Ice-Melting(2)

4

When I got into Alfredo's car, I looked out the window subconsciously.

Samantha stood a few steps away, her face clouding over with anger.

I knew immediately why Ryan suddenly wanted me back with him, even though he'd never cared about me.

His Heather must have prodded him to do it.

"Thank you for helping me out just now." I thanked Alfredo.

"Nothing." He paused for a moment. "Mia, I'm not just helping you out. I was serious."

He looked extraordinarily sincere.

I looked down in panic.

After a month together, I already had a crush on him.

But I always remembered that from the very beginning, I approached him with an impure purpose.

"I..."

"Don't rush to give me an answer. I know you haven't thought it through yet. I'll give you time to think about it."

He pulled over, put his hand on top of my head, and patted it.

"It's getting late. Let's go and have dinner together."

We had dinner at a barbecue restaurant.

Alfredo ordered spicy food to suit my taste, which made the tip of his nose sweat and stained his fair skin with a thin layer of red.

I went to get two cold drinks. When I came back, I saw Alfredo looking down at his phone, his expression cold.

I put a cold drink in front of him, picked up my phone, unlocked it, and asked, "What's wrong?"

When I got a good look at what was on the screen, my hands trembled and I nearly dropped my phone.

Samantha shared something on Twitter.

It was about a nasty comment someone made on Facebook when I relentlessly chased after Ryan.

"Girls should be self-respecting and not be in a hurry to please others. People who don't like you just think you're cheap."

The comment even included two photos.

One was taken in the cafeteria.

Ryan sat at the table, playing on his phone while eating.

I sat opposite him and looked at him with humble love.

The other was a picture of a bunch of flowers I gave him. Only a few petals were not fresh enough, but he threw them in the trash.

Later, I asked him why he had thrown the flowers away. He just said impatiently, "They're all wilted. What's the point in keeping them?"

But then Samantha gave him a succulent she didn't want to keep.

He took care of it like a treasure for months and even got mad at me because I accidentally knocked off two leaves.

After that comment, I felt my pride crushed, and I almost gave up chasing him.

But to my surprise, he actually stood up for me. He tracked down the person who made the comment and asked him to remove it.

He then invited me to dinner, comforted me, and sent me a bunch of flowers.

It was the first rose in my life.

Only much later did I learn that he had intended to give Samantha the flowers, but she had not accepted them.

I blanched as the memories of the photos came flooding back.

Samantha even added another comment in the comments section of the tweet.

"It's nothing. I just can't believe someone would be tough enough to be my backup's second line. Not only does she have no self-esteem, she even wants to be with some other guy. I'm afraid she's going to fool some good guy."

I knew who she was talking about.

In the afternoon, Alfredo said to Ryan's face that he was courting me, and Samantha must have heard him.

She was anxious.

"Don't take it to heart."

Alfredo's voice broke out with a strong soothing force.

"Her tweet will affect her reputation too. I'm sure she'll delete it soon."

I pursed my lips. "I know, but... she especially sent it to you."

He smiled as if he didn't care. "Sent it to me? Then it's useless. It's just that you met a jerk who didn't cherish you. It's his problem, not yours."

It was strange how quickly I calmed down after his few words of comfort.

"Mia, it doesn't affect my liking and appreciation of you.

"You may not remember, but we've already met."

I looked at him in surprise.

He reminded me in a low voice. "I met you two years ago at the spring career fair at Carvonia University. After listening to my talk, you handed in a resume. But when I called you for the interview, you were gone."

I remembered it.

At the time, Alfredo's company, Supreva, was one of my targets.

After submitting my resume, I went outside and hid in the corner of the hallway to call Ryan and ask him to come for an interview right away.

I didn't expect him to tell me he had an urgent matter for me to attend to.

He sounded serious. I gritted my teeth and gave up on the interview and went to the place he had mentioned.

When I got there, I found that the important thing he said was to queue for a drink.

An Internet-hit beverage store opened its first branch in our city.

Ryan said he wanted it so bad, so I literally stood in line for three hours to get one.

