Chapter 5 Living together

"Is it my dress that's torn? No! That is my heart, my precious, soft, golden heart. Do you know how embarrassing, how disgraceful it was at that time? My dignity, shattered along with the ripping sound."

"Alright, alright, I get it. So, what do you want?"

"Help me move the luggage upstairs." I stood in the living room on the first floor, hands akimbo, facing Owen.

"We can handle moving these." The butler said in a low voice with a smile.

"No, all the things must be personally moved to my room on the second floor by Mr. Owen Miller."

"Alright." Owen moved towards me, suddenly grabbed my wrist and lifted me up in a princess hold, "Let me take you upstairs first!"

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? Put me down, are you crazy?" I said and hit Owen's chest.

Suddenly a man came down from the stairs. Before I could see clearly, Owen had put me down and respectfully called out to the man, "Brother."

Brother? Locus! I looked up, the man was tall and straight, with cool eyebrows and eyes. There was an innate confidence about him, a confidence that came from being pampered since childhood and his own strength. His eyes were also dark green, as calm as a lake.

"Locus Miller." He introduced himself.

"Mia Thompson." I replied.

"My fiancée." Owen added.

You could have left that out!

"Sorry for missing your engagement party. I will definitely make up for it with a big gift at your wedding. I have to attend to some business matters at the company. If you don't mind, I'll take my leave first." His eyes were filled with endless darkness, deep and composed.

I moved aside to let him pass. As he passed by, a faint wooden scent lingered.

"Has your brother acted in Fifty Shades of Grey?"

"How do you know?"

"He looks a bit like Mr. Grey."

"Shhh, stay low profile, my brother doesn't like to be recognized. Mom and Dad don't know about it." Owen put his finger on his lips and made a shushing gesture.

"Oh, alright." I quickly nodded in a lower voice.

"Let me tell you a secret, I also participated." Owen whispered in my ear, "I played Anna."

You're nuts!

For the rest of the half day, I tidied up the suite on the second floor. I placed the pink Jellycat bunny with floral ears that I've slept with since I was a child on the bedside. We are going to sleep here for the next year. I patted its head. Although I had no particular fondness for tub-boy Owen yet, considering that the Millers are prestigious figures in society, they probably wouldn't do anything to me. I have plenty of time in a year to propose to nullify the engagement. This is called a delaying strategy.

I lay on the bed, thinking about the man I had just met, his tall figure, his cool features, did he remember me? I once considered him as my future husband. But he indeed fits the image of my ideal partner, mature and composed.

But Owen, every time I think of that childish, always-contrary, tub-boy, I get angry. No, I have to prank him to vent my anger. A bold prank plan formed in my mind.

I got out of bed and sneaked into the kitchen, found butter and low-gluten flour, and started baking cookies. The baking tray full of raw cookies was put in the oven, and soon the aroma of butter filled the entire kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Owen appeared out of nowhere, leaning against the kitchen doorframe and asked me.

"Blowing up the kitchen." I stared at the cookies in the oven with anticipation, and replied without lifting my head.

"Butter bomb? I didn't know you could bake."

Ding, time's up. I eagerly opened the oven door to take the baking tray.

"Be careful!" Owen held me and grabbed my hand, "It's hot."

He was getting so close to me!

I turned my head, "Thank you." I murmured, a bit embarrassed, and pushed Owen away.

He put on thick gloves and took out the baking tray. The cookies on the tray were golden in color, with slight cracks on the surface, they looked super delicious.

"Let me taste," He put the tray on the countertop and picked up a cookie.

"Wait! I have a special filling." I quickly stopped him.

"What kind of filling?"

"Get out! This is a secret recipe passed down in the Thompson family, it's not to be shared."

Owen chuckled and walked out, closing the kitchen door behind him.

After confirming he was gone, I took out a tube of toothpaste from my pocket, squeezed a bit on some cookies, then sandwiched them together to make filled cookies. I also squeezed osmanthus honey on the remaining cookies to make filled cookies. At night, I plan to give the osmanthus honey filled cookies to older brother Locus, and the toothpaste cookies to Owen. Imagining Owen's mouth full of toothpaste, I can't help but giggle.

At the end of dinner, I happily brought out the cookies I made myself and went to the living room. Locus was sitting in a rose-colored armchair reading a book, I tiptoed over to him.

"Locus."

He looked up at me, "What is it, Mia?"

"These are cookies I made myself, would you like to try some?" I stared into his dark green eyes, lost in thought.

"Sure." Locus reached out to take one. I saw it was one of the toothpaste ones and quickly stopped him.

"You should take one from the other side, these aren't baked well." I quickly moved the plate of osmanthus honey cookies towards him.

Locus tried the osmanthus honey cookie and said it tasted good.

