Free Web NovelChapter 790: Chapter 761: Gage Grant vs. Maeve [023]
Seeing the blood, Maeve was so angry that her blood rushed to her head, making her tremble all over. She stormed out of the bathroom, yanked the quilt off of Gage Grant, and slapped him awake.
"Smack!"
Gage woke up with a start and looked at her in shock. "What’s going on? Are you dreaming?"
Maeve got on the bed and kicked him off, then pushed him towards the wardrobe, opened it, and threw a shirt and some dress pants at him. "Get dressed! Go back now! It’s Sunday!"
Gage looked outside the window, dumbfounded. "It’s still dark outside and you want me to leave?" As he spoke, he tried to return to bed.
Maeve wouldn’t let him, angrily pushing him towards the door.
Gage got angry too. Already a person who cares about saving face, he was inexplicably slapped and dragged out of bed before dawn, leaving him quite furious. Grabbing his clothes, phone, and car keys, he stormed downstairs without looking back.
Maeve watched from the balcony as the white Range Rover drove out of her garden, taking a long breath only after the garden gate slowly closed.
She went downstairs, locked every door tightly, and couldn’t sleep, so decided not to. She made herself a bowl of noodles, and after filling up, played the guitar for a while. Only when sleepiness hit her did she go to bed.
She slept for a long time before waking up.
Outside the window, the sky was gray, and Maeve couldn’t tell if it was night or morning. Soon, a strong sense of loneliness surged in her heart.
The house was too big, and her heart too empty.
She didn’t want to go out or cook, instead, she played the guitar and wrote music on an empty stomach until late at night.
The fan club and classmates’ groups that were lively during the day were quiet now, making her feel even lonelier. She inexplicably thought of Gage Grant, who loved to stir things up.
That man only lived in her home for three or four days, yet left noises in every corner. Even after leaving, his shadow remained all around.
Frustrated, Maeve couldn’t continue writing music, so she simply went to bed.
On the other side, Gage Grant, who returned to the Grant family mansion at noon, was lying in his room, with his limp legs propped on the duvet. A large white screen on the wall played a foreign disaster movie.
Upon returning home, he enjoyed a long shower and napped before lying in this position. After indulging for four days, his legs really were weak, almost too feeble to drive back.
When he got home, he considered calling Maeve to say he was safe, but remembering how he was inexplicably slapped and kicked out before dawn made him angry again, and he couldn’t make the call.
He smoked furiously, his initial anger turning into grievance. About to be forty, the only person who dared to hit him before was Zachary Grant. Since when did Gage Grant get hit by a woman?
And a woman he spent months pursuing, investing a lot of money, time, and energy in.
Thinking of the past six months, his feelings became complicated again, recalling Maeve’s goodness. Her serene beauty as she played guitar by the window, her pitiful appearance when threatened by bullies, and her shy embrace in his arms...
At this moment, Gage felt both love and hate for Maeve. His feelings were so complex that the cigarette in his mouth lost its flavor. He stubbed it out in the ashtray beside him, placed his hands under his head, intending to watch the movie seriously, only to have his mind wander again to Maeve, hundreds of kilometers away.
Eventually, unable to resist, he took out his phone and called her.
"That day that year, under the cherry blossom tree, we gazed at each other..."
After the melodious female ringtone played for several seconds, the call was cut off, replaced by a cold mechanical voice: "The number you dialed is currently on a call. Please try again later..."
"Hung up on me?" Gage stared blankly at his phone, unable to fathom that after such an intimate relationship, Maeve could bear to hang up on him.
In twenty years of romance, he had never encountered such a situation. It was always him who hung up on girls; no girl had ever refused his call.
After pondering all night, he still couldn’t understand why Maeve hung up.
Baffled, he sent a message in the group chat:
Gage: "The two of us have been together for four or five days, and our feelings have been quite good. Why, as soon as we’re apart, is the girl not answering the phone?"
After sending this, he quickly added: "Asking for a friend."
Hyde: "Didn’t take care of her properly on the last day? She’s mad at you then."
Gage: "It seemed fine, I didn’t notice any problems."
Jack: "Four-eyes, let me tell you, you can’t be too proud, being too proud won’t get you the girl. Think about how hard it was to win over Mavis Thornton. If I hadn’t been thick-skinned enough, I’d still be single."
Gage read this for a while, suddenly figuring it out, his fingers flying over the phone screen.
Gage: "Damn! I said I’m asking for a friend! What nonsense are you spewing? Get lost!"
He frustratingly exited WeChat.
Still, he cared about saving face.
-
The next morning, Maeve discovered that the bleeding hadn’t stopped; in fact, it seemed to be getting worse, so she quickly went to the hospital for an appointment.
After a humiliating examination, the experienced OB-GYN director asked if she had taken any medication recently. She answered honestly, and learned that it was a normal physiological phenomenon caused by side effects, which would disappear in a few days.
It wasn’t Gage’s fault.
Feeling better, after leaving the hospital, she scheduled a meeting with someone from a Sichuan-style hotpot franchise company to discuss a partnership.
After an afternoon of discussions, she only needed to pay a franchise fee of 300,000. From store renovation to equipment and ingredients, the franchise company handled everything, even recruiting service staff and chefs, which was perfect for someone like her who knew nothing other than singing and composing.
The franchise fee was within her budget. She paid the initial installment on the spot and signed the contract. In a month, the hotpot restaurant would open. Meanwhile, the agent called to say a few couples came to view her house over the weekend, and one couple showed strong purchase intent, very likely leading to a sale soon.
In just a few days, everything seemed to fall into place. Maeve felt in a good mood and arranged to have dinner with a few high school classmates working in Z City.
Midway through the meal, Gage called her. She hesitated for a few seconds before answering.
"Where are you?"
Not seeing Gage for two days, hearing his deep voice caused a thud in her chest. She replied, "Having dinner with classmates outside."
"Girls or guys?"
"Both."
"Go home after, and call me when you get back."
Maeve: ???
She wanted to ask why Gage presumed, but he seemed to anticipate her reaction and hung up quickly.
They weren’t even in a relationship, yet he started imagining interfering in her personal life.
Maeve, accustomed to freedom, found Gage’s behavior slightly off-putting, though common in romantic relationships, and thus didn’t call him after returning home.
