Chapter 237 Apologize
The coffee shop hadn''t opened for the day yet. James took out his phone and called Maria before
getting into his car. "Where are you?"
"The apartment."
"I''ll pick you up."
"Where are we going?"
"To the hospital to get your dressing changed."
He remembered that she had been scheduled for a reexamination. "Oh, right. Okay."
James drove over by himself, and Maria came out of the apartment wearing a long, white down
jacket and a red scarf.
She opened the door of the passenger seat and got inside.
It was warm in the car, so she removed her scarf and reached over to ce it on the back seat.
Her wound appeared to be healing well. "Come here once a week for the next two weeks," the
doctor advised. "You should be fully recovered by then."
"All right. Doctor, thank you."
"You''re wee, Miss Song."
They left the hospital and James took them to a restaurant.
He had reserved a private room with a view of the H River, and they settled into their seats. The
table was yet to be filled.
James sat across from Maria and pushed the menu toward her. "Order whatever you want to eat."
She obliged, listing off several dishes to the server who waited on them.
The server soon left, and then it was just the two of them in the room.
Maria removed her jacket and draped it on the chair next to her. James eyed her casually before
asking, "What did you want to talk about?"
"Let''s have lunch first."
He said nothing.
And then the dishes were served. She had ordered the restaurants specialties, the first course
being roasted duck.
The chef was slicing it at the scene.
The chef ced a dollop of caviar over the slices of meat before cing the tes in front of the
couple.
Maria took a bite, the forkful of duck and caviar melting in her mouth almost immediately. The dish
was very good.
It didn''t take long for her to finish the whole te, and she dabbed at her lips with the napkin only to
find that James'' te had remained untouched.
"Aren''t you going to eat that?" she asked innocently.
"No."
Well she wasn''t expecting that. What a waste! "Give it to me," she said bluntly.
James lifted his te and ced it in front of her, and Maria wasted no time in eating his share.
Neither said anything else, and the meal proceeded
quietly.
When they were having dessert, Maria suddenly spoke. "James, let''s end things where they are,
okay?"
He gently put his chopsticks down and wiped his lips with the napkin.
Without missing a beat, Maria took a bite of the avocado. It was a little greasy, but she didn''t think it
was too bad. She turned to James again. "How about going back to being strangers to each other?
Let''s just pretend nothing ever happened between us, and I won''t be bothering you again in the
future. What do you say?"
"You said you wanted to talk about something," he said, his voice low and his tone sharp. "This is
what you wanted to discuss, huh?”
"Yeah.
What do you think?"
James threw his napkin forcefully on the table, causing her to pause with her eating.
She watched as he carelessly pushed his chair back and got to his feet. He turned away and kicked
the chair aside, obviously mad as he headed for the door.
"No, wait!" she called after him.
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Thinking that she had regretted her own offer, James was somewhat mollified. He looked back at
her with a nk expression.
"Don''t forget to pay the bill," she said. After all, she had ordered the priciest dishes on the menu.
She would be quite sorry, indeed, if this meal put a dent on her wallet. James, on the other hand,
didn''t give a damn about measly expenses such as this.
He looked away again and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. Barely resisting the urge to strangle
her, he strode out of the room, mmed the door behind him, and left the restaurant.
It wasn''t until Maria was walking out of the establishment that she realized she had left her scarf in
James'' car.
Well, a scarf was just a scarf. She should just forget about, or she would be betraying her own
words when she had told him she wouldn''t be bothering him anymore.
In a hospital
Alina was asleep and Miranda was sitting near the hospital bed when James showed up.
Miranda immediately shook Alina awake.
"What are you doing, Mom?" Alina mumbled in a daze, clearly annoyed at being disturbed. She was
feeling pain all over her body, and wanted nothing more than to just sleep.
"Mr. Xi is here."
That woke her up instantly. Alina turned to the door, her eyes wide with excitement. "James, you''re
here."
He nodded and said nothing.
"I''ll go check with the doctor," Miranda said, rising from her chair. "Why don''t you two have a little
talk?"
Alina struggled to sit up as the door shut behind her mother.
James walked over and helped her lean against the headboard, his face still devoid of any
expression.
"James, I missed you so much," Alina whispered.
He finally spoke then. "How are you doing?"
"I''m much better, but it still hurts..." She looked up at him with tears in his eyes. "I didn''t mean to
knock the waitress, I swear. I didn''t mean to hurt Maria."
She had already given the waitress hush money for the incident, and the girl had devised an excuse
to resign.
"I''m not here to question you."
Alina''s mood lifted in a sh after hearing that. "It''s good that you don''t me me, James. But it was
still because of my carelessness that Maria got injured. I''ll make sure to apologize to her once I
recover."
"You should apologize."
"Yes."
"I came here to tell you that I''m cancelling our engagement." He wouldn''t be able to do it right away,
but he still had to notify the Tang family and prepare them for the inevitable.
Alina''s jaw hung open in shock.
Maria had not seen James for over a week since they had lunch together.
When her wound finally healed, she bought gifts and went over to pay her New Year greetings to
James'' grandparents.
Gordon was celebrating the New Year with the Song family that time, and she made ns to visit
him once he came back to his own vi after the Lantern Festival.
As Maria prepared their dinner, Charlotte gave James a call. He bluntly refused the invitation for
dinner, saying that he had an important meeting that night.
Maria was not aware of this, but as she headed to the living room to tell them that the food was
ready, she happened to overhearthem whispering with each other. "What meeting? Such ame
excuse! He just doesn''t want toe over," said Augustine.
Charlotte shook her head, disagreeing with her husband. "There must really be something important
he has to deal with. He wouldn''t have refused otherwise, especially since he knows Maria is here."
"Well whatever it is, it can''t be more important than his wife, can it?"
Despite herself, Maria''s heart broke at their words.
She stepped away, embarrassed, and pretended to clean the kitchen.
She waited for a few more minutes before heading back to the living room and called the old couple
for dinner, as though nothing had happened.
Perhaps by mutual understanding, neither Augustine nor Charlotte mentioned James throughout
the meal. And it might have been for the best, because they enjoyed dinner immensely.
Maria walked out of the viter in the evening after making sure that the elders were both
comfortably settled.
She had mentionedst time how she wanted to change cars, but then she had forgotten about it. It
was only when Summer had driven over in a red Porsche that Maria had remembered about that
particr whim.
She now cruised on the road inside the red luxury car. She turned a corner and entered a small
street, which was the only way that led back to downtown.
All of a sudden, several cars appeared up ahead and blocked the road.
It was the ninth day of the Lunar New Year; people shouldn''t even be back at work just yet. They
should all be back in their hometowns, all warm and snug with their families. And so, there was
nobody else in sight in that ce and time, except for Maria and whoever were in the vehicles in
front of her Porsche.