Hearing the noise in the living room, Wesley looked at his watch to check the time. ''It''s about time for dinner, '' he thought. He stood and told Megan, "Come and eat. You can do the rest after dinner."


    "Okay,"


    They walked out of the bedroom to find that ir was nowhere to be found. The table was set, chock-full of various dishes. The smell reached Wesley''s nostrils, and his stomach growled obligingly.


    Megan jogged over to the table excitedly and said, "A six-course meal and soup. Man, I''m starved! Let''s wash up, Uncle Wesley."


    Wesley pondered for a while and said, "Wait a sec. I''ll be back."


    Then he turned and left the apartment. The smile on Megan''s face vanished as she watched him leave.


    Wesley rang the doorbell a few times, but ir didn''te to the door. Anxious and impatient, he keyed in the password to her apartment and slipped inside.


    The apartment was dark. It seemed no one was home. "ir," he called. But no one answered.


    He believed ir wasn''t home.


    ''She cooked dinner, but left my apartment. She didn''t eat, she didn''t even say goodbye. What the hell?''


    Because he couldn''t find ir, Wesley grew anxious.


    He took out his phone to call her, only to realize that he didn''t have her number.


    ir had once tried to friend him on WeChat, but she changed her mind in the end.


    Looking around her empty apartment, Wesley grew more irritated by the minute.


    After leaving his ce, instead of going back to her own apartment, ir took the elevator, went downstairs and walked out of the apartmentplex.


    ''Oops, I left the gift I bought for Wesley in the cab, '' she remembered, not long after she had left the building. ''Never mind. I''ll grab it some other time.


    If he finds it, then I won''t have to go through the trouble to give it to him.''


    Night had fallen. They were in deep winter, and you could see your breath in the air, but ir only wore a thin coat. The cold wind chilled her to the bone. Roaming the streets, she had no destination in mind. She had to take a walk and try to make herself feel better.


    Seeing Wesley again after so many days had put her in the best of moods.


    But they were not a


    her to his ce.


    ir looked at his hand holding her wrist. Suddenly she put her right hand on it and said, "Wait a minute."


    The softness of her hand made his heart flutter. "Go ahead. Go in."


    "No, not before getting this straightened out." She didn''t want to see the weird girl inside.


    Realizing that it was inappropriate to hold each other by the wrist, Wesley withdrew his hand. "Go inside and eat."


    "No, thanks. I already ate."


    "What did you eat? You mean a piece of fish tofu? A mouthful of oden soup?" Wesley argued. His hands started doing the talking for him.


    "Not just that. Before you got there, I also had some sausage." It was true. She had been so hungry that when she was standing in line for her order, she bought a sausage to ease her growling stomach.


    Wesley''s face turned gloomy again. "So you are telling me that you ate junk food for dinner?"


    ''Why is he so cranky? What a jerk.'' "That''s not junk food! It''sfort food." A smug smile spread across her face. "And you ate it too," ir retorted.


    "Youing in or not?"


    "No. I''m going home." If Megan wasn''t there, she would have gone inside his apartment without him inviting her. She hadn''t seen much of him at alltely. She would seize any opportunity to be with him. But she drew the line at seeing him with another woman.


    Wesley ran out of patience. Before ir knew it, he squatted down and draped her over his shoulders in a fireman''s carry.