"Let me try one." Owen jumped out from somewhere and took a toothpaste filled cookie.

He placed the cookie in his mouth.

My heart was pounding.

He chewed and swallowed it down

"This tastes great, is it mint flavored?"

"What?"

"How did you know I like mint flavored cookies? Truly worthy of being my fiancée."

"Aha ha ha ha ha, yes, mint flavor." I laughed awkwardly.

Late at night, I took a shower, changed into my pajamas, and lay in bed. All the lights in the bedroom were turned off, leaving only a small bedside lamp on. The silk quilt was cool and soft. The butler said that Locus had it custom-made for me before I moved in.

"Are you asleep?" Owen messaged me on Whatsapp.

"What's up?"

"I'll drive you to school tomorrow. Good night."

"What? I can go to school by myself."

"I'm personally driving you, don't be ungrateful." He then went offline.

Humph, this man is still as domineering as ever.

Early in the morning, just as the sky was getting light, I rubbed my sleepy eyes, washed up, and sat on the sofa in the suite in a daze. There was a knock at the door. It was Owen, holding a breakfast tray in his hands.

Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, I let out a sound like a small deer.

"Why did Owen personally come to deliver breakfast?"

" I'm afraid you'll starve to death at school today."

"I got it." I'm not the type to be ungrateful. He, a 'fine' gentleman, personally brought me breakfast, of course, I'll gladly accept it. "Do you want to eat together?"

"No need, I will eat with my brother in the dining room. This is a family rule."

"You guys have a lot of rules." I took a sip of orange juice.

Even when their parents are not at home, they have to follow the rules. These two brothers live a really oppressive life.

"What if we get married in the future and I want to eat breakfast in my own room?" I looked at Owen with innocent big eyes, "Will you deliver it to my room every day, my dear fiancé?" I called him 'my dear fiancé' in an extremely cheesy and ambiguous way.

"Tch." Owen scoffed dismissively.

Shortly after breakfast, I got into Owen's Porsche 911 and went to school.

"Why not be a little more low-key and just drive a Tesla? "

I looked at Owen sitting in the driver's seat. His profile was handsome, his nose high and straight. I touched my own nose, it was soft, small, and flat.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't stare at me in that way, you might fall in love with me."

"Tch." I rolled my eyes.

The car stopped in front of the library.

"Pick me up after school." I got out of the car with my bag and walked off.

A long day began. It was my first day at New York University. Although transferring to the finance department went smoothly, the course setup was different from my previous school, and the stochastic process class on the first day left me confused. Finally, I had half an hour of rest before my financial market class, so I went to the café to get something for lunch.

"A small cup of cinnamon latte, shrimp and egg salad, thank you."

After paying and picking up my meal, I sat in a corner of the café, preparing to watch a new reality show while eating.

"Are you Mia Thompson?" The tone was hostile, cold, and chilling.

I looked up. A girl in a Chanel dress was standing in front of me. She was slender, dignified, and wore delicate makeup. Behind her were two girls, one in a Miu Miu suit looking gentle and cute, the other covered in tattoos, dressed like a gangster. The style of the three was quite different. I wondered how they became friends.

"And you are?"

"Scarlett Adams."

"Adams, as in the President?"

"I don't want to talk about my father. I'm here to discuss something between us."

"Us?" I was confused. Wait, were they the notorious school bullies who specialized in tormenting new students? Was this a regular thing for them? I tentatively asked.

"It's about Owen."

"Ok. I guess you like Owen, are jealous that I'm his fiancé, and so you're here to make trouble for me, right?" I interjected. I was familiar with this plot. She and Owen were childhood friends. She had always liked Owen, but who could have expected that childhood friendship would not be a match for love at first sight. Owen fell in love with me, the new character in the plot. So she opposed me at every turn and found me irritating, setting traps for me.

"I have been friends with Owen since childhood, and I have always been having a feeling for him. I didn't expect him to fall in love with you at first sight, even spending a high price to buy a necklace to propose a marriage alliance with you."

That's exactly right.

"But don't get me wrong, I won't make trouble for you. Owen must see something shining in you. But I won't admit defeat. I will compete with you fairly."

Compete for what? The love of Mr. Bathtub?

"No, no, no, Miss Adams, you've got it all wrong, he and I..."

"Next month, the school will hold an Autumn Classical Dance. Owen, as the student union president, will attend and be one of the judges. There will be a vote for the queen of the dance. That will be our first competition."

What's there to compete about? Who wants to compete with you? Why don't I just give you the engagement? I was just about to explain when the school bullies turned and left.

On the first day of school, I made an enemy of the president's daughter, all thanks to Mr. Bathtub. Annoyed, I took a bite of my sandwich.