Filed to story: Sweetheart Do You Still Love Me
Jordan leaned over to her ear. He whispered,
“Actually, I really like you.”Elspeth stepped on his foot immediately.Jordan broke out in a cold sweat; he had to clench his teeth hard to prevent himself from crying out in pain.
“Elspeth…”
He forced a smile.
“Even though you don’t believe this, I really like you. I absolutely won’t lose to Callum in that regard.”Elspeth didn’t bother to pay attention to what he said. At this very moment, all she wanted to do was find a secluded spot and quietly withdraw into herself. After leaving the bar, she was ready to go somewhere else for another drink, but she suddenly noticed a familiar figure at the door. Arthur? Why is he here?Seeing Arthur walking straight into the bar, she hurriedly followed him inside.Taking great pains to avoid Jordan, she followed Arthur to a booth and seated herself behind him, lowering her head to conceal herself. When she looked up again, her jaw dropped in surprise at the sight of the familiar person before her. Arthur and Emma? Why are they meeting up here in the middle of the night?Before she realized what was going on, Arthur asked,
“How are you doing lately? Is Callum treating you well?”Emma raised her chin proudly.
“Of course, he is. He’s very cold toward Elspeth now; not only does he only have eyes for me, but he also helped clean up my mess many times. If it weren’t that he hadn’t broken up with Elspeth yet, I would’ve made our relationship public.””You mean… Callum’s snubbing Elspeth and going out with you?”
Arthur looked rather surprised before smiling in comprehension. After all, Emma was his first girlfriend, so it’s only natural that he still has feelings for her even though they’ve broken up. Seems like he was just pretending to dislike her in front of us previously.Emma replied,
“Yeah, that’s right. I think Callum doesn’t like Elspeth that much. Whenever she called him, he’d frown and keep the conversation short before hanging up on her. I think he hasn’t broken up with her because she hasn’t brought it up yet. Otherwise, he would’ve freed himself from her long ago.”Elspeth was stunned in place as she listened to their conversation from behind. Emma was a cosseted lady, but what she said didn’t seem to be false. Could Callum really be waiting for me to break up with him?”By the way, Arthur, did you get me here because you have something to talk to me about?”Arthur nodded.
“Yes, I do. I’m here this time because I’d like to know if you really love him.””Of course, I do. I’ve loved him for eight full years.”Arthur drew back his lips into a forced smile that had a hint of unspeakable bitterness in it before it disappeared in an instant.
“In that case, do you mean what happened between us last time doesn’t count anymore?”A hint of shame and resentment flashed across Emma’s face.
“Arthur, I only slept with you by accident last time because I was drunk. I already made it clear afterward that we should forget about this. Do you have to go so far as to threaten me with this?””I’m not threatening you.”Emma stood up with her eyes full of disdain.
“I’ve always loved Callum. He’s handsome, talented, and steady. If you’ve got any ideas, you’d better nip them in the bud,”
she said. With that, she turned around and left, ignoring the frenzied look in Arthur’s eyes.Arthur sat for a long time without saying a word. After that, he finished the wine in his glass in one go and left after Emma.
Elspeth was most surprised by this. Little did she expect that such a thing actually happened between Arthur and Emma… She didn’t know how she returned to the hotel. When she came back, Yelena was already asleep; she even muttered something in her sleep when she heard Elspeth return.Elspeth lay awake in bed all night. The next day, she found Callum’s address with her computer hacking skills before hurrying there early in the morning.Callum was watching the news while jotting down notes nonstop.”Callum, I have something to ask you about.”Callum didn’t say a word, but his fingers trembled for a moment.”Emma is still in touch with Arthur at the moment. Do you know that?”Callum’s eyes darkened; there seemed to be a cold gleam in his gloomy eyes.
“I do.””In that case, do you know they’ve slept together before?”Callum frowned slightly with an indiscernibly complicated look on his face.
“What are you telling me this for?”Elspeth asked coldly in a stern voice,
“Arthur is nominally your brother, yet he’s slept with your ex-girlfriend. Do you still want to go out with Emma now?”Callum averted his gaze.
“This has nothing to do with you.””Callum, tell me that you’re faking all of this and that you have your reasons for doing so. I’ll believe you if you say that.”A frosty expression came over the man’s face.
