Woman of Intelligence (Book 2 in the series)

Chapter 4 (Part 2)

The entire house was finally decorated with beautiful Christmas decorations. All the decorations were green, red, gold and silver. Some ornaments were simmering and the others were shiny. The beautiful lights were flashy on the three tall Christmas trees. The other lights remained on in the stair handles and on the balcony. But they were going to be turned off when everyone was asleep.

Riya and Liang were lying on the cold floor near their bedrooms. The third floor had an almost outdoor pathway. Half the floor was outdoor, the rest of the floor was indoor. Riya and Liang's rooms were opposite each other like thirty seconds walk to each other's rooms. They were exhausted from decorating and the weather was boiling. The floor was helping their bodies to cool down. This was like a workout for them because they had to bend, run to the stairs and stretching. At least, they had some fun decorating the entire house. 

"Phew, that was tiring.", she said while lying flat on her stomach. 

"Imagine you have to decorate your house more because you have to have a Christmas party.", Liang was looking at the grey ceiling. 

"I can imagine and the light bills will go up.", she was talking about the Christmas lights. 

He laughed in a low tone then he looked at her. "What do you want for Christmas?", he asked. 

Riya was thinking. "Honestly, I have everything I want. I'm not into much with clothes, jewelries, make-up and shoes."

"I noticed. But seriously...", he moved to the side to face her and lied in a sleeping position. "Is there anything special you want?", he asked. 

"Not really."

"Do you have any plans for Christmas?"

"I will probably spend the day with my family, Samantha and Ling. What are you going to do for Christmas?"

"Same. Being with my family.", he answered. "New Year's Eve I will go to the nightclub with my friends. My friends will be coming back five days before Christmas."

"Oh yeah, they are modelling for some fashion show. When I was in South Africa, my family and I will go to my uncle's house. We will have a braai and wait till midnight."

"What's braai?", he looked confused.

Riya forgot that he would not know some of the South African words. "Braai means BBQ. I forgot that I don't live in South Africa anymore.", she slightly slapped herself for that. 

"It's fine. Then you will be making the desserts for the evening."

"No, we will buy the desserts. I was working on New Year's Even so I would have been exhausted. Oh my god, I never forget this one incident. One year, we had a frightening incident where an Anaconda escape from a house. Someone kept it as a pet."

Liang looked at her with a confused and absurd expression. "Why keep that massive snake as a pet to start of with?", he asked. 

"Some people want to show the world that they are not afraid of anything like keeping a massive snake as pets. And that snake was still growing. I got so scared that I locked the entire house as soon as I heard the news. Living alone was pretty scary because you don't whether it was hiding in your apartment or house. But the comments on social media were too funny. One day, someone posted that we should put the milk and fruits by the Anaconda then run away. In our culture, we put milk and fruits by the snake statues. We believe that animals, reptiles and insects are gods.", she explained. 

"Yeah, I heard you believe that all living creatures are gods." 

"Yeah. It was so frightening that year. I used to peep into my rooms before I could go inside. And the snake was a teenager. Imagine how massive it will be when it's fully grown.", she was leaning on her back. 

"I can imagine. But I still don't get the point of keeping it as a pet."

"Me too.", she stretched her arms to loosen her muscles. "Let me sleep on the floor because it's cool."

"Okay."

Riya moved to the side, facing Liang. Liang was looking at her while she was sleeping. A strip of a hair fell on her face. Liang removed the hair from her face then hooked it behind her ear. Now he was watching her sleep. A loving smile appeared on his face. He loved watching her sleep like a baby. He took a strip of her hair from her chest and started playing with it with his fingers. He was playing with her hair and watching her sleep at the same time.