Me After Meeting You

As Amber prepared to leave the car, Ian locked the car door, started the car up again, and started driving towards the parking garage.

Amber quizzically asked him, “Where are you going?”

Ian glanced at her and then slowly replied, “Weren’t you inviting me in just now?”

Amber wasn’t upset. “Sure!” As an excuse, she continued, “I’m afraid that if you don’t eat anything when you get back home, your stomach will hurt.”

Ian turned around and provokatively said, “Oh, I’ll eat all right.”

Amber was struck speechless. This time, it was her turn to look at him bitterly. She even wanted to grab his ear and sarcastically ask, ‘Do you know how to chat? Can you speak properly? At this time, shouldn’t you silently accept my good intentions and then escort me home diligently?’

Ian didn’t say anything; instead, the sides of his mouth curled up, clearly signaling that he found Amber’s exasperated and speechless expression amusing.

Since she was afraid of Ian being hungry, the first thing she did when they arrived at her apartment was to make something for him to eat. There wasn’t much food at her place, but there were quite a number of items that she could prepare with little effort, like noodles, dumplings, and the like. In fact, her mother replenished her stock almost weekly.

Amber and Ian had eaten together quite a few times by now, and she knew that he preferred light foods. So, she made him a bowl of noodles that suited his tastes, and then made a bowl of thick congee with black rice, beans, and red dates for herself.

She wasn’t full from tonight’s meal either.

When she remembered the night’s lacking dinner, she was also reminded of Trysta, and then of Calvin. Once the noodles were busy boiling, she took out her phone and scrolled through her social media feed, but couldn’t find anything about Calvin getting married at all.

He barely updated his feed, and his most recent post was when he had just returned from abroad and was attending Trysta’s wedding. It was a picture, with a single sentence as a caption: “I hope that you’ll be happy.”This is property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

The photograph was of Trysta getting ready to throw her wedding bouquet into the air. She had in mid-turn, laughing, and the bridesmaids were at the bottom of the stage, happily rubbing their palms and getting ready to catch the bouquet.

The happiness and liveliness of the wedding felt as fresh as if it had taken place yesterday, but Trysta and Frank’s marriage had clearly already come to its end.

“What’re you looking at?”

There was a hot puff of air by her ear, and then Ian’s voice rang out from behind her back.

Amber showed him her phone screen. “I’m looking at photographs of Trysta’s wedding.”

Ian glanced at it for a moment and then turned his head around disinterestedly to look at the pot. “Is it ready yet?”

Amber also glanced at the boiling noodles. Then she put her phone away, picked up her chopsticks, and stirred it a little. “It’s almost ready.”

A few minutes later, she removed the noodles and poured out the congee, and with that, the two of them had a very simple supper. Thankfully, Ian wasn’t a picky eater, and he slowly but diligently ate his noodles, leaving the bowl clean at the end.

He had finished his noodles before Amber could finish her congee, so Amber asked, “Was it tasty?” She wanted to show off a little. “My dad personally made these noodles from scratch, and I’ve always loved eating them.”

Since she was sitting by his side, he could see her gleaming eyes, and her white and lustrous face seemed to glow under the lamplight. But in contrast to that ethereal aura, there was a little black spot of rice congee by the side of her mouth, just like a little mole; the slight imperfection actually increased her attractiveness.

She was still asking him, “Is it tasty?”

Ian’s hand that had been lying dormant underneath the table moved instinctively. He raised it and wiped off the little ‘mole’ by her mouth.

Amber looked at that black dot on his fingertip, but before she could blush in embarrassment, she saw him put it in his mouth and suck it down like he was drinking water.

“Hmm, it’s not as tasty as this ….” He put down his hand and then looked at her. “Your sweetness, that is.”

“….”

She couldn’t stop her face from turning pink. How could she not? There was no sugar in the congee at all! What sort of sweetness ….

She tried her best to maintain a serious expression, but her face was still warm with embarrassment, and she couldn’t help but cover her face with her hand as she suspiciously looked at him.

“Mr. Axton, did you really not have any relationships in the past?” Then in an extremely daring move, she stretched out her hand and kneaded his handsome face, which was so serious that it made one want to touch it even more. “It really doesn’t seem like it, given how good you are at teasing me.”

Ian snatched her hand out of the air. Amber’s heart skipped a beat, and just as she was about to give up, she heard Ian laugh. “Let’s get into bed together. Although I’ve never done it before, my technique’s pretty good. Do you want to try it?”

“….”