Chapter 4: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I woke up to smooth yet firm fingers making circles and curved lines, from my shoulders down to my hips, and a gentle but lingering kiss on the back of my neck. Apparently, JM's a spooner, warm and tender yet lean and rough, conflicting feelings tickling my back. I took his arm up and rolled over to face him.

"Good morning, handsome."

"Good morning," he answered, voice distorted by a yawn. "Do you really think I'm handsome?"

"I'm not gonna answer that," I said, chuckling. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Another round with you," JM said as he kissed me again on the neck, "if you have recovered."

I grabbed a pillow from behind me and hit him with it. "You're an asshole!"

"I like your asshole!" He said, jokingly. Well, his voice sounded like he was joking but the way he stared at me said otherwise.

"Ugh! Stop saying stuff like that!" I hit him again and again and JM laughed and laughed.

This is the good life. I won't wish for anything else if I can just wake up like this every day. Next to this perfect man. Next to JM.

I tried to get up but he grabbed my arms and pulled me back to bed, putting himself on top of me. For a few minutes we didn't do anything — we were just staring, getting lost in each other's eyes. It felt like I was melting under his stare. It felt like he wanted me, and that felt good. Mind-blowingly good! After all, who wouldn't want to be desired and wanted?

"Can I kiss you?" He whispered as he slowly leaned forward, not breaking eye contact.

"I haven't gargled..."

"It doesn't matter," he said as he started kissing my neck once again, sucking on the soft spot just above the collarbone. "I want you."

How am I supposed to say no to that? JM's lips moved from my neck to my mouth. And he was right. There was no bad taste of dried saliva. There wasn't any bad smell. It was just JM's scent and sweetness pouring into me, again and again, with each tender kiss. JM broke free and stared at me again. Before he could say anything, I spoke first.

"I want you, too."

JM obliged. He pulled off the sheets and threw them on the floor. His mouth was on mine again, his tongue tickling the back of my upper teeth. I've lost control of my body. My hands were firmly latched onto JM's back, unwilling to let him go. He needs to be here and nowhere else. Here with me. I could feel the growing excitement from JM.

"Oh shit!" It was Faye, standing in my bedroom door. With her twins, Eiji and Elle. "Kids, cover your eyes!"

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I shouted. "At 7 in the fucking morning? On a Sunday? With the twins?!"

Faye was sitting across me at the dining side of the kitchen island. She wasn't even bothering to look at me, her gaze steady on her MacBook. I can't really blame her. She caught JM and I almost doing it. It's very fortunate she did not see us in full swing! And I just remembered the twins saw us, too! Shit! But come on, this whole thing's kind of her fault, isn't it?

I flipped the sausages on the grill before cutting up some tomatoes, sweet onions, and some fresh mushrooms to go with our breakfast.

"I am going to change the passcode," I said. "And I'm telling security to never allow you into the building without my express authorisation!" I warned.

"Oh, please!" she said, finally, closing off her Mac. "I know all of your pin codes and passwords and you don't have enough brain cells to make and actually remember a new one."

"Fine! I'm not joking about telling security, though! You just wait!"

"I own the other penthouse in this building. The two of us share this floor."

"Are you kidding?!" I accidentally dropped both my mouth and the eggs I was about to cook.

"No," she answered nonchalantly. "I bought the entire floor, your unit and mine, when they were about to start construction of this building." She stood up and came to where I was, grabbing a handful of disposable kitchen towel and cleaned off the broken eggs on the floor.

"For investment!" She said, seeing the look of shock that hasn't left my face. "That's why you got this for such a low price!"

I still couldn't say anything. I don't want to ask if it were her 'own' money as she usually refers to it, or her husband's.

"The price is now triple what I paid for," she continued. "And I sold it to you without any margin."

"Thank you, Faye," I said. Faye may be the world's worst blabbermouth, and she may be the nosiest bitch there is, and she may not know boundaries and personal spaces, but she is the world's bestest best friend.

"You're welcome," she smiled, sitting back on the high stool. "Can you give me some coffee? Latte, please. Non fat milk!"

