Peace looked Anna seriously in the eyes and said, ‘Oh no, Anna, I’ll never recover, and there’s no such thing as recovery to me. You think I’m back to normal, but it just doesn’t hit me right now. I’m like a ticking time bomb now, and I never know when I’m going to explode. Plus, the years I was in the army were some of the most peacelul times of my life. I left there because I wanted to experience life in a different way. You see, nothing can trap me, let alone a person.”
Peace’s experience in the military taught her that people were not allowed to have emotions there. Peace knew she couldn’t live like this for the rest of her life, so she chose to leave and start a new life. She wished she could live her life to the fullest.
“I think maybe it’s not that you don’t want Karl to trap you; it’s that you don’t want him to be trapped by you.” Anna hit the nail on the head.
Peace was laughing heartily. But when she heard Anna’s words, her expression froze.
When Anna saw this expression on her face, she thought she had said too much. Just as Anna was about to comfort Peace, she saw her gaze go over her shoulder to a place in the distance.
Anna looked in that direction and noticed a person outside the pavilion. However, she barely recognized who the person was.
The man looked very unkempt. Not only had he not shaved his beard, but he had a stain on his white shirt. The hot midday sun was shining on him, making him look miserable.
Karl would dress up even if he had to attend a short meeting at the hotel. He would spray unique perfume and put hair spray on.
What happened to him? Anna thought to herself.
“Well, I’ll give you both some privacy.” Anna immediately stood up and prepared to leave.
“Don’t go.” Peace said. When Anna heard her voice, she realized that she was deliberately playing it cool. This was unusual, because
Peace was never a cold person. She was passionate and enthusiastic, even when she argued with people. Peace was like a fire, and was ready to explode with great energy any time.
“I think I made myself very clear the other day. What are you doing now? Are you trying to make me feel sorry for you and sympathize with you? Wake up, we’re not in a TV show and you’re not Romeo.”
Karl walked toward them. His tall figure blocked the daylight and cast a shadow over them.
Anna took two steps to the side to avoid him. However, she still felt overwhelmed by the imposing aura of both of them.
“No, I didn’t. Peace, I just wanted to confirm one last thing with you.”
“About what?”
Karl said angrily through clenched teeth, “I want to know if you really meant it when you said that. Do you dare to say that to me again? Hey, I’m telling you, I thought I was dead these days. The things you said to me broke my heart, and made me feel like you stabbed me in the heart with a knife. Peace, do you dare say those words to me again?”
Anna had an ominous feeling at that moment. She had known for a long time that Peace was very good at talking tough with men.
Peace flirted with men regularly and had had at least a few dozen boyfriends over the past few years. Some of them had fallen madly in love with her, just like Karl had.
When Anna felt that Peace was about to say something cruel, she felt it was her duty to stop the disaster from happening. So, she smiled awkwardly and said, “Oh, I’m sorry to interrupt you. Well, before things get awkward between you two, I just want to ask Karl one question. Do you really love Peace? What do you love about her?”
“What? Anna, you don’t have to ask him that question. I’m telling you, he doesn’t even like me. He has a lot of women around him and he likes to flirt with them.” Peace said, pretending to be nonchalant.
Karl frowned at her words. He sighed, as if he no longer cared about anything in the world.”How can I not like you? Peace, I’ve never met a woman who loves the world so much. You are as hot as fire and as free as the wind. You have the most exquisite imagination;
you were born to be free and don’t want to be trapped. You shine brighter than even the most dazzling fireworks.”
He said thuis in a loud voice, as if he was sure and contident of himself.
However, aller listening to his passionate confession, the last glimmer of light in Anna’s eyes finally dimmed. With a silent sigh, she said to Peace, “Well, you can say it now.”
All the characteristics that Karl likes about Peace are fake. In fact, she‘s completely different from what he thinks she is. If he finds that out, would he still like her? In any case, Peace is such a unique person.
Anna thought.
Peace lowered her voice and said, “Karl, you can go now. You know, I’ve slept with more people than you have. We’re the same kind of people, and we treat relationship casually. So whoever gets serious first is going to lose miserably. Just leave me alone and don’t embarrass yourself.”
