Me After Meeting You

When she awoke, Amber found herself lying in a strange place, with a strange man sleeping by her side.

The man’s back was facing her. From her angle, all she could see was his smoothly cut short hair and his slender back. Yes, the man was naked at least, his upper body was.

Amber looked down at herself. Very good, she was almost naked too. A thin undershirt on her upper body and underwear covering her lower body. She could see the rest of her clothes flung recklessly about the room. The jeans she had worn yesterday were lying haphazardly on the tatami mat by the window, as if publicizing the roughness or rather, the raw desire of the person who had taken them off.

The curtains weren’t completely shut, a ray of light was shining through a small crack.

She sat up, rubbing her swollen forehead. The man woke up almost as she moved. As he turned around, he revealed a youthful face, quite handsome, with robust facial features, a piercing gaze and a cool, indifferent mien.

It wasn’t quite appropriate to call him a stranger. At the very least, they had met yesterday.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

To sleep together right after meeting … Amber rubbed her forehead.

“You’re awake?” Ian’s expression remained as insouciant as ever, his gaze roaming over her body that was currently covered by a blanket. “You climbed into my bed yourself last night.”

Amber’s lips twitched as she replied, “I climbed into your bed?”

“Mm.” The man did not seem able to bear her asymmetrically dimpled face. After resting his head on his hands and making that one sound, he offered no further explanation.

She looked at him, somewhat expressionlessly, but her inner self was close to falling apart after all, she couldn’t remember last night and had absolutely no impression of climbing into his bed like he said! Of course, this wasn’t strictly true at the very least, she remembered that her curiosity had caused her to follow Ian into La Marquesina, play a game with the crowd there and then be forced to drink a colorful glass of alcohol as a penalty.

And after that? No clue.

But even while knowing nothing, she strongly suspected the veracity of Ian’s words.

Now, however, wasn’t the time to probe for the truth, as they were half naked and lying in bed, anything they said would feel somewhat strange. She averted her gaze, bent over to pick up her coat lying beneath the bed, covered herself up with a blanket, quickly put the coat on and then got out of bed.

Wrapping her coat tightly about herself, Amber industriously pretended that nothing unusual had happened. She picked up the rest of her clothes and entered the bathroom. During this whole ordeal, Ian had just lain in bed quietly, eyes closed.

Only when she was about to enter the bathroom did the man behind her speak. “Do you want to go again after you’ve cleaned yourself?” His tone wasn’t inviting and was still that same casual tone that one would use to discuss the weather. “I’ve got great technique. Perhaps you didn’t feel it last night, as drunk as you were.”

Amber almost tripped over her feet again and her response was a quick “Bang!” from slamming the bathroom door shut.

When Amber got out, Ian had shifted to a different pose. He was now lying on his side and facing the bathroom directly.

“Already dressed?” he asked indifferently. “Aren’t you going to consider my earlier proposition?”

This was perhaps the strangest invitation that Amber had ever heard, because his tone was so indifferent that it made her want to smack him.

After a moment’s pause, Amber turned sharply on her heels, walked to the side of the bed and leaned over slightly to look at him.

He impassively looked back at her, his gaze dark like the ocean waves in the eye of the storm, deep and profound, cool and resolute.

Ian’s appearance was really quite compelling, at the very least, Amber had never seen anyone who looked better than he did. Of course, perhaps it was his aloof nature that made Amber feel that way.

She extended her hand, her fingertip lightly touching his lips. “Are you serious?”

The alcohol had left her voice with a note of hoarseness, unexpectedly adding a dash of sexuality.

Ian’s face remained expressionless, but Amber saw goosebumps rapidly climb up his neck.

Amber laughed. In the bathroom, she had seen the many bruises on her body, including an especially large one on her thigh. For a couple minutes, she had really thought that she had experienced a wild night with Ian. But seeing his reaction now, she could silently breathe a sigh of relief.

Given his germophobic nature that wouldn’t allow anyone to even touch him, how could he let a stranger like her climb into his bed?

She didn’t want to expose him. Although she didn’t know what his intentions were, it was clear that he didn’t want to have a regular doctor-patient relationship with her and needed such a veneer to cover up their relationship. Amber would reluctantly accommodate his whims, as long as she didn’t suffer any losses from doing so.

But some retaliation was surely necessary. Just as Ian was reaching the limits of his endurance, Amber let him off the hook. She turned around to pick up her handbag from the floor, took out her wallet and asked, without raising her head, “How much money do I owe you?”

“What?”

Amber turned around and laughed. With her one sided dimple half showing, her visage was unexpectedly beautiful.

“Thanks for your ‘patronage’ last night. What I mean is, including the taxi fee and lodgings, how much do I owe you?”

Ian finally understood. “You’re treating me like a prostitute?”

“I didn’t say that.” Of course, whatever he thought was up to him.

Amber took out all the cash from her wallet that she had just withdrawn yesterday and left it on the table, 300 dollar in total. “If this isn’t enough, you can call me.” She lowered her head, wrote her phone number down on the message pad on the table and summarily turned around to leave.

“Hey!” The man called after her. He kicked off the blankets, revealing a fair and slender chest, coupled with faintly showing abs.

Amber stopped, her gaze landing by the bedsheets next to his feet.

“Don’t you think that this is rather cold of you?” he spoke in a robotic tone. Even as he looked at her, it was as if he were reciting lines from a script. “At the very least, we were a couple for a single night.”