Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 208: You’ll Get Fat

Chapter 208: You’ll Get Fat

Talia woke up feeling constricted and suffocated. She opened her eyes with difficulty and it was Rebecca’s dark hair that came to her view and it startled her for a moment.

Gently she got out of the death grip of Rebecca’s hands around her waist and walked out of the bedroom. Her phone was blinking with notifications and tidying her hair by running her fingers through it, Talia walked to the coffee table in the sitting area and picked up her phone.

She checked her missed calls and pouted her lips seeing Arthur’s missed call. She knew he’d be angry since she missed his call. And scrolling down, she saw the messages he sent and her heart slipped a beat.

Uh-oh!

She called him immediately, closing her mouth as she yawned and stretched herself. Her body still ached at places and she couldn’t help but scold Arthur in her heart.

It’s all his fault.

It should be around eleven a.m. in Esteria and she wondered if Arthur would be busy at work. As the call went through, she suddenly remembered him saying that he’s going to break the engagement with Sophia.

Her grogginess flew away and she wanted to know what the public is saying. She ran to the vanity table where she kept her laptop and opened it to read the news.

Arthur who was impatient waiting for Archibald Wallace, heard his phone ring and his stiff back relaxed seeing Iris’ face popping on the screen of his phone.

Jordan who was trying to reach Archibald but failed, used his peripheral vision to see Arthur relaxing and sighed in relief. He felt like the car was warming up as Arthur got relaxed.

"Iris," he said with a smile and Talia at the other end, could feel his smile through his gentle voice.

"Fred! Good morning!" Talia used her most seductive voice and spoke in a peppy manner to make sure she doesn’t remind him that she didn’t answered his call last night.

"Morning. Did you sleep well?" Arthur asked back. He didn’t like the way their talk is going on. Why does it seem very... Platonic?

"Yes very much. How about you? Did you have a nice rest?" Talia asked back as she scrolled through the tabloid articles speculating the breaking of engagement.

No official statements have been released about the breaking of the engagement till then and only the tabloids were speculating the falling apart of the engagement with what happened at the restaurant the previous night. Some even wrote that Lady Sophia threatened suicide and even then Arthur didn’t meet her.

Of course the tabloids would have been brought by either Sophia herself or Olivia. Those two couldn’t have helped it. Arthur wouldn’t have any hand in it.

Talia signed in to her social media account to check the news.

Realising she was talking mechanically, Arthur was not pleased. He could hear the clicking of her keyboard and he gritted his teeth. This woman is not excited about our call and doing something else?

"How much did you drink last night?" he asked.

"Not much... I got a little tipsy. That’s it." Talia replied. It seemed like a lot of posts by Sophia’s ’friends’ were deleted. But since nothing gets deleted in the Internet, there were screen shots posted by others and Talia could see the bashing Arthur received from them for abandoning poor Sophia.

"Don’t drink much. You never had that habit before. Why learn it now?" Arthur asked truly worried. He knew her concentration was not on him, and yet he voiced his concern.

"Meh!" Talia shrugged. She is not drinking daily but only occasionally. And she just drank very mild sweet wine. She wasn’t bothered by it.

It seemed like there was a clarification from the Clairmont family that surely Arthur and Sophia had some misunderstandings and politely asked the public to leave them space.

Talia’s face twitched reading that.

What is this statement? And why is this getting dragged on? Why is there no public statement? Arthur, what are you doing?

"You’ll get fat!"

Talia’s line of thoughts was disrupted by that terribly big thunder thrown by Arthur. Her lips pressed reflexively and her finger naturally moved to the red button to end the call as her heart beat raced out of anger.

Just when I wake up, I have to hear my boyfriend say I’m getting fat?

"What?" she gave him a chance to change what he said. If he was just joking, he’d realise his joke wasn’t appreciated and he will take back what he said. He is a smart one, isn’t he?

"If you drink too much, you’ll get fat. And not the kind of curvy fat you want to get, but the kind with a big beer belly and thick thighs. You don’t even exercise-"

"I. Don’t. Get. Fat.!" Talia interjected him and she tapped the table with her fingertips as she got agitated. She really got angry.

He did not joke. He was serious!

"But you’re twenty six already and your metabolism changes as you age. You won’t have the same metabolism as when you were younger...."

Now he calls me old? What the heck!

Talia ended the call and threw the phone on the table, gritting her teeth.

He really called me old and fat! How dare he? I’m not going to talk to him.

Jordan sitting beside Arthur looked at Arthur in disbelief.

Did he really say all these to Talia? Really? If he said either one of those sentences to any of his sisters, he’d be get buried alive. And Arthur dared to say this to Talia? Is he going to end his engagement or is he going to break up with Talia first?

Jordan was really confused. He was glad Arthur decided to end the engagement, but still he just told the family and is in no hurry to make it public. That made him confused a bit.

Arthur’s lips curved dangerously as he saw the line go dead. She ended top early. He was a little pleased too.

How dare she gets distracted when she is talking to me? She even got drunk with that repugnant woman. And she sent me no pictures of her beautiful flushed face for me to look at.

But then he felt Jordan’s stare on him and turned to look at him.

"You want to break up with Talia?" he asked.

"What?" Arthur was stunned. That was not his intent. How could a little teasing lead to break up? He was just making fun. "She’s not that vain to not understand that I was kidding just now," he shrugged.

But seeing Jordan looking at him like he was some naive little boy, his heart skipped a beat.

Did I go far?

"Go sit in the front!" Arthur pushed Jordan away and Jordan got out with a snort.

"See if I ever sit in the back..." he mumbled as he got out.

Ever since he got together with Talia, he pushes him to the front. Like he wants to sit on the back! It was he who used to beg him to sit in the back before.

"Close the door!" Arthur shouted as he saw Jordan staring to the front.

"He’s here," Jordan said bending and looking in.

"Let him wait. Get in the front seat," Arthur said and Jordan nodded and shut the door.

What a big baby! Since Archibald made him wait, he’s going to make him wait?

Arthur really wasn’t caring about that. He was more worried if he made his Iris too angry. It should be pretty early in the morning there and she called him to talk to him and he insulted her.

Why did I do that?

No... No... Iris is not a silly woman. She knows I was just joking and playing around. She will answer my call. She’d be waiting for me to call her.

Arthur consoled himself and called Talia, but felt his dreams shattering as she didn’t answer his third call.

Will she never talk to me?

Arthur got worried.

Talia looked at the phone ringing continuously and pouted. She was angry, but she wanted to talk to him too. He is not entirely wrong though.

It is not good for her to drink too much.

Alright, I’ll answer his fifth call...

She decided herself.