After sitting in the car, Leila heaved a sigh. She turned around and looked at Vincent.
He got a punch on his chin, which was reddened and a bit swollen. With her hand touching his chin, she whispered, “Does it hurt?”
He was taken aback for a moment. Looking deeply at her, with his hand stroking across her cheek, he lowered his head and kissed her lips. He answered in a gentle voice, “No matter how much it hurts, I know you have suffered more than I do.”
Biting her lower lip, Leila mumbled, “I’ve never expected that you are so skilled in fighting.”
“If I didn’t spend so much effort in bed last night, I believe my performance would be much better,” he whispered again in her ears. Seeing that she blushed again, he chuckled and fastened the seat belt for her.
He took her for dinner. After that, he took her to have a walk in a park. Along the road, there were all French sycamores. Under the breeze, they felt quite relaxed and romantic. They walked shoulder-by-shoulder, his big palm holding her hand all the way.
Under the light of the street lamp, his side face looked particularly hazy and handsome. She smiled faintly. They had been through extremely hard times until today. She wondered what they would experience again in the future.
She just wished that they could always go on no matter what would happen.
When they walked out of the park and reached a lane, Leila heard that someone was playing piano, and the song was “Afterwards”.
Then she heard a familiar voice. After being startled for a moment, she recognized that it was Renee who was singing —
Afterward, I finally know how to love someone.
Unfortunately, you’ve gone long ago,
Vanishing in the crowd.
Afterward,
I finally understood while shedding tears,
If I missed someone, then nothing could be done.
The white petals of gardenias,
Fell on my blue pleated skirt.
“I love you,” you whispered.
I bent down my head, smelling the fragrance.
The eternal evening,
In the mid-summer of my seventeen,
In which you kissed me…
For some reason, Leila felt quite sad. When she pushed the door open, both she and Vincent was startled at the spot.
They froze…
They couldn’t believe what they saw.
Renee had become so haggard. They hadn’t seen her for a few days, but she looked like a walking dead. Her face was pale and her hair was messy. She looked skinny.
“Renee, what happened?” Leila rushed to Renee, looking at her face.
“Hi, Leila.” Renee stopped playing the piano, putting on a bitter smile on her face. She forced herself to smile and say, “Why are you here?”|
“I’m having a walk with Mr. White. What’s wrong with you? Why have you become so bony?” Leila felt sorry for her. When she walked closer to Renee, she felt sorrier. “What happened?”
“What a coincidence…” Renee just turned around to cast a glance at Vincent as a greeting to him.
Vincent fell into the silence. He was also shocked why Renee had become so bony while she was still lively a few days ago.
Leila was more worried. “What on earth happened to you?”
***
Perhaps it was because Vincent was standing aside, Renee kept silent.
Leila could see that she was embarrassed. She walked over and whispered to Vincent, “Mr. White, could you leave us alone, please? There’s something wrong with Renee.”
Vincent’s expression was stiffed, becoming a bit gloomy. After casting another glance at that woman, he frowned. He looked as if he was a bit angry, but he didn’t have the heart to refuse Leila. He nodded in agreement. “Be quick. You’ll only have five minutes.”
“Okay,” Leila answered gratefully although she was bitching that he was way too petty. After she looked up and smiled at him, he walked out in satisfaction like a child.
Leila turned around. Before she could ask anything, Renee immediately shed tears. The teardrops flew out and fell on the ground.
Leila was in a panic. “What’s wrong, Renee?”
“Ah–” Renee cried out and burst into tears. Her cry was so loud that the owner of the musical instrument store was frightened.
“Don’t cry, Renee. What happened? Tell me!” Leila was more anxious when seeing her crying.
However, no matter what Leila said, Renee couldn’t stop crying at all — her teardrops fell like unchained beads, keeping dropping on the ground. It seemed that she was aggrieved so much. Her tears ran out all of a sudden. As soon as she saw Leila, as if she had seen a family, she couldn’t stop shedding tears at all.
“Speak!” Leila was so anxious.
“Leila, tell me… Why does God have such a plan on me?”
“What on earth happened?”
“I’m pregnant!” she answered while sobbing.
“What?” Leila was startled. “Whose baby is it?”
