A Force Love Contract With GANG LEADER

The first floor was watches and jewels, sparkling in the windows appealingly. The second floor was shoes, the third was flower clothing… all the things that women liked.

A lot of ladies were lingering in front of the mirrors, turning and checking their images with the clothes, eagerness, and satisfaction on their faces. Comparing herself to all these women, Kate felt that she didn’t deserve to be called a lady. As the proverb says, you cannot make a crab walk straight.

Kate strolled aimlessly to the fifth floor. Arts and crafts didn’t pique interest either. She was about to turn back to the elevator when something shiny attracted her attention.

Kate spent an afternoon and half of the evening outside. Her phone ran out of power, and the mall was still open. She ate something in a small restaurant and called a cab home.

When she saw Tristan’s shoes in the hallway, she was surprised. Raising her head, she saw he was sitting on the couch. He heard her come in and asked, “Where did you go? Why did you turn off your phone?”

“Shopping.” She said calmly.

Tristan looked at her as if to check what she had gained and then ordered habitually, “Come here.”

Kate followed. Tristan grabbed one of her hands and spread her palm, and then another one. He touched the scar and asked, “Does it hurt?”

She paused a little and said, “No.”

Her skin healed fast, and there was only a faint scar, across one of the principal lines of her palm, like a secondary line.

He touched it softly with his thumb and then suddenly pulled it to his lips and kissed it.

The warmth transmitted to her like a small lightning bolt to her brain. She suppressed the impulse to pull her hand back and said, “How did you know?”

“There was blood on the glass.”

“I didn’t know that room…”

“OK.” Tristan released her hand finally.

“I bought this.” Kate took out a fancy looking packaging box, opened it, and then put it on the coffee table. It was a crystal frame with a simple shape.

“You came back so late just because of this?”

She nodded. “Couldn’t find one exactly the same as that one.”Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

And then she couldn’t help adding in a low voice. “It is really expensive.”

A few hundred dollars for a photo frame. Her heart was aching when she paid for it.

Tristan observed the crystal frame for some time. As she was about to leave for her bedroom, he held her hand and said, “Stay a while with me.”

Kate sat back. Tristan pressed the remote, and the room turned dark.

She was held in his arms and leaned on the back of the couch. He gave a sigh of relief.

Silence followed.

In the darkness, it was all quiet except for the sound of their breath. The flowing of air seemed audible too.

Kate suddenly wondered whom Tristan took her as at this moment.

After a while, Tristan said, “The day before yesterday was the anniversary of the day she passed away.”

Kate was shocked. No wonder he smoked so many cigarettes. In her impression, he was moderate on drinking and smoking. Of course, so was she in other aspects.

“We knew each other in college.”

“I was depressed due to some changes in the past when I entered college. And I was not used to life in college. Besides schoolwork, playing basketball, and taking some part-time jobs were my life. I was like a robot until she showed up.”

“She changed my life and made me lively. She was out-going, with extensive hobbies and talents. The painting you picked was one of her works she gave to Monica. She asked her to show it when there was a chance and see if anyone wants to buy it.”

“I just knew about it.”

“Monica was her roommate in college and her best friend. It is the painting she made in the last period of her life. You are right. It is about the love of life.”

He spoke calmly as usual as if he was just telling the story of an unrelated person. She was shocked at his last words. She was a layman of arts, but probably because she knew nothing of techniques, she could easily see the nature of the work. The nature of people, in her understanding, was life, surviving, and the spirit that supported it.

Hearing the term “the last period”, Kate asked, “How did she…”

“Bone cancer.”

When Tristan opened his mouth again, his voice was husky. “It was a middle stage when it was found. The doctor said she needed to have an amputation. She hesitated. I was busy with the expansion of my business and wasn’t at home or noticed her changes. When I found out, cancer had already spread, and even amputation wouldn’t help.”

When he said, “wouldn’t help,” his voice finally showed the emotion of sadness.

As he became silent, the air seemed to turn solid.

Kate was surprised to find that Tristan rarely showed his emotion, but once he showed, his emotion spread to the air around and made anyone near him feel it.

She thought she should not feel sympathy for this person, but on second thought, at this moment, he was just a normal man who had lost his true love. She thought he was emotionless, but he wasn’t.

He had also made mistakes, did something irremediable, and had been weak.

She felt her eyes were itchy, but she didn’t dare to touch them. She was afraid the movement would disturb him, and she didn’t want him to know her reaction either.

After some time, Tristan continued, “I have thought why I had no reaction to that painting. I didn’t even see the basic meaning of that painting. I don’t even have your instinct feeling. Do you know why?”

Kate didn’t expect he would ask her and just repeated, “Why?”

He raised his hand to push back his hair and showed some frustration, “Because there were too many things in my heart. We were separated by those things.”

He sighed, “We were far away eight years ago, and so are we now.”

Kate blinked her eyes. “What was in your heart?”

He didn’t expect her to ask so straightforwardly. He kept silent for a while, touched her hand, and pinched it, “You don’t know, and you don’t need to know.”