That night, the drink ended up in Samantha's hands.

She even posted a tweet to show off.

"I can have it without waiting in line. It feels so great drinking it in my dorm room with the air conditioner on."

5

"After you left, I looked through your resume and thought you were excellent. I was gonna give you a personal recommendation. Later, I specially called you to come to my company for an interview. But you refused, saying you wanted to go to the same company as your boyfriend."

Alfredo smiled helplessly. "But his resume is too bad to pass the preliminary screening, so I can't help it."

So that was what had happened.

Ryan's grades were mediocre. Although he did look good, it wouldn't be much help when it came to getting a job.

"Thank you, anyway," I whispered.

My college life was monotonous. I had almost nothing left but to run after Ryan except study.

I had high college GPAs, annual scholarships, two best awards for college-level projects, and a team gold medal for a programming competition.

All of this imperceptibly made me a glittering soul.

It was just that I was so immersed in the mire of unequal love that I didn't even realize it.

Even under Ryan's constant PUA, I felt plain and disagreeable. He made me feel as if my higher income was the only thing that made me worthy of him.

Earlier, after a few drinks, he hugged me and complained that his parents were ordinary working class and couldn't afford a down payment on a house, so he couldn't give me a home in the city.

I hugged him with joy and caution and promised, "It's okay. I'll make the money and buy our house."

Hearing what Alfredo said, I suddenly realized that it wasn't that I had never been good enough, but that no matter how good I was, I wasn't as good as Samantha to Ryan, who didn't love me.

...

...

The ice that had long been in my heart began to melt little by little.

Early the next morning, Alfredo picked me up at my place to take me to work.

Olivia took a ride, ate the breakfast Alfredo bought, and texted me when she got to the office.

"Mia, this guy is 10,000 times better than Ryan the jerk."

"We're not..."

"Stop pretending. Do you think I can't see the way he looks at you? I'm going to your wedding on this day next year."

I helplessly put down my phone.

Having made his feelings clear, Alfredo began his formal and active courtship of me.

He drove me to work, ordered me takeout, and liked and commented on every tweet I made.

One day I forgot to bring painkillers for my menstrual cramps. Twenty minutes after I told him that, a delivery guy came to my office with a box of ibuprofen.

He made no secret of his affection and preference for me. My boss even talked to me once. He was relieved to make sure there weren't any shady dealings between us related to the project.

"Alfredo is the youngest department head in Supreva. You have to take the chance." My boss laughed and teased me.

That weekend coincided with the 80th anniversary of Carvonia University.

Alfredo and I went back to the university together.

As I stood at the entrance to the school's new swimming pool, smiling for photos with my juniors, countless memories came flooding back to me.

Alfredo stood beside me, gentle and calm.

He was meticulous and considerate, a far cry from Ryan, who just wanted to crush me and drain me so I could be his backup.

I couldn't help but think it would have been better if the person I first knew had been Alfredo.

...

That way, I wouldn't have spent my college years on such a long, fruitless chase.

It was also at this time that I suddenly realized that during our time together, I had unconsciously fallen in love with Alfredo.

I pinned the school badge given to me by my junior to my chest. Then I suddenly thought of something and turned to Alfredo. "By the way, how did you get to know Samantha?"

Shortly after Samantha posted that tweet that day, she quickly deleted it.

Later, her face darkened when she saw me at work.

When I asked Alfredo, I learned that Samantha wasn't happy that she didn't get the result she wanted, so she sent him a screenshot of the tweet.

Alfredo unfriended Samantha after he told her what he had told me.

"Are you curious?" Alfredo froze, then laughed. "When I was a senior in college, she signed up for the publicity department at the school. I happened to be the one doing the interviews, so I got to know her."

"She actually likes you. Can you feel it?"

Alfredo was silent for a moment.

"She told me more than once how she felt about me, but I refused and made it very clear each time."

As he spoke, his eyes fell on my face, and he broke into a smile. "I told her she wasn't my type."

My heart started racing as if I had sensed something.

He lowered his head slightly and moved closer to me.

"I like you, Mia."