It was quite far away, in a neighborhood near the north. Once I got off the car, I called Nora.
The phone rang for quite a while before she picked up. “Babe! Are you here?”
“I’m right downstairs.”
“Okay, give me a second.”
Five minutes later, I saw her limping down the stairs. She seemed rather unkempt in just her pyjamas with her hair simply tied in a messy bun.
She opened the door, and her face broke into a wide grin at the sight of the chrysanthemums in my hands. As she reached out to take them, she asked, “How did you know I liked chrysanthemums?”
What?
I had no idea. If it wasn’t for Armond, I wouldn’t even have thought of it.
At the sight of her happy smile, I couldn’t help but admit, “Armond asked me to buy them. I thought they would be a bit of a bad omen at first, but I saw these pretty pink ones at a flower shop on my way here and bought them.”
She chuckled. “I guess Mr. Murphy is still on his toes when it comes to this stuff. I only mentioned it once, and yet, he remembered. Looks like I might be likely to be marrying Mr. Bachelor in the future, huh?”
After that, she invited me in, and I followed her upstairs. Her house was incredibly messy, which left me a bit speechless. “Quick question – how do you live in a mess like this?”
She stuck the flowers into a random vase and gathered large bunches of messy clothes off the sofa and onto the bed. “I can’t sleep if it’s too tidy.”
I was struck speechless once more.
I looked around the house. It wasn’t very big – it was maybe eight hundred square feet with two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchenette.
“Are you living alone?” I asked.
She nodded as she poured me a glass of water. “I used to live with another girl, but she moved in with her boyfriend. Now it’s just me.”
As she spoke, she scrutinized me with narrowed eyes. “Why don’t you move in with me so we can split the rent?”
“Of course!” I said with a nod. “But you need to keep the place much tidier. I might go insane if it’s this messy all the time.”
She giggled. “If you move here, it won’t be this messy all the time. I don’t feel like tidying things up when it’s just me here. After all, if everything’s too perfect, it doesn’t feel like home.”
“Then why don’t you just go home?” It wasn’t as if she wasn’t doing well financially. She had no reason to live in such conditions.
She chuckled and said, “I need my freedom as an adult, okay? We all need a little privacy.”
I couldn’t wrap my mind around her logic at all. With a shrug, I asked, “How’s your injury?” I couldn’t help but look at her leg after noticing her limping all over the place.
She sat next to me and replied, “It’s nothing serious. I was wearing heels when I fought with Tessa, so I sprained my ankle. Anyway, what would you like to eat?”
The moment she asked that, the doorbell rang, and she went to open the door.
“Hurry up, think of something so we can grab lunch together,” she pestered as she opened the door.
A middle-aged woman stood in the doorway. She seemed completely used to the state of the place and said, “Ms. Oberick, I’m here to help you clean the house.”
She nodded and gestured for the woman to do what she had to do. “So, what do you want to eat?” she asked me.
I couldn’t think of anything in particular, so I went with something random. “What about fish? I’ve been craving some fish for a while.”
“Sounds great!” She went into her bedroom and bustled around a bit. Luckily, she didn’t waste too much time, or we would probably have left the house a lot later.
There was a mall near her place, so we found a restaurant that served fish and chips and ordered what we wanted before sitting down by a window.
She immediately started nosing around the moment we sat down. “Babe, tell me everything about you and Ashton.”
I nearly choked on my own spit and looked at her as I coughed. “We were just another arranged marriage. Mr. Bauman was the one behind our relationship, so there’s not much to tell.”
She held her chin in her hand and looked as if she were actually thinking about it. “Are you two planning to go back to K City soon?”
I was a bit taken aback by her question and couldn’t help but reply, “If you want to know about Armond, you can just say so. I’ll tell you everything I know.”
Nora chuckled awkwardly after being called out by me. “When’s he going to K City?”
“Probably after this project is over. I’ll probably go back then as well. Why don’t you follow along so we can have some fun in K City?”
“Really?” she asked excitedly.
I nodded. “Of course. You’re paying for your own ticket, though.”
“Obviously!” she replied with a mischievous smile on her face.
The waiter arrived to pour us some drinks, and I couldn’t help but ask Nora, “What are you thinking about?”
“Clearly, I’m thinking about how to get Mr. Fuller to fall for me once and for all.”
Her innocent girly side was showing. “Have you come up with a plan yet?”
“You’re quite close to him, yeah? Have you ever seen any potential love rivals?” she asked as she looked at me with her face still in her hands, looking as innocent as a sixteen-year-old.
I nodded. “Yeah. Yours truly.”
She scoffed. “Apart from you, obviously!”
“You, then.”
She burst out laughing, which I already expected. Just then, she was starting to look extra cunning and told me, “What are his hobbies? Help me find out what he likes and let me know!”
