Me After Meeting You

When Amber picked up her phone, she was in the midst of a heated and somewhat arduous discussion with Ian-who knew which book Mr. Axton had read this time, but after he had announced that he was going to woo her during Trysta’s birthday banquet, he had started faithfully performing the three daily tasks required for wooing a girlfriend: giving gifts, going on dates, and asking for kisses!

After leaving Trysta’s place, Amber had originally planned on heading to the suburbs to see her parents, but when she was halfway there, she received a call asking her to sign for a gift that had been delivered.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

She asked the management office to hold it for her, but an employee there embarrassedly replied, “Sorry, but this gift is one we can’t hold at the moment.”

Helpless, Amber could only turn around and head back home, where she saw a pickup truck’s worth of flowers. It was an uncountable number, so much so that the two couriers had to make multiple trips to move all the flowers upstairs.

The security guards at Amber’s place even thought that she had changed careers to become a florist.

The flowers were even the pink roses that famously entranced young girls. When they were all moved into her apartment, half of her living room was occupied. Mr. Axton had even included a very artistic handwritten note from himself, which read, “Love only blossoms when you’re carefree.”

The words had a deep philosophical meaning, but Ian’s usage of it in this situation made Amber feel a bit awkward.

Looking at all these flowers, her first thought was that, at the very least, it was a Sunday, and that the flowers had been sent to her home rather than her workplace. Otherwise, after that appointment booking incident last time, she would probably become infamous in Presbiterian Hospital.

Her second thought was that once these flowers wilted, there would be so much trash ….

Somewhat powerlessly, she called Ian. “Thank you for the gift, but what’s the purpose for this?”

Ian coolly responded, “To woo you, of course.”

“… Thank you, but can you not spend so much money?”

In his usual nouveau riche manner, Mr. Axton replied, “It’s fine. I make a lot.”

Amber had to first praise him before she could try to persuade him. “You’re really amazing, able to make so much money despite being so young. But no matter how much you make, you can’t be so wasteful. The flowers are pretty, but once they dry up, they’ll just become useless piles of trash!”

Mr. Axton fell silent, the word ‘trash’ striking him in his mysophobic heart.

The next day, Amber received something in place of flowers. He invited her out for dinner, and afterwards, he said, “Let’s go watch a movie.”

Dinner and a movie, a standard date for a couple. Amber couldn’t refuse because she was the one who wanted him to woo her, and she wanted to see how far he would go in pursuing her. Thus, she went along with him.

Because it was almost Chinese New Year, there weren’t any good films showing. So, the two of them had no choice but to watch a dreary, mediocre romance flick. Then, it was another round of gifts, dinner, and movies again.

After Amber explicitly said to not send anything to her because she wasn’t lacking anything and that she would have to work to find a place for anything he did send her, Ian began to send breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Like clockwork, meals would appear by her side at the same time everyday.

The first time it happened, Amber was a bit surprised and somewhat touched. The second time, she felt somewhat embarrassed that he was spending so much money on her. To console herself, she started recording all of the meals that he sent her in a little notebook, planning on repaying him after he regained his emotions.

The third time she received a meal, she was already very calm. Everyone in the department admired her delivered meal, and she responded, “My brother insisted on ordering it for me, saying that I’m too skinny.”

Everyone looked at her skinny body, unsuspecting of her white lie. Ian had been busy with his own affairs recently, so even though he regularly sent gifts, he never actually delivered them himself, and thus her lie was never exposed.

She managed to muddle through the gifts in this manner, but the dates were somewhat harder. Ian’s dates were on a fixed schedule; they took place once every two days, regardless of how busy he was. Though Amber was sometimes preoccupied and couldn’t go, but when she had the time, they would go out without fail.

And so, the two of them thus started ‘dating.’ Ian’s performance conformed with societal norms. Amber felt that this wasn’t bad, and she treated it as if they were just friends.

But those thoughts were quickly overturned because Ian’s actions soon transcended the realm of friendship.

On that day, they had gone out for food as usual, but they didn’t go to a movie afterwards, as they had seen them all by now. Instead, the two of them started playing tennis. Given Amber’s fitness, yoga was fine, but trying to match Ian in a sport was an entirely different matter. Losing was one thing, but after three matches, she was exhausted.

Afterwards, she wasn’t even able to walk steadily, and her racket slipped out of her hand as she slumped down to the floor, panting. Ian slowly walked up to her from the other side, put his racket underneath his arm, and crouched down in front of her.

Amber waved a hand at him in resignation. “I’m done, I can’t keep going ….” She couldn’t even say anything else because Ian had started wiping her sweat away with his towel.

She wanted to avoid it, but was unable to do so as Ian was firmly yet gently grasping her head as he dabbed at her face. “Don’t move.”

Amber had no choice but to stiffen up her body and let him wipe her sweat off. Although he wasn’t particularly gentle, he was very detail-oriented as he gradually and exasperatingly slowly moved down her forehead.

After waiting for such a long time and not seeing any significant progress, Amber gave up, closed her eyes, and let him take his time.

And after who knows how long, she felt a strange softness on her lips. She quickly opened her eyes and saw his dark brows.

“You ….”