Me After Meeting You

When Amber got back to her office, she received a text message from Melody that consisted of three photographs.

The backdrop of the first photograph was some hotel. In it, Calvin was hugging Melody, and she had clearly used her phone to covertly take this picture. The photograph was time-stamped out of ‘consideration.’

Amber had a good memory, and recognized the date as the second day of the fishing expedition by Amber’s house.

That day, Calvin had originally said that he would accompany her, but then, his office had needed him for a sudden business trip. He wasn’t gone for too long, only a single day, and he had come to her house the next morning, saying he would take her to work. That was when he’d encountered Ian.

The backdrop of the second photograph was a bar. In the dusky lighting, a man’s hand was tightly entangled with a woman’s. This photograph was also time stamped.

If Amber remembered correctly, it should have been a few days ago, when she had insisted on seeing the ill Ian. What had Calvin said when he saw her the next day? Oh, that he had been drinking with his colleagues. Then, he had pounced on her in a drunken haze.

In the third photograph, Melody was lying by Calvin’s side, and their heads were propped up next to each other. Melody was smiling towards the camera, and Calvin was asleep by her side.

This last photograph was the most recent one, and that day after it, Calvin had proposed to her out of the blue.

The phone suddenly rang, and Amber couldn’t see the photographs anymore. In their place was a screen with the characters ‘Calvin’.

Amber didn’t pick up. After thinking about it for a moment, she forwarded the three photos to Calvin. If Melody was so brazen as to send her these photographs, then she probably wasn’t afraid of Calvin seeing them either.

Calvin quickly called again, and Amber picked up this time.

“Where are you?”

“The hospital.”Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“I’ll come and find you.”

“Don’t bother.” Amber sighed. “I’m going to leave now.”

“Then I’ll go to your house!”

Actually, Amber didn’t want to see him right now. However, his voice was so ridden with anxiety that she relented. To be fair, she couldn’t just take Melody’s story for granted-she should also let Calvin explain his side of the story too. Melody’s mental condition was clearly somewhat abnormal, and what she had said might not be the whole truth.

But if Melody were making things up, then Calvin’s tone should have been angry, not flustered and exasperated.

Amber went home. Because her departure had been delayed, she ended up returning a bit later than planned.

In the end, Calvin never showed up. He called her, saying, “Sorry, but something came up with my mom. I can’t go over at the moment.”

Amber had just reached her front doorstep when the call came. As Calvin talked, she smiled and thought back to Calvin’s mother “I will do my best to separate the two of you.” She was suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling that she had been blind; despite knowing Calvin mother’s attitude, she had still fallen into this situation unknowingly.

‘Was I too confident, thinking that I had the ability to deal with this?’

Amber’s lack of response made Calvin even more anxious. “Amber, even though I can’t go over, can you still listen to me explain? Those photographs aren’t real. That day, the company suddenly notified me that I had to go on a business trip with Melody. When we arrived at the hotel, she twisted her ankle and was unable to walk, so I had to carry her up the stairs.

And that day, when I was drinking, it really was with all of my colleagues, and they can confirm this. I only drank that much because I was mad that you had insisted on seeing Ian that night. All she did was try to persuade me to not drink so much. How could I have known that a colleague sitting opposite us would take that picture, and, and that time ….”

In the middle of his explanation, he suddenly stopped for a moment, and Amber faintly heard him yell out exasperatedly, “Can you let me finish my call?!”

Then, he continued explaining to Amber. “The last picture is something she set up. Amber, I always thought that she was just ill, and the reason I was nice to her was because, as you said, she was ill, and she needed patience and care. I only ever treated her like your patient, and I’ve never had any unfaithful thoughts about her. I don’t like her, and I won’t marry her. The person I love will always be you.”

“Ha! If you only love her, then does my Melody deserve to be thrown away after being used by you?” A strange voice suddenly came from the other end of the line before the call hung up in a very timely fashion.

A total mess!

Amber unlocked her phone expressionlessly, wanting to send him a text message. As she aimlessly stared at the screen, she realized that she had nothing else to say.

Her friend feed, however, was bursting with colors and excitement. Some people were being lovey-dovey, as usual, others were showing off their presents and purchases, others uploading pictures of the crowds on the streets, and yet others sighing. It really made her feel like everyone was enjoying themselves while she was the only one working.

In her classmates group, Silvia was sending red packets into the group chat. Trysta even messaged her to “Go snatch’s red packets!”

Even she, who didn’t lack money, felt happy upon snatching up a red packet with 8. 8 dollar in it.

As for Amber, her luck was pretty good, and she picked up one of the largest red packets that Silvia sent. Everyone hollered for her to give out some red packets, too, so Amber magnanimously sent out ten with 88 dollar each inside.

She very rarely snatched or sent out red packets in that group chat, so her actions caused a commotion in the chat, and everyone asked her if something good had happened.

Amber very seriously replied, “Someone tried to give me a lesson, and I realized that I’m quite dumb. Does that count?”

Everyone laughed, and someone even posted a horrified emoji in the chat. “If a doctor like you is dumb, then what about the rest of us?”

Amber laughed, and elected not to respond. Silvia called her and Trysta messaged her at the same time, both asking the same thing. “Who, who did that?”

Amber didn’t respond. She slammed her head into her desk, very much overwhelmed. She wasn’t actually all that sad, but it felt like there was an immovable fireball in her heart that she couldn’t expel.

In the past, she thought that she would succeed in anything she did. But recently, she’d suffered defeat after defeat, always having to reflect critically on her own actions afterwards.