All of a sudden, the door to Evelyn's office was pushed open and a familiar dandiacal man stepped in shortly after.
She shut her eyes and shook her head, then squinted to get a better look. She assumed that the long hours of work was causing her to hallucinate because she was staring at someone who had been gone for many days now.
With her elbows propped on the desk and her hands rubbing her temples, she tried to relieve the fatigue.
"Let me do it!" The man's gentle voice rang in her ears.
Evelyn could no longer tell whether this was dream or reality when she heard Sheffield's voice.
He put the bag in his hand on her desk and gently pressed her temples with his index fingers.
The fact that he had studied Chinese medicine before was undeniable in the way he had succeeded in calming and relaxing Evelyn's state of unease.
It wasn't until much later when Evelyn finally came to her senses and realized that he wasn't just a figment of her imagination. Instead of opening her eyes, however, she leaned her head back and softly called out his name. "Sheffield…"
All the while, Sheffield's absence had led her to believe that perhaps he did not want to see her again out of anger and resentment.
"I'm here," he said.
Evelyn's heart skipped a beat when she heard his voice again. Moreover, judging by the tone of his voice, Sheffield didn't seem angry at all.
A few minutes later, she grabbed one of his hands and said, "I'm fine now."
Sheffield embraced her from behind and kissed her softly on the head. "Did you miss me?"
Evelyn feigned indifference. "No."
Needless to say, the man was unconvinced. He gently grabbed her chin to pull her face closer and as their lips met he pecked at her lips.
A slight moan of pain escaped Evelyn's lips, her grip on his shirt tightening. She complained, "Why would you bite me?"
"I missed the taste of your lips." He stepped out from behind her and leaned against the desk.
Evelyn pursed her lips. The pain was gone. "What are you doing here?" she asked, still feigning indifference.
"I'm here to see my wife." He opened the bag he had brought along with him and said, "Look what I got you here. This is a cup of Fresh Milk Tea with Black Pearls from Nayuki, an MSW Durian Supreme, Matcha Meat Floss Bread. That's not it. I also brought you a box of fruit!"
Sheffield placed a plastic cup, two loaves of bread and a big box filled with all kinds of fruit.
Evelyn's eyes were instantly drawn towards the colorful delights inside the box: oranges, star fruits, mangoes, strawberries, kiwis and blueberries all neatly cut and well arranged. It was a simple gift and yet the way the contents of the box was set out showed that it was made with a lot of thought and love.
Sheffield picked up a fruit fork and lifted a strawberry to her lips. "Try this. The vendor said that these cream strawberries flew in just today, fresh and juicy. I made a mistake and tried two, but then I couldn't stop eating!"
Taken by curiosity, Evelyn asked, "Is it really that good?" She gaped her mouth open and he put a fresh strawberry into her mouth.
"Well? Do you like it?" Sheffield asked, staring at her with eyes full of excitement and anticipation.
In truth, it wouldn't have made any difference to Evelyn whether the strawberry tasted good or not. The fact that Sheffield had gotten them for her was enough and she loved his sweet, romantic gesture. "Amazing! It's so sweet!"
Sheffield smiled happily. "I knew you would like it!" Then he forked a piece of kiwi. "And these kiwis were imported from New Zealand. You kept saying that you were worried about gaining weight, right? Apparently, kiwis help with weight loss; they're great for the heart and they are a good source for vitamin C! It has a perfect combination of low sodium and high potassium, which can replenish the energy lost from staying up late!"
Swallowing the kiwi in her mouth, Evelyn told him seriously, "You should really reconsider your career in medicine and become a salesman. With your face, you're sure to be a dark horse in the sales business."
"My face?" Sheffield touched his face. "What's with my face?"
"Um, it's fair… with super thick skin!"
Putting down the fruit fork in his hand, he bent over the desk and approached the woman. "How about I resign from the hospital and you hire me to be the manager of your sales department? We will work in the same company and we will see each other all the time. What a great idea!" Sheffield was quite happy with the idea. After all, that would give him more opportunities to spend some "quality" time with her.
Evelyn looked at him as though she was thoroughly impressed by his thoughtfulness, but the next moment she shoved a piece of orange in his mouth so he would stop talking. "Don't even think about it!"
Sheffield swallowed the orange and licked his lips. "Everything tastes so much better when it comes from my wife's hand. Honey, let me have one more bite. Ah… "
He came closer, mouth wide agape. Evelyn picked up a blueberry with her hand and put it into his mouth, and snickered. "I didn't wash my hands."
Sheffield paused for a second. Then, he said, "If that's true, let's eat it together." Before she could react, he pulled her over and kissed her luscious, red lips.
'What… he is so bad!' It seemed she wanted to beat him to a pulp.
Not only that, Sheffield took her seat, made her sit on his lap, and shot her lustful glances. "We haven't done it in the office before. Honey, let's do it here…"
Embarrassed and angry, Evelyn pinched his cheek to stop him. "Isn't your ex-girlfriend back? Haven't you been with her all these days? Do you still have the energy to do it with me?"
Sheffield sniffed. "I smell vinegar. Honey, do you smell something sour? Did someone overturn the jealousy jar? You're jealous!"
Evelyn retorted angrily, "No, I don't smell anything. And I'm not jealous!" In truth, Evelyn wasn't jealous at all. Sheffield used to be a ladies' man, and some of his old flames still sent him messages. If she had been the jealous type, she wouldn't have made it this far with him.
Putting down the fruit fork, she stood up from his lap and started to pack her things without saying a word.
With a hand around her waist and his face against her belly, he soothed her, "Alright, alright. Don't be mad at me! That woman and I never officially dated. I don't think calling her my ex-girlfriend would be true. What made you think I was with her all these days? Even our friends from college couldn't bring us together."
'That means they tried to bring them together at some point.' Evelyn looked at him coldly and said, "If you never had any interest in her, why would they do that?"
"All right. To be honest, I was interested in her at the beginning, but later something happened and I was not interested in her anymore!"
"What happened?" she asked.
He held her by the wrist and made her sit on his lap again, hoping to tell her the details slowly.
Gillian was very beautiful. She was the campus belle. And Sheffield was the most handsome hunk in college. As with any typical college story, Sheffield's friends used to tease him and Gillian.
Everyone in college thought that they would make a great pair.
As Gillian was a good-looking girl, Sheffield didn't stop their joke at the time because he was a little interested in her.
Moreover, he even tried to get close to her and often asked her out for dinner and fun. Sheffield thought she was a good girl until…
