Me After Meeting You

“Dr. Benny’s a famed specialist in treating your illnesses. If he takes care of you, you’ll also recover quicker. You don’t want to stay in the hospital for too long, do you?”

Ian stopped talking, but some coldness nonetheless seeped through his mask; clearly, he wasn’t in favor of this decision.

For lack of a better option, Amber could only say, “Dr. Benny personally came here to treat you, so it would be rude to dismiss him at this point.” Of course this was just an excuse; in truth, she could see that Ian’s reliance on her was unhealthy, so she wanted to maintain as professional a doctor-patient relationship with him as possible.

But even though she wanted to put some distance between them, other people always got in the way. Ian’s grandmother, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, peeked her head back and smiled at them as she said, “Don’t worry. We can go to Presbiterian Hospital. I’ll just let your grandfather know.”

As if to alleviate Amber’s earlier concerns, she added, “It will be fine. Dr. Benny and my husband are on good terms with each other. Even if we go to Presbiterian Hospital, we can still invite him to perform the medical examination.”

Amber looked silently at Ian’s grandmother, who had spoiled her plans.

His grandmother then quickly called her husband to inform him of the change in plans. “Tell Dr. Benny that we’re going to Presbiterian Hospital.”

Her phone was set to speaker mode, so Ian grandfather’s voice rang out through the car. He first asked, “Why are we going to Presbiterian?”

But then he seemed to have thought of something, and his voice quickly changed. “Alright, alright, we will go to Presbiterian. I’ll tell all of them. Leave quickly and let me handle the rest.”

Once Ian’s grandmother finished the call, she turned and smiled at them again. This time, her gaze was directed particularly strongly toward Amber, which made her feel very uncomfortable.

She knew what these two old folks were thinking. Undoubtedly, it was something along the lines of how compatible their grandson and she looked.

With regards to this, Amber felt both speechless and helpless.

The Axton family was in complete control of Axton’s medical branch, so they had connections in the medical field that Amber could only dream of. In fact, they had managed to arrange everything in the hospital mid-ride. Once the car arrived, Ian was immediately sent to a VIP level intensive care unit.

Because of his high fever, he had fallen into another stupor during the ride over. Amber sat outside the ward for a very long time, waiting all the way until Ian finished his general inspection, took a few doses of medicine, and fell into a deep sleep. Only then did she tiredly head home.

***

When she finally got home, it was past midnight. The lamp in the living room was still lit, but Calvin had already left. On the dining table was the food that she had bought after getting off work earlier.

When she lifted the plastic covering the food, it only revealed cold steak and spaghetti that had already congealed into tasteless lumps.

Then she noticed that the scones she had asked to be delivered back had been left to the side. She had sent six back for him, but there were still six left; Calvin hadn’t eaten a single one.Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

Amber sighed and took out her phone to call him. He didn’t pick up.

Unfortunately, it seemed like he was angry again. Amber caressed her forehead, thinking about what she could do now to make it up to him.

Right now, Calvin was drinking at a bar with some colleagues. With music being blasted at ear-splitting levels, nothing could be heard from the other end.

Melody was sitting by his side, watching Calvin drain glass after glass of beer with the pretense of being punished for being late. All of his colleagues were cheering him on, so he poured himself another glass.

But just as he was about to down it, Melody stopped him. “What happened to you?” she asked as she squeezed closer.

Calvin turned to look at her, causing the girl by his side to quickly flush red, her eyes seemingly flashing underneath the bar’s strobe lights.

He shook his head and said nothing as he pushed her hand away and drank another glass. As the beer slowly fell down his throat, he felt the coldness seep all the way from his mouth down to his heart.

His colleagues were partying crazily. The effect of the alcohol even caused two colleagues who were mutually interested in each other to finally break through their barrier and kiss, causing everyone to clap for them. But even then, Calvin only felt the cold sensation of desolation in the laughter of the crowd.

He also wanted to love someone like that, without a care for anything else. However, he didn’t know if his timing was off, but he kept feeling like he was running into hurdle after hurdle, even after they had successfully made their feelings clear.

The owner of the hand came closer, immediately filling his nostrils with an enticing scent. “Calvin, this isn’t fun. Let’s go.”