- 3.
“But you used to…” Jerry stared at me, stunned.
I peeled some shrimp and started eating on my own.
Every time Jerry and I went out to eat, he would always order a dish of eggplant. But eggplant wasn’t something I loved. I just pretended to like it because he served it to me, and I would finish the whole plate.
A phone call came in. Jerry stood up anxiously. “Susie, I’m afraid I can’t stay for the meal. Ivy’s having another episode.”
“Go ahead, it’s fine. She’s more important.” I kept my head down, focused on eating, not bothering to look at his expression.
Every mealtime, Ivy would use the same trick to lure Jerry over. The clever Jerry was always willing to play along.
After eating my fill, I packed the leftovers into containers and put them in the fridge. After taking a few days of sick leave, I finally returned to work under Claire’s repeated urging.
Claire came to me with a transfer order. “Susie, are you sure you don’t want to go develop your career at headquarters in Beijing? The resources there are much better than here.”
I had refused Claire many times before. “Beijing is too far from home. I’d get homesick.”
Actually, I was afraid of leaving Jerry. I often fantasized that if I went to develop my career in Beijing, Jerry would be heartbroken without me.
But thinking about it now, he probably wouldn’t be. I had waited all these years just to marry Jerry and have our own little family.
But Jerry had never brought up marriage. He always found excuses to put it off. “Susie, I’m not stable enough yet. Once I’m stable, I’ll go propose to your family.”
“Claire, I’ve thought it through. I want to go to Beiling”
3:44 PM P
“Claire, I’ve thought it through. I want to go to Beijing.”
Claire was a bit surprised, since I had refused her many times before. “What? You’re willing to leave Jerry now?”
I shook my head with a smile. “I’ve thought it through and decided to broaden my horizons.”
Yuri called and asked me to go out drinking with her. I agreed. It had been a long time since I had hung out with friends after getting together with Jerry.
Yuri put her arm around my shoulders. “That’s more like it. You need to relax sometimes too.”
Yuri and I drank until late into the night. I ended up staying over at her place. When I woke up in the morning, I had over a dozen missed calls and messages from Jerry.
I called him back. Jerry’s voice was tinged with anger. “Susie, where did you go? I called you all night.”
“You never used to stay out all night before.”
I yawned, acting nonchalant. “I went out drinking with Yuri last night. It got late so I just crashed at her place.”
“Susie, what kind of attitude is this? Do you know how worried I was all night?” Even through the screen, I could feel Jerry’s anger.
In the past, when he went out for business dinners and got drunk, ending up staying at Ivy’s place, I would wait up all night for him, calling countless times and sending countless messages.
In the end, all I got was his flippant response: “Why are you so
I stretched lazily. “Jerry, why are you so worked up? It worked up? It’s just one night I didn’t come home.”
“Alright, alright, I’m heading back now.”
just one
night I didn’t come home after going out drinking.”
Jerry’s tone softened. “Susie, I’ll come pick you up. Let’s go out for a meal together.”
“Okay.”
I waited for a long time outside Yuri’s building. Taxis passed by one after another. “Miss, do you need a ride?”
I shook my head. “No thanks, someone’s coming to pick me up.”
It was only about a 15–minute drive from home to Yuri’s place, but I waited for over half an hour before finally seeing Jerry’s car. There was a familiar figure sitting in the passenger seat.
The window rolled down and Ivy poked her head out. “Susie, I’m sitting in front. You don’t mind, right?”
I got straight into the back seat. “Of course not.”
“The power went out at Ivy’s place. I figured since three people eating is the same as two, I might as well invite her along,” Jerry said, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.
I shrugged indifferently. “That’s fine, the more the merrier.”
Jerry frowned slightly. He felt like he couldn’t read me anymore. In the past, if he had brought Ivy along, I definitely would have thrown a tantrum. But this time, not only did I not make a fuss, I didn’t even care that Ivy was sitting in the front passenger seat.
Jerry peeled several shrimp and put them in Ivy’s bowl. Ivy took a few and put them in my bowl.
“Susie, don’t be mad. Jerry is just like this – he always thinks of me first.”
I smiled faintly. “Why would I be mad? You two have such a good sibling relationship.”
Seeing this, Jerry awkwardly peeled a few shrimp for my bowl too, but I didn’t eat them.
3:44 PM
<
The waitress brought in the last dish, looking at Ivy enviously. “Wow, miss, you’re so lucky. Your boyfriend is so attentive to you.”
Jerry frowned with slight displeasure, but Ivy seemed quite pleased.
“Susie, you’re not angry, are you?” Ivy was clearly doing it on purpose, trying to provoke me into a frenzy, but I refused to take the bait.
