It was lunch hour. Business at Regents, the Western diner was brisk. Quentin was with his girlfriend Lauren at the diner. She had asked him to buy her the latest handbag. Unbeknownst to him, Lauren's motive was not as simple. While he was busy engaging her with her online shopping, she gave a waiter an imperceptible nod, and he spiked the glass of water meant for Quentin.
After a while, Quentin was ready to order food. Before that, he was thirsty, so decided to drink from his glass. Just as he was about to drink, he felt someone grab him.
"There you are. You tried to hit on my wife. What audacity you have," the man said, his face red with anger.
"What are you talking about? I don't know who your wife is," Quentin tried to explain, but the man put his hand up to dismiss his explanation.
"Oh, please. You're lying. I have been keeping tabs on you all this while. I even have evidence of you being with my wife all this while," he said, with his arms folded. Now it was Quentin's turn to be angry.
"Look," he said. "I don't know what you're talking about, nor do I know who your wife is. How can I be sure if you're not making this up?"
"You refuse to admit it," the man said and nodded his head. "Fine, I'll show you what I'm talking about. Come with me." He dragged Quentin to the back alley, but after they reached, he suddenly stopped.
"What's going on? I thought you're bringing me to your wife? Why did you stop?" Quentin asked.
"I'm sorry, I have no choice but to do this," the man said. "The thing is, I saw your girlfriend signal the waiter, and he had put something in your drink. I'm not sure if it's poison though."
"What?" Quentin asked, his hand over his mouth. "How can this be? Lauren doesn't seem like such a person."
"I'm not expecting you to believe me," the man said. "But I think you should try to sound her out."
"How?" Quentin asked.
"I have an idea. You'll just go ahead and tell her you don't want to dine here and that you don't even want the drink, and see how she reacts," the man suggested. Quentin, now starting to believe the man's words, pretended to storm back into the diner in anger.
"This man is a lunatic," Quentin said, feigning anger. "He's accusing me of hitting on his wife without any proof. Let's get out of here. I can't stay here any minute."
"Hang on, what about the drink?" Lauren asked.
"Never mind about the drink," Quentin said. "He has the nerve to accuse me of hitting on his wife without proof. Who knows what he might do next?" Lauren tried to get Quentin to stay, but he insisted on leaving the premises. Through her reaction, Quentin confirmed that she was indeed in cahoots with the waiter, who had spiked his drink earlier.
When they got back to Quentin's house, his expression suddenly became solemn.
"I heard that when we were at the diner earlier, you gave a signal for the waiter to spike my drink. What do you have to say about this?" Quentin threw the question at her.
"What are you talking about?" Lauren tried to feign ignorance, but Quentin raised his hand to stop her.
"I know everything," he said. "Remember the man who confronted me earlier? He told me what he had seen, and the waiter has been arrested." Realizing that she had been exposed, Lauren had no choice but to admit everything. The waiter, who had spiked Quentin's drink earlier, was indeed her partner-in-crime. Not only that, they had targeted a few victims before Quentin. They would spike their victims' drinks and make off with whatever valuables that were found on the victims, and planned to use the same modus operandi on him.
"Why would you want to do that?" Quentin asked, unable to believe his girlfriend's true nature. "I thought you loved me. And even if my family warned me about you, I believed you."
"What makes you think I would want to be with someone like you?" Lauren smirked. "You should've taken a good look at yourself in the mirror. To me, you're nothing more than an easy target." Just then, there was a knock on the door. Quentin opened the door, and a few police officers entered, along with the man who had confronted Quentin earlier.
"Sir, that's her," he pointed out at Lauren.
"Lauren Ho Tsui-fa, you're under arrest for theft as well as attempted theft with means of poison. You have the right to remain silent, but what you said will be used as evidence," said one of the officers as he handcuffed her. Seeing this, Lauren's face turned pale. She tried begging Quentin to let her off the hook, but he was indifferent.
"Quentin Luk Yiu-kwok, you're vile," Lauren shouted as police officers led her away. As Quentin looked on, the man, whose name is Dexter, patted him on his back to console him. However, Quentin was thankful to him for having exposed Lauren in time. To show his gratitude, he offered to treat Dexter to lunch, which he agreed to. With that, the men exited Quentin's house for Regents, the diner where the incident occurred earlier.