I nodded as I finished cooking the scrambled eggs. I steamed some milk and splashed it with hazelnut syrup, the way Faye wants it, and poured two shots of espresso before handing it over to her.

"Thank you," she said and took a sip. "Very nice!"

I plated the crispy fried bacon, the grilled sausages, and the flambéed onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms. I also plated the scrambled eggs and put a dollop of butter to stop it from overcooking while resting on the plate. I then proceeded to cook my soufflé pancakes.

"I came to discuss two things. One's a request, the other one's just something I wanted to share with you," she said. "Which one do you want to hear first?"

I looked at her accusingly before answering, "The request!"

"Okay," she started. "I'm going away on business to Thailand. I'm flying by lunch time today and will be back on Friday evening."

"And?" I asked, not liking where this is going.

"And I beg you to please take care of the twins while I'm gone..."

"Why? I mean, I'd love to have the twins, don't get me wrong!" I said. "But you have more than a dozen staff working in your mansion!"

"Henry's not back from London," she answered. "And he'll kill me if he finds out I left the kids with our house staff."

I looked at Faye questioningly as I flipped my fourth soufflé pancake.

"There's no way in hell I'm going over to Henry's mother!" She said adamantly. "Not while I'm still alive!"

"I didn't say anything!" I said, smirking. "I'm taking them. Just don't blame me if they're so much fatter when you come back."

I finished cooking the last pancake and plated them individually. I sprinkled them generously with chopped almonds, sliced strawberries, blueberries, and fresh cream. I called out the twins and they ran from the living room towards the dining area. I was about to call JM when Faye shouted out his name.

JM came out of my room, looking handsome as fuck in his plain white shirt, a pair of cotton trousers from my wardrobe, and still wet hair.

"There's a blow dryer in the closet," I said as I placed down the dishes on the table.

"Closet? Which closet?" He was smiling. "You mean the maze room with your clothes in?"

Faye chuckled at JM's joke. "So, JM, welcome to the family!"

"Don't mind her," I said. "She's not family!"

"Sorry about earlier," JM said. "I hope the kids didn't see much."

"Thank you," Faye said, sitting on the chair beside JM. She then turned to me and said, "That is proper etiquette — talking about the elephant in the room and apologising about it once you realise it was your fault!"

That's got to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard. "Excuse me! You were the one who entered my house and my bedroom without knocking! And I should be the one to apologise?" I shouted indignantly. "Who the fuck does that in this age and time?"

Before our bickering got any worse, we heard the kids laughing hard as they were watching JM mimic different animal sounds and faces.

"Mommy," Elle said, "He looks like Mr. Gray from your favourite movie!"

Faye would have spat water into JM's face if she were drinking. Unfortunately, she wasn't. Her expression was still golden though.

"You like 50 Shades of Grey?" JM asked Faye.

"Yes, mommy watches it always when daddy leaves." Eiji answered.

"Don't talk when your mouth's full!" Faye reprimanded the twins.

"They weren't," I said. "I meant their mouths. They weren't full."

"Stay out of this!" Faye shot me a deadly glance. JM and I laughed to Faye's annoyance.

"Anyway, what was your other reason for coming here at this ungodly hour, on a Sunday morning?"

"Yeah! I almost forgot!" She said as she stood up and ran towards the kitchen island where she left her bag. She grabbed it and came back to the dining table.

"Here," she said, handing me some papers. "I'll send a scanned copy once it's signed by the auditor."

"Financial statements?" I asked as I flipped through the pages.

"Yes, they just finished auditing it," Faye said and she resumed eating. "These pancakes are amazing!"

"Wow, Faye, this is a lot of money!"

The figures were outstanding. Our fast food restaurants were the most profitable, followed by our high end nail salon and spa, and finally our jointly owned condominium units across the metro which were leased out. We also have this farm in Quezon Province which turned out a measly profit of 250,000 pesos for the whole year.

"I know what you're thinking!" Faye said. "I'm not happy with the results of the farm, either."

I flipped to the cost statements and immediately found the problem. Faye has authorised an exorbitant amount of bonuses. Calculating it off my head, it's almost half of our profits.

"It seems you were too generous with their bonuses," I said.

