Heather learned a few lessons from the heart to heart session. She knew Matthias didn’t understand women, but now she knew she didn’t understand men either. In the end, they were idiots when it came to relationships. They didn’t know how to love, so they ended up hurting each other.
Heather had never walked a mile in Matthias’ shoes, so she kept denying his love for her. But if he didn’t love her, none of the mess would have happened. Heather was feeling much better when she came back to her room. She was only angry because Matthias was overly attentive of Everly. Before this, she said she was keeping him away from her cousin, but the truth was that she was actually jealous that he was checking out someone else.
She tried her best to lie to herself, but to her surprise, she actually cared about Matthias more than she let on. When she got back to her room, Heather lay down on her bed and glanced at her phone, then she took it. A moment later, she realized Matthias had called her countless times and sent her dozens of messages.
There were a lot of messages, but she read through them patiently, and she realized Matthias only made an explanation after a few minutes between each message. She didn’t like that, but she didn’t know that Matthias needed to seek counsel from Evan after he got back. He wouldn’t know what he did wrong otherwise. That was why his messages took some time.
Evan disliked the new work, because Matthias was as dumb as a rock when it came to romance; not even Evan wanted to guide him anymore. Matthias had committed a lot of grave crimes in romance, and Evan wondered why Heather kept forgiving him. If it were anyone else, they would have cut all contact with Matthias already.
Even though Heather kept giving him chances, Matthias showed no considerable progress. In fact, the mistakes he made kept getting weirder and weirder. At this point, even Evan the love counselor couldn’t salvage the situation. Coupling that with how random Heather could be, Evan didn’t think they could end up dating.
Meanwhile, Matthias was on the verge of giving up, for Heather had been silent for hours. He was holding on to his phone, and when he was about to fall asleep, Heather finally texted him, waking him up.
Matthias was relieved after reading the message. Thank god Heather is still giving me a chance. He thought it was a serious matter after hearing Evan’s analysis, though reality turned out to be much kinder, and he smiled.
Hence, Matthias took the chance to ask her out on a date. Romance was all about dates, so he wanted to have more alone time with her. ‘Wanna come with me on a ride tomorrow?’ Someone gave Matthias a couple of free vouchers a few days ago, but he hadn’t used it, so he wanted to invite Heather on a date.
‘What kind of ride?’ Instead of refusing him outright, Heather threw him a question. In other words, Matthias had a chance.
‘A super high tech, super realistic ride.’ Matthias recalled some of the vouchers were for high tech rides. Realistic rides sounded fun, so he thought Heather would like it.
‘Place?’ Heather still didn’t refuse him. She’s giving me a chance. This is good.
‘Tech Plaza,’ he quickly answered, for he had a feeling she’d say yes.
‘Time.’ On the other hand, Heather thought Matthias was slow in the uptake. Most people would tell their date the venue, time, and content of the date at once, but she had to ask Matthias for it one by one.
‘Nine in the morning,’ Matthias answered promptly.
‘I’ll think about it and get back to you tomorrow,’ she answered seriously. It looked like they had a long way to go before they could date.
Then, she tossed her phone aside, ignoring him. Heather didn’t like to spend much time on her phone, or else her life would only revolve around it. She brought her phone around to maintain contact with everyone, but she wouldn’t check it most of the time.
She wanted to spend more time on work, and even if she was trying to wind down, she’d spend the time on something meaningful. Scrolling her phone was meaningless, so she never had an interest in it, and she had even less need of her phone when she was overseas.
People like her were rare in the modern era, but she wouldn’t break her own rules even if it meant she’d have to go against the flow. Phone scrolling could easily waste an hour or two of her life, and she knew that was not a good thing. Time was a precious resource, so she wanted to spend it wisely.
Even though she was on her bed, Heather didn’t feel like sleeping, so she got up and went to her bookshelf. It had been a while since she read. Heather thought everyone should read as much as they could, and as long as they could. Humans should spend their life getting their hands on professional knowledge and all kinds of information.
She sat on her bed and turned on the lamp beside her. Since the lamp was easy on the eyes, it wasn’t too bright. She liked to turn on a lamp whenever she read, or she couldn’t see the words. That much was obvious.
