Chapter 334: So Many Ties
Chapter 334: So Many Ties
As the waiters pushed a multi-layered cake into the party hall, the birthday song began to play, and the party finally reached its climax. Several women publicly acknowledged as being relatively close to Eric were pushed out of the crowd by the cheering guests. Blushing, they gathered around Eric and helped him blow out the candles on the cake together.
The lively party continued until after midnight before finally ending. The thoroughly satisfied guests gradually dispersed. As the host, Eric politely saw everyone off one by one. During the process, he inevitably encountered several resentful gazes.
But under these circumstances, it was naturally impossible for him to bring any woman back to his residence. Not only was it to spare the feelings of the other women, but because quite a few sharp-nosed paparazzi had already gathered outside the Hilton Hotel where the birthday party was being held. Every move Eric made tonight would definitely become the focus of the paparazzi.
For example, right now, as he sat in the same car from earlier on the way back to the hotel, several vehicles obviously belonging to paparazzi were following behind them. There were even a few paparazzi riding motorcycles closely tailing Eric’s car.
Although he tried to restrain himself, entertaining so many people inevitably left Eric slightly drunk. At this moment, he leaned weakly against the backrest of the car seat, while Drew beside him curled up against him like a kitten. Since there had been too many people and too much gossip at the party, the girl had obediently refrained from drinking.
After returning to the hotel where the crew was staying, Eric directly took the elevator from the underground parking garage up to the floor occupied by the crew. The little girl followed Eric the entire way without hesitation, as if everything were perfectly natural.
Although quite a few crew members returning at the same time noticed this detail, they all acted as though they had seen nothing at all. After all, with the girl’s now curvy figure, it was very easy for people to overlook her age.
Looking at the little girl trailing behind him like a tagalong, Eric could only shrug helplessly. “Drew, did you book a room at the hotel?”
Drew raised her hand and pointed toward Eric’s room door. “My luggage is already inside.”
“Uh… alright then.” Eric knew there was no point saying more, so he pulled out the room keycard from his pocket. The moment he pushed open the door, he saw gift boxes wrapped beautifully and piled like a small mountain in the suite’s living room.
“Wow, when were these delivered here?” Eric asked in surprise.
“I had people bring them over during the party. Actually, gifts have been arriving by mail little by little these past few days. Allen and the others spent a lot of effort hiding it from you,” Drew said with a grin, looking very much like she was seeking credit.
“Alright, thank you for preparing this surprise for me. I really like it,” Eric said, lifting the girl’s chin and kissing her cheek. Sensing that her little hands were about to wrap around him again, Eric quickly let go. “Let’s open the gifts and take a look. I’ve never received this many presents before.”
“I’ll help,” Drew said, obviously interested as well. She quickly walked over and casually picked up one of the gift boxes to examine it. Then she curled her lips. “Mm, you should open this one yourself.”
Eric took it and looked at the name written on it. It was from Nicole. No wonder the girl had reacted like that.
Undoing the ribbon on the package, Eric opened the palm-sized box and finally saw the gift inside: a blue-and-white striped Versace silk tie.
The little girl, who had been closely watching Eric’s movements, immediately widened her eyes when she saw the gift. Then she said unhappily, “She really isn’t trying to hide it at all. Why didn’t she just send a red tie instead?”
Eric smiled and ignored the girl’s slight jealousy.
Generally speaking, only women in intimate relationships would give men ties, symbolizing a desire to tie the man down. If a woman gave a red tie, it meant she hoped to marry the man. That was why the girl had reacted that way just now.
“Alright, open the others,” the girl said. Then she sat cross-legged on the carpet beside the pile of gifts and picked up a larger box that definitely could not contain a tie and began unwrapping it.
Eric placed Nicole’s tie aside and also sat down beside the pile of gifts next to Drew. He casually picked up another box and began opening it.
A while later, Eric opened the gift box from Virginia, and another tie appeared before them.
“Hmph, such terrible taste, choosing a pattern like this,” the girl muttered dissatisfiedly. This time her reaction was not as intense as before, but she still could not help complaining.
Eric amusedly picked up the light blue polka-dot tie Virginia had sent and held it against his chest for comparison before putting it back into the box. After thinking for a moment, he directly began searching through the pile of gifts.
More than ten minutes later, several more ties appeared before the two of them.
“Don’t move, let me count them,” Drew said gloomily, stopping Eric from trying to put the gifts away.
“One, two, three, four, five, six… Wah, I can’t go on living,” the girl cried dramatically like a little wife catching her unfaithful husband in the act. She sprang up and threw herself onto the nearby sofa, covering her head with a cushion and wailing.
Eric ignored the girl. Instead, he stared blankly at an unsigned gift box in his hands.
Six ties. The other five all had names: Virginia, Nicole, Jennifer Connelly, Famke Janssen, and Joanna Pakula.
Meanwhile, Julia and Elizabeth, who had also been involved with him, had not given ties. Then who exactly was the sixth person?
Eric brought the gift box close to his nose and sniffed it. A faint, fresh perfume scent. It felt strangely familiar.
A pretty and stubborn face appeared in Eric’s mind.
Come to think of it, the second season of Friends was about to start filming. He had not seen that girl in quite a while.
The feelings formed while struggling together in obscurity were always difficult to forget. Although the two of them had already broken up, whenever Eric occasionally saw news about Aniston on television or in newspapers, the girl was no longer as emotional as she had been when that incident had first exploded. Even when paparazzi asked about him, her reactions had calmed considerably.
Seeing that Eric had not come over to coax her, the girl quickly peeked her head out from beneath the cushion. When she saw Eric deep in thought, she stuck out her little tongue and obediently climbed down from the sofa to move beside him.
“Eric, Eric, Eric…” Drew waved her hand in front of Eric’s eyes and called his name several times in succession.
Eric brushed aside the girl’s little hand and asked, “Right, where’s your gift?”
“Ah?” The little girl blinked. After hesitating for a moment, she still got up and ran to the corner of the living room. Opening her suitcase, she took out a small box and quickly returned to Eric’s side. “Here.”
Looking at the palm-sized box in his hand, Eric immediately developed a certain premonition. He rapidly tore open the packaging and soon pulled out a bright red tie, waving it in front of the girl.
“This is way too blatant, isn’t it? Didn’t someone just say something a moment ago?”