Filed To Story: The Scarlet Vengeance: Justice of a Framed Beauty Novel (Grace & Jason)
He did not expect to see her here again.
“You don’t remember?” His silence could not help making Valda Theller slightly awkward. After all, they had only met once. It was natural if he did not remember.
“I remember,” he said.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “I thought you forgot me. That would be embarrassing.”
He looked down gently. “It’s the first time anyone thought I was going to kill myself. It’s hard to forget.”
Her relaxed expression instantly changed to embarrassment, “I’m sorry. I just thought you seemed to be experiencing something sad and misunderstood you. Do you feel better?”
‘I’ll never feel better! Brian ignored her but gracefully pulled a pair of disposable chopsticks out of the chopsticks holder on. the table and broke them apart.
The donburi that Brian ordered was soon served, and he ate it slowly.
Valda Theller could not help looking at the man in front of her.
He wore a crisp suit and was sitting elegantly. He was only eating, but he gave others an air of elegance.
People like him should not be eating donburi in a small restaurant like this. Instead, he should be eating French cuisine in a fancy and high-class restaurant.
However… for some reason, during the two times she met this man, she only found him indifferent. It was as if his world had been closed off to others, and he did not allow others to approach him. He had no interest in anyone else.
There was a deadly silence.
Why did such a man give off such a deadly silence?
Valda Theller had already finished her meal, but she still looked blankly at Brian as she sat in her seat.
“Are you done?” His cold voice rang suddenly.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was rude.” Valda Theller apologized hurriedly.
‘Gosh. Am I doing it again? I keep staring whenever I see a good-looking person!
*
Even her best friend, Mian Mian, used to nag her from time to time. “Hey, Valda. You should get rid of that bad habit. At least don’t stare so blatantly. People who know you know that you look at beautiful and handsome people for inspiration. But strangers would think you’re up to no good!”
As a cartoonist, especially a romance cartoonist, Valda Theller could not help looking at good-looking people and wondering what they would look like when drawn with a pen.
However, she had rarely stared at someone like this over the years.
Rather, she had drawn many beautiful and handsome people over the years that it was relatively difficult to catch her eyes no matter how good-looking a person was.
However… the man in front of her was different. He was undeniably beautiful, giving her an impulse to draw him. However, compared to his looks, what attracted her more was the deadly silence from his body.
She could not help wondering what had happened to the man that his body was filled with this cold deadly silence.
‘Stop wondering about it. It’s none of your business!’ Valda Theller told herself. What she ought to do now was bid goodbye and leave.
Gifts However, she hesitated. Moments later, she grabbed her bag and took out a post-it note and a pen.
With her head down, she drew a cartoon on the paper and handed it to Brian. “Here, take this. I hope you’ll feel happier.”
Brian glanced at the post-it note in front of him. Although the cartoon on the paper was made up of only a few strokes, it captured the characteristics of his appearance. Especially those phoenix eyes, which made people know it was him at a glance.
The cartoon was beaming, but… it had been a long time since he laughed.
“I don’t know what on earth you’re going through. But when you get over it and look back at it, you’ll find that it’s nothing.”
‘It’s nothing?’ He pressed his thin lips together slightly. ‘She has no idea what I’m going through!
‘But I have no choice but to get over it!’
His dark phoenix eyes stared at the woman in front of him. If it was not Grace, it did not matter who it was.
“Will you be my girlfriend?” the melodious voice rang in the air.
Valda Theller was intending to leave as she got up and grabbed her bag, but she was so stunned by the question that she froze. Her round eyes blinked. She was seriously wondering if she had heard wrong.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” his voice continued asking.
She shook her head in a trance.
“Is there someone you like, then?” he asked again.
She shook her head again.
“Why don’t you be my girlfriend? You can tell me whatever you want in exchange for that,” he said.
She felt as if something was stuck in her throat. ‘Did I… hear that right? Does he really want me to be his girlfriend? But the problem is, does a guy like him lack women? With his looks, he just has to shout and many women will want to become his girlfriend!
“Why do you want me… to be your girlfriend?” she asked blankly. The way he looked at her eyes was indifferent and estranged. There was no love in those phoenix eyes.
“Because it makes no difference to me who I choose to be my girlfriend. If you’re unwilling, you can refuse,” he said calmly.
It was as if it made no difference to him whether she accepted or rejected. Her heartbeat raced. ‘Should I refuse him?’
Any person would refuse, but the refusal seemed stuck in her throat. She was unable to utter it no matter what..
Valda Theller returned to her studio from the small restaurant, still in a trance.
‘Have I… become that person’s girlfriend?’
She became his girlfriend the second time they met. She would be considered to have lost her mind if she told anyone about this.
She even wondered if his family had been urging him to get married, so he wanted to find a girlfriend suddenly. However, the man replied, “My family’s indeed urging me to get married, but I wouldn’t get a girlfriend because of that.”
“Then why did you do it?” she could not help asking.
His eyes were dark. It was… a refusal to answer. He did not allow her to inquire. “I just want a girlfriend. At the minimum, we must appear affectionate in front of people. If you ever meet someone you truly like, you can dump me for whatever reason you want,” he said.
She figured out from the man’s speech that he had no intention of falling for her. Dating seemed to be an act of necessity.
“So, will you be my girlfriend?” His dark phoenix eyes stared at her as his elegant voice asked.
At that moment, she heard her voice saying… “Yes.”
‘How could I agree? It’s obvious that this man only wants a relationship in name, but I agreed to it!’
Valda Theller could not help raising her hand and knocking herself on the head at the thought of it.
‘Was I charmed by his beauty? I said yes to such a ridiculous. offer because he was so good-looking.’”
Just then, the phone rang. Valda Theller picked up her phone and tapped on the answer button. Her best friend Camille Strickland’s voice came from it. “Valda, when are you free? Let’s discuss the theme for your new comic.”
Valda Theller replied, “Okay, I’m free tomorrow. Let’s do it tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, I’ll come to your studio tomorrow morning,” said Camille Strickland. As an editor at a comic magazine, she had always been in charge of her best friend.
“Okay,” replied Valda Theller.
“By the way, accompany me to a blind date tomorrow night after we discuss the theme,” said Camille Strickland.
“You’re going on another blind date?” Valda Theller was speechless.
“Yeah. My blind date said he’d bring a friend and asked me to bring a friend too. Maybe it’ll lighten the mood. Besides, the friend he’s bringing is also single. You can give it a try if you click with that friend,”
said Camille Strickland.
Her best friend had been single for years after getting hurt in her previous relationship. She sometimes wondered if Valda shut herself off from relationships because she was so badly hurt back then.