“Don’t ask, Leila. That heartless man is getting married. I don’t want to love him anymore. I won’t!” Renee whined. Her words made Leila more confused. It had just been a few days only. She couldn’t help wondering whose baby Renee was carrying.
“Renee, it’s useless to cry. Stop crying, please. Let’s figure out what to do.” Leila heard such news as if she was struck by a lightning bolt. Her mind was blank, and she couldn’t figure out a way at all.
Renee’s tears kept dripping onto her collars while running through her cheeks.
Sobbing, she muttered, “He’s getting married, but I’m not the bride.”\
“Who the heck is it?” Leila was taken aback.
“Who else could it be? Callum West!” Renee was crying miserably. “What should I do? Leila, tell me what I should do.”
“What? It’s him!” Leila could roughly guess that Callum was the father of the child, but still, she was somehow surprised when hearing the answer. “Then, you should go to tell him that you’re pregnant. You should ask him what to do.”
“No! Please don’t!” Renee shook her head. “I don’t want to do that. Leila, is it useful if I told him that? He’s a heartless man. Do you think it would be useful to trap him with our child?”
Her words made Leila helpless. Indeed, why would a woman want a heartless man? It would become a tragedy eventually. “But, Renee, are you sure he’s heartless to you?”
“Do you know whom he’s going to marry?”
“Who is it?”
“The daughter of the municipal party secretary. Her father is above your father. Do you think Callum West would reject this marriage?” Renee started to wail while squatting down. She cried and yelled, “How could I shed so many tears? Since I’ve fallen in love with Callum West, my tears are turned into the fucking tap water. It’s so easy for me to shed tears, as long as I felt wronged. I’ll never love him anymore! Never!”
“Renee, what on earth happened between you guys?” Leila was almost anxious to death.
“Leila, let me tell you. I’ve been knowing him for over two decades. We were childhood friends. I thought I know him the most. I thought I could wait for him to love me back. But, after waiting for so many years, I’ve lost him. Oh, nope! He dumped me!”
Renee and Callum were childhood friends. Later, they were separated because their parents changed their jobs. Then, when they met again, Renee felt that it was destiny planned by God, and they were destined to be together.
Last month, Renee saw that Callum was getting a hotel room with a girl. Callum was always a playboy, just like Casanova, which Renee knew very well. At that time, she just came out from a bar and had drunk a bit of alcohol. She caught up with them and blocked their ways. For some reason, she felt so upset when seeing him with another woman. Hence, she stood out in the middle of their ways.
Callum gaped at her. “Renee, what are you doing?”
He looked shocked. Disbelief was written all over his handsome face, which made Renee fascinated for so many years, and he just gaped at her.
Like a lunatic, she rushed to kick and hit him. “Will you die if you don’t fuck a woman? Callum West, why are you always like a breeding pig? Why?”
Seeing Renee’s violence, the girl with Callum made an excuse and left. Renee and Callum were tangling with each other for half an hour. The hotel’s lobby manager finally couldn’t bear them and walked to question what was going on.
“Nothing, Sir. Nothing serious. I’m discussing checking in the hotel with my wife. But she insists on going home.”
“Checking in the hotel with you? I’m not your wife!” Renee shouted again.
Unexpectedly, Callum picked her up and carried her in his arms. After checking in, he took her upstairs.
“You’ve driven her away, so you need to take the responsibility,” he whispered in her ears ambiguously.
Finally, Renee understood what was going on. She wanted to maintain her virginity until she became his bride eventually. However, she couldn’t control the situation — she found that she could never bear to see him with another woman again. Moreover, he held her as soon as they entered the room and carried her onto the bed.
They were tangling with each other like the vines. Tugging and tangling, she cried, but he didn’t stop at all. He shared a salty and sticky kiss with her and broke her lips. She also bit his neck. They kissed each other like two beasts.
While they were kissing, his hand reached out and wandered around on her body. She kept feeling as if she got an electrical shock, almost exploding.
Callum tore apart Renee’s dress. She couldn’t hear his heart hammering. He called her name, again and again. His ink-black eyes looked deeply into hers. Her tearful eyes with grievance made her look so pitiful, not so aggressive as she usually looked.
He stared at her for almost half a minute. Then he asked, “Renee, may I?”
She looked back at him in a daze, tears flowing. “Callum, once you have me, you can’t have any other woman.”
