Chapter 77: What Do You Like About Me?
Arianna’s relationship with Charles was natural and efficient enough.
After the death of Arianna’s grandfather, Charles personally called to ask if she needed help and asked someone to arrange things for her. She was grateful but declined his kindness.
Shortly after she changed her job, she took the initiative to call him because she had declined his good intentions to arrange work for her.
Charles said before she cut off the call, “You still owe me dinner.”
Arianna recalled that she did make such a promise to him, so she immediately agreed.
That’s the beginning of the story. She invited him to dinner, then he had the reason to return the favor.
Later, when the two were very familiar, Charles admitted that Arianna was very difficult to chase. At first, she refused two times out of three invitations from him. And she was too silent when he successfully asked her out. He almost gave up after a few defeats because he had never received such cold treatment from a female since he was a child.Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.
Arianna thought back and didn’t feel that she had been so harsh on him. In fact, because she was respectful and grateful to Charles, she always kept friendly and polite to his approach. She rarely allowed the opposite sex to stay too close to her.
They did not often meet, even when they got familiar. Charles often went on business trips, while Arianna did not like to go outdoors with others.
But Charles was the type who pursued results with efficiency. He showed his appreciation to her on their first date, admitted that he liked to stick with her on their second date, and on the third date, he directly asked her, “Would you like to be my girlfriend? I know you may not be in the mood, but I want to get the number plate first.”
Arianna once asked him, “What do you like about me?”
Charles said that it took a long time to understand a person, but it took only a moment to fall in love. Perhaps he liked her because: She always walked along the wall lowering her head, and sometimes she looked up and smiled at him; she was about to be late for work, but the elevator was out of commission, so she ran all the way up a dozen floors to rush to the office, and ran into him with a heavy breath and flushed face; when other colleagues were proactively dodging, she patiently accompanied a rude intruder seeking trouble with the company, and showed him the respect. Perhaps there were some other reasons deeply buried in his memory, as early as ten years ago.
Arianna euphemistically said that falling in love with someone could be just a moment of confusion in the mood and an illusion of the eyes, and the two people needed to know each other before really getting along and that he did not know her much.
Charles said, “Then give me a chance to know you. Don’t hide from me so quickly. I cannot be confused in my heart over and over again, so the only reason must be I fall for you.”
In fact, Charles seemed to know her very well, at least more than she knew about him. Arianna seldom exposed her mood on her face, and she even talked little, but he always found his way to perceive her mood from her eyes and small movements.
Charles was handsome, eloquent, elegant, and restrained. At first, Arianna didn’t care about him. When he showed his affection for her more and more obviously, Arianna found she could not see him through at all.
It was because of an accident that Arianna and Charles began to date each other formally.
On that day, Arianna encountered trouble she thought to be only existing in the urban news. A pregnant woman with a big belly fell to her knees on the side of the road. Arianna stopped her car to help her, but the woman claimed that Arianna knocked her down with her car.
There were many ways to solve this kind of incident. Arianna could give some money to that woman to silence her. Or they could walk to the police station or hospital to attract reporters. Of course, before this, she should pay attention to any further tricks that this woman might play… There were not many people on the road. Arianna had all sorts of assumptions and consequences in her mind. When she could not decide what to do next, Charles called to invite her to dinner at night, so she told him about her current situation.
Luckily, his working location was only a few blocks away from her. Charles told her to do nothing, and he rushed to the scene in three minutes. Without Arianna doing anything, Charles solved the problem instantly. And that pregnant woman had nothing to do but only cry and complain about her misfortune and difficult situation.
The police later asked Arianna, “Are you suing this woman for fraud?”
Arianna shook her head. Later, when no one was paying attention, she gave several hundred dollars to that woman.
Charles said to Arianna, “You said that I like you because of impulsiveness, but I know very well what I always like is the stupidity behind your cleverness. Even if people harm you, you never hate them, but you always consider them. A silly girl like you has a story in your eyes, it makes me want to protect you.”
There have been two examples before. Once, the feasibility reports she wrote became someone else’s work; the second time, she bore the result of the mistakes of three colleagues. Arianna did not really want to sacrifice herself for others, just the consequences of those two examples were not severe. She thought it was better to deliver a favor to others rather than fight for some minor benefits in a really loud manner. She did not expect Charles knew that all along.
“Have I told you about it, I don’t like this city, especially the thick fog every morning in this kind of season. I feel bored, as if I was waiting for someone all the time. But when I see you, I feel the sky clear up, and the sun shines upon me. It feels warm and gentle, full of hope. That’s the feeling I’ve always longed for. That’s why I do not want to miss you.” Charles said very seriously. After the speech, he added, “I don’t quite have the courage to confess my love to a woman when I am an adult, but what I said is true.”