“Elspeth, stop being unreasonable, will you?””Callum, do you really love me?”Callum fell silent-a silence that struck a chill into Elspeth’s heart.”I’m gonna ask you this again, so tell me the truth. Do you still love me?”Callum’s voice was dry and hoarse.
“I loved you before.”Elspeth felt as though her heart had been thrown to the bottom of a valley and crushed beneath one’s heel. Her face turned pale, and she bit her lip involuntarily. She clenched her fists so hard that her fingernails dug into her palms, but she didn’t feel any pain.
“Callum, we’re done.”Turns out everything they said is true; I’m the only person who stupidly held out till the end, yet all I got was
“I loved you before,”
she thought. She felt the world spinning around her, so much so that she even felt like throwing up. Pulling herself together, she took a deep breath and walked out.After Elspeth had left, Callum stood upright in front of the French window from which one could overlook the forest of high-rise buildings, staring at the sky far away from the glass window with jet-black eyes. After a long time, he finally dialed a number, saying,
“I’ve broken up with Elspeth.””Was she the one who brought it up?””Yes.”The man’s voice was old, but he sounded very candid.
“That little girl is as stubborn as a mule. She’d never give up easily unless she broke up with you.””Can you release my mom now?””As I said, I won’t make things difficult for you as long as you’re willing to go out with Emma and make Elspeth break up with you of her own accord.”
The man guffawed.
“I’ll release Mrs. Winthrop once Elspeth’s engagement party is over. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt her.”Callum took a deep breath.
“I got it.”Standing outside in the sun, Elspeth had a look of confusion in her eyes. Suddenly, she felt somewhat numb.Jordan called just in time.
“Elspeth, I’ve got a piece of bad news to tell you.”Holding back her tears with tremendous effort, Elspeth smiled in the glaring sun, saying,
“What kind of bad news could be worse than I am now? Tell me so that I can laugh at it. As it happens, I just had a breakup.””Congratulations on your breakup, then,”
Jordan said before he was startled for a moment.
“Wait a minute. You’ve broken up with him?””Yeah, that’s right. You want to laugh at me, don’t you?”Jordan’s voice took on a frosty note, which was pretty rare.
“No, I don’t. I just think that the Callum guy you liked is quite an *sshole.”
Elspeth was in no mood to talk about Callum, though. She came back to the subject, asking,
“So what’s the bad news?””Old Mr. Joneson is coming to Waterside in three days to pick you up. I told you why; it’s because he wants you to get engaged to me.”Elspeth agreed without hesitation,
“Okay, but he doesn’t have to pick me up. I’m going back today.”Jordan didn’t know whether to laugh or frown at her reply.
“You’re really eccentric, huh?”Elspeth replied,
“This is called frankness, okay? I’m just not afraid of loving or hating anyone. Since he chooses to keep going out with Emma, I won’t care about him anymore. I’ll live without him.”Jordan broke into a quiet, faint smile.
“There’s no hurry to go back, though. There are many fun places in Waterside, so don’t you want to visit them and have some fun?””No, I don’t,”
Elspeth refused without hesitation.”Don’t you want to find an opportunity to get back at Callum for the way he treated you?”
Jordan’s voice sounded tempting over the phone.
“As it happens, you’ve got a free handsome guy here, who is your future fianc? and is willing to have fun with you. Don’t you want to take the opportunity to show off a little?”At first, Elspeth wanted to turn down his suggestion, but on second thought, what the man said seemed to make sense. After all, she had suffered so many injustices over the past few days.A few minutes later, they met up at the swimming pool.”Why are we here?”Jordan’s eyes were blazing with passion as he eyed Elspeth up and down.
“I want to see you in a bikini. I’ve never seen you in one before.”Elspeth’s face turned pink instantly.
“What the hell are you talking about?””Alright, I was just joking. We’ve got to take some intimate pictures to provoke Callum’s anger.”After pondering for a moment, Elspeth reluctantly accepted the man’s suggestion. They changed into their respective swimsuits, with Elspeth wearing a pink swimsuit that outlined her perfect figure and revealed her fair and tender skin.Then, the two took two pictures of them snuggling together. As soon as they finished taking pictures, Elspeth immediately distanced herself from Jordan.Jordan laughed as she posted the photos on her Instagram with the caption, ‘Having a great time swimming with my boyfriend.’The Instagram post instantly attracted everyone’s attention. Stupefied, the Winthrops commented on it one after another.Harper commented, ‘Wow, you finally have a good eye for men once.’Max asked, ‘What’s going on, Miss Elspeth? Who is this guy?’Blake commented, ‘I wish you two happiness.’Edmund commented, ‘Yo! I just knew you and Callum wouldn’t last long.’Yelena commented, ‘Haha! That *sshole isn’t worthy of Elspeth. Your boyfriend is so handsome!’Max replied to Yelena’s comment. ‘Who the hell are you calling handsome?!’Only Callum seemed not to notice the post as though he had vanished off the face of the earth.Jordan shook his head with a deep frown.
