When Michael said the last utterance, his voice became icy cold, and his eyes blazed with anger.
Inexplicably, my heart clenched. Our relationship had now ended, but I didn’t feel happy at all for some reason.
Do we truly have nothing to do with each other anymore from now on?
At that thought, anguish enveloped me.
My eyes shimmered, whereupon I quickly swung open the car door and alighted from the car.
Michael’s gaze was still locked on me, his jet-black eyes as sharp as an eagle’s. Perturbed by his stare, I hastily left.
When I returned to the office, I wanted to use work to mask my distracted state. For some unbeknownst reason to me, my emotions were a jumbled mess, and I even seemed a touch reluctant to end the relationship.
After the lunch break, my colleagues returned to the office one after another. And right then, Michael strode toward his office as well.
The moment he entered my line of sight, panic struck me. I hastily dipped my head, not daring to look at him. However, he ignored me entirely and stalked into his office without a single glance at me. It was as though he didn’t even see me.
His apathy had me suddenly feeling that we were strangers that had never known each other.
Oh well, it looks like I’ve overestimated my importance to him. We’ve just ended our relationship, and I’m now a stranger to him in the blink of an eye. Perhaps he’ll even forget that I’ve ever existed after some time.
Because of him, an inexplicable turmoil brewed within me. Disappointment flooded me as I stole a peek at the closed door of the CEO’s office, and I wasn’t in the mood to work at all.
The entire day passed in a blur. When it was time to get off work, I again took a gander at Michael’s office, only to see that the door was still closed. He hadn’t been out the entire afternoon, and I merely heard him occasionally making calls to make work arrangements.
I then packed up and went downstairs. As soon as I stepped out of the office building, I caught sight of Yuval a near distance away.
It was already late when I came out, and most of my colleagues had already left. As there were few people when I came out, I spotted him at a single glance.
At the sight of him, a sliver of aversion crept into me. But on second thought, I could now respond to his feelings openly since I had nothing to do with Michael anymore. Following that line of thought, I hurried over to him.
“Why are you here? And why didn’t you give me a call before coming?”
Walking over to him, I flashed him an awkward smile. Although I no longer had anything to do with Michael, something still seemed lacking when I was with him.
“When I asked you out two days ago, you said you’d gone back to your hometown. I was afraid that you’d have another reason to demur today, so I came to ambush you at your office building. You don’t have any prior engagements tonight, do you?”
When Yuval saw me, he strode over to me with a smile and took my hand.
Sensing the warmth of his hand, there was a brief second when I wanted to retract mine, but I surreptitiously stifled the urge.
“Something seems amiss with you recently, Anna. Am I not doing well enough?”
Perhaps Yuval sensed my aversion, for he frowned slightly and looked at me with disappointment written all over his face.
“No, you’re doing great. It’s my problem, so I apologize.”
I knew it was my issue that I had been declining his dates lately. If I were in his shoes, I would definitely harbor suspicions as well. Honestly speaking, he matched me well in all aspects and was a suitable candidate for marriage.
Alas, I knew that I wasn’t interested in him romantically. Deep within me, I regarded him as more of a friend instead.
I looked at him in confliction, the words stuck in my throat.
Seemingly having seen perceived my struggle, Yuval didn’t say anything further. He opened the car door and ushered me in.
I walked to his side to climb into his car. But at that precise moment, I noticed his gaze fixated on something a stone’s throw away. The smile on his face had also disappeared without a trace.
Perplexed, I looked in the direction of his gaze. When I caught sight of Michael’s handsome countenance, the expression on my face froze, and my heart raced. Hmm? Why is he here? Is he here to look for me?
At that thought, my heart went into overdrive. I was seized by the urge to dash over to him.
Strangely enough, I wracked my brains to end my relationship with him when we were friends with benefits, yet now that we were truly nothing to each other anymore, I was reluctant to part with him. I was truly conflicted right then, not quite certain about my feelings toward him.
Michael strode toward us. Seeing that, my heart hammered wildly as I stared at him unblinkingly.
Just when I thought that he was coming over to seek me out, he merely cast me an indifferent glance before leaving. From beginning to end, he didn’t say a single word to me.
As I stared at his retreating back, the disappointment within me snowballed for some inexplicable reason. Ah well, it seems that he’s serious about ending our relationship this time.
After he had left, Yuval turned to look at me, his smile once again restored on his face.
“Let’s get in the car, Anna. He has already left,” he urged softly.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I knew that he must be suspicious right then.
When I had gotten in, he started the car. As the car cruised along the road, a thick tension hung in the air.
Recalling Michael’s dispassionate expression when he brushed past me, indescribable anguish welled within me.
“May I ask you a question, Anna?”
Yuval finally broke the silence after a long time had passed. His words, however, felt like a weight on my chest.
“Sure. What is it?”
As I gazed at his profile, I could clearly see the suspicion in his eyes.
“Are you and Michael Shaw…”
Yuval didn’t finish his utterance, but I could more or less guess what he wanted to ask. Even after all this while, he was still skeptical about my relationship with Michael.
“There’s nothing between me and Michael Shaw. Even if there were something between us in the past, there never will be in the future,” I enunciated seriously after a brief silence while looking at him.
Yuval’s expression relaxed significantly after hearing my answer. Only then did I realize that he had been suspicious about my relationship with Michael from the very beginning.
“I’m glad to hear that. Anna, I’m serious about you, so I hope you understand my intentions,” Yuval asserted earnestly.
He looked right into my eyes with a smile on his face.
