Chapter 15: Can You Find Me?
That day, wearing only his big shirt, Arianna washed the blood out of the bedsheet.
They sat outside in the night together and watched the sheet float in the night breeze. She smiled shyly and said, “I really washed the bedsheet. I thought it was your way of flirting.”
Travis tucked her blowing hair behind her ear, sliding his fingers down her neck from her ear to her clavicle. He fiddled with her necklace. Her body trembled slightly.
His voice was like a whistling wind, “I don’t lie. I like to be honest. I even said to myself, if I had the luck of meeting you for a second time, I would not let you go.”
Arianna thought more than once about whether she was too stupid or if he was too clever when she believed his words as a genuine confession of love.
It was also a full moon night when Arianna spent her first day with Travis. The moon spotted the ground with the shadows of trees, which kept moving in the wind.
She suddenly felt uneasy. Arianna stood up and said, “I should go home.”
“Alright.”
She changed her clothes and wanted to say something but didn’t know what. Finally, as she was leaving, she stated, “I’m going to college in a few days. Can I see you again before I leave?”
Travis Cooper gave her a devilish smile, “Can you find me?”
Arianna nodded naively. A young girl who was unfamiliar with the real world could not be expected to differentiate between the truth and flirtation. Not to mention, she had met a master in romantic affairs.
****
When Arianna left after her first time with Travis, she had transformed from a girl into a woman. She didn’t dare to look at his face, nor did she make any physical contact with him as she said goodbye.
At that time, cell phones were new and extravagant. Arianna figured that he probably couldn’t afford one since he was a postgraduate student. And because she didn’t see a landline in his home, she didn’t bother to ask for his number.
She deeply felt the ridiculousness and rashness of her behavior. Although she did not regret it, the lessons she was taught about being cautious with men were thrown out the window.
Arianna sat in her room for the whole next day, holding back her desire to see Travis again.
There was heavy rain that day, which was uncommon in the area. It continued for the whole week.
The city’s old drainage system failed miserably. After years of dry weather, this colossal downpour took the unprepared city by surprise.
Arianna could hear the servants discussing how many houses were flooded and damaged by rain. Some homes were even completely destroyed.
She tried to leave the house several times but never made it off the property. The family servants were ordered to keep her in the house, as she appeared sick the day after she was with Travis. Plus, the city was dangerous because of the flood.
Feeling like a bird trapped in a cage, Arianna paced around the house.
However, her relationship with her parents was improving. Both of them were usually busy; one was always working, and the other was always at the casino. They rarely spent time with her.
When the truth about her father was revealed, Arianna reacted fiercely before becoming silent. She never responded when her parents spoke to her, so eventually, they stopped trying.
In their eyes, Arianna had always been an obedient girl. She never cried or made trouble in her early years. If she were ever unhappy, she would simply remain calm and quiet for several days until it passed.
Her unhappiness would fade even sooner when she found a new goal. Her parents assumed she would do the same after finding out the truth about her heritage.
During the days of house arrest in the rain, Arianna began addressing them again as mom’ and ‘dad.’ After two weeks of silence, it seemed that the family dispute was ending.
At the end of the day, they were the ones who raised her, and she did love them both. But it was likely that their distant relationship, coupled with all of her material gifts, diluted the impact the truth had on her.
The week’s rain had finally ended, and Arianna was in a great mood. Though the ground was still wet and the sky was overcast, small beams of sunlight shone through the holes in the clouds. She slipped out of the house around two in the afternoon.
She knowledgeably switched between buses before taking a taxi the rest of the way. Fortunately, the rain did not destroy the tranquility of the property; instead, it filled the path with puddles and filled the air with an earthy scent.
Arianna lightly knocked on the door. Unsurprisingly, no one answered it. The young man probably left his house too, as it finally stopped raining. And it was the middle of the day, not an optimal time for an uninvited visit.
After waiting for several minutes, she decided to head to her usual coffee shop and read a book. But when she arrived, the shop was closed. On its door hung a wooden sign saying ‘Shop for sale.’
She went into the neighboring bookstore, where the bookkeeper said, “The owner of the café is going abroad. He’s been planning to sell the business for a while.”
It had only been several days, but the area was totally different. Arianna had a feeling that this was not a good sign.
The sky grew dark again with rain clouds as she returned to Travis’s house. She sat on the stone bench in the courtyard and waited.
Arianna sat there for about an hour and a half before giving up. She sighed, tore off a piece of paper from her notepad, and wrote ‘Where are you?’ in blue ink. She slipped the paper into the crack of the door and went home feeling disappointed.
She returned the next day, hoping to find a note addressed back to her. But the original paper was still jammed in the door, untouched.C0pyright © 2024 Nôv)(elDrama.Org.