Without any hesitation, he entered her body. The pain made her frown, but she didn’t cry out in pain stubbornly. His intrusion wasn’t going smoothly, but he kept getting deeper without any hesitation.
They became one, pestering each other in pain.
That night, they kept having sex without any stop until they both got worn out.
That was the first time that Renee wouldn’t forget her whole life. On the bedsheet, there was a rose blossom.
It was florid, beautiful, and pure.
She still could remember how satisfied Callum was when he looked at the virgin blood on the bedsheet. With a smile, he asked, “Renee, do you have a secret crush on me for many years?”
Renee just answered, “Dream on!”
However, when Renee thought that nothing could separate her and Callum, he went on a blind date.
Probably Renee had taken things too simply — she thought they loved each other so deeply. She had hit him, made a fuss, and had sex with him. Even she had lost her virginity to him, which she aimed to keep until their wedding day. She had thought that nothing could part them at all.
However, unfortunately, she saw him on a blind date. The girl was the daughter of the municipal party secretary. Then Renee walked to them and asked openly, “Hey, are you guys dating?”
Seeing her, Callum explained to the daughter of the municipal party secretary in embarrassment, “This is my friend. I treated her like my younger sister.”
Renee was hurt.
When he said that she was like his younger sister, her heart broke. She didn’t make a farce. In silence, she turned around and walked away.
Later, she met Callum again, when Arthur was sending her back to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. He was angry when seeing her with another man.
Then Renee asked for a day off. Soon, she found herself pregnant.
However, when she was about to tell Callum about her pregnancy, she went back to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office and received her wedding invitation. His wedding would be held next week — it turned out that he was marrying the daughter of the municipal party secretary.
“So you just watch it happen?” Leila felt sorry for her as well as sad.
Renee finally managed to stop crying. Pressing her lips, she sniffed. She said in embarrassment, “I’m sorry for bothering you, Leila. I’ve overreacted.”
“What would you do next?” Leila’s gaze fell on her belly.
“I’ll go for an abortion.” Renee sniffed again. “Could you please go to the hospital with me tomorrow?”
“Renee!” Leila called her name in anxiety. “This is a new life. How could you have the heart to do so?”
“Leila, obviously this boy is not welcomed to this world. If I kept him, I would be in hell all my life. I’m just this kind of person — if I love him, I will love him completely; if not, I don’t want to be in touch with him any longer. I don’t like be in an ambiguous relationship.” Renee smiled slightly. “If you are still my friend, just go with me.”
“I can go with you, but I hope you can think twice before doing it.”
“Please don’t tell anyone else about this matter, Leila. Please!”
Renee still needed to continue singing in the store. She told Leila that she would be fine, asked Leila to leave, and she wanted to be with herself.
When Leila walked out of the store, she felt quite upset. Raising her head, she found the tall and strong figure across the street of the musical instrument store. He was smoking, his statue-liked body was slender and straightened. As if he was impatient, when he saw her coming out of the store, he tossed the cigarette end, stamped on it, and strode over from the other side of the street.
Seeing that he walked over with a frown, Leila wondered what she would do if Vincent treated her in the same way one day. At the thought of it, she felt bitter in her heart and hard to breathe as if she was about to suffocate.
“Can we leave now?” He looked at Leila deeply. She could see the affection and tenderness in his eyes, shining like the peach blossom.
“Why did you cross the street?” She was a bit confused.
Raising his eyebrows, he was silent for a long time. Then he asked, “Did she butcher a hog in there?”
Leila was stunned, wondering if that was a sick joke from Mr. White. “She had some trouble. I’m quite sorry for her.”
“We can’t do anything on others’ matters,” he muttered, his lips apart. Then he said in a jealous tone while pointing at his wristwatch, “You’ve been there for half an hour!”
“I’m sorry, Mr. White.” She forgot the time. She understood that he didn’t interrupt after waiting outside for such a long time because he must have heard Renee’s whining. She cried so miserably without caring about her public image, and Leila believed that she must felt extremely sad.
When loving someone, this happened — you could get hurt and the wound would be so deep as if your bone marrow would also be injured. The pain spread from the blood to the bone marrow. The pain could hurt you to the core.
***
Suddenly, she reached out and wrapped his waist. Pressing her face onto his chest, she murmured, “Mr. White, we’ll never be apart, will we?”