“Ooh…” Pippa ran into the washroom.
Vincent was expressionless and looked cold.
Leila continued to open her crabs as if everything had nothing to do with her.
Callum was sweating. “Awesome! Well, can you still eat, Leila?”
Leila shrugged, raised her eyebrows and smiled faintly. “I didn’t take my lunch and I’m hungry! This isn’t the most disgusting joke! Wait for me to tell you all the most disgusting one!”
Vincent’s face fell and he turned displeased suddenly.
Leila glanced at Vincent, thinking that the joke was good enough to prank him but she was just worried that Vincent had never been so badly treated in his entire life. She then spoke to Renee, “Let’s tell you about it next time when we go to eat something that is even more sumptuous than this!”
“Let’s eat!” Leila continued eating.
For a while, there were only Renee, Callum and Leila eating together while Vincent didn’t take his chopsticks but looked into the direction of the washroom. Leila saw his worry but Vincent said in a deep voice, “Leila, I just want to know, do you have a more disgusting joke than that?”
This was the first sentence he spoke to Leila when he came to HH Restaurant, Leila smiled gently and nodded her head, “Yes, do you want to hear it?”
The corners of his lips curled up playfully and he nodded his head, “Yes! I want to hear it!”
“Well!” Leila didn’t care but spoke about it as she opened the crabs. “One day, two brothers went to the theatre to watch a play. Halfway through the play, they argued over the development of the plot and made a bet about it. The eldest pointed to a row of spittoons in front and said, ‘The loser has to take a sip from there.’ Unfortunately, the eldest lost so he took a sip with a frown. The duo continued to bet on the next episode and this time, the youngest lost. He then picked up a spittoon and gulped down fifteen big gulps. The eldest was astonished and spoke to the youngest in admiration, ‘You’re amazing. You just took fifteen big gulps in a row!’ The latter shook his head, ‘It’s not that I want to drink but the spittle in that spittoon are so dense that I couldn’t stop.”
“Ooh…” Renee and Callum were about to vomit after listening to Leila’s joke. The had known about the joke of “recooking” and had been long immune to it but they always told the joke to others purposely during the dinner in order to disgust people and then enjoyed the food by themselves. However, they didn’t expect to meet Leila today who was a grand master of joking. “Leila, this is amazing!”
Leila smiled faintly and glanced at Vincent but found that he was looking at her with unblinking eyes. His eyes were deep and bright, yet, there was a trace of appreciation in his eyes as if he wasn’t angry at all but curling up the corner of his lips playfully and then said later, “I like this joke!”
Boom…
Leila was dumbfounded and almost choking!
What did he mean?
Leila tried her best to calm down the chaos in her heart and she was puzzled by his sudden comment. She was trying to make him angry but why wasn’t he angry at all? Why did he smile at her?
Was he crazy? Was his brain damaged?
Leila lowered her head and continued to eat.
Renee was also a bit surprised, she and Callum looked at each other and blinked, what was going on? The way Vincent looked at Leila seemed different! When he looked at Leila smiling, Renee saw clearly that there was warmth in his eyes and there was no sarcasm in his smile, and when he glanced at herself, he would be a little impatient and would even ignore her.
Did Vincent like Leila? Renee was confused! What about him and Pippa?
Leila lowered her head, eating silently, didn’t even know that Vincent was gazing at her. When he looked at her lost in thought, his eyes turned deeper and darker.
Then, she heard Vincent’s phone ringing.
He glanced at the phone and didn’t answer it, but stood up and walked towards the washroom.
“Mr. White, don’t forget to pay the bill!” Renee didn’t forget to say. Looking at Vincent’s defeated look, Renee was greatly pleased for herself and Leila in her heart. But she was worried again when looking at the way they were getting along.
Vincent had the urge to slap Renee to death on the spot!
Leila lost her appetite when she saw Vincent go to the bar to pay the bill, pick up Pippa from the washroom, bring her out of HH Restaurant and finally get into his Bugatti with Pippa sitting in the passenger seat.
Renee apologized to Leila when they walked out of the HH Restaurant. “Did I cross the line, Leila? I don’t expect he would bring that woman away!”
“It’s alright! It has nothing to do with you!” Leila shook her head. “Let’s go shopping!”
“Hum! That’s fine. Let’s go shopping!” Renee smiled, “I’ll let Callum go back first and just both of us go shopping together!”
Callum was driven back by Renee in the end and both of them held their arms and walked down the street together.
Leila was unsure where her heart had gone to.
The duo shopped until nine o’clock at night without buying anything before Leila took the bus back and Renee went back too.
Upon reaching the downstairs of the Pearl Community, Leila looked up and saw Bugatti was right in front of the doorway of the building. He was here! However, she went straight into the building as she didn’t want to see him and just pretended not to see the Bugatti.
“Stop there!” A low voice that seemed to have mixed with anger rang out behind her.