“It’s not provoking enough.”Elspeth raised her eyebrows.
“Should we continue, then?”Hitting it off at once, the two went to see a movie together.Elspeth didn’t pay close attention to what the movie was about, but she took a lot of pictures. After choosing a few well-lit photos, she clenched her fists and posted them on Instagram, asking,
“How should I caption them this time?”Jordan replied,
“I don’t know. How about ‘Let’s watch movies together again in the future’?”Elspeth rolled her eyes.
“How boring,”
she said. Then, she lowered her head and continued searching for a good caption.”What are you looking for?”Elspeth let out a chuckle.
“The best captions for relationship announcement on the internet.”Jordan was rendered speechless.After posting the photos on Instagram, Elspeth quietly counted the number of likes and comments. Suddenly, her phone rang; she took a look and was surprised to see that it was a phone call from Callum’s number.
Elspeth could not comprehend why Callum would call her when he was the one who said that he didn’t like her anymore. She took a look at Jordan’s encouraging expression, hesitating to pick up.
“Just pick up. Didn’t you do all this just to see Callum’s reaction?”After giving it some thought, Elspeth finally picked up the phone. However, what she heard next was not Callum’s voice, but the sharp yet sweet female voice that belonged to Emma.”You shouldn’t waste your energy anymore, Elspeth.”
Emma’s voice carried a hint of mockery as she continued,
“I saw all of your posts. Oh, yes, you guessed right. I used Callum’s phone.”Elspeth’s expression turned disappointed and the light in her eyes faded.
“So? What are you trying to say?”Suddenly, Emma let out a burst of strange yet short laugh that sounded like a cat that had its tail stepped on.”I wanted to tell you not to waste your energy anymore. Callum hasn’t even clicked on a single one of your pictures, and if it weren’t for me, nobody would even see your posts. Also, you just broke up with him, but you already found another man. Callum is too busy being disgusted with you, so do you think he’d call you to ask why you were with another man?”Although Emma’s words sounded awful to the ears, they hit the nail on the head regarding Elspeth’s current situation.Suddenly, Elspeth heard the trickling sound of water from the other end of the line. Before she could decipher what it was, Emma asked in a stunned voice,
“Callum, aren’t you done showering yet?”Elspeth felt her heart tighten.The next second, Callum’s voice sounded over the phone.
“Almost.”Hearing that, she thoroughly gave up all hope. Taking a deep breath, she continued,
“If there’s nothing else, I won’t disturb the both of you anymore.”Emma’s voice was filled with gratification that she’d never had before.
“It’s good that you know. Stop embarrassing yourself in front of us.”This was the first time she was able to act so proudly in front of Elspeth, who wasn’t even able to say anything.However, before Emma could dwell on her happiness, Elspeth’s voice was heard again.
“But do you know why I haven’t slept with Callum after all the time we’ve been together?”Upon hearing this, Emma nearly soared with glee. It was fantastic news to her that Callum and Elspeth had not taken their relationship to the next level yet.”Why?””Because…”
Elspeth lowered her voice before continuing,
“Callum can’t get it up.”Pfft! Next to her, Jordan nearly choked himself on his water upon hearing her words.”What the hell are you talking about?”Although Emma berated Elspeth, she was still unable to shake off her doubts.”I’m not joking around. You can find out for yourself if you ask Callum, but he’s prideful and sensitive, so you have to be extremely careful when you ask him. Remember, if he gets angry, it means that he’s confirming it. You have to stop asking questions and just get him some supplements.”Emma scoffed.
“Stop being a busybody.”With that, she hung up the phone.However, Elspeth knew that she had taken her words seriously.True to her expectations, after Callum emerged from the shower, Emma asked cautiously,
“Callum, I want to ask you something.”Callum, who had just gone through a breakup, was not in the best of moods, but he still responded in a low voice,