Me After Meeting You

Billy leaned against the car window as he looked at them lazily, his expression seemingly both a smile and not one at all.

Amber and Calvin were both smart people, so they were well aware that Billy and Ian didn’t like Calvin and had no intention of talking to him at all. She walked over as Calvin waved before turning and leaving.

He left very quickly, not turning back. Upon seeing this, Billy deliberately asked Amber, “Who’s that fellow? Why didn’t you introduce us to him? He looks somewhat handsome. My, you’re not trying to make our Ian a cuckold, are you?”

After spouting these inflammatory words, he glanced at Ian, but the latter didn’t even bother looking at him.

Amber ignored him as well, climbing into the car expressionlessly. “Aren’t you going to leave? This is a restricted parking zone.’

“At worst, I’ll get fined,” Billy responded blithely.

Amber was caught speechless by his response. Billy did drive off after saying that, but he didn’t stop yammering, and even brought up the appointment booking incident again. “That incident really ended up hurting a lot of rich folks, and even my mom started asking my dad if he was raising a vixen. Haha, they’re fighting at home everyday now. How funny.”

“… Is it really alright for you to talk about your parents like this?”

“What’s wrong with it?” Billy stared at her superciliously, as if she were a novice to the ways of the world. He drove slowly and started gossiping about his father’s Casanova, like escapades. As Amber listened, black lines began streaking over her face, but he only seemed to get more and more invested as he spoke.

When she took another look at Ian, he had evidently heard enough, as he was not responding to Billy at all. Since he was looking out the window, she could only see the back of his head from her angle.

Somehow, along the way, Billy had shifted topics from his father’s romantic dealings tocthat day they had spent gambling. “… We’ve never lost that badly before, Dr. Camille. So you want to play another round? If you’re that lucky again, then I’ll give you a chance and let our Ian be your escort again.”

When Billy mentioned the word escort, he even slapped his thighs and started cackling maniacally, as tears of laughter leaked out. Honestly, making the situation that awkward was a talent at that point.

Amber really couldn’t stand it anymore, so she sat up and poked Ian’s shoulder.

He responded surprisingly quickly, catching her offending finger at once.

Amber wanted to pull it out of his grasp but wasn’t able to; thus, she could only pretend that she didn’t mind it much. “I want to discuss something with you. Can we talk in private?”

Since they’d met by coincidence, she might as well have a conversation with him.

As usual, Ian didn’t reject her request. He let go of her, and, ignoring Billy’s protests, apathetically said, “Go to Axton Hotel.”

The emotions vanished from Billy’s face. It was fine if the two of them ignored him, but he was very displeased that they were even going to ditch him and go off gallivanting somewhere else. “You helped me deal with that old man, but what happened to giving me a chance to thank you? Ansell and the rest are already waiting there.”

Ian chuckled as he dryly said, “Do you all want to be third wheels?”

These words were really too provoking, so much so that even Amber couldn’t help but cough out of shock. Billy, on the other hand, silently spat out a mouthful of blood, parked the car by the roadside, and started pounding on the steering wheel, making the car horn blare so loudly that even the cars driving by started to protest before finally yelling, “Scram! You talk as if no one else has everhad a romantic encounter before. Just watch me bring seventeen girlfriends over tomorrow and make you drown in jealousy!”

Ian wasn’t fazed at all, and calmly stepped out of the car.

As soon as the two of them were out, Billy immediately drove off loudly. Despite Amber quickly following behind Ian, she was still just slightly too slow and was inundated with the car’s exhaust fumes.

Ian saw her lean back and choke a little, and was unable to stop himself from smiling at the sight.

It was a pity that Amber had been covering her face just then and hadn’t seen it.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Billy’s parking skills were surprisingly skillful, as he had stopped right across the front door of Axton Hotel, just past the street.

***

Ian brought Amber into the building. She originally thought that he would lead her towards the cafe, or even tohis office. But instead, they ended up going directly into a suite.

From the decoration, it looked exactly like the suite they had ended up in after she had gotten drunk that one night. In fact, given Ian’s fervent desire for cleanliness, it was probably the exact same room.

At the very least, Amber hadn’t been traumatized from that event, and he didn’t have anything that would cause her to bed efensive, so she walked in briskly and confidently.

The room was surprisingly cozy, as the normal sense of pervasive stuffiness endemic to a regular hotel room was absent here. The first thing Ian did when he entered was take off his jacket and wash his hands and face. Amber, on the other hand, did nothing. She merely picked up a chair, sat down to the side, and as she waited for Ian to finish up, thought about what the best way to explain her thoughts regarding that contract was.

In the beginning, she hadn’t treated that contract too seriously because she had thought that, after he recovered slightly, he would automatically void the contract of his own accord.

However, Mark’s incident had made her suddenly realize that she wouldn’t ever be able to deal with everything on her own. Her unintentional gestures couldvery well end up hurting others.

As she sat there, she thought about many things: how to begin, how to end, how to comfort him. But all these thoughts were thrown into disarray after just one sentence from him.

After Ian finished washing up, he sat down on the sofa opposite her, folded up his sleeves, and watched her carefully. After he finished observing her, he opened his mouth and coolly said, “How does it feel to like someone enough to make you not care about the settlement fee?” And then he took out his phone and messed around with it for a while. Not long after, Amber’s phone rang.

Ian raised his chin to face her. “This is the settlement fee that you have to pay. According to Nancy’s request, I’ve already given you a twenty percent discount.”

“….”