Chapter 299: Ramen
From the bottom of my heart, Mia busted her butt every day to keep herself afloat; it was seriously rough.
If she took Benjamin's cash to make her life a bit easier now and to make sure she wouldn't struggle too much later, it might not be a bad idea.
But Mia had her pride. Taking that money would feel like selling five years of her life to Benjamin.
To her, that would be a slap in the face to all her feelings over the years.
Whether to take it or not was totally up to Mia.
About half an hour later, Brad hit me up on a video call.
We had just been chatting on Facebook and said goodnight.
Now that Brad was calling, I figured it had something to do with Benjamin.
"Can we talk about the money?" I asked Mia.
Mia glanced at the caller ID on my phone and gave a small smile, "You can talk about anything."
Weirdly, when the call connected, Brad didn't mention anything about Benjamin. He just made some small talk.
In the video, Brad was walking down a dark hallway. Maybe because it was late, the sound of his leather shoes hitting the floor was super clear, almost echoing.
The motion-sensor lights in the hallway lit up one by one as Brad walked, then went out one by one.
The scene seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it.
"Brad, you're not at home?" I asked, curious.
When we were chatting on Facebook earlier, Brad said he was planning to do some laundry, so I thought he was at home.
"Yeah." Brad laughed, his voice a bit rough, "Don't worry, I'm heading back now. But it's too lonely at home without you, so I went to school to work for a bit and will crash in the dorm."
Alright then.
With both Mia and me not at home, it was kinda weird for Brad and Yancy to be living in the same house.
"Okay." Brad had already walked out of the hallway. The light outside was even dimmer, and I could only vaguely see a spacious yard with a few trees.
Before the call ended, Brad said, "Jane, Mia didn't take Benjamin's money."
Though I didn't know what Benjamin and Brad had talked about, I scoffed, "Just because he offered the money, does Mia have to take it? That's not how it works. Mia gave him five years of love, yet I didn't see him give Mia a home."
"Benjamin called me. He said he did it just to make things easier for her. But Mia refused. He asked me to talk to her. Of course, whether to take it or not is up to Mia. I just couldn't say no to an old friend's request; I didn't mean to make things hard for her."
I was on a video call with the speaker on, so Mia could hear our conversation.
She appeared in my camera and softly said, "Brad, please tell him I'm not here selling my body."
Mia had her pride.
Benjamin misunderstood her.
Before hitting the sack, I habitually scrolled through the News Feed and saw Jenny's update again.
It was posted just ten minutes ago, super fresh.
The pic was of a steaming bowl of ramen next to a cheese pull cake, with the caption: "I'll wait for you forever."
"Is that Brad?" Mia pointed to the right side of the pic and asked me.
It was half a side profile. Without Mia's heads-up, I wouldn't have noticed it. After taking a closer look, I could tell it was definitely Brad.
Suddenly, the corridor of the rehab hospital where Jenny stayed popped into my mind. Wasn't that the same hallway Brad had just walked through?
So, Brad had gone to see Jenny alone in the middle of the night again and even brought her a bowl of ramen.
I had only been out for two days, and he went to see her?
Without a second thought, I called him back.
After ringing for what felt like forever, Brad finally answered, "Miss me that much?"
I pouted.
"Brad, what's up with Jenny's News Feed?"
Brad frowned, looking totally lost. "What News Feed? I didn't see anything. Is it about me?"
He minimized the chat window and came back a few seconds later, "I didn't see anything."
After thinking for a moment, Mia sneered and mouthed 'only you can see' to me.
Jenny had gotten smarter this time, posting it as visible only to me, just to mess with me?
Jenny was determined to make me misunderstand!
I sent a screenshot of the News Feed to him, "Explain this."
After Brad saw it, he got pissed. "She did it again. Looks like she didn't get the message last time. I need to set her straight."
I quickly stopped him. "Don't use this as an excuse to call Jenny. Whatever it is, talk about it tomorrow."
Compared to setting her straight, I thought it was more important for him to explain today's situation to me clearly.
Brad laughed, "Is my darling jealous?"
"A colleague was on a business trip. His dad is in that rehab hospital and needed some stuff. So I helped deliver it. I ran into Jenny in the hallway; she seemed to have just come back from outside, so we chatted briefly."
"Looks like it was a good chat. That ramen was quite thoughtful."
Hearing my words, Brad paused for a moment, "What ramen?"
"I wouldn't mistake ramen. You always said you were so busy, so actually you were secretly delivering ramen to Jenny, fooling me like an idiot."
Brad was mad but didn't dare to scold me. He thought for a moment, "There was indeed ramen at the nurse's station. It seemed to be a midnight snack delivered by the nurse's boyfriend."
A nurse's midnight snack?
I opened the pic again and looked closely. The white table under the ramen was indeed the standard setup for a nurse's station.
I was fuming.
Jenny could even use the nurse's midnight snack to make me almost misunderstand Brad.
Now I angrily called to question Brad, yet it turned out to be a misunderstanding. How was I supposed to end this?
Thinking this, I gave a sheepish smile and showed weakness to Brad on the screen. "I knew it, you wouldn't deliver ramen to her. It was a misunderstanding. Dear, goodnight, sweet dreams."
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