Heather could hear their clothes fluttering in the wind. She tried hard to gaze far into the distance as she wanted to look into the nothingness.
However, Matthias blocked her view with his own body. “Why won’t you look at me?”
Heather withdrew her gaze and turned to look at Matthias’ face again. “When in your life did you feel most confused?”
Matthias curled his lips into a smile. “Right now,” he answered honestly. Like Heather, he wouldn’t have known there would be such feelings of loss in his life had he not been in an unforgettable relationship.
When Evan came with the fruit platter, Heather and Matthias were still in the same posture. They’re just bullying me since I’m still single, Evan thought to himself, and his resentment as a single person was instantly unleashed. “Do you need some fruit, sir?” His voice was neither too loud nor too low, but it interrupted Heather and Matthias.
Heather freed herself from Matthias embrace, upon which the latter turned to look at Evan with a depressed expression. Evan kept making trouble for him all this while simply because he had asked Evan to dance. This is what I get for offending my buddy, he thought to himself. “No, I don’t,” he said in a grim voice.
On the other hand, Heather looked on as if she was amusing herself by watching them make fools of themselves. She had never seen these two men bickering since the very beginning, but she saw it today. If Matthias and Evan knew this was what Heather thought, they would probably be fuming with rage.
Fearing that Matthias would want to choke him to death, Evan backed down under his stern gaze, but Heather stopped him. “I need the fruit.” Seeing that there were fruits that she wanted to eat on the plate, she naturally had to stop Evan from leaving.
Evan’s mouth curved in a triumphant smile. After that, he placed the fruit platter onto the round table on the rooftop and looked at Matthias with a smug expression. This proved that Evan was even more petty than women when he wanted to, and such vindictiveness troubled Matthias a lot.
Evan left unhurriedly after doing all of this, whereas Heather sat down in front of the round table. The round table could be dragged freely and seemed convenient to use, so it was just right to drink afternoon tea at the table. As he sat down from across Heather, Matthias looked at the sly smile on her face and wondered what was making her so happy.
Heather handed Matthias an orange that she had just peeled. “Do you eat oranges, Matty?”
Matthias didn’t like to eat oranges at all, though. However, Heather peeled the orange for him herself. Naturally, he couldn’t turn down her offer, so he immediately took the orange, which wasn’t whole, from her.
Meanwhile, Heather added, “Forgive me for stealing a few orange slices.”
Matthias couldn’t understand why Heather was so polite since he wouldn’t mind it if she sneaked the orange whole. He then put the orange into his mouth under her stare, only to frown slightly when he realized how sour the orange was. He tried hard not to lose control of himself. How could there be such a sour fruit in the world? he thought to himself. He was amused and annoyed as Heather gave him the orange simply because it tasted so sour. Looking at the smug smile on Heather’s face across from him, he felt really helpless. Since when did Heather become so mischievous?
Heather didn’t forget to rub salt into the wound by asking, “Is it delicious?”
“Yes, it is,” Matthias answered reluctantly.
Heather then produced another orange in her hand without Matthias noticing. This is bad, Matthias thought to himself as his pupils dilated slightly. As he had expected, she enthusiastically handed the orange to him. “It seems that you like to eat oranges. I’ll let you eat this as well.”
Feeling as though he had seen the smile of a demon, Matthias tried his best to control his emotions. If it were someone else who did this, he would probably have broken the person’s neck. However, it was Heather who did this, so he had no choice other than to indulge her.
There was a trace of hesitation in Matthias’ eyes when he took the orange from Heather. This time, he decided to stuff the entire orange in his mouth directly. If it weren’t for the fact that the orange was too large, he would have swallowed it whole. However, when he bit into the orange, he was surprised to discover that this orange was unusually sweet.
Matthias’s expression eased a lot, and Heather watched the changes in his expression with great interest. This is really interesting, she thought to himself. “Life is like these oranges. One would have no idea whether what happens next is sweet or not, and whether the road they take in the future is bumpy or smooth.”
“You’re cut out to be a philosopher,” Matthias said to Heather. Heather often exuded the air of an educator unknowingly, so he wondered if she wanted to be a teacher.
However, Heather answered, “A person whose life is full of ups and downs is more cut out to be a philosopher, and I don’t want my life to be full of that.” She just wanted to live her life in peace. Her life felt so long to her that she already felt exhausted, so she hoped that the next path she took in life would be smooth. Even now, she couldn’t trust Matthias wholeheartedly. Matthias had been pledging his loyalty to her and trying to convince her to let her guard down, but the more he did so, the more she kept her guard up.
“So what if all the oranges on this plate are sour? Is there anyone who has such a rough life?” Matthias asked in reply. Was there someone whose life was full of nothing else but misery?
Matthias had heard that one could only enjoy so much happiness in their life. Once all the happiness in one’s life was used up, all that followed would be agony. Therefore, one must slowly enjoy their happiness in life bit by bit.
