"Yup, and the first place is ..."

"Botanic gardens!"

"What?" James eyed Apple curiously, "I didn't know a Tom-boy actually like Nature."

Apple blushed furiously, "Why can't I like Nature?"

James shrugged, "Because... You don't look like it."

Apple pouted and pushed James forward. Perhaps Apple pushed James a little to hard, James fell straight into a plump man. James bounced off and landed on the ground. Apple guffawed. She laughed so much she was gasping for air. James rubbed his head and glanced up, giving Apple his famous look.

James apologised to the plump man and he turned around. It was a man with chubby cheeks and a grin that looked fixed on his face. Looking closely, he had a multi-millionaire aura as his coat sparkled with diamond buttons. James stared at him mouth agape.

"Why hello. I am Benjamin."

Apple's mouth dropped. "You-you-you-you! That building. Benjamin. Nano-carbon!" Apple could not finish her sentence.

The plump man rolled his eyes however, with that grin still fixed on his face, "Yes, me. The great Benjamin Toh."

Although James nerves was tingling with pain, he smiled. He reached his hand out, "Nice to meet you, Mr Benjamin."

*

"So you're James Phang."

James nodded his head, not touching the steak on his plate.

"And you're... Apple Phang."

Apple smiled slightly while stuffing a piece of steak in the mouth.

"Hey, hey. There's no poison in the steak, you know."

James tittered but said nothing. He had to be cautious of a man who had built a highly dangerous hotel. He took the cutlery up gently and started to cut the meat up into small cubes.

"So, whatddoyou wanna know?"

"About?"

"Me! The great Benjamin Toh is right in front of you and you aren't gonna ask me anything?"

James placed the silver cutlery down and leaned forward, his face was approximately 5cm away from the ever-grinning face.

"So tell me, why did you want to use nano-carbon to build the hotel?"

*
Mr Resh sat on his rolling chair and flipped the pages of the file. Mrs Raine was sucking onto a coffee sweet and she asked, "Do you think James will..."

"No," Mr Resh replied almost immediately.

Mrs Raine bit onto her own lips, "It's just.. He is just a kid."

"And so is Peter."

Mrs Raine fell silent. Her eyes were wet. Mr Resh glanced up and saw Mrs Raine's expression.

"I didn't mean whatever you thought I meant!"

Mrs Raine answered firmly, "There is no need for an apology."

"I'll tell you a joke then. If simpleton meant a man who is simple minded, what is a plankton?"

"Someone was planks?"

"Nope. It's the type of creature that is in Spongebob, that plankton."

The room grew very silent.

"Did James give his update?" Mr Resh asked, flipping his file.

"Yes. He had met with Benjamin Toh."

Mr Resh's eyebrows shot up. "Fire away!"

Labels: Chapter fifteen, stories