“What? You can see me?” Johnny spoke with sarcasm.
Ulric wanted to speak, but Rosalind nudged him, indicating that it was okay.
“I’m not blind,” Tilda continued eating, unaffected. “Rosalind, the food is delicious!”
“Well then, eat more,” Rosalind smiled warmly.
Johnny deliberately stared at Tilda and stopped eating. He put down his knife and fork before speaking up, “You said we wouldn’t see each other again, so I treated you like air.”
“That’s good.” Tilda had no objections.
Her attitude made Johnny feel frustrated!
He would rather argue with Tilda, back and forth, than see her acting so reserved as if it were truly our last meeting.
Just as Johnny was about to speak, Ulric timely interrupted in a cold voice, “Alright, let’s eat.”
“Oh.”
During dinner, everyone had their own thoughts, but Rosalind and Ulric seemed interested in watching the drama unfold.
Tilda suggested going for a walk with Rosalind to digest their food, leaving Ulric and Johnny alone in the hospital room.
“Why do you always clash with Tilda?” Ulric finally realized that something was off between them.
Johnny sat on the couch with his head drooped and pouted. “I just feel like she’s different from other women!”
He was popular in Northville City! There wasn’t a woman he couldn’t pursue or sleep with. Other women wouldn’t even dare to talk back to him loudly.
But Tilda was different. She always argued with him!
“Just because she’s different?”
Ulric never liked Johnny’s fickle attitude towards relationships.
But since it was his personal matter, Ulric didn’t weigh in on his private life. But Tilda was different! She was Rosalind’s friend and had been helping raise two children for so many years. Ulric had to step in!
“Oh, well, don’t worry about what I’ll do to her! I know if I get involved with her, you won’t be able to explain it to Rosalind.” Johnny furrowed his brows and irritably ran his fingers through his hair. “But… let me tell you the truth. Without this banter with her, it’s not as interesting!”
“When you were on the phone earlier saying you were going back, did you think Tilda had already left?”
Johnny covered his face and groaned. “How do you know everything? It’s embarrassing! I went to knock on her door, thinking that a good man like me shouldn’t argue with a woman or stoop to her level, but no one answered. The hotel staff said there was a car waiting for her departure. So I thought she…”
“I thought she had gone back home…”
“Yeah.”
“She really is about to leave.”
Johnny widened his eyes immediately. “When is her flight?”
Ulric looked at him intently. “Why are you asking this?”
“Just curious.”
“Then don’t ask.”
Suddenly, Johnny stood up and pulled a chair over to sit by Ulric’s bed. He had a mysterious look on his face. “Ulric, do you think this feeling I get-wanting to scold her when I see her, but feeling empty when she’s not around-means I… like her?”
It was a feeling he had never experienced before! Even with Sirena, he never felt like this.
In the past, he had always engaged with other women on a mutual basis, going straight to a hotel for the night. When he got tired of them, he would simply hand them some cash to make them go away. Afterward, Johnny was always afraid those women would come back to bother him! But with Tilda, everything felt completely different.