Overwhelming Care – OC 3

It had been almost a year since Lillian became an insurance agent and during that time she had undergone a drastic change from a dull timid schoolgirl to a lively confident young lady. She had proven that she could be as successful as any of the other agents even when her paper qualifications weren't as good. She was not only popular with her colleagues but also with her clients, especially with her male patrons. In fact, she was getting more sales appointments than some of the more senior agents. As a result, her income improved so much that she was able to move her family out of the one-room rental flat to a three-room resale flat. Her mother, who had been released from prison, helped to look after the family while she spent most of her time out entertaining her prospective clients, sometimes till quite late in the night.

Fu Kwan, who had been put in charge of recruiting and training new agents, had to spend most of his working hours in the office. He missed working in the field with Lillian and spending time with her. Though, they had been together for the past year, they had never officially let the others know that they were seeing each other. Lillian had persuaded him to agree to keep their relationship a low-key one so as to avoid becoming the talk of the office. She reasoned that being a novice, she needed to spend more time brushing up on her skills and improving her sales rather than to be distracted by all the unwanted attention. However, whenever he saw her having a good time with the other agents, he would be in a dilemma. On one hand, he was glad that Lillian had become more sociable and was doing well; on the other hand, he didn't feel comfortable seeing her in the company of others, especially guys.

Somehow, Fu Kwan began to regret having agreed to the arrangement. He wanted to have Lillian all to himself and to stop the other guys from getting too close to her. He wanted very much to let them know that he was the only one for Lillian and that they should keep their minds off her. Though Lillian kept assuring him that she knew how to handle the guys' advances, Fu Kwan couldn't help feeling insecure. He would also become upset whenever she had to leave in the middle of their date to meet her clients, especially male clients, whom he felt were harbouring ulterior motives. He would give her a lift to her destination and wait for her in the car if the clients were female. But if it was a male client, he would insist on tagging along and acting as her assistant.

Lillian never doubt Fu Kwan's affections for her and understood why he had become so protective but there were times when she was so overwhelmed by his care and concern that she was suffocating. During those times, she had hoped that he would have more faith in her and give her more breathing space. Once, she caught him reading her SMSes when she left her handphone with him while she answered the call of nature. Then, she found out that he had also been checking her emails. She had wanted to confront him for his intrusion but she did not. She knew that they would only end up arguing and hurting each other feelings. She didn't want that to happen but she was also not ready to become a prisoner of love.