Chapter 75: It’s Not A Big Deal
Arianna looked down and found a circular bruise on her wrist. It was probably from the young man grabbing her wrist outside her apartment.
“I bumped into something earlier,” Arianna answered.
Susan looked around the room before her eyes landed on the young man who had brought Arianna here. She asked, “It was you who brought Miss Jenkins here, correct?”
The young man lowered his head and stepped forward.
Gently, Susan asked, “Did you invite Miss Jenkins here or kidnap her?”
“I am sorry, Miss Harris.” But before he could finish speaking, she slapped him across the face.
The man in black immediately stepped forward to hold Susan steady as she recovered from slapping the young man.
“Now try again. Whom are you apologizing to?” Susan’s voice was still gentle.
“My apologies, Miss Jenkins.” The boy bowed his head in Arianna’s direction.
Arianna felt like she was in the middle of nowhere. She felt like she was dragged into a play and had no idea what the script was.
It was quiet, and everyone seemed to be waiting for her to speak. She quickly said, “It’s not a big deal.”
“Children do not know the rules. Please forgive me.” Susan smiled at Arianna and said to Ryan, “Ryan, please drive Miss Jenkins home safely.” She specifically emphasized the last word.
“But Mr. Cooper asked me to take you to the doctor.” Ryan countered.
“Tell him to fuck off,” Susan said like an elegant lady.
Arianna sighed softly after she got in Ryan’s car. It was the first time she sat in the front seat next to him. She had always sat in the back seat before.
“Thank you.”
“Just forget about it, please.”
“Will it be tough for you to face Miss Harris in the future because of me today?”
“Don’t worry. I only work for Mr. Cooper.”
“I thought…” Arianna paused, feeling that there seemed to be no need to say more.
“In fact, Miss Harris is good in her nature. She just likes to play pranks.”
When Arianna didn’t reply, Ryan continued, “Miss Harris probably wanted to tease Mr. Cooper today. But Mr. Cooper didn’t know about it.”
Arianna remained quiet. In fact, neither of them spoke for the rest of the ride. Ryan skillfully drove the car to her apartment complex and pulled into the parking lot like usual.
While Arianna checked her purse and unclipped her seatbelt, Ryan suddenly said, “After the strike of a serious illness, Miss Harris became a totally different person. Since last year, she insisted that Mr. Cooper must marry her before this fall; otherwise, he would not get away with a disaster in his life.”
With a sigh, he said, “She calls to remind him of this thing every few days.”
Arianna sat in the seat facing Ryan but did not speak.
“She had another surgery two months ago. Before they operated, she said if she survived, Mr. Cooper could marry her since he did not have a fiancée. So -”
“When are they getting married?” Arianna interrupted him. He wasn’t making any sense, and she didn’t want to hear it either.
“Maybe next month.”
“Have you always been such a talkative person?”
“Only on occasion,” Ryan answered modestly.
*****
The biggest benefit of working at a university was a long vacation.
During the vacation, Arianna took part in a tour group. She switched to different groups in the middle and traveled half the territory of the state until she was really exhausted, and then she bought the return ticket.Text © 2024 NôvelDrama.Org.
There were many single men and women in those tour groups. Every time she switched to another tour group, some single young men would show their adoration for her and offered to give her a lot of care on the trip. Arianna refused them politely.
She slept on the return flight and had a very empty and weird dream. After waking up, she could not remember the content of the dream. She just felt mentally awkward, so she asked for a coffee and newspaper from the flight attendant.
She read a thick pile of newspapers while drinking coffee. It was the morning paper of the city where she lived.
When she read the financial column, she saw a big title saying, “Mr. Cooper and Ms. Harris were married yesterday.”
Actually, the entire page of the financial column was mainly the affairs of Travis’s company, with only a few words related to the bride and groom. The general idea was they grew up together and never abandoned each other and were finally legally bound. There were no photos of them on the page. The reporter commented beneath, “Mr. Cooper remained in his usual low-key style at his wedding.”
Arianna looked at the full page of advertising and sighed, “really low-key.”
Arianna made a phone call to Ryan after she got home. On the second day of her trip, Ryan called and told her to call him when she returned.
Arianna had no reason to decline him because Ryan had helped her out many times.
Half an hour later, Ryan showed up in front of her house. Arianna did not invite him to her house as usual. She took him to the leisure hall in the community and invited him to drink coffee.
Ryan solemnly handed her a box that looked very ordinary, “Mr. Cooper asked me to deliver it to you.”
“He had gotten married, but why did he send me a gift?” The box was delicately small, with nice wood and leather texture, probably holding some jewelry. Arianna was not very interested in it.
“Mr. Cooper said you may throw it away directly if you don’t like it. Why not check it out first?”
Arianna was suspicious and opened it cautiously.
It was actually a small perfume bottle. Its shape was rectangular, the type she collected most. The material of the bottle was the nine-color tourmaline she once saw in Travis Cooper’s hands, which was said to be priceless.
Arianna was in a daze for a while and then asked Ryan, “This thing is expensive, right? Is it a pity to throw it away?”
“The technician who cut and polished this bottle said the processing of that stone into this bottle devalued the stone by more than half.”
“Oh, the bottle is still worth a lot of money.” Arianna took the small bottle out of the box and found it filled with liquid.
Arianna shook the bottle for a second and gave up the intention to open the bottle cap. She asked Ryan, “What’s inside? Chili oil? Wasabi? Balsam?” Seeing no confirmation from Ryan, she had to say, “Is it really perfume? That’s a lack of creativity.”