Me After Meeting You

After Amber left Axton Hotel, her feelings suddenly felt lighter than before. She didn’t expect that the heavy stone in her heart that was Mark would be so easily removed by Ian.

She still felt somewhat guilty, but that guilt was no longer directed towards Mark.RêAd lat𝙚St chapters at Novel(D)ra/ma.Org Only

As for the bet that Ian had proposed, she understood what Ian was aiming at. He didn’t believe in love, so a consequence, he also didn’t believe that something good could come out of Calvin and her.

He wanted her to realize that their love was worthless and meaningless.

But did that mean that she now had to enter a romance with Calvin, and then act in such away that Ian would believe it? This was too laughable; she felt that Ian couldn’t possibly be such a shallow man. What did the emotions of others have to do with him?

But if that were the case, then why did he say what he did?

Was it truly because he … liked her? Did he like her so much that he couldn’t bear to make things difficult for her? And had he then found this ludicrous reason as an excuse to give up on that contract?

As she thought about this, Amber couldn’t help but laugh. Rather than saying that Ian couldn’t bear to upset her because he liked her, it was perhaps more accurate to say that he’d gotten tired of her. In other words, after he realized that he wouldn’t be able to experience the feelings he wanted from her, he had found a reason to get rid of her.

And his kiss was just an experiment.

His helping her was him simply performing the tasks expected of a boyfriend, just like how he said he would fulfill all of her requests for the duration of the contract.

In this doctor-patient relationship, she seemed to be the one who was being led around by the nose.

This realization left her incredibly frustrated and defeated, and it even haunted her dreams that night. In her dreams, she’d suddenly become a super-rich person, and when Ian scolded her with his poisonous mouth and she couldn’t defend herself anymore, she used her endless wealth to win the argument by instigating Billy and the others. “Scold him for me; I’ll give you ten thousand dollars for every word you throw at him!”

When she woke up in the middle of a particularly vigorous scolding from Billy, she even wanted to say to her dream self, “Scram, I want to take part in this scolding match myself!”

As she slowly roused herself from sleep, she couldn’t help but laugh when she thought back to the contents of her dream.

She picked up her phone out of habit and saw that her mother had sent her a text. “Today’s the weekend, are you coming home?”

And there was also one from Calvin. “Have you woken up?”

Amber was feeling lazy and didn’t want to move, so she replied to Calvin first. “I’m awake.”

And almost right after replying, Calvin called her. “Let’s get lunch together at noon. I’ll be at your hospital doing something in the morning.”

His tone was very natural, as if it was just a meeting between regular friends as he asked, “When did you return last night?”

Yes, even his conversational skills had gotten far better since then.

Despite Mark’s likely deception, Amber didn’t plan on giving up on Elly. She preferred to deal with things as they came and still wanted to first meet with Elly’s mother, who had allegedly left the family. As a result, she said, “I might not be able to do noon. I want to meet a patient’s family, and I’ll probably be doing so at noon.”

Calvin sighed. “You really do work hard. Sometimes I even wish that I were your patient.”

“Don’t.” Amber shook her head as she replied, “You should do your best to live your life under the bright sun.”

She clambered out of bed and pulled the blinds open. It was bright outside, and the shining rays made her involuntarily squint.

“Amber ….” Calvin was still coming from her phone.

“Yes?”

“I didn’t cause you any trouble last night, did I?”

He couldn’t help but ask about it again. Amber looked at the bright sunlight outside, unsure whether or not to respond.

In truth, she could have been frank and told him that she had simply had a conversation with Ian and that they had settled everything. They were no longer together, and she could calmly accept being in a relationship with him now … but in her head, Ian’s a loof and obstinate face suddenly appeared. And, when she thought about the bet that he’d made with her, her finger lightly slid over the window top, and she replied, “Nothing much. How about you. Did your things go alright?”

“I’m still on my way.”

“Oh.”

Another lapse of silence. Both parties felt somewhat embarrassed and awkward. Amber thought that Calvin had to have noticed her change, because his feelings had clearly turned downcast. When he said goodbye to her, his earlier high spirits were gone.

Amber reflected on her utter lack of skill at love and romance. She understood it all in theory, of course; but in reality, it was a big mess.

That night … being truthful with Calvin had been her biggest mistake. It seemed like all she had done recently were stupid things.

Knocking her head against the wall, Amber vigorously spurned herself to action. She knew that this was all because she had been putting too much pressure on herself to obtain results, which was why she had originally taken the risk of accepting Elly as a patient. She also strongly desired the recognition of her professor, so she had chosen to ignore everything besides her to get close to Ian.

Her professor was right. She really was too young and too rash, and her work had become too entangled with her personal life. And now, she was starting to pay the price.