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Beside her, seeing that she was awake, Ellsworth spoke in a
calm voice, “Awake?”
Hearing Ellsworth’s voice, Harriet took her hand away and
turned to look at him.
Then, she propped herself up on the bed with both hands, sat
up slowly, and asked him, “Is your meeting over? Did you finish your interview?”
Her voice was a little hoarse.
After speaking, she covered her mouth with the back of her
hand and coughed a few times.
Seeing this, Ellsworth didn’t answer her previous question.
Instead, he got up, poured a glass of warm water, and handed it
to her.
Taking the warm water from Ellsworth with both hands, Harriet
said softly, “Thank you.”
After drinking a couple of sips, her throat felt much better.
Harriet looked at Ellsworth again.
Listless and dull-eyed, she said weakly, “I think my cold is pretty
bad. Maybe you should switch rooms, or you’ll catch it from
me.”
Harriet said her cold was serious, but Ellsworth still didn’t
respond. He just turned, walked to the side cabinet, opened the
bag on top, took out some medicine, and came back to the bed
to hand it to her. “Take your medicine first.”
Holding the cup in both hands and looking up at Ellsworth,
Harriet hadn’t expected him to buy her medicine.
She didn’t reach out to take the medicine, and the atmosphere
froze between them.
She stared at Ellsworth for a long time. Seeing that he was still
holding out the medicine to her, Harriet finally came to her
senses, quickly took her right hand off the cup, accepted the
medicine from him, and said, “Thank you.”
After thanking him, she didn’t even look at it and just tossed it
into her mouth.
Seeing this, Ellsworth tugged at the hem of his pants and sat
down again without a word.
After Harriet finished the medicine and put the cup on the
nightstand, Ellsworth looked at her and asked, his expression
unreadable, “Were you avoiding me? Did you take a cold shower
last night?”
Harriet gave a tired smile. “No.”
She explained, “Maybe I caught a chill on the beach. Anyway, my cold is pretty bad, so maybe you should…”
Before Harriet could finish, Ellsworth looked at her coldly, and
she swallowed the rest of her words.
Harriet avoided his gaze. Ellsworth leaned forward slightly,
brushed aside the hair on her forehead, and asked, “Are you
hungry?”
Harriet pushed his hand away. “I’m fine.”
She said she was fine, so Ellsworth withdrew his hand and
turned to the kitchenette.
Soon, Harriet smelled the aroma of food.
When Ellsworth set the reheated food on the desk, he looked at
Harriet and asked, “Can you get out of bed? Can you eat by
yourself?”
“Yes.”
Harriet replied, putting her feet on the floor and slipping on her
slippers.
As she pulled out the chair to sit down, Ellsworth had already
arranged the food, deliberately placing the shrimp farther away
and putting the beef and ribs in front of her.
Noticing how Ellsworth had arranged the dishes, Harriet looked
up at him, and Ellsworth nonchalantly stuffed a fork into her
hand.
He didn’t say much, but he did everything.
Holding the fork Ellsworth had given her, Harriet finally realized
it wasn’t evening-it was three thirty in the afternoon.
Looking up at Ellsworth, she asked, “Don’t you have an interview
this afternoon? Are you done with your work?”
If she remembered correctly, he was supposed to have
interviews between three and four o’clock.
Harriet held the bowl in both hands, moved the fork away from
her mouth, and two grains of white rice stuck to her lips.
Ellsworth looked at her calmly, raised his right hand to remove the grains of rice from her lips, and said in a mild voice, “It’s
been postponed.”
After Ellsworth finished speaking, Harriet stared at him without
moving.
She hadn’t expected Ellsworth to postpone the interview for her, nor had she expected him to come back to see her, or to stay
and take care of her.
Although he had taken good care of her before their marriage, after they got married, the two of them had long become like
strangers.
Seeing Harriet staring at him, Ellsworth said with a hint of
amusement, “Staring at me-will that fill you up? Will it cure your
illness? Eat.”
Reminded by Ellsworth, Harriet snapped back to herself and
said in a calm voice, “Sorry for troubling you.”
Ellsworth ignored her, picked up the fork beside him, and put a
piece of pork rib into her bowl.
“Thank you.”
After expressing her thanks, Harriet lowered her head and
continued eating, but memories surfaced uncontrollably.
“Ellsworth, I’m afraid to jump. What if I break my leg?”
“You’re already on the wall. Either way, you have to jump. Jump
toward me, I’ll catch you.”
