Next One Is a Babe

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The three old women chortled and responded, “Oh, no, we only just arrived!”

Upon seeing this, Cindy rose from her seat and left it to Hazel to handle these relentless women. She was already growing tired of having to listen to their nonsense.

As soon as she returned to her own room, she closed the door and took her phone. Then, she wore her earphones before clicking into her music playlist.

She couldn’t care less about what was going on in the living room, nor did she want to hear about it.

Cindy lay on her side as the music played in her ears, but when the three women left, Hazel came into her room and interrupted her quiet space.

Hazel glanced at Cindy and sighed wearily. “I take it they’ve told you everything?”

As she tugged on her earphones to remove it, Cindy said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What were they supposed to tell me?”

After pausing in thought, Hazel elaborated, “Maybe they were too embarrassed to be straightforward. Mrs. Bates has a relative who is looking to settle down. He comes from a nice family, and he asked Mrs. Bates whether she could set him up with someone suitable. She automatically thought of you, what with your accomplishments and all, so she figured she could drop by and see if you’d be interested in meeting the man.”

Cindy smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. “Didn’t you tell them that I have a boyfriend?”

Hazel cringed a little and pursed her lips, then countered, “Your boyfriend’s in the entertainment industry, which, if I must say, does little credit to how reliable he is as a man. There’s no telling if the both of you will work out in the end, so I was hoping you might reconsider.”

Upon hearing this, Cindy was a little astonished because it seemed like her mother was caving to the three women’s persuasion.

More to the point, she found Hazel’s reaction to be a rather odd one. Leaving out the question of whether Ian and I would work out in the end, the last time she brought up the topic of my settling down and starting a family was way back when I started college. It’s enough to show her stance on the matter.

Back then, Hazel had made it clear that Cindy shouldn’t marry within the three years following her graduation and that she should focus on her career to repay her family’s sacrifices all these years. That was before Cindy’s father passed away, but Hazel had already set her mind on Cindy becoming the breadwinner.

Now that her father was gone, she was the only breadwinner in the family, so it would only make sense for Hazel to discourage her from marriage as opposed to nudging her toward it.

It was a custom around these parts of the area that once a blind date went well, the couple must be engaged and married within two months. Cindy couldn’t understand why Hazel would want to marry her off at a time like this and without any forewarning either.

With that in mind, she asked slowly and inquisitively, “What about the man’s family? What are they like?”

Hazel broke into a relieved smile when she heard this and happily responded, “Well, according to Mrs. Bates, the family is doing well for themselves and they have a factory of sorts under their name. The man is the only son in the family and should the both of you decide to get married, he’d be willing to provide a house, a car, and even his savings account!”

Of course. Why did I expect anything else? Cindy resisted the urge to sneer. It looked like the man’s well-off family was the only reason why Hazel had changed her mind so abruptly.