Bringing the Nation's Husband Home III

LVIII

James's eyes were shut and he was evidently dizzy when he stood up after they drew his blood. After about half a minute of silence, he started to make his way out of the emergency ward.

Helen caught up to him in a jog. "Let me take you home."

"There's no need," he declined flatly. Standing at the hospital entrance, he lifted his arm out to hail for a taxi.

"You don't look too good. You have to eat something to help restore you blood. Also..."

"Mrs. Helen, don't you think that talking about such things between a buyer and seller is a bit over the line?"

Helen was so chocked up, she couldn't speak. Her mouth moved, but in the end, she sealed her lips.

James didn't look at her, but stared right at the car in front of him. When the taxi he waited for finally came around, he slightly swayed as he walked up to it. Helen hurriedly put her arm out to support his arm. "Are you alright?"

Ignoring her, James pulled his arm away, and pulled the taxi's door open.

Before James got into the car, he stopped as though having realized something. With his head slightly lowered, he said to Helen, "I changed my mind. I don't need you to spend three days and nights with me. I just need two hours at eight on Sunday at the Four Seasons hotel."

After he said this, he bent down and got into the taxi. The taxi drove off before Helen could snap back to her senses.

-

The next day after after blood donation, James lay groggily in bed with a fever all day. It was not until nightfall that his temperature fell.

He was still a little weak after he ate some food, but he wasn't the least bit sleepy. He was the only one in the villa, and the silence left him a little flustered.

When Helen was back in America, he would often feel lonely, but now that she was back and he was in the same city, he felt even more lonely.

James smoked two cigarettes, then walked into the study room. Since he hadn't been in the office for a day, there were dozens of emails in his inbox. He sat in front of his desk and looked through them one by one. When he finished working, it was already 5 am in the morning. He took a shower, and then drove to a random breakfast cafe for some food, then went to the office.

There was a tall pile of documents on his desk. He sat down and started to read through them, as though he didn't know what tiredness meant. He waited for people to come to work one after the other. He signed all the documents. Next, the secretary had to give him a run down of the day's schedule. Then, he had a meeting, and lunch... All in all, he was so busy the entire day, he had no time for a breather.

James and Helen didn't see each other after the day he donated his blood, nor did either of them take the initiative to contact the other.

That weekend, James was alone in the office, working overtime for two days. It was not until six o'clock in the evening on Sunday that his phone reminder alarm started to ring. He saw the three words: Evening, 8 PM.

James stared at those words for a long time, but eventually flipped his phone over and continued to work on his computer, all the way until twenty past seven. He then shut down his computer and cleaned up his things, then walked out the door.

It was twenty to eight when he reached the Four Seasons hotel. He booked a room, yet he wasn't in a hurry to go up. Instead, he waited in the lobby for about twenty minutes. At six past eight, he finally saw Helen's car parked at the entrance of the hotel.

She stepped into the hotel lobby. James waited until she noticed him before he got up and silently walked up to the elevators.

Helen kept to about five meter distance behind him.