Love’s New Bloom By Simone Hastings - Season 1 Episode 10

After dinner, Holly drove Erin home. Because the Royal Chamber was a high-class private nightclub, it was inappropriate to show up wearing their work uniforms. Holly walked into the wardrobe and picked an outfit out for Erin from a row of nightclub outfits.
“Erin, whenever you’re free, we should go buy some new clothes. I haven’t bought any new clothes in a week!”

Erin had just finished her shower and had a towel wrapped around her head. She walked toward the wardrobe and removed the towel while drying her hair.

“I’m afraid I don’t have much time these days, I just joined a new company so I have to be more proactive! I heard from the other designers that they usually work overtime. Besides, now that I am divorced I don’t need to dress up anymore. I will be going home tomorrow to move all of the clothes that I want here to your house.”

Holly agreed, “Okay, we can go shopping once everything has been settled. What time are you going home tomorrow? I’ll come to help you move your luggage.”

“I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

“Okay, I don’t have anything to do tomorrow anyways”

The two women started doing their makeup while chatting, Holly had chosen a unique dress for Erin. The dress had a mermaid cut with ombré green sequins and two thin shoulder straps that looked like they would snap with a simple tug.

Erin stared at her face in the mirror, Holly was truly talented at doing makeup. Her hair was in loose waves, and one side of her hair was tucked behind her ear. There was also a star-shaped pearl barrette clipped onto her hair. On the whole, her outfit made her look just like a mermaid.

Holly held an eyeshadow palette and watched Erin worriedly, “This man is crazy to leave so many visible marks on you.”

“Forget it, I’m just going to change into another dress. This one is too revealing!”

“No! If I were to wear this dress, I would look like a slut but when you wear it, you look so pure! Erin, just wear this dress to look for your prince charming tonight.”

In the end, Holly used foundation to cover up the marks on Erin’s. At 8 pm, Holly and Erin arrived at a private room at the Royal Chamber. Ben and three other colleagues had already arrived and everyone was dressed to the nines. After some light conversation, the drinking and singing began.

Milly and Ben were playing a drinking game whilst Dana and Ella selected songs to sing. On the table was some food and there was also one big bottle of champagne and two bottles of red wine. Holly inched closer to Erin and whispered in her ear, “Your ex-boss is quite generous, I estimate that he has spent at least 100 thousand dollars just on tips.”

A message popped up on Erin’s phone screen with a ding. She looked at the sender ID and stood up.

“Holly, I’m going to the bathroom.”

“But isn’t there a toilet in the room…?”

Holly trailed off without finishing her sentence as Erin had already sped out of the private room.

Standing in the corridor, Erin unlocked her phone and saw that the sender ID was “Psychopath.” The message read, “Meet me at the usual spot, if you aren’t there in an hour then the pictures will be…”

Shit! It was like the man was addicted! Erin walked back into the room, apologized, and left early. Although Holly allowed her to leave, she made Erin promise to give her a proper explanation once she got home.

While walking through the corridor, a fat, old man came out of another private room. Once he saw Erin, he said, “Pretty lady, come keep us company in here and we’ll give you more tips.”

He said all this while reaching out his chubby hand toward her. Erin swiftly dodged his hand and scolded him, “Are you crazy? What do you take me for? Lunatic!”

She wanted to move past him and continue forward, but the old man roughly dragged her from behind, and in an instant, one of the straps of her dress snapped. Erin was startled and quickly held up her dress with both hands.

“Bitch, you’re already here as an escort yet you’re still pretending to be so innocent and pure.”

The old man had already raised a hand to slap her but his arm was suddenly flung away by another man’s hand. The old man staggered.

Dressed casually, Sean’s alluring eyes were icy.

“Mr. Beck, did you have too much to drink? Can you not differentiate the outfits of these beautiful women? Why don’t you take a closer look at these two women next to me.”

Mr. Beck sobered up slightly when he saw that it was Sean who stopped him and fearfully nodded.

“Oh, it’s you Mr. Dunn, what a coincidence.”

Looking at the two high-class female escorts flanking Sean, it was clear that they were dressed quite similarly to Erin. However, closer inspection of the women’s outfits would reveal that Erin’s dress was very expensive and incomparable to the dresses of the escorts.

Mr. Beck broke out into a cold sweat. The patrons of this establishment were all wealthy. If he ended up offending a VIP, then he would never be able to network and mingle in this industry again.

“Mr. Beck, shouldn’t you apologize for treating a beautiful woman with status like this?”

Though Sean said this with a smile, his entire being was radiating waves of hostility. Mr. Beck shivered, he could not determine the relationship between Erin and Sean but what if she were Sean’s woman?

He was so frightened by this thought that he started trembling and immediately apologized, “I’m so sorry! I did not realize you were such an important person, please forgive me.”

Sean waved a hand to dismiss the two female escorts and side-eyed Mr. Beck, “You are not needed here anymore.”

Mr. Beck hastily walked away, Sean was an indomitable force in this industry and was not one to be messed with! And if Sean was an indomitable force, then he did not even want to think about the legendary Chandler Frost.

“Thank you for just now, but I’m in a bit of a rush so I will be leaving first.”

Seeing that Erin was about to leave, Sean strode forward with his long legs, determined to escort her. When they got to the outdoor parking lot, Erin waited for a taxi.

Sean smiled, “Miss, your dress strap.”

Only then did Erin realize that she looked unhinged holding on to her dress with both of her hands. But what was she supposed to do with the broken dress strap?

“If you don’t mind, I can help you.”

She looked up at him and saw that he had a humble expression on his face. She hesitated, then agreed, “Thank you for your help then.”

“No problem at all, it’s an honor to help a pretty lady.”

Sean’s alluring eyes watched her, brimming with ulterior motives. Erin blushed and lowered her head. Long, elegant fingers tied the broken dress strap into a bow and, to make both sides of the dress match, he also tied a bow using the opposite strap. Now that the straps were raised, the dress was transformed into an off-shoulder style dress.

Taking out a mirror to inspect her reflection, Erin said, “It looks quite nice, thank you.”

“Since you are so thankful, why don’t you give me your number?” Sean’s true intentions were unabashedly revealed on his handsome face. Erin who was originally quite grateful suddenly felt disgusted. It was almost like he was undressing her with his eyes.

“I don’t think that’s necessary!”

Erin gave him an icy glare and then got into the taxi. Watching the taxi leave, Sean stood rooted to the spot, stinging from his first taste of failure.

His friend came up from behind him and said, “Sean, it’s rare to see you with such a longing expression.”

Sean turned around and smiled, “What longing expression? I was such a gentleman just now and yet I still did not get that woman’s number. There’s just this burning sense of thrill in my heart.”

“You don’t need a thrill. Later, I’m going to find you a high-quality woman guaranteed to satisfy you tonight!”

Sean’s friend put his arm around his shoulder and guided him back into the Royal Chamber. Under the dim yet brilliant lights, Sean looked at his fingers and reminisced about the feeling of Erin’s skin and gave a drunken smile. He was surprised, no woman has ever piqued his interest so easily before.