Me After Meeting You

Amber couldn’t help but laugh again. What she had taken to be a blunt personality was, in her mother’s eyes, a person dazed in the head.

Even though Amber’s mother disparaged Ian, she still made a sumptuous dinner for everyone-she was primarily trying to take care of her daughter, who seemed to have gotten even skinnier since the last time they had met.

Being a doctor was tiring.

While making dinner, Amber’s mother didn’t let Amber help. Instead, she got Ruby to buy Ian a new set of clothes. While Amber was pouring water to drink, she heard her mother instruct Ian, “Buy something nicer and treat it as your sister’s fee for breaking up with him.”

Upon hearing this, Amber was rendered speechless. She returned to the sofa in the living room, sat down, and then noticed that Ian’s whole body was curled up under the blanket as he calmly looked at his phone.

She glanced over at it, seeing that he was sending an e-mail in Deutsch.

When he finished, Amber asked, “If you didn’t have any clothes to wear, why didn’t you just stay in the room?”

With a very righteous tone, Ian instead asked her, “If my wife’s mother is here, shouldn’t I go and meet her?”

“….”

She had thought that she was very well mannered and had gone through considerable ethical training, but Ian was somehow always able to gether riled up and furious.

She really wanted to knock her head hard on this sofa and end it all. “She’s not your wife’s mother! Alright, this isn’t even the key point. Rather, my mom said that when they entered, you weren’t wearing anything. How can you do that?”

“No, I didn’t.” As Ian said this, helifted up the blanket, showing the underwear within. “I was wearing this.”

“Oh!”

“My goodness!”

Two exclamations at the same time. Amber and Ian turned their heads around, and saw her mother and Ruby at the door of the kitchen. The pot in her hand clattered on to the floor, and Ruby knocked his head against the doorframe. “I didn’t see anything.” He had clearly hit his head, but he said this while covering his eyes. Then he gingerly stepped past the livingroom and out the door, running outside to get some new clothes.

Slowly and carefully, Ian arranged the blanket about himself again, where as Amber’s mother balefully stared at her son and her daughter.

During dinner that night, besides Ruby, everyone else was in low spirits.

Amber didn’t rest properly, so her appetite was poor. As for Ian … his dining etiquette was perfect, slow and elegant, but anyone watching him eat would have their appetite drained away: eating was nothing more than a task to him, and it didn’t matter if he were hungry or the food were tasty.

As the cook, Amber’s mother was somewhat displeased with his behavior, and even more displeased when she saw her daughter’s gaze land on his body.

She planned to give her daughter a stern talking-to at night, but Amber told her that she had to work the night shift. Additionally, her mother had to wake up early in the morning to open her diner, and it was unrealistic for her to stay overnight and dump everything on her husband. Thus, Amber’s mother could only go home with a head full of worries.

Even so, before she left, she made sure to see Ian out first.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

With regards to all of this, Amber just did as she was told. At any rate, time would be able to resolve everything; she wasn’t in a hurry.

***

After sending her mother and brother away, Amber returned to the hospital. Once it was time, she went to Elly’s ward and accompanied her in drawing. She persisted in doing this for quite some time-the hospital had finally let her return to work and had asked her to return to the clinic-but the results were still insignificant. Elly still did not permit anyone to come closer than five paces to her.

During this period of time, Elly’s father had come to visit her just once, to pay her hospital bills and an additional hundred thousand dollar.

At that time, Amber didn’t know that he had paid so much money. She met him in her office. Compared to that day, Elly’s father looked much paler, and he was wearing an attire similar to what he had worn that day, a black armband on his arm.

Seeing Amber’s gaze land on his armband, he covered it with his hand. “I’m sorry for coming here like this, but today was mymother’s funeral, so … Please excuse me.”

From just his appearances, he certainly seemed like a dignified man.

“My condolences.”

Elly’s father lips curved up imperceptibly as he said, “I apologize for my actions that day; it was all my fault. In the past few days, the police came to talk to me. I know that you’re a good doctor, and Elly’s very fortunate to have met you. But those things are long past, and I don’t want to pursue them any further. I’d also like to ask you to not meddle in this affair any longer … if Elly can get better, that’s great; if not, I’m willing to keep paying for her stay here.”

Upon hearing this, Amber didn’t know what sort of expression to make. She looked at him, not saying anything for a long while, before finally taking out a sketchbook from a drawer and placing it in front of Elly’s father. “This is a book of sketches that your daughter has drawn while here. Take a look at it. If you still think that that matter’s unimportant after wards, then I will respect your choice. But I have to say that, as a parent, if you cannot love your children, then at the very least, do not become an accomplice to her problems.”

Just as Nancy had said, she was only a doctor. The only thing she could do was to cure illnesses and treat patients. She couldn’t become a savior for the masses, and neither did she want to.

After leaving Elly’s father alone, Amber walked out. Elly’s nurse walked over, curiously looked inside the room, and then whispered in her ear, “Dr. Camille, Elly’s fees are paid in fullnow, and her father even paid an extra hundred thousand dollar. Her father spent so much money at once; is he trying to keep her here for her entire life?”

Amber could only smile coolly. “Who knows?” She looked through the security camera as Elly’s father slowly flipped through Elly’s sketchbook. The nurse lamented, “Elly really has a talent for drawing. What a pity.”

Amber didn’t respond. She looked at Ian’s father as he flipped through the book, page by page, clutching his chest as tears started slowly dripping from his face.