The phone’s bright light was a little blinding in the dark. As Heather squinted her eyes, she saw an unread message from Matthias. These days, he was finally willing to take the initiative to talk to her. As such, she was filled with joy that emanated from within.
At that moment, she looked just like any other woman in love. She did like him a lot, and it couldn’t be concealed for too long.
Even if she managed to fool everyone, she wasn’t able to lie to herself. If the relationship wasn’t fruitful, she would’ve either let it go or be a little more proactive. However, she was neither moving forward nor retreating right now, and everything was left hanging in the air.
Heather completely forgot that it was already midnight and replied to his text with a ‘Yes’. Out of the many words she could have said, she only responded with one simple word.
To her surprise, she received a call from Matthias not long after she replied. Heather initially planned on hiding the fact that she had returned, but after receiving his call, she frankly admitted to it.
“Why didn’t you come to me when you came back?” Matthias asked aggressively, making it seem like they hadn’t fallen out at all. It was as though nothing even happened before.
“It’s not appropriate for me to show my face for the time being,” she said in a high-pitched voice.
In fact, Matthias had roughly guessed her little plan. Since she planned to hide it, he would not dwell on it any longer.
Through her words, he had an inkling of what she wanted to say. As long as she no longer threw temper tantrums at him, he didn’t care about this since they wouldn’t be able to see each other for the time being.
“I’m sorry for what happened that day.” Heather took the initiative to apologize, no longer stubborn like before. Since she was at fault, then there was no excuse not to apologize.
“Why are you apologizing all of a sudden? You’re being so formal that I don’t know how to respond,” he said jokingly. In reality, he was over the moon. The fact that Heather took the initiative to apologize meant that she agreed to make up.
“Why are you still up so late?” Once again, she changed the subject.
At that moment, Matthias revealed a doting smile. The reason he was still awake was because of her—he couldn’t fall asleep without a reply from Heather.
In fact, he wanted to ask her what took her so long to reply. On second thought, he decided against it. No matter how he approached the matter, it would be rather awkward to pop that question.
“I can’t sleep because I’m thinking about you.” He admitted openly that he couldn’t sleep because of her!
“It’s getting late. Hurry up and go to bed,” she said. She hadn’t been sleeping well these days, but she just made up for it and felt much better.
Meanwhile, Heather wondered if he had been sleeping well. She wanted to ask him that, but the words were stuck in her throat.
“I’m not sleepy. What about you?” he asked with concern as he was worried that she was tired.
“I just woke up.” She smiled, feeling so much better now that she was speaking to him.
Finally, a weight had been lifted off her chest; she was no longer troubled by what happened with Matthias. While she was still worrying over it, it turned out that he had already forgotten about it.
Likewise, Matthias felt better too. It turned out that she was sleeping, which was why she did not reply to him earlier. However, it was unusual because she hardly ever slept during the day. Was she exhausted?
“Since you and I aren’t sleepy, why don’t we talk a little longer?” he suggested.
As for what happened the other day, Matthias had self-reflected as well. After thinking about it, he wasn’t completely without fault. He felt that he still had many shortcomings that he needed to change, and he had to be more gentle and patient to her. In short, he wanted to show Heather the better side of him.
For the sake of someone he liked, he would work hard to improve himself—even the most awesome person would also become ordinary and mundane once caught in a whirlpool of feelings. In fact, he even had a cheesy thought of spending the rest of his life with her. After this, he was going to propose to her.
“What do you want to talk about?” Heather’s tone became unusually soft. At that point, the two became a little more cautious with each other, afraid of striking a nerve once again. In particular, Heather didn’t want to upset him again.
“Anything’s fine. I don’t know what to talk about either,” Matthias responded innocently like a child. He truly didn’t know what to talk about with her.
All along, he had always put in effort to make conversation with her. He desperately tried to make her like him more, but now, he couldn’t find the right words to say just like he did before.
Their mindsets had changed ever since that incident in Iceland, and it was difficult to return to the constrained balance that they had at the beginning; even their conversations became more mundane and trivial unknowingly.
There were many things Matthias wanted to tell her, and it was the same case for Heather. But in the end, neither of them knew what to say.
“Meeting you is the greatest blessing of my life,” Matthias couldn’t help but say. It was indeed a fortunate thing. If he hadn’t met Heather, he wouldn’t know he could love someone this deeply.