Leila was dumbfounded on the spot for several seconds before she turned around, looking at a tall man with a cigarette in his hand. She just stared at him dumbfoundedly and her eyes were full of indifference.
Vincent frowned impatiently when seeing her look like this and asked in a deep voice, “Why did you change the lock?”
His cold male voice pierced her eardrum and echoed but Leila only gently pulled up the corner of her lips and asked, “Does it have anything to do with you? This house belongs to my mother!”
Her absentminded eyes met his handsome face and when she saw his expression changed with those words, she smiled softly again, “I’m sorry. I’m a bit tired. Bye!”
She flew upstairs in big strides, leaving him behind. She was panting heavily for running too fast when she reached the doorway. Upon seeing him catching up from behind, she immediately opened the door panickily and entered, shutting Vincent out after she closed the door swiftly.
Looking at the closed door, Vincent frowned as she had locked him out!
Was it to revenge him for shutting her out last night? That was why she changed the lock? That would be fine if she was simply sulking at him, but what if she didn’t want to have any contact with him from now on, he… the cigarette was still held between the fingers of his left hand. He then took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
But there was nothing happening inside and she obviously would not open the door!
Leila listened to the knocking and smiled bitterly. What did he mean? He had left her and her friends with Pippa and now he remembered her and came back for her. She had her own thought and dignity and she was not someone who just came and went as he called.
The phone rang, and Leila saw it was him calling.
She went silent for a while before she picked up the phone and said without listening to what he said, “Go back! I need to prepare my thesis and we’d better not meet for the next few days!”
“Open the door!” He interrupted her.
“I won’t!” Her tone was cold and firm.
“Leila!” Vincent called her name in a deep voice. “Open the door!”
“No way!”
“I’ll wait for you here all night if you don’t open!”
“It is up to you!” Leila shuddered and her tone was resolute, “I don’t care, I won’t open the door, it is all up to you to stay at the door if you want!”
“Leila, can you stop it? Don’t be childish!” His tone lowered and sounded tired which ached her heart when she heard it.
“I’m not being childish!” Leila argued as she just wanted to maintain her dignity that she had left even though she had known she didn’t have much dignity but it didn’t mean that she wasn’t in her stance. “I’m tired!”
Hanging up the phone with a bang, she then put it on the table and went into the bathroom.
The phone rang again but the sound of the rushing water covered the sound of the phone as Leila turned on the tap and let the water run. Meanwhile, she removed her clothes and submerged herself in the warm water to relieve the tiredness of her body.
Outside the door, Vincent knocked on the door and dialed the phone but she didn’t answer it.
He knew that she would not open the door tonight!
He turned around and went downstairs.
Half an hour later, Leila put on her bathrobe and walked out of the bathroom. The room was quiet and the phone was not ringing. Leila was inexplicably lost in her heart, had he left?
Her feelings were conflicted. She went to the sofa, sat down and turned on the TV, kept pressing the remote control in her hand but she couldn’t find a single programme to watch out of the dozens of TV channels. Finally, she turned off the TV, got herself up and went into the bedroom.
The lights went out!
Vincent who was sitting in the car was sad as his heart sank when he saw the lights upstairs going out.
In the morning when Leila woke up, she pulled open the curtain and her eyes advertently looked downstairs. Her eyes were slightly stunned as the Bugatti was not there, she then turned around and went into the kitchen.
She was cutting a small cucumber as she wanted to make herself a bowl of cucumber egg soup for breakfast. Inadvertently, she was bleeding profusely as the knife slipped and accidentally cut her hand.
She lowered her eyes and sighed secretly, ‘Leila, what was wrong with you? How could you be so unconcentrated when you were about to debate?’
Turning on the tap, the running water washed away the blood until it no longer bled before she got up and found herself a band aid to put on. She then continued cooking her soup, eating it quietly before changing her clothes and preparing to go out.
There were three missed calls on the phone screen and all were from him calling!
He had made three missed calls last night. Perhaps three was his limit. He repeated and repeated but would not do it more than three times.
In the P University.
Leila had just reached the teaching block when a low voice came from behind her, “Leila!”
She turned around and met Theodore and he was looking at her with a smile on his face yet, there was a faint trace of sorrowfulness locked in his eyebrows that he had no way to release them. Leila sighed secretly inside, there was nothing wrong with Theodore to be fond of her but the fault was that she didn’t like him and they were just not the right persons for each other.
Looking at him with a smile on her thin face, she then nodded her head. “Good morning, Mr. Hall!”
“Leila, you look so pretty when you smile!” Theodore didn’t expect to see that flash of smile on Leila’s face as he almost thought Leila wouldn’t smile at him anymore. Realizing what he had said, he turned embarrassed and explained eagerly, “I mean I haven’t seen you smile for a long time!”
Leila turned even more guilty when she looked at Theodore who suddenly became awkward. He must have liked her deeply but she didn’t like him! Perhaps this was life. The person you loved may not love you, but those you didn’t love would love you instead!