On the weekend, again, Franklin picked Grace up from her neighborhood and took her for lunch. Today Grace had a day off. The beef noodle restaurant in the night fair became the place which Grace and Franklin visited most.
Noah had got accustomed to Franklin’s taking her girlfriend to have beef noodles here.
After lunch, Franklin took Grace to the cinema.
Grace felt like she was in a dream. But the popcorn and drink in her hands were both reminding her that she was once again fooled by Franklin.
However, still, a smile appeared on her lips and she didn’t even notice it.
Franklin was indeed a joy bringer. If he wanted to treat a woman well, the woman would feel like in paradise. Thinking about this, the smile on her face slowly faded away.
She looked at the boy sitting beside with a complicated eye look and decided that after watching the movie today, she would tell Franklin straightforward...that she would not fall in love with him.
She would tell him that this was the end.
She admitted that she loved the way Franklin looked at her. Free of disdain, sarcasm, ridicule and contempt, his eye look made her feel like she was just an ordinary girl.
She also admitted that she couldn’t bear to part with the single light coming out from the silt. In darkness, it seemed more precious than anything.
But things were going forward in an uncontrollable way...She couldn’t respond to the love of this big boy pretending to be a man. Then she should just tell him frankly now.
She was too deep in gut to deserve such a love.
How could she drag him to gut with herself?
Therefore, letting him go was the right thing to do.
Suddenly, her hand back was covered by a fit of warmth. As if burned, Grace looked down and saw Franklin’s big hand holding her hand tightly. He said, “Don’t.” The deep voice made her unable to shirk.
With her heart beating fast, Grace didn’t move and just let his hand keep covering hers and turned to watch the move like nothing happened.
She was more certain that she would find a right timing to explain to Franklin...that she was not a good woman, and that she didn’t deserve happiness. She couldn’t respond to his feelings for her.
At the beginning, she thought Franklin was just a big boy with strong curiosity. But then...everything that he did and the way he looked at her were too real to be a lie.
On her left in darkness, a big smile burst out on Franklin’s handsome face when she turned to watch the movie. In the smile, there was a universe of content and happiness. But Grace didn’t see it.
Grace wasn’t paying attention to the movie at all. So after the movie, she had no idea what it talked about. She spent all the time thinking about how to lay it all out with the big boy beside her.
After the ending, lights went on. Franklin kept holding Grace’s hand and refused to let it go. Following the flow of people, he took her outside of the cinema.
Grace became nervous and raised her head to look at the back of Franklin. Her palm was all wet and got sticky. She couldn’t help but look at their holding hands and think, “Doesn’t he find two sticky hands holding together kind of uncomfortable?”
Apparently, different from Grace who was laden with anxiety, Franklin was very happy. He took Grace to the parking lot and opened the door of front passenger seat for her, after which he got in the car too.
“Wait.”
“What?” Franklin turned to her with confusion all over his face, “You want to buy anything?”
When she asked him to wait, what first occurred to him was that maybe she forgot to buy something...The better he treated her, the worse she felt.
It was like something choked on her throat.
Franklin continued, “What’s in your mind? It’s weekend. We got plenty of time.”
“...No,” With firmness in her eyes, she bit the bullet and said, “Mr. Cordon, we can’t...”
Right this moment, his phone rang.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: I've Been There Before (Grace and Caden)
How can a woman suffer so much? How can a man be too cruel initially robbing her of dignity and all, then deceiving her after he knows he loves her? How can they not remarry, making their offspring illegitimate? The line between love and hatred is truly fine indeed! Thank you for this story....