Chapter 5

"Arthur? Arthur..." Samuel called out to me from the other side of the line, dragging me back from my thoughts.

"I'm here. I guess… Thanks for giving me a hand all this time," I said.

Samuel sighed. "There's nothing else I can do. If you need help finding another job, I can ask around."

"Thanks, but I'll figure something out myself. Sorry for all the trouble," I said.

After I hung up, I paid Theodora's hospital bill and got her settled in before calling a coworker to help me look for work. Since I had to take care of my mother during the day, I could only work nights. "Do you know if anyone is hiring temp workers? I only want night shifts."

Tiger Smith knew I'd been fired, so he said, "I just saw a hotel looking for people. The pay looked decent. You can go check it out, I think. They're hosting some kind of event tonight, and they're short-staffed."

"Alright. Send me the address. I'll go take a look," I said.

Using the information Tiger sent me, I quickly found the hotel.

They had a party that evening, and they needed people right away.

As I had done this kind of work before, I was familiar with it. Since the manager saw that I looked presentable enough, he registered my information and put me to work immediately.

The work was quite relaxing, just tedious.

I had to help set up and decorate the banquet hall. Once the event started, I would be serving drinks.

The people who came to a party like this were usually rich and influential. I never expected to see Samantha there.

She stood in the crowd in a red spaghetti-strap mermaid dress, her long black hair falling over her shoulders, with her delicate face looking striking.

After all these years, she'd gone from a sweet, innocent young lady to a glamorous woman who was standing out among the crowd.

Looking at her from across the room, I lost myself for a moment.

If I had stayed back then, what would things have been like? How would our story have ended?

"Waiter, bring me a drink!" A call from a guest snapped me out of my thoughts. I carried over a tray full of glasses, but someone accidentally bumped into me.

In an instant, the whole tray spilled onto the guest in front of me, and the glasses shattered across the floor.

The man started cursing on the spot. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Are you blind?"

He kept wiping at his clothes while cursing me. I knew he was not someone I could afford to offend, so I hurried to apologize and explain.

Still, not only did he not care, but he also roared at me. "I don't care what your excuse is! It's your own fault for not being able to carry it right! You're going to pay for this!"

The guests here were rich and important, and every outfit they wore cost a fortune. But some people just liked to act like they were better than everyone else, like the man in front of me right now. I said, "I'm sorry. I can have it cleaned and sent to your home."

"And if you ruin it? Can you afford to pay for it then?!" The man roared.

I looked at his clothes. They were not the kind that could not be cleaned. "That brand can be dry-cleaned. There won't be any problem."

He ignored that and insisted I had ruined his whole evening. "Look at my leather shoes. They're filthy too. Clean them! Otherwise, this won't be the last time you hear from me!"

More and more people were starting to look our way, so I had no choice but to crouch down and wipe his shoes clean with my sleeve.

When he saw me give in, he looked smug and said to the people beside him, "See that? That's how you deal with people like this. People who do this kind of work are all low-class, got it?"

The people around him burst out laughing. Every word from him hurt me, but I knew that if I argued, I'd lose this job too. So, I swallowed the humiliation and kept wiping his shoes.

Then Samantha's voice came from behind me.

"Mr. Graham, I organized tonight's party. If there's a problem, you can come to me. But making it difficult for someone doesn't look good here when everyone's watching. How would it look if word about this gets out?"

Maybe he was giving Samantha the respect he owed her, so he backed down immediately and pulled his foot back. He said awkwardly, "This waiter was careless. Look at me. He spilled everything on me."

Samantha took a few steps forward, and my heart tightened at once.

I was crouched on the floor with my back to Samantha as she said, "Since this happened at my party, I'll cover the cost. Let's leave it at that."

Mr. Graham looked somewhat embarrassed and said, "How could I let you pay, Ms. Scott? I'll just have it cleaned when I get home."

With that, he turned around and left. Then, I got to my feet with my back still to Samantha.

Gripping my clothes tightly, I lowered my voice. "Thank you."

Then, I tried to leave as quickly as I could, but she stopped me. "Stop!"

I stopped dead in my tracks. Had she recognized me already?

I heard the tap of her heels coming from behind me as she walked closer, and my heart pounded wildly out of anxiety. I did not dare to speak. In fact, I was literally holding my breath.

"You dropped something. Here."

What was it?

I quickly checked my pocket and realized I had dropped my wallet. And inside that wallet was an old photo of the two of us. If she opened it, she would know right away.

I reached one hand behind me to take it. "Thank you."

But after holding my hand out for a long moment, I still did not get my wallet. Instead, I heard her speak again. "Isn't that a little rude? I just helped you, and you won't even thank me to my face."

It was not that I was being rude—I was afraid.

Our lives were too far apart now. All that was left was embarrassment and awkwardness every time we met. "I'm sorry. It's my first day here, so I'm still not used to it."

Samantha laughed. "Not used to it? Then why did you have no problem facing everyone else while serving drinks, but you can't face me when it's my turn? What? Do you think I'm ugly? Mean? Or not worth looking at?"

I clenched my hands. How could she ever be ugly? She had always been the most beautiful woman in the world. It was just that the way we met again wasn't the same as it had been all those years ago.

"You misunderstand me, Ms. Scott. I'm the one who's not worthy. Please give me my wallet. And thank you for helping me just now. I still have work to do. If the person in charge of me notices I've been gone this long, they'll dock my pay."

I heard Samantha take a deep breath, then she snapped. "Arthur, how long are you going to keep this act up? Do you really think I'm still as easy to fool as I was back then? You're really doing everything you can… To think you would come here to work and show up in front of me…

"What exactly do you want? Are you trying to use how miserable you are to make me feel sorry for you? Or do you think I'm still as stupid as I was before? That I'll believe you again?"

There was nothing I could say when I heard that. Samantha had already stepped in front of me by then, and I had nowhere left to hide. She was holding my wallet, and the wallet was already open. She had even taken out the photo.

"You planned this so well… You even kept such an old photo. Did you think I'd get sentimental?"

I had never thought of that. That was because that was the only photo of her I had left. I depended on that photo through tough times, and it stayed with me through all the darkness and pain…

I did not explain. "Return my wallet, and I'll leave right now."

"Leave? Dream on! I already warned you that you'd better not fall into my hands!" Samantha growled.