Breakups were usually too brutal to watch. Moreover, Anna felt embarrassed to stand around and watch while they were breaking up. So, Anna immediately flipped out of the side of the pavilion and ran away.
As she escaped there, the last words she heard were from Karl. He said, “Peace, let’s just pretend that nothing happened these days, okay? Can we just stay the same as before?”
Anna was surprised. Karl was the biggest playboy in town, and he had dated almost half the women there. But he would make others sympathize with him if he became serious about his relationship.
Anna didn’t expect Karl to be willing to back off after all that had happened. He even wished he could go back in time and pretend he had never proposed to her or been rejected by her.
“I’m afraid I can’t. I’m sorry, Karl, but I’ve had enough of fooling around, “Peace responded.
So, messing around was not just a right of men.
Anna drove Peace back to her studio when it was dark.
“Anna, I’m actually fine. You don’t have to give me a ride.”
Anna glanced at her and said, “No, I don’t care if you’re fine or not. I just want to eat that taco in the store next to your studio.”
“Okay, then I’ll go get it for you.”
“Sure! I don’t have a job right now, so it’s on you, right?”
Anna was talking like that on purpose. She noticed that Peace had been depressed and silent when they came out of the hospital.
Anna was afraid that she would be upset, so she tried to cheer her up in this way.
If it was before, Peace would have bickered with her. However, Peace just leaned back in the passenger seat and looked exhausted.
After being silent for a long time, she finally sighed and said, “It’s a shame,”
Anna looked at Peace and thought she felt bad about breaking up with Karl. She stated, “What? It turns out that you also feel the same way.”
Peace, however, looked at her dumbfounded and said, “No, I’m sorry that we won’t be able to go on that trip together. Earlier, Karl and I talked about bringing you and Wayne on a trip to an island. So, you two can have a chance to talk about your relationship. But now that we’re no longer together, I can’t offer you that wonderful chance.”
Anna had a soothing smile on her face. But when she heard Wayne’s name, she couldn’t smile anymore. She tightened her grip on the driving wheel and replied, “Hey, I don’t need your help. You’d better take care of your own business.”
Peace’s studio was in the east of Birmingham downtown and next to a tourist attraction. Since it was summer, many tourists were coming. It was already midnight, and there were still many people there.
Anna and Peace sat in the window seat of that taco store. They looked at how the tourists dressed, talked on the street and made rude comments. As a designer with good taste, Peace thought these tourists were all dressed in a tacky way.
Anna rolled her eyes toward her and said, “You have no right to talk about them! You should take a good look in the mirror and see how you look right now. You have guacamole on your mouth, and your mascara is smudged.”
When Peace beard Anna’s remarks, she quickly looked up at her. Anna was holding hall a taco in one hand and chicken nuggets from the platte
She mad calmly, “You too.”
We both had our hearts broken by men and relied on eating a lot to make ourselves feel better. So, we had better stop laughing at each other, leave thought,
“Would you have said yes to Karl’s proposal if you hadn’t been sick?” Anna asked.
Peace took a bite of her chicken nugget and looked as if she didn’t care. Her mouth was full of food as she spoke, “I’m afraid I would have married someone by now if I didn’t have this illness. In that case, he wouldn’t have had a chance to marry me!”
Peace chose to live because she craved the excitement of the world. She chose to be alone because she didn’t want to bring burdens to others. She believed that if she hadn’t been sick and had led a regular life, she would have married and had a happy life.
“Okay, let’s not talk about that. By the way, how is your father? I heard you chatting with the doctor at the hospital this morning, and he said that your father’s health condition is better now. So, after that, will he still be in that nursing home?”
“Well, I asked him, and he said he preferred to stay at home,” Anna responded, frowning.
Peace immediately said in surprise and anger, “What the hell is that old man thinking? You‘ve put in so much effort to look after him these days, and now he wants to go when he’s feeling better? Does he still wants to live with that mistress?”
Anna couldn’t help but feel uneasy because Peace’s comments were not kind. However, Anna pretended to be relaxed and said, “Forget about it. After all, they’ve spent most of their lives together. So, I’m not surprised that he’s closer to her than me. He is getting older, so he might not want to live in that nursing home by himself.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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