Birds of a feather flock together. That saying might be trite, but it was true when it came to Sheffield, Joshua and Gifford.
They were all handsome and well-mannered. Looking at Joshua's and Gifford's pretty faces alone was enough to make Ms. Wu's day.
Before long, they were chatting with each other and laughing.
Left alone, Evelyn turned her head to look at Sheffield, and happened to catch his eye. He was looking at her! He looked away and pretended to be practicing his swing.
With a smile, she walked over and stopped a few paces from him. "You seem to be good at this. Can you teach me?"
Sheffield deliberately looked around and asked Evelyn, "Sorry, were you talking to me?"
Evelyn rolled her eyes and answered, "Yes."
"Oh. I'm sorry, Miss Huo. I'm not that good. Maybe you can hire a professional coach." He practiced a few slices before he finally hit the ball.
The ball rolled down the lawn and into the hole.
Evelyn clapped her hands. "Look at you! I think you're good enough. Teach me."
His beloved woman was applauding for him? Despite his efforts to display false modesty, a smug look crept across Sheffield's features. He motioned her over and said, "Okay, since your standards for a coach are so low, I'll teach you."
He looked in his bag and selected a lady's club for her to use. Evelyn, who was standing where he had been a moment ago, took the club from him.
Sheffield said something to the caddies, and they all gathered around Ms. Wu, leaving the two alone.
Sheffield taught Evelyn how to hold the club as he said, "You put your left hand here and hold the club like this. And put your right hand here. No, that's not right. Like this." He walked over to her and put his arms around her from behind in one elegant maneuver. His hands covered hers. They held the club together.
Unsure whether or not he did this on purpose, she felt his hands on hers, and his breathing was hot in her ear. His voice was as tender and masculine as she remembered. She blushed.
Sheffield was still talking, his face so close to hers. "You don't come here a lot, do you?"
"No, Golf doesn't really do it for me." Carlos had taught her a little, but she wasn't really into it. His instruction went in one ear and out the other. She barely learned a thing. Matthew was totally a different case. Carlos never offered to teach him, but he was a natural.
"I like coming here every once in a while. It's relaxing," Sheffield remarked. He held her hands and guided her swing. She hit the first ball.
After doing this, he kissed her ear when she wasn't looking. By now, she was certain he was trying to seduce her.
"Focus! We need to follow the ball and line up the next shot," Sheffield reminded her and then went to pick up the ball.
'Not my fault. You distracted me, ' Evelyn retorted inwardly. "Hold the club like this," he said, pausing to show her. "And swing," he instructed after again taking up position behind her, helping her swing. She was uncomfortably aware of his body close to hers.
"Wait!" Evelyn suddenly said.
"What's wrong?"
.
"I'm not sure I got it. You mean like this?" She put her hands on the club as he had taught her. At this point, she felt the old attraction coming back. She spoke from the heart.
"That will do. Then swing." She did swing the club.
Clumsily. She still hadn't quite gotten the hang of it.
After some time, Evelyn gradually figured out what was on Sheffield's mind. He wasn't really teaching her. It was just a ruse to get close to her.
As long as she was bad, he could keep holding her, helping her with proper form. To put it bluntly, he just wanted to hug her.
Instead of giving Evelyn the chance to learn, he held her in his arms and hit the ball for her a dozen times or more.
Then they took a short break. Evelyn went to the bathroom.
When she came out of the ladies' room, she saw Joshua talking on the phone nearby. She didn't want to eavesdrop. However, what she happened to hear caught her attention. "I'm outside helping my friend get his girlfriend back. Clever guy. Yes, it's Sheffield. Who is she? I can't tell you now. He can tell you himself. Anyway, his girlfriend is awesome enough to make you jealous."
A couple minutes later, Joshua hung up the phone. Not until he turned around did he realize someone was standing behind him. "Um, E-Evelyn!" he stammered, not knowing exactly what to say to her. 'How long has she been here? Did she hear what I said?'
"Joshua," Evelyn greeted him, smiling.
The smile on her face was charming, but it gave Joshua a bad feeling. Trying to hide his embarrassment, he chuckled and said cheerfully, "Ha ha. What a coincidence. Let's find Sheffield."
Evelyn just stood there. "Not so fast."
"Okay." He felt really nervous.
"Why did you come here today? It wasn't to play golf, was it?" she asked.
"Well, because I remembered I still had a membership, and I didn't want it to go to waste…"
"Very good. Now I want the real reason." The smile on Evelyn's face disappeared all of a sudden. She cast a stern glance at Joshua.
Right now, Joshua was like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "All right, all right. I accidentally found out that you'd be here, so I told Sheffield and we made plans to wait for you."
"Why? Why wait for me? Sheffield doesn't even care. He has no interest in getting back together. He's made that abundantly clear. Is this some revenge thing?" She didn't mind saying that to Joshua. After all, he was Sheffield's best friend.
"He told you that?" With a snort, he said bluntly, "Evelyn, don't be fooled. He's just pretending. He wants to get back together with you more than anything. But he wants you to make the first move."
Evelyn couldn't believe her ears. "I did. I asked him, but he turned me down."
She had talked with Sheffield about starting over.
"What? That moron!" Joshua was exasperated at the guy.
Seeing how angry he was, Evelyn couldn't help but burst into laughter. "I get it. He just wants to make things hard for me."
"Not really…" Joshua wanted to put in a good word for his best friend.
Evelyn shook her head. "I know what he's up to. Don't make excuses for him. Can you do me a favor?"
"I think so. What do you need?"
A few minutes later, Joshua walked back to the course. He ran anxiously up to Sheffield and said, breathlessly, "Sheffield, Sheffield…"
Sheffield looked back and asked impatiently, "What?" 'Why isn't Evelyn back yet?' he wondered.
"You'll never guess what I just saw."
Sheffield played through while waiting for Evelyn to come back from the bathroom. "Spit it out."
"I saw Evelyn taking pills," Joshua whispered to him.
"Taking pills?" Stunned, Sheffield put down the club. "What kind of pills?"
"Um, flu…something…xamine. Oh, right! Fluvoxamine! You're a doctor. What's that medicine for?" If Sheffield looked at Joshua's phone screen, he would know that he had just googled antidepressants.
The first medication to come up was fluvoxamine.