‘A Hundred Years of Solitude.’ She was only halfway through the book. It was a heavy one, and she couldn’t understand why she read it before she came back.
Night time was perfect for a reading session, so she was reading seriously. Heather was the most attractive when she was quiet, and she drifted to sleep with a book in her hands that night. If there was one downside about night reading, that would be the fact that the reader would fall asleep easily.
She woke up at around seven the next morning and realized she was still holding the book. Much to her disappointment, she only read ten pages the night before. I thought I could read more. Oh right, I said I’d reply to him today. She wondered if she should say yes, then she recalled her grandfather’s message.
It was obvious that she liked Matthias, but she thought it would be frivolous of her to say yes so easily, so she wanted to read through his messages first. But when she turned her phone on, the thing that caught her attention wasn’t Matthias’ messages; it was Myra’s unread message.
Heather opened her Messenger app to read the message. Since Myra was on her priority list, she could always see her message.
‘Hey, Heather, I think I’ve seen Matthias before. Can you jog my memory?’
That was not good news for Heather. She never expected Myra to ask her about that, but she knew she had to keep lying to her friend, even though she didn’t want to. Maybe she remembered something, or she wouldn’t bring it up. Caught between a rock and a hard place, she couldn’t even take the time to answer Matthias.
‘You’re just overthinking, Myra. Wait, you got up at five?’ Her sleep is being affected. No pregnant woman would wake up at five. And she didn’t sleep early last night.
She shifted the topic, but Myra didn’t answer her question. Instead, she asked, ‘Is that so? But I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere, and the more I think about it, the stronger this feeling gets. Can you tell me the truth, Heather?’
Heather felt guilty after seeing the last sentence, though she knew Myra didn’t mean it. Even so, it knocked on her conscience, and she realized that lying wasn’t what a friend would do. The more she thought about it, the guiltier she got. Then, she started feeling that dating Matthias would be a slap in the face for Myra. ‘Maybe it’s just your pregnancy working, Myra. You’re reading into it too much.’ I have to hide it from her. I can’t let anything happen to the baby.
‘Every time I close my eyes, I dream of my high school. I wonder if I have met him before during high school.’ The closer she was to the truth, the more frustrated Myra was. A lot of things didn’t add up, but she couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
‘Have you told Tony about it?’ Heather asked, worried. It’d get more complicated if Tony got involved. And possibly worse.
‘No. Tony’s been busy with work, so I don’t want to trouble him.’ Myra had thought about it, and she felt like she might have been overreacting, so she wouldn’t trouble him with it before getting any definitive answer.
‘Wanna hang out, Myra? You shouldn’t sit around all day even if you’re pregnant.’ Now, she was inviting Myra to go out, forgetting everything about Matthias.
‘Not today.’ Myra added a troubled emoji, then she kept texting. ‘I need to go to the Hart Residence today. Haven’t been seeing Grandpa and Grandma ever since I came back.’ Myra was a good granddaughter-in-law, so she would spend time with Tony’s family while he was busy with work.
‘Alright then.’ Heather couldn’t keep it up anymore. Myra was already a married woman after all, unlike her. Sometimes she envied Myra for having a happy family, and her baby would be born soon too.
On the other hand, she thought she had nothing but a lot of money in the bank. That was her only source of security, but she thought it was pathetic. A while later, she scrolled down to Matthias’ chat window and saw that he was already asking her if she had made up her mind. Since she had nothing to do, she decided to go out with him. ‘Sure. I’ll go,’ she answered curtly.
Despite the short answer, Matthias was overjoyed. He thought it was no dice, but surprisingly, she said yes at the very last moment. Evan suggested that he pick Heather up at the residence, since it would look more genuine, not to mention it was a gentlemanly move. “It’ll be easier to get her affection,” he said.
Matthias took the advice and left halfway through breakfast. Evan stared at the feast of a breakfast before shooting Matthias a nasty glare. “Gals before pals, huh? Despicable,” Evan grumbled. Heather changed him. I sure hope it’s for the better.
