you gifts!”

“What? Are you stupid? You are spending your parents’ money!”

“Yes, I am! Deal with it!”

“...” Chloe suddenly didn’t know how to respond to that, then she turned away her eyes and she saw Liam with another woman not far away from her, kissing and hugging, making out in front of all these people. Meanwhile, Christopher saw Chloe far through the window of a men’s clothing store. He didn’t mean to follow her, it was just that he got bored after dinner in a restaurant, and decided to hang out a little bit.