Without raising his head, Wesley answered, "Three more minutes."
"You greedy pig," Keith said with a smile.
"I haven't had a decent snack since basic training," Garnet said with a cute smile, helping Wesley arrange the flowerpots.
Keith nodded. "Wesley will take you out to grab some snacks. You free tomorrow?"
"No. Mom and I will be visiting relatives," Garnet complained with a pout. She didn't want to go along, and just wanted to hang out with Wesley.
"Oh, I see. I just wanted you to meet someone. Since you're busy tomorrow, maybe next time." Blair's plane was due in tomorrow, and Keith thought that maybe she and Garnet could be good friends.
Garnet was confused. "What? Who? Boy or girl?"
"A girl. Tell you more about her when you have time." Keith and Wesley looked at each other and then looked away. Wesley wondered what was on his grandpa's mind. Why did he want to introduce Blair to Garnet?
"All right." Garnet didn't devote much of her attention to it, and went back to what she was doing. She lined up all the flowerpots precisely, spacing them evenly. Wesley finished up his part there too.
While Wesley was washing his hands, Garnet swept the soil off the walk and smoothed it down around the flower beds before saying goodbye to Keith. Keith looked at her retreating figure with an amiable smile.
Wesley led Garnet to his car and they both climbed in. He gave her a ride, driving downtown as the Li family's house faded into the distance.
"Wesley, any news on my transfer?" Garnet asked with a hopeful expression. She wanted to stay by his side.
After some deliberation, Wesley answered, "There is a chance. Just wait a while, okay?"
Garnet was elated when she heard a positive answer from him. "Great! Keep that in mind!"
They went to a snack bar, and Garnet bought the perfect winter dish—a bowl of oden. She savored the smell, taking a huge whiff of it and just holding it there, closing her eyes. The smells filled her nostrils; the light, soy-flavored dashi broth, the boiled eggs, radish, fish cakes, konnyaku and beef. She dipped her chopsticks in, pulled out a piece of fish cake and popped it in her mouth.
The oden reminded Wesley of Blair. She liked it too.
He grabbed a cup of instant noodles and went to the hot water dispenser to fill it with steaming liquid. He used the chopsticks to mix it all up.
"How does it taste?" he asked Garnet. She was shoveling it into her mouth with gusto.
After swallowing the fish cake, she sipped some soup and let out a long sigh. "Wow! Haven't had this in a long time. It's so nice eating oden in the wintertime. The only way things could be more perfect is a cup of bubble milk tea to wash it down with."
Wesley nodded. 'Then I'll take Blair here tomorrow, ' he mused.
Garnet picked up a fish ball and put it to his lips. "Hey, why not try this cuttlefish ball? It's so juicy!"
Wesley shook his head without hesitation. "No, thank you. Not my thing."
"Meh! Your choice. But you're missing out. This is really good!" Garnet didn't mind what he said at all and continued to eat. It didn't take long for her to finish it.
Wesley fished out his phone to check the time; it was 11:30 a.m. 'If Blair doesn't call me by this afternoon, I'll call her.'
He didn't plan to be there long, just a quick meal and then back home. However, Garnet didn't want to let him go. Both of them were soldiers, and it was pretty hard for them to meet up. She insisted he go shopping with her.
Wesley turned her down. "I need to go visit Chief Wang this afternoon. How about this? I'll drop you off at the mall."
Garnet lowered her head in frustration and murmured, "Wesley, it's the New Year. Honestly! Is work all you can think about? You haven't been back for two years. And I don't know when I'll be free next time. It might take another two years for a chance like this. Maybe longer. So stay. Just for today. Please?"
This time, Wesley wasn't slow. He vaguely realized that Garnet had feelings for him. He shook his head vigorously and said, "Before you leave for work, I'll see you off."
"Fine! Then drive me home now. I don't want to go shopping alone." Garnet was really disappointed.
After making sure Garnet was safely home, Wesley went to deal with his own matters.
It took him a few hours to get everything squared away. 5 o'clock came and went, but Blair still hadn't called.
He was rather confused, so he opened the WeChat app to send her a message. Funny—it showed a five-minute video chat in his chat log from earlier this morning.
'What was going on? What was I doing then?' Wesley furrowed his eyebrows deeply.
'I was planting flowers with Grandpa, and I left my phone in the living room. I wasn't around to answer Blair's video call.
So who answered it? Mom? Dad? No, they were off visiting friends. Couldn't be Niles. He was at a friend's wedding. So that leaves Grandpa, Garnet and me.
So… It had to be Garnet.'
With that thought, Wesley planned to call Blair. But before he could do anything, his phone rang. "Hi Grandpa, what's up?"
"Blair's not coming tomorrow. Do you know what happened?" Keith asked.
"What?" Wesley was puzzled.
"Her grandpa just called and said Blair wasn't feeling well. She'll be here by the fifth." 'Wesley's leaving on the fifth. I really want to see him and Blair together, ' Keith thought.
'She knows that I'm flying back to Y City on the fifth, but she chooses to fly over then. Is she trying to avoid me? But why?' Wesley thought to himself.
"I'll ask her." After he said that, he hung up and called Blair.
To his disappointment, Blair didn't answer his call, nor did she reply to his text.
Left with no choice, Wesley called Garnet. He wanted to figure out what exactly had happened. "Garnet, did you use my phone this morning?"
Garnet's voice was calm as ever. "Yeah. A lot of girls texted you. One of them even sent a video chat request. I shooed her away for you."
Wesley closed his eyes and rubbed his arching eyebrows. "You wouldn't remember who she was, would you?"
"Her WeChat name is…um…what was it? Bless! That's it. Bless. Why? What's wrong, Wesley?"
"What did you say to her?" he asked.
"Not much. I said a lot of girls liked you… I don't think she loves you. She didn't argue with me. I guess she's just some random fangirl," Garnet said casually. She didn't think it was a big deal.
Wesley knew Blair pretty well. She wasn't really comfortable around strangers, and so she would defuse an argument by running away from it.
Now that he knew what was wrong, he hung up on Garnet. Since Blair wasn't taking his calls, he called Hartwell instead.
Hartwell had just gotten home and didn't know about this. "Hi Wesley. Happy New Year."
"Happy New Year, Hartwell."
"You didn't call just to wish me a happy New Year, did you?" Hartwell said with a laugh.
"I'm looking for Blair. Know where she is?"
"Blair? She was at the family reunion dinner on New Year's Eve. I haven't seen her after that. Anything wrong?"
"It's nothing. Sorry to take up your time. Bye, Hartwell." Hartwell looked at his phone in confusion. 'What happened between them?' The next moment, he saw his wife and forgot about this.
Joslyn was quite pregnant, and this was obvious to everyone. She'd gained some weight on top of that. She walked down the stairs to greet her husband. "Honey," she called out cheerfully.
Hartwell pulled her into his arms and planted a kiss on her forehead as if their housemaid weren't there. "Sorry I'm home late. Feeling okay?"
"I'm feeling great. Don't worry." Joslyn knew her husband was super busy, so she never bothered him with trivial matters.
At Eastern Coastal Apartments
Blair watched as her phone rang again and again. She was fighting the urge to answer it.
She couldn't help but think of the woman on Wesley's phone. He didn't like to let others use his stuff. Apparently, the woman was close to him. What was more, the woman threatened her!
'So, is it true?' she wondered. 'Are they getting engaged? Even if it isn't true, she's still close to him.'
