Chapter 15: Her Capacity
To Love You Again, My Husband
Chapter 15: Her Capacity
Airina, forced into this kind of meetup, narrowed her eyes in annoyance. She was wearing a fitted white, collared shirt, with a short, up-to-her-knee pleated skirt. She completed her look with an updo and white hat to shade her face from the heat.
With another helpless sigh, she pulled her hat more forward. Out of a sudden, an arm was placed on her shoulder and the owner said.
“Do I really have to face that man?”
It was Matthew, who was also forced by Airina to accompany her as to expel the discomfort and awkwardness present when she’s with these two other people.
Airina responded, “I should be the one asking that.”
Matthew scoffed, “Oh, headache.”
In a close friend’s position, Elisa was surprised to see Matthew’s arm on her shoulder. Matthew was known as a polite, kind person. However he was not inclined to make deep relationships with others to prevent mishaps.
Elisa gasped, teasing them. “Oh my, it’s good to see you two being close.”
Airina turned around as she slowly lowered Matthew’s arm from her shoulder. With a faint smile on her face, she faintly said. “Oh, we’re quite close because he was pushing me to do such work.”
Elisa giggled, noticing Matthew was uncomfortable with her around. However, as she didn’t want to make the tension uglier, she averted her eyes from him.
“Sir Halton, don’t push my friend too much. Because of you, her beauty was fading.”From NôvelDrama.Org.
Matthew coughed, “That isn’t true, someone around kept chasing her.”
Airina instantly nudged his stomach, understanding he regarded Jackson for Elisa to understand. No one knew that Jackson was frequent to her house besides Matthew since he was always interested in their affairs, rather than his work.
Elisa gaped, “Someone? Who is this man chasing after the beauty?”
Someone, not in their conversation, interjected. “Don’t be so invested in other stories just because you wanted the information.”
Jackson, making his entrance with his casual clothes came in while carrying his white hat, the same design as Airina. Noticing that subtle thing, Airina grasped her hand uneasily. She looked away, turned around then grabbed Matthew’s wrist. She pulled him inside the golf course without saying much.
Elisa was left alone with Jackson then happily spoke to him.
“Jackson! I was waiting for you.”
However, his eyes were firmly fixed on Airina’s figure who was beside Matthew. They were exchanging conversations that others couldn’t hear. He folded his arms, scrutinizing Matthew from head to toe. Elisa narrowed her eyes at Airina. How could someone who climbed up in her class catch two high figures in the business world?
***
Matthew shook his head in disappointment at Airina’s lacking skill. Airina was great at her presentation, or her ideas for the company but when it came to this game which a lot of aristocrats were fond of, she was miserably terrible. Just earlier, he had ordered her to hit it lightly but her description of faint far exceeded his expectation.
The coach cleared his throat. He had been declaring failures of Airina in a series that progressively got worse. Elisa, who assumed that Airina was perfect couldn’t help but snicker. Indeed, someone who came from a lowly background doesn’t know the basic foundation to actually grasp how wealthy people live their lives to the fullest.
Airina sighed in disbelief. Unlike everyone who was disappointed in her, she was just dispirited. Golfing, as she had seen in movies or dramas was just for fun. Yet all the people were into this game and she was the only one who was bad – even the coach didn’t want to announce her consecutive failures.
What could she do? She was just an imperfect human being – just like Jackson who cheated on her, she had some flaws, too. She emotionlessly shrugged her shoulders, giving the golf to Matthew.
He told her, “Can you play worse than this?”
She smiled, “I assure you that wasn’t the worst.”
“You made my best shots plummet all in one go.”
Airina laughed at him, “What a pity, I don’t want to make your achievements known.” Elisa stared at the exchange of words between these two. Ever since she had seen them, she couldn’t figure out if they were close as business partners, close as friends or if one of them had feelings for each other. If it was the latter, it would be difficult since Airina came from a humble background. She was certain that the Halton family wouldn’t want a daughter-in-law who would always stand out; people from the media might even criticize her.
Jackson squinted his eyes at the ball. Airina attempted her best, but she was really so adorable at not following orders, she even made Matthew frustrated over her skills.
Matthew has lost interest in playing after witnessing Airina’s abilities.
He spoke, “I accept defeat,” he glanced at Airina, “You two should thank Miss Beverly for your victory.”
Elisa smiled, “Airina played interestingly. It caught my attention.”
Airina noticed the hostility in her words. She blurted without much thought, “Of course, taking the spotlight would have seen much worse.”
Jackson tilted his head. “If you were the winner, it would have been amusing.”
Airina shrugged, “I don’t know, I’m not an enthusiast or an entertainer of anyone here.”
Matthew smirked at her words. Back when she was just recently divorced, she was like a lost soul adrift – he had even seen her crying. She is a lot stronger now, so strong that it was amusing to watch. He had never even thought that he’d face Jackson in this manner since they last saw each other at the Founding Anniversary.
From what he has found out from his intel, he occasionally visited Airina, who appeared to have shooed him away.
As their game ended, Airina bid her farewell to Elisa and Matthew since she needed to deal with things with Nicole and Linda, her stepmother. She has a meetup with the person who sold her pieces this seven in the evening and since their game ended at one in the afternoon, she even took a break because they have eaten refreshments.
Elisa had been making advances toward Jackson. However, no one knew what was going through his mind thus even Airina couldn’t tell if he was playing with her or not. Possibly, he agreed in their meetup to make her jealous. Unfortunately, it didn’t result in whatever he intended it, but it still was satisfying to see his boiling eyes while gazing at Matthew.
Jackson, on the contrary, also had something to deal with in his company so he had to go with Airina. And in the end, through persuasion, he finally made her agree to take her to the place she would go.
She leaned her head on the window, closing her eyes.
Jackson spoke, “Did you really not know how to play golf?”
“… Do you think I was pretentious?”
He smiled, “You acted like you knew everything.”
She opened her eyes, “I never even acted like that,” she took a deep breath, “It was your delusion eyes.”
He scoffed then laughed soon after. “If you hate to be with me in my car, why did you let your car be driven by your driver?”
“Then should I be the one driving it, instead?”
“Are you still mad?”
“I only want you to shut up. You’re so noisy.”
“… You have a knack for making me speechless.”
“You haven’t even seen how I make you scared”, she tugged her lips upwards, feeling glee all of a sudden. “But of course, it’s not like I’d want to do it.”
Jackson rested his head on the back of his palm. “You have the permission. Make me scared as if we’re living in a horror.”
“You enough are a horror to me.”
“A horror you wouldn’t forget in your dreams. Such an honor.”
“Yes, such an honor to be dead in my dreams.”
“…”