Sam said, “That’s great.” As long as you enjoy it.
“But will you get tired of taking the shells off of prawns for me?” Eleanor asked in a sweet voice.
“Of course I won’t.” That’s normal for me.
“Lillian, Sam is really good at taking the shells off of prawns. Eleanor turned to me in college and said, “Don’t you think you should thank me for this?” It’s because of me that he is so good at that.
I thought, “Thank her? For what? For Sam’s ability to peel prawns? But he never did this for me.”
I remember a famous person on a reality show saying that she liked prawns but wouldn’t eat them if no one peeled them for her.
I went out to dinner with Sam once after we started dating. I begged him to peel those prawns for me, but he stopped and asked, “Can’t you do it yourself?”
I didn’t say anything right away because I loved him more than he loved me. I was not in a good place in this relationship.
Since then, I had never asked him to peel prawns for me.
I lift my head to see Eleanor.
The car is dark, but I can still see the pride and defiance in her eyes.
That’s something she does a lot. If you provoke me, wait for Sam to come to her aid.
It looks like she’ll never get tired of this.
But right now, I’m calm and don’t want to fight with her.
“Thanks for that,” I say without thinking.
Eleanor greets her teeth and then goes back to talk to Sam without reaching her goal.
When Sam talks to Eleanor, he is always kind and soft.
I can feel my eyelids getting heavy and their voices fading as they talk angrily.
I wake up in the car in front of my apartment building, and Sam is sitting in the front seat without saying anything.
Eleanor is gone now.
“Why didn’t you wake me up when we got here?” I sit up straight and open the door to the car.
Sam is behind me, not saying anything.
He then asked, “Are you tired?” as he walked out of the lift.
“What?” I didn’t know what he meant.
“I saw you were sleeping while I was talking to Eleanor.”
“Yes, I’m tired.” I don’t want to talk. I just want to go to bed.
“Benjamin set up dinner for today. You know, my college friend. He also invited Eleanor because they are friends. I gave her a ride home,” Sam suddenly said to me.
That’s a weird thing. I kept asking him why he was always with Eleanor, but he never bothered to tell me.
Today, I don’t ask him, but he surprisingly takes the lead and explains.
“I know,” I say as I walk to the toilet.
“I was going to take you to dinner, but you said you had work to do. So I decided to pick you up after dinner,” he went on to say.
“Yes, I understand. I’m going to take a shower now and leave where we are right away.
I go right to sleep after my shower.
The next day, after work, I see Sam again in front of my building.
Eleanor isn’t with him this time.
But I go back to the back seat. Sam turned his head to look at me, and it looked like he was going to say something, but nothing came out.
I feel good when I just treat him like a driver. I should have told him that Eleanor couldn’t sit in the front seat. It wasn’t a big deal.
“Mike is moving to his new house today, and he wants us to come over for dinner,” Sam says as he starts the car.
Mike is also a friend from college.
