Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

appreciate them like he would,” Eddie said as he gazed longingly at the picture of his new
custom-made Marini shoes. These tasseled loafers were glazed a deep lapis blue, a
process that took up to four weeks to achieve in Marini’s Rome atelier, and the
shoemaker, Carlo, had been sending him teaser photos of the progress all through the
month.
“You will have them by this weekend,” Carlo promised.
Eddie ended his call, pulled up his pants, flushed the toilet, and walked back to the
Lookout—the casual eatery with sweeping views of the nature reserve where Singapore’s
oldest and most exclusive country club was situated. * Returning to the table where
members of his extended family had gathered for a luncheon hosted by his aunt Felicity,
he asked his wife, Fiona, “Did you order me the beef satay and the chicken rice?”
“No one’s ordered yet,” Fiona replied, giving him a strange frown. It was then that
Eddie noticed that no one at the table was talking, but all eyes were on Felicity. Her eyes
were red and swollen with tears, and his mother, Alix, was busily fanning her with a
menu.
“What happened? Is it Ah Ma?” Eddie whispered to Fiona.
“Hiyah! Ah Ma’s fine, but Auntie Felicity just received some news that’s quite
upsetting.”
“What news?” Eddie asked, irritated that he had only been in the toilet for barely ten
minutes and somehow missed the whole first act.
His auntie Cat was now speaking in a low, soothing tone to Felicity. “If you ask me, this
is all much ado about nothing. It’s a slow news week, and the press just had to pounce on
something.”
“Just watch, Felicity, this will all blow over in a few days,” Taksin agreed.
Eddie, who was seated in the middle of the long table, cleared his throat loudly. “Will
someone please tell me what’s going on?”
Alistair handed a cell phone over to him, and Eddie eagerly scrolled through the
paparazzi pictures of Astrid and Charlie Wu in India, feeling his pulse begin to race. Oh
boy oh boy oh boy. His always perfect, goody-goody cousin had really stepped in shit at
long last! What would Ah Ma think when she found out? One by one, all his cousins were
falling from grace, and he was the last man standing. He stared at the hundreds of
comments left by viewers of the leaked photos:
Wah! So beautiful. This is my dream engagement!—AngMohKioPrincess
What a fucking waste! Outrageous that CRAs spend this much on one day when 75 million Indians still
don’t have access to clean water! —clement_desylva
Astrid is babelicious. Charlie Wu is the man of the hour!—shoikshoik69
Suddenly, those words sparked something in Eddie’s mind that hadn’t quite occurred to
him until this moment. Man of the hour. Earlier in the week, his grandmother’s lawyer,