However, was it true in real life that the highs and lows of everyone’s life were similar? In the eyes of others, a man of position enjoyed unparalleled fame and was immensely enviable, but did those at the top really feel comfortable in their position? For example, Heather and Matthias rarely felt happy, and the rare happiness was like bubbles that would burst upon being touched. Furthermore, they had to be careful when they encountered happiness. They feared that they would carelessly let happiness slip through their fingers and that their happiness was too vulnerable, so they didn’t dare to make big moves. Both Heather and Matthias wondered if this was what life was or if they were the only ones living such lives.
The wind on the rooftop was getting stronger, but none of them was willing to suggest that they leave the rooftop; it was as if they were isolated in a world where there was no one else but them when they were on the rooftop. Even the air between them was filled with the scent of each other, and Heather was eager to put worldly affairs out of her mind as she just wanted to hold Matthias’s gaze. “What do you want to do when everything is over, Matty?” She hadn’t made up her mind on what she would do, so she wanted to hear what Matthias was going to say.
Matthias tapped the round table with his index finger. “How about being a scientist?” He recalled his dream about flying in space. He was always interested in high and new technology, after all.
Heather snorted with laughter. “In that case, I think it’s better if you continue to be Director Locke.” She couldn’t imagine Matthias working in a laboratory while wearing a white uniform.
“Can’t I be a scientist with my cleverness?” Matthias asked with a serious expression while pointing at his head. He seemed to be very displeased by Heather’s ridicule.
“You lack the air of a mad scientist,” Heather replied mercilessly.
Upon hearing Heather’s words, Matthias gritted his teeth in anger; only Heather dared to speak to him in such a way. “I’m preparing a laboratory. I’ll make what I want to study a reality with my own hard work,” he declared solemnly. Actually, he had left himself a way out a long time ago.
“Actually, I wish I didn’t mind how big your plan is. I don’t want to take advantage of you in every possible way either,” Heather suddenly said. Indeed, she approached Matthias previously with the intent of taking advantage of him.
“At last, you admit that you’ve been taking advantage of me,” Matthias replied nonchalantly as if such a thing wasn’t a big deal to him. He had long been aware of Heather’s tricks; it was just that he didn’t want to lose the opportunity to get closer to her, so he wouldn’t grudge a thing even though he knew deep down inside that she had been taking advantage of him.
“I’ve been exploiting you. Do you really not care about it?” Heather looked at Matthias unblinkingly. She really didn’t know what his bottom line was and why he was so kind to her.
“I’m willing to act as your stepping stone as long as I can be together with you,” Matthias replied stoically. There weren’t so many things to fuss over in this world. At the very least, plans were not indispensable between lovers; this was especially the case when one of the lovers was deeply in love while the other was still indecisive. At this moment, there was nothing fair to speak of.
“You don’t have to be so humble. I don’t want to see you acting this way.” Heather felt very ashamed, but she couldn’t make any changes. She couldn’t stop herself from taking advantage of Matthias. After all, how could she not take advantage of him when she could even do so to Myra, her closest friend? Heather felt that she was the vilest loser, but she had to do so for the Langston Family’s sake; she was only too eager to use everything she had to help the Langston Family. She finally understood what Robert thought—no matter how weak the Langston Family was, she didn’t want to see the family wither away with her own eyes.
“I’m not humbling myself. If I thought I was humble when I first saw you, I think I’m worthy enough of you right now.” Matthias no longer wanted to hide the truth from Heather. He fell in love with her at first sight and loved her ever since, but he was unwilling to admit it. Not only that, he even kept convincing himself that he loved Myra instead. It was ridiculous that he had actually lied to himself for so many years and even tried to revive an old dream. He tortured Heather in the beginning, only to look for an excuse to get involved with her. If he really loved Myra, he should have striven to win Myra’s heart instead of wasting his efforts on Heather. As Matthias recalled his past, he thought that he had been ridiculous enough, so he didn’t want to escape from his past anymore. Instead, he wanted to restore the truth about his past. He loved Heather, and he loved no one else but her the whole time.
Heather felt that she had discovered a big secret. She looked at Matthias without moving as if he would say something that he found difficult to talk about.
“I have loved you all along. If there is such a thing as love at first sight, you’re the only person who I’d fall in love with the moment I set eyes on you,” Matthias said slowly. He understood how his heart beat for Heather and how deeply he loved her.
“Did you fall in love with me right from the beginning?” Heather asked while pointing at herself. She found it hard to believe Matthias’ words, for he was deeply hostile to her back then and had tried to steal Myra away from her. Heather didn’t have someone whom she could open her heart to back then, and Myra was such a special presence, so how could she allow anyone to steal Myra away from her? At the time, she was like an immature kid who wanted to have all the good stuff to herself, treating her friend as her own property.
“That’s right—I love you the whole time. I behaved like that at first only because I felt inferior. I thought I wasn’t worthy of you, so I kept hypnotizing myself into believing that Myra was the woman I loved,” Matthias confessed. Now that he had poured out everything, he felt much more relieved.
Heather’s mind was in turmoil as she recalled Matthias’ thin and frail appearance back then. The unmemorable Matthias back then had now grown up into a dauntless man as if it was a dream!
