Chapter 70: You Like The Taste?
Since he came into the room, Travis had been watching Arianna insert the two crystal wires into the hole of the bead with a needle tip. No one greeted him.
Arianna was working at a lower efficiency than normal. After ten minutes, she had only put two beads on the string.
Travis coughed and walked towards the door. Arianna thought he was bored, but Travis said to someone outside the door, “Could you get Miss Jenkins a fishing line or something like… a couple of inches long should be enough.”
Shortly after, the line was delivered to him. He folded the fishing line in half, sandwiched the two crystal wires in the middle, and handed it to Arianna. She could easily put all the beads on all four lines this way.
When she finished, she made several attempts at tying the four strands together. After watching her struggle, Travis said, “Put the strings into one group and loop them around each other. Then just pull on the knot to tighten it.”
Arianna was frustrated. Her face turned hot, and she said, “I didn’t expect a man like you to be good at this kind of thing.”
Travis replied, “I didn’t expect a woman to be unable to perform such a simple thing.”
She was speechless. When she finally stopped giving him the ‘evil eye,’ she tried on her new bracelet. She felt like something was off.
Arianna bent down to check under the bed, but the movement pulled on her wound, causing her to choke on her breath.
“What’s wrong?” Travis asked.
“I think a bead is missing.”
“But the length of the bracelet seems right.”
“It’s a little tighter than it used to be. It didn’t squeeze my wrist before.”
“Do you know how many beads were on the original?”
“No idea.”
There was a strange expression on Travis’s face again, which left Arianna frustrated. She was too embarrassed to emphasize that the bracelet was very important to her.
Travis checked the floors and did not find the missing bead.
“Is this thing important? A gift from an old boyfriend?” Travis used a finger to pick up the bracelet from the table and examined it in the light.NôvelDrama.Org is the owner.
“I got it from my mother,” Arianna replied, hoping he would put it down quickly.
But Travis continued to look at it casually. He squinted his eyes as if to take a closer look when he heard Arianna’s words. She had to grab it back from his hand.
“I didn’t expect your mother to have such a simple thing.”
Arianna recalled her mother’s appearance. Her looks were always blurred in her memories, but she always had an elegant and gorgeous aura. She was not related to anything simple at all.
Before, Arianna had tried to guess the origin of the bracelet, but she did not want to speculate about her mother’s past life. She said, “By saying simple, are you implying that this is cheap?”
“Judging from the abrasion of the beads, she must have worn this bracelet often.” Travis ignored her hostility and continued, “But strangely, all the beads were cut from a single piece of stone. It is rare.”
The beads were, in fact, made out of a strange colored tourmaline. And Arianna wanted to ask some questions, but she didn’t want to show interest in his expertise. So, she laid back down on the bed and put the bracelet on before covering herself in the sheets instead.
****
Arianna spent the fifth day sleeping. She slept for nearly twenty-two hours straight from the night before. When she woke up, her lips were dry, and she was incredibly parched, so she got out of bed to get some water.
There was a full moon outside the window, and flowers were dancing in the dark light. It was a silent and beautiful night. Arianna headed out to the balcony in her pajamas.
The balconies of the different rooms in this villa are all connected to one large terrace. When she stepped outside, she saw Travis lazily lying on a lounge chair not far away. It turned out that Travis had been sleeping in the villa for the past few nights as well.
Arianna stared at the moon for some time as she leaned on the railing of the balcony. She then turned her attention to the flowerbed downstairs. In the early spring, many flowers had bloomed, and the evening breeze carried their scent through the air.
However, there was also the smell of wine. Looking over, Arianna could see a half-empty glass of white wine and a bottle sitting on the table beside him.
The two didn’t talk. They just went about their own business for a while.
But when their eyesight collided, Arianna took a few steps closer to him and said, “Are you going to invite me for a drink?”
“Did the doctor say you are allowed to drink?”
“Only a little.”
“You won’t like it. Don’t waste my wine.” Travis said as he remained motionless.
Arianna returned to the room and grabbed a cup before filling it halfway with the wine. Travis did not try to stop her.
Under his gaze, she finished her drink in two swallows before putting the cup down on the table.
“You like the taste?”
“A little more than before.”
Travis smiled and mentioned, “This bottle was from the last batch made by my mother before she died. I put a lot of effort into saving it, but the quality seems to have deteriorated, and I can’t just throw it away. Do you want some more?”
A picture of that stunningly beautiful woman dressed in white suddenly appeared in Arianna’s mind. The wine in her stomach seemed to be carrying a soul of its own now. Arianna shivered for a second.
“Isn’t it better when the wine is stored for a long time?” Arianna broke the silence.
Travis looked at her like she was an endangered species. Arianna instantly knew she had probably raised another idiotic question inconsistent with the status of a noble lady.
But he was not sarcastic this time. He lowered his eyes to the glass in his hands and explained to her, “Excellent wines can be stored for many years under the right conditions. Most wines cannot be kept for a long time, especially white wine. It needs to be drunk when it’s young.”