"Come on, you can see me?" Jeffrey's voice was laced with a provocation as he broke the silence.
Everett was about to retort, but Dorothy touched his arm, signaling that it was okay to let it slide.
"I'm not blind," Karen said nonchalantly, continuing to eat her burger as if the exchange hadn't affected her in the least. "Dorothy, this chef sure knows how to make a killer burger!" "Good, then help yourself to some more," Dorothy replied.
Jeffrey dropped his fork as his sight bore into Karen. He set his cutlery down with a clatter, "Didn't you say you never wanted to see me again? So, I've been treating you like you're not here." "That's fine by me," Karen replied, unfazed by his comment.
Her indifferent attitude was like a punch on a pillow for Jeffrey. He would have preferred a fiery exchange of words to this polite restraint, which felt almost the stiffness she showed the first time they met.
Jeffrey opened his mouth to snap back, but Everett cut in with a frosty reminder, "Let's eat, shall we?" "Right." The meal was a quiet affair with everyone lost in their own thoughts; though Dorothy and Everett seemed more interested in the unfolding .
Karen suggested taking a walk with Dorothy after the meal to digest, which left Everett and Jeffrey alone in the room.
"Why do you always have to be at Karen's throat?" Even the usually oblivious Everett had picked up on the tension between the two.
Jeffrey slumped on the couch, pouting, "She's just... different from the other girls!" In Eldorria City, Jeffrey was a catch—a man women chased after. He never had trouble wooing any woman. None of them would $0 much as raise their voice to him, let alone talk back.
Except for Karen. It was as if she couldn't speak without challenging him.
"Just because she's different?" Everett never cared for Jeffrey's fickle approach to relationships. But if the women were willing, it wasn't his place to intervene— except when it came to Karen. She was Dorothy's friend, and she had helped raise the kids for years. He had to step in.
"Oh come on, you don't have to worry about me doing anything. I know you wouldn't be able to face Dorothy if I got together with Karen," Jeffrey said, ruffling his hair in frustration. "But... heck, I'll be honest with you. Life seems dull without someone like her to argue with!" "You mentioned wanting to go back home during the phone call. Was that because you thought Karen had left?" "Ah, you always embarrass me by guessing everything right," Jeffrey groaned, covering his face. "lI went to knock on her door, thinking I was too good to stoop to her level, but no one answered. The receptionist said she'd been picked up, and I thought she had..." "Gone back to the home country.” "Yeah." "She's about to, actually.” Jeffrey's eyes widened, "When's her flight?" Everett shot a stern look at him, "Why do you want to know?" "Just curious.” "Well, don't be." Suddenly, Jeffrey stood up, dragged a chair over to Everett's bedside, and sat down with a conspiratorial air, "Everett, this feeling I have—wanting to yell at her when I see her, feeling empty when I don't—is this what liking someone is?" He had never felt this way before—not even with Heather.
His previous flings were straightforward: a casual hookup, a goodbye with a wad of cash, and a hope they wouldn't cling to him afterward. But with Karen, why did it feel like the tables had turned?
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