Me After Meeting You

“What are you thanking me for?” Calvin turned around as he asked, “For arguing with my mom?”

He then smiled, a self-deprecating smile. “She’s still my sister, my mother’s daughter, and you’re ….”

Whatever Amber was to Elly, he didn’t say, only staring at her. There was another period of silence before he said, “Actually, it’s I who should be thanking you. I know why you said it that way. You wanted to help wake up my mom.”

Amber couldn’t help herself from wanting to sigh, but she refrained herself and instead put on a smile as she said, “As long as you don’t mind me being nosy.”

Calvin’s voice was gentle. “How could I?”

At this moment, the waiter knocked on the door. “Are you ready to order?”

The two of them returned to their table and began ordering. Amber looked through the entire menu seriously, and eventually decided on a plate of pork chops.

After she said the name of the dish, Calvin couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “Just this?”

Given her serious expression, Calvin was half-expecting her to order some rare and expensive dish.

Amber plainly replied, “Just this. We’re a small party, so we won’t be able to finish everything if we order too much. Thus, I might as well order something familiar that I like.”

Calvin stilled for a moment before smiling again.

After the waiter left, Amber straight forwardly asked him, “Did you call me out for a reason?”

Calvin looked at her seriously. “I’d like to ask you to take special care of Elly from now on. With the state that my mother’s in, I don’t think that it’d be a good idea to let her participate in Elly’s treatment.”

Of course, these words of his carried a hidden meaning ‘that he wouldn’t be able to take as much care of Elly as he had in the past’.

Amber frowned. He was still looking at her, focused on her pretty face which was as elegant as a waxing crescent moon and as calm and warm as a spring flower about to bloom.

Amber seriously asked, “Calvin, have you thought about how you’re going to face your mother? Is following her every word actually any good for her?”

After a while, she continued talking. “You actually understand, don’t you? You’ve already done very well for yourself overseas, but then you willingly started over from the bottom when you came back.

Why? Isn’t it just to, again, lower her expectations of you? But have you succeeded? Regardless of whether or not you have the capability, she keeps pushing you to achieve her dreams and desires, and you can only compromise.

It’s the same for Elly’s affairs. You’re willing to take care of her, and you have the ability to do so, but simply because your mother said so, you have to avoid her. Regardless of whether it’s good or not, or right or not, you only follow her desires. Calvin, are you really that devoid of your own opinions?”

Calvin smiled bitterly. “I also don’t want to be like that, but ….” He clutched his face as he confessed, “I’m the only thing she has.”

Upon seeing this scene, Amber suddenly understood Calvin’s thoughts “he was full of guilt toward his mother, so he would always compromise with her, and could only compromise”.

And with that, the dinner ended on somewhat bad terms. Calvin’s mental condition left Amber somewhat worried, and when they left, she sighed as she told him, “I’m not sure if you’ve seen the movie ‘Gaslight’ before, but it gave rise to a word, ‘gaslighting’.

Calvin, you were once my imaginary rival, and beyond that, we’ve also been competitors, friends, and, even if only for a short time, lovers. Thus, I hope that, no matter what, you can always maintain an independent personality, a healthy mind, and an irrepressible vigor.”

After leaving, Amber felt a bit stifled. When two people were in a close relationship, it wasn’t uncommon to see these supposedly intimate people start manipulating each other.

In the study of psychiatry, gaslighting referred to someone twisting and manipulating their victim’s reality in order to control their feelings. Amber didn’t know what sort of things had happened between Calvin and his mother, but evidently, the confident, unhurried, and generous Calvin was vanishing.

Amber could only hope that, after she provided some unbiased perspective about his situation, the clever him would be able to react accordingly.

Elly’s affairs also seemed to return to a calm after Calvin’s compromise with his mother. Afterwards, Nancy even called her to say, “Don’t think of me as a bad guy, Amber.”Text © 2024 NôvelDrama.Org.

“I won’t. We simply have different standpoints. I’m just the doctor of Elly, and professor, you want to be the doctor of many such Ellys.”

“After hearing you say this, I’m very relieved.”

Amber smiled.

***

Later, she went to see Ian, and even discussed these events with him. Ian’s body was responding well to the medical treatment; after two weeks of treatment, his vitals had all returned to normal. But out of prudence, the doctor still recommended that he stay the full three weeks.

Ian had also started treating the hospital like it was his own house. Every afternoon or evening, after she left work, Amber would go visit him.

Sometimes, she would bring him some soup or flowers, and whenever she did that, Billy would always jokingly tease, “Dr. Camille, actually, it’s you who’s wooing our Boss Axton, right?”

But Amber and Ian’s discussions were entirely unrelated to romance. For example, today, their discussion was about the schism between Nancy and herself. For Ian’s grandmother, who was nearby, it almost bored her to tears.

But Ian very seriously said to Amber, “I support you.”

Amber smiled, and his eavesdropping grandmother smiled as well. ‘My goodness, her grandson was finally starting to understand relationships! Wonderful!’

But right after celebrating, she heard a particularly shocking set of words from her grandson. “Let’s get rid of both Axton Pharmaceuticals and Nancy’s laboratory!”