Chapter 19
Naomt glanced at the time. It was a little past 7 pan,
Amelia was usually busy at this hour, usually working overtime, so it was unusual for her to be sending Naomi messages at this time, much less video calling her.
Despite that, Naomi accepted the call anyway. The top of Amelia’s head popped up on the screen as she slurped on her noodles, her head bent over her bowl.
Naomi was a little perturbed by this. “Why are you eating Instant noodles again? I’ve already told you they’re not good for you. If you don’t have time, you should at least make something quick and simple instead of eating instant noodles all the time.
Amelia was an extreme workaholic who refused to expedite time on anything outside of her work.
She ignored Naomi entirely and instead snapped as she chewed on her food, “I don’t care about that. All I care about is you! What’s been going on with you recently? Have you gone on any dates? When are you introducing your new husband to me? Come on, It’s been a month since you left Scott. I’m sure the men must be clamoring to date you. I’m warning you–you have to keep your eyes peeled this time so you don’t fall for someone like him anymore! He’s a bastard and an utter waste of your time!” time they Amelia convinced Naomi to go on blind dates ever since her divorce from Scott, and every time. talked, Amelia would bring this up. She was so insistent on Naomi moving on that she even had Naomi’s divorce settlement as her chat background and swore that she would only remove it once Naomi found another man.
As frustrated as Naomi was, she knew that Amelia was just looking out for her and was just concerned that she would not be able to move on from Scott.
Amelia’s voice was so loud that Naomi had to plug in her earphones to prevent her parents from overhearing their conversation, “Why are you calling me at this time? Aren’t you busy with work?”
Changing the topic was the only tactic that worked for Amelia.
“Me? Of course, I’m busy with work! I’m up to my neck in work!” Amelia slammed a pile of documents down in front of the camera for good measure.
Naomi frowned at this. “Are you going to burn the midnight oil again?”
“Of course! How else will I become a millionaire?” Amelia’s dream was to become a millionaire so that she could live her life however she wanted, and she put in a lot of hard work to achieve this dream of hers.
However, Naomi knew this was not the real reason for her hard work. The truth was, that the ending of Amelia’s relationship with Sean gave her a cold revelation–that money was the root of all evil and the only solution to all problems.
As much as it pained Naomi to see Amelia sacrificing so much, she knew it was much needed.
“Okay then. I won’t disturb you anymore. Just promise me you’ll rest early and take care of yourself.”
“Okay, oh, by the way–I’m coming to Horizon City in two days, so you better roll out your red carpet for me!” Amelia grinned before hanging up the call.
Naomi smiled. Amelia must have been sent on a business trip to Horizon City.
Charles finally replied to Naomi’s message at around 8 p.m.
Naomi took down all of his dietary preferences and showed them to Dean and Donna, who immediately leaped to their feet to prepare the necessary ingredients.
Naomi did not think too much of this. Her parents were always polite and sensible people, so she took it that they simply wanted to be good hosts.
Since it was approaching springtime, daylight came much earlier than before. The sunlight began to seep through the cracks in the window just past 5 a.m. The city began to revive itself at the first crack of dawn.
Unfortunately, Charles did not sleep well the entire night at all. He kept dreaming of the things that could go wrong when meeting Naomi’s parents, and he was already up at 4, a.m. and could not go back
to sleep.
He kept checking on the gift he bought for Naomi’s parents to make sure everything was okay. He did so multiple times the night before for fear that he would accidentally forget something.
Then, as time crept closer to 5 a.m., he finally got himself into the bathroom to get ready for the day. Charles was never one to care about his looks too much, but that morning, he spent a considerable amount of effort grooming himself and even called Sean to get his opinion on what to wear.
Sean slept very late the night before and was so annoyed at being woken up at this hour that he could not help snapping at Charles. However, Sean’s annoyance snapped some sense into Charles- he was already cutting it very close and would be late if he did not leave the house soon.
It was almost 6 a.m. when he called Sean, so Charles just picked out what he usually wore and hopped
into his car.
Naomi was always an early riser, so she was in bed by 10 p.m. that night. However, she was worried about oversleeping, so she purposely set an alarm for 6:30 a.m.
She woke up the moment her alarm rang, got herself ready, and wheeled her suitcase to the foyer.
At that exact moment, Charles’s message came through. He arrived downstairs. Naomi notified her parents of where she was going before heading downstairs to pick Charles up.
Donna and Dean were already preparing breakfast, and the moment Naomi left, Donna chirruped to her husband, “Go look out the window to see if the boy’s downstairs. I’m curious what he looks like.”
Dean would have ignored her childish request usually, but even now he had to admit he was curious too. “Alright, I’ll go take a peek.”
Naomi and her parents lived in a quaint little apartment that was a part of Donna’s employment perks. The apartment was located in a very nice part of town and was mostly occupied by elderly couples. Therefore it was peaceful and quiet, and Naomi’s parents did not intend on moving somewhere else.
Naomi caught sight of Charles’s car the moment she arrived downstairs. He drove a white Jeep which stood out easily among the other cars. She glanced at the car plate and confirmed that it was Charles. Exclusive content from NôvelDrama.Org.
Charles watched her approach from inside the car.
She was wearing a white blouse with a pair of light blue acid–washed jeans and khaki sneakers. Her hair was scooped back in a simple ponytail that exposed her clean, makeup–free face. Naomi had dainty facial features with beautiful, penetrating eyes that always made him feel like he was sucked into a whirlpool of her eyes whenever she was around.
“Morning, Charles.” She grinned at him.
Charles, too, smiled. “Morning, Naomi.”
He got out of his car and opened the trunk. Naomi frowned as she watched him.