Calvin was standing there quietly under the lamplight. His gaze was as clear as ever, and his expression gentle. However his lips were slightly blue and his face a bit sallow.
That hint of sallowness gave him a much more timid demeanor, reminding Amber of when he had sat behind her in class in their youth.
But her heart had already anchored in another harbor. When she glanced at the female jacket draped over his shoulder, she smiled. “Hello. What a coincidence.”
He also smiled. Then, he unconsciously tightened his grip on the clothes in his hand as he asked, “You’re here … waiting for someone?”
“Yes. I’m having dinner with my family, but I can’t find the restaurant. So, I can only wait for them to pick me up.”
“Huft.” Calvin grunted awkwardly. At this time, they didn’t really have much to say to each other.
However, Calvin also didn’t want to leave, so he asked her about Elly’s situation. After getting married, he hadn’t visited Elly since, and although Amber knew that he had his own reasons for doing so, she was still a little disappointed in him, which was reflected in her detached answers.
As they chatted, Amber suddenly looked happily past Calvin. “He’s here.”
Calvin turned around and saw Ian.
Ian was walking toward them at a slow and unhurriedly pace. As he approached them, he neglected to greet Calvin and only extended his hand towards Amber.
Amber smiled, grabbed his hand, and then said to Calvin, “I’m going to go first. See you around.”
Her greeting wasn’t particularly impolite, but it was precisely this sort of unintentionally politeness that best expressed how far they had drifted apart.
But Ian didn’t understand what her farewell meant, that it was only because she had really let go of her feelings towards him that she was able to act so calm, so at ease.
As the two held hands and walked towards the restaurant, he saw her smile as brightly as a flower. Unbidden, his thoughts kept going back to what Sarah had said that day “aren’t you also like that, thinking about Calvin in your heart, but staying with Director Axton instead?”
In the past, he hadn’t cared about whom Amber wanted to be with in her heart. However, when he actually saw her standing next to that man in person, he couldn’t stop an unfathomable annoyance, vexation, and unease from surfacing in his heart.
He thought back to that wedding countless months ago, when he had seen her chatting with him with a happy gaze and gentle lips. Then, he thought about how he himself had then suddenly gone over and handed her condoms.
As it turned out, when he first met her, even before he had learned to love, he had experienced what it was like to feel jealous.
He too could get jealous.
Perhaps it was because they’d been together for quite a while, but Amber detected Ian’s abnormal emotional state very quickly. The private restaurant was deep in an alleyway, and the lighting wasn’t very good here. She raised her head, noticed his slightly clenched lower jaw, and immediately grabbed his hand tightly.
“Ian, are you upset?”
He turned around, glanced at her briefly, and then honestly replied, “Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t like seeing you around him.”
Amber stilled for a moment, and asked in disbelief, “Are you jealous?”
Ian replied with a serious expression, as if it were to be expected, “I’m learning to.”
“….”
She wasn’t able to hold her laughter back and a chuckle or two spilled out. Ian looked at her with a dissatisfied expression, and Amber quickly said, “I”m sorry. I didn’t mean to intentionally laugh at you. We only met up coincidentally, and we were talking about Elly’s affairs. Don’t worry. We probably won’t see each other for quite a while.”
But when Amber was saying this, she didn’t anticipate that, she’d actually be forced to meet frequently with Calvin for this entire month.
At the time, she was just clutching Ian’s hand and saying with a smile, “Ian, you’re too cute! But even if you’re learning to be jealous, you have to do so for the right reason. Calvin and I … even if he were an angel sent from heaven, I wouldn’t get involved with a married man.”
Only then did Ians facial expression improve slightly. On the surface, however, he looked as though he was even colder and more inapproachable than usual. In the end, Amber didn’t dare to laugh too much at him, and just happily walked to the restaurant with him.
Of course, the main reason why she was happy was because Ian’s awareness over his own emotions seemed to be improving, as signified by the fact that he responded to them, unlike before.
Amber was ultimately late to the dinner because of her work, and the elders of both families took that into account, but in quite different fashions. Her mother grumbled, “You arrived so late! Everyone’s waiting for you, almost as if no one else has anything important to do!”
Meanwhile, Ian’s grandparents graciously replied, “Haish, work is important. It’s fine even if we wait a little.” They then even commented on how hard Amber had to have been working, and lovingly pulled her next to them.
Even Ian’s father said, “It’s good for young people to work hard.”
Upon hearing all this, Amber smiled a little, and her gaze landed on Daren Axton, who was sitting opposite her. He had found a corner seat and was originally sneaking secret glances at her with his head low, but when he saw her look over, he quickly turned his head away with a red face.
Amber couldn’t help but smile at his antics, and then she greeted them all in turn. Ian’s family had all gathered here today, and as for her own family, Ruby was on a business trip, so he was the only one who was unable to make it.
After Amber’s mother finished enumerating her daughter’s multiple shortcomings, she didn’t forget to mention her son either. “Don’t say something like that! You’re going to over coddle them and make them think that their work is as important as the president’s. My son’s like that too. He said that he was going to come, but then something came up at work that required his urgent presence so much that he had to take an overnight flight over.”
Ian’s grandfather replied, “It’s far better for young people to be working hard than to be sitting at home idle.”
And then he criticized his own grandchildren as well, tossing out some vague descriptions. “The older one doesn’t come home, and the younger one stays home far too much.”
Amber and Ian were sitting side by side, and, along with Daren opposite them, the three of them suffered in silence as their elders castigated them. Luckily, the food arrived quickly, and they didn’t have to listen for too long.