Marina doesn’t change her expression; instead, she says to Maxx in an intimate manner, as if they
were old friends, “Thank you for your care over the past several days. May I’ll have to bother you in the
future, and I have nothing to pay you back. So, I want to express my gratitude to you with his kiss. It is
a kind of social etiquette in America.”
She describes her action as a normal etiquette. It seems that it is really nothing except the expression
of her gratitude toward him.
Maxx’s face turns red, feeling ashamed of his overthinking just now and failing to calm himself down.
He has affection for Marina. When he first saw this fragile woman in the airport, he has an impulse to
protect her. Then, as they got along well with each other, he unconsciously put more attention on her.
And her kiss almost makes his heart jump out of the throat.
Maxx doesn’t dare to look at her. He just carries the luggage and walks out of the villa in a hurry.
The car is unobstructed all the way. Since Rex has informed the safeguards of the villa community, the
car also pulls into the front yard of the villa without being stopped.
A middle-aged lady stands at the door of the villa. When seeing the lady, Marina is a little bit surprised.
She never hears from Rex there is the other person in the house, but…
“Ma…Miss Marina, we are here.” Maxx subconsciously wants to all Marina’s name, but he soon
realizes that it is not appropriate to do that in this place, so he immediately corrects himself.
Marina appreciates people who know what they should do, like Maxx. She opens the door of the car.
Unexpectedly, it suddenly drizzles.
Fanny immediately holds an umbrella over Marina, asking, “Are you Miss Marina?”
Marina studies Fanny at a glance and becomes sure that she never knows her before. She doesn’t
introduce herself; instead, she asks Fanny, “Who are you?”
Fanny is stunned at the moment, but she immediately explains, “I am Fanny, a housekeeper of Mr.
Rex.”
“A servant…” Marina nods and murmurs.
Her careless words embarrass Fanny. A servant? It is impolite to call someone a servant, and few
people would do this, they would call people like Fanny a housekeeper.
Although she complains in heart, Fanny doesn’t dare to show any expression on her face. Anyway, she
works in Rex’s house. And Marina is a guest, she is just a housekeeper.
Fanny leads Marina to the house. When hearing that there is some sounds, Lily and Rex walk
downstairs from the second floor. They are all in dark-blue pajamas. At the first sight of their pajamas,
one may think that they are wearing lovers’ pajamas.
Although she has prepared herself for the scene, she fails to control herself and feels afflictive when
seeing this in person.
Since they live together, something must happen. When thinking that Rex is so intimate to the other
woman, and even do something that he has never done with her with that woman, she feels
heartbroken, as if millions of ants are crawling across her heart.
Marina closes her eyes and tries to calm herself down. She must control her mood and not let it
disclose.
“Mr. Rex, here are all the luggage of Miss Marina.” Maxx carries all the luggage into the house without
looking at Marina.
Rex nods and says, “Thank you. Now you can come back home to have a rest.”
Maxx, who holds the key of the car in hand, tightens his hand and takes a step forward, asking, “Mr.
Rex, when shall I come again.”
“I will inform you later.”
“Okay.” Maxx turns around and leave. He glances at Marina, as if he does it unintentionally. But he then
quickly shifts his sight and leaves the villa.
Soon, the sound of the engine can be heard from the courtyard. Knowing that Maxx has left, Marina
breathes a sigh of relief secretly.
She looks up at the man, who is walking toward her, feeling excitement welling up in her heart. Finally,
she manages to move into this house. She calls him with a smile, “Rex!”
“You are coming.” Rex hands her a mask, saying, “Put on this. The lights in the house might be
stimulating, and I will call someone to change them.”
Marina puts the mask on her face and only her eyes can be seen. One can easily see from her
beaming eyes that she is in a good mood. Marina says, “Rex, I will have to bother you in the future,
please don’t push me away.”
She says these words in an intimate way. It seems that she and Rex are family members who have
been staying with each other for a long time. But she doesn’t call him brother Rex.
Lily stands beside and looks at them. Marina doesn’t take the initiative to greet her, and she wants to
get a word in, but she is afraid that this might be abrupt. So she just stands aside like an outsider who
is being left out.
When Lily catches a glimpse of Fanny, who is heading to carry the luggage, she takes a step forward
and intends to take the luggage from Fanny considering that it would be hard for such an old lady to
carry it, saying, “Fanny, please take the small one. I will take this one upstairs.”
Actually, Marina only has three boxes of luggage, including two big luggage cases and a small
suitcase.
“Oh, that won’t do.” Fanny holds the luggage case tightly, adding, “I like doing housework. It’s a small
case for me. Miss Lily, that won’t do. Please give me the luggage.”
None of them makes a concession. Suddenly, a dark shadow overwhelms over Lily’s head, then
something warm touches the back of her hands and takes away the heavy luggage case.
He carries the big luggage case with his bony, big hand. The luggage is so heavy and big for Lily, but
he carries it in a way like he is carrying a feather.
Lily sincerely praises him, “You get up at 6 o’clock every morning and do the exercise. It’s worthy!”
When she finishes her words, she gives him a thumps-up sign.
Fanny laughs because of her words. She turns around her face and smiles secretly. Rex raises his
eyebrows and picks up the small suitcase with the other hand, as if he is confirming her praise. He then
turns around and walks upstairs with one luggage in each hand.
Lily looks at Fanny and busts into smile.
After watching Rex going upstairs, Marina acts as if she just sees Lily. She walks over and greets her,
“Hello, Miss Lily. I am Marina, a childhood sweetheart of Rex. And we met before.”
A childhood sweetheart?
Lily gently bites the soft flesh in her mouth, and smiles, saying, “Hello, I am the girlfriend of Rex.”
“…” Marina doesn’t expect that Lily would be so frank and honest. With her eyelashes trembling
slightly, she raises a hand to tucks wisps of hair behind the ear, saying, “It seems that you are getting
alone well with Rex. But I didn’t hear about you from him before, so I hope you won’t mind it.”
“It’s okay.” Lily immediately explains for herself, adding, “I am just introducing myself to you.”
If her words are misunderstood by Marina as the evidence to proof her assumption that Lily minds, she
really wants to tell her – Miss Marina, you’ve think too much.
Marina smiles and doesn’t say anything. Exactly right, Rex walks downstairs, so Lily and Marina stop
talking.
Rex carries the last luggage case to Marina’s room. He arranges Marina to live in the guest bedroom,
which is located at the end of the corridor and covers a large area. The room is quite, so it is
appropriate for a patient who needs a rest-cure to live in.
Although Marina is not satisfied with it, she knows that she is not eligible to refuse this arrangement. So
she just accepts this.
Fanny has cleaned up the guest bedroom. And all furniture and clothes in the room are new, and are
also enough to support her daily needs.
When sorting out the luggage, Marina takes out a wad of dark-grey stuff from the interlayer of the
suitcase, and then she unwraps it – it turns out that this is a knitted scarf.
She hands it to Rex and says gently, “In my space time in the North Villa, I would knit some stuffs. I
didn’t attend your birthday party this y ear, so I decided to knit a scarf for you. But it is a little bit
ugly…”
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