A gust of wind blew outside the window just then, and the antique-style bedroom felt even more cozy. Heather got off the bed while Matthias listened to the rustling noise. Surprisingly, she was silent.
“How is meeting me a blessing?” She paced around the room while carrying on the conversation.
At once, his heart that was in his throat calmed down again as he parted his lips. At that moment, he was alone in the study. As he gazed at the books on his desk, he freed one hand to flip through the pages randomly.
It was a book of poetry. He flipped to a random page and said, “I live upstream, and you downstream. From night to night, of you, I dream.”
When she heard his recital of the poem, Heather couldn’t help but continue, “Unlike the stream, you’re not in view. Though we both drink from River Blue.”
Matthias quickly continued by saying, “When the river stops flowing, my grief will stop growing. I wish your heart will be like mine, then no in vain, for you, I pine.” In one breath, he finished the remainder of the poem. In fact, he particularly liked the last few lines.
“Why are you reciting poems out of nowhere?” Heather stood before the window and pushed it open before the cold wind brushed across her face. It didn’t feel good, but she didn’t close the window.
“I can’t help it.” He had been saying this a lot. Right now, he really couldn’t help it. At that moment, he wished Heather was there with him so that he could pull her into his arms.
“You’ve been saying that a lot tonight,” she said teasingly in a relaxed tone.
Heather was unbelievably gentle, and she was as soft as the night outside. Then, she lifted her head and gazed at the sky before realizing a full moon was about to appear soon.
“I can’t help but ask you,” he said as he mustered up the courage. It would be good to both of them if he spoke up a little earlier.
“Yeah?” She wondered what he was up to.
“Will you be my girlfriend?” he asked, preparing to be rejected.
Although his confession was casual, it struck directly at Heather’s heart. As she listened to his pleasant voice, she couldn’t refuse at all.
To his surprise, she did not reject him. Did that mean he really had a chance? At once, a glimmer of hope grew in his heart that perhaps they could really be together now.
After a long pause, she finally said quietly, “Why so sudden?” She was still a little cautious, thinking that he shouldn’t have confessed at a time like this.
She couldn’t agree, but she couldn’t bear to refuse him either. Since when had she become so undemanding?
She was going to say yes to a confession through a phone call, and it was vastly different from what she envisioned. Meanwhile, Matthias did not want to make things difficult for her. He thought that perhaps she was too embarrassed to reject him, which was why she couldn’t answer him. He was totally unaware of what was going on in her mind.
“It is indeed too abrupt, nor is it formal.” He squirmed uneasily in his seat, and it seemed as though he was talking to himself. In fact, Heather found it adorable.
“Who knew you’d have such an adorable side.” She wanted to praise him, for she felt that he was being too cute today. In any case, he was getting on her good side.
“Are you complimenting me?” Not wanting to force an answer out of her, he plainly went along with what she said.
“Yes, I am. You’re different today,” said Heather as she continued to compliment him flamboyantly.
All in all, she felt that Matthias was great as she thought of his warm embrace. Back then, she couldn’t imagine the bed that she occupied would have another person on it. Now, sleeping next to someone didn’t seem that unbearable at all.
The independent and freedom-loving Heather, who rarely wanted to be tied down, didn’t know which part of Matthias that attracted her.
The air conditioner was running quietly as she wondered where it was, for she couldn’t see it around the room at all. In fact, the room was completely furnished, and it was specifically designed in such a way that it looked untouched from the modern world. However, it only appeared like that on a surface level.
“How long do I have to wait until I get to see you?” He wasn’t swayed by the compliments, and he had a clear mind instead. No matter what, he was going to decide on a date to meet her before anything else.
“In three days,” she answered in one breath. It wasn’t appropriate time for her to let the public know that she had returned to Bradfort City for the time being.
Three days were too long for him, and he wished it was three hours instead. It seemed like he wouldn’t be able to see her anytime soon.
“Where will you be during these three days?” he couldn’t help but ask. He wanted to know her plans and get involved.
“I’ll explain when we meet.” She did not intend to explain to him through the phone. After all, there wouldn’t be any mystery left if she told him everything now.
“So, did you miss me at all?” Matthias asked a question that she didn’t know how to answer.