"Yes!" She answered, quite annoyed. "I was kinda reluctant to do it but if you remember, we both agreed and promised to give them 50% of the farm's profits."

"Did we?" I asked, failing to remember when we had that kind of agreement. But I'm sure Faye's not going to lie about it. I probably agreed because I never expected the profits to even reach a hundred thousand.

"Anyway, at least we make our kababayans back in Quezon happy."

"They'd get more out of that money if they let us handle it, though." Faye said, "I mean, they'd just spend that money anyhow, but I can grow it for them, you know what I mean?"

"I think it's better to let them decide how they want to spend it," JM commented. "Some people find happiness in what they can buy now more so than a financially secure future."

We totally forgot that JM was there. He must have felt bad about us talking about such huge amounts of money.

"Oh well, I promised to give them half of the profits and I'm honouring it," Faye said dismissively.

"No problem with me," I said.

"I'm receiving offers to invest in foreclosed buildings near the university belt but our company's not liquid enough right now," Faye said.

"I can review the numbers for you. Maybe we can get a syndicated loan from the bank."

"Really? You'd do that?"

"Yeah! Should be easy enough! I've run the numbers for bigger investments back in Korea."

Faye smiled. "You know, you don't really have to find a job anymore. The profits from our businesses should be more than enough to keep you living comfortably. You can then focus in growing it, with me!"

"How much is it, though?"

"Our total net profits is a little over 33 million pesos for last year. You get 60% of that which means," she paused as she calculated on her Mac.

"19,954,800 pesos. I can transfer them over to your personal account, if you want."

I nodded in agreement. Faye pulled out another set of papers and a couple of cards. "This is an account I made for you. I used my connections to have it done, but you still need to meet our relationship manager there."

I read through the paper and it showed all the money I earned and spent in the last 10 years with Faye. It seems that I've been steadily earning money since four years ago. There was a big withdrawal before that which took out most of the funds earned prior. I think that was when we decided to invest in our high end spa. At the bottom part was a deposit of a significant amount.

"What's this for?" I asked, pointing at the entry.

"Yeah, that was the amount you lent me when we first started this business. I paid it back just before you came."

"Wow, Faye! You're doing really great!"

"Actually, I have something else for you," she said. She pulled out an elegant looking rectangular box with white and gold ribbons made of satin. "This is my thank you gift for trusting in me."

I took the box from her and opened it. The inner box was velvet black with the words A. Lange and Söhne in gold.

"What the fuck, Faye?!" I couldn't believe it. This time piece costs a fortune.

"That's a limited-edition time piece, yet to be released next month. This is the first one out of only one hundred."

"Shit, Faye! I don't know what to say! This is too much!"

"No, BJ. This is how I value you as a friend. As my best friend. Thank you for everything."

I couldn't help but be touched by what she said. I stood up and hugged her like hell. She pushed me, complaining that she couldn't breathe, but I wouldn't let go. She had to ask JM to come and peel me off of her.

"You know, I guess I really don't have to work," I told Faye. "I still have a lot of cash from Korea. I have other savings in the Philippines, too, with a fund manager. It's earning pretty decently."

Faye just nodded.

"And with these funds, I think there's nothing to worry about anymore!"

"Well, we're still far from billionaires. If we lived in America, we wouldn't even be considered rich. We'll just be considered well off," Faye said.

"Wow! Your husband's family has a business empire! He owns St. Matthew's Medical Center! He also owns Uni-Liver! How much more money do you need to earn before you stop?"

"It's my husband's money! Not mine!"

After finishing our meal, Faye left me a handwritten note detailing all the stuff I need to know about the twins and their schedules. Apparently, Eiji is allergic to shrimps. She bid us goodbye, kissing the twins, myself, and JM. I could see her whispering something to JM. That bitch. I'll get her back someday.

JM helped me clean up and I took the kids' stuff into the guest room. Eiji reminded me that I haven't gotten them Christmas presents yet. Normally, Faye takes care of that and just deducts it from my funds with her. It seems she hasn't done that yet. When everything else was cleared, I asked JM out to join me and the kids for some shopping.

"I'm cool with that," he said, smiling. "Good practice when we have kids of our own, don't you think?"