At Wens' residence.
After spending time with Liwei in absence of other family members and then spending time with grandmother once she returned from the hospital, Ming Lan had dinner with the family.
As they sat around the dining table, Mrs. Wen asked her husband, "When is Zac returning?"
Ming Lan immediately paid attention to their talk. After she spent months away at a place where it was not easy to contact her, she and Wen Zac had less calls and so she certainly felt like the distance was created between them, though they talked once in a while and messaged each other. Moreover, that guilt of staying away for longer than what she had said to him, she always felt hesitant to talk to him or ask him anything directly.
She was waiting for him to return home but it also made her nervous for some reason. She wondered if they would resume things at where they had stopped before she left or once again it would be starting all over again.
"In a few days. Most probably two days maximum," Mr. Wen replied.
"He has been gone for a week now. Yet had not finished his work. He should have returned home by now," Mrs. Wen said, as her intention was to have her son back home soon when his wife had already returned. "Lanlan is home so he should be a little thoughtful about it."
"Hmm," Mr Wen nodded. "I will talk to him."
Ming Lan was caught off guard. She didn't want her in-laws to rush Wen Zac to return home while leaving his work for her. Wasn't she the one who was away for so long? What right does she have to let him leave his work and run back home just because she was back now?
"Uhm, Mother, please don't ask Zac to hurry home, leaving his work. I am sure once it's over, he will return home, the first thing he has to do."
"But Lanlan, if it's not important for him to stay there and someone else can handle it, then..."
"If someone else could handle it, I am sure he would be home already," Ming Lan said, sounding confident like a wife who knew her husband really well. She didn't know why she said it, but she didn't want them to call him back because of her.
"She is right," Mr. Wen said. "I am sure he will try to finish it fast and return home in two days at least."
"Fine. If it is what you two want," Mrs. Wen agreed. "These two days you can spend with us or you can visit your parents home. You must miss your parents as well."
Ming Lan nodded, "I plan to visit them tomorrow."
"As you feel right. The car and driver is there for you," Mrs. Wen informed.
Ming Lan nodded and wondered, 'How sweet and considerate these people are with me and I am the one irresponsible here. I won't go away for so long next time. I must have saved the universe in my previous life to get such a family.'
After the dinner and spending time with her in-laws, Ming Lan went to her room as it was night and the time for sleeping.
As she entered her room and turned on the light, she felt as if the loneliness would engulf her. She looked around the room where she had spent those few nights with Wen Zac after their marriage. Though they were only more like the two people sharing one room and one bed, she could not deny that special connection she had built with him in those few days.
"Without him, this room feels so lonely. Everything feels cold here as it is missing his presence and his warmth. She went to the bed and lay on it randomly, with her legs hanging out the bed and she stared at the ceiling.
'I don't think I can sleep like this,' she moved up to sleep properly on her side of the bed and put her head on the pillow. She looked at the pillow next to her and missed his presence next to her. She closed her eyes and remembered their last night in this same room. He was looking at her gently but his gaze was filled with need, need for her.
'Can I?'
Those two words when he asked her permission to kiss her, those still rang in her mind. Though simple words, they mean so much for her to flutter her heart every night since then. She felt that hidden intimacy in those two words. How much he respected her and their relationship to ask her permission even for a simple kiss, without implying his authority over her as her husband.
"He is so considerate."
A light smile painted on her lips as she recalled each and every interaction they had. From their wedding night when he helped her take her dress off and left without doing anything with her, how caringly he massaged her feet thinking they must be hurting, the talk they had about they don't need to rush the things even when she said she didn't mind going ahead, their first kiss and the way he said goodbye to her on the airport.
She remembered her talk with Liwei. 'I didn't want to admit it, but I felt a little jealous when she told me that he had someone he loved. She must be someone really special to make the person like him to fall for her and make him wait for her for so long. About feeling jealous? Well, as a wife it should be normal."
He thoughts once again drifted to count his goodness. 'He is so patient. What is he waiting for? Is he waiting for both of us to fall in love and then we go ahead in our relationship? If that's the case, then I guess I already love him,' a light blush covered her face, 'Do I? What is wrong in falling in love with your husband? But am I really in love or is it just because he is my husband and I am bound to love him as we have to spend life together?'
Even before she could Draw a conclusion, her cellphone rang which she had placed on the bed when she lay down on it.
It pulled her out of her thoughts, "At this hour? Is it him?"
With her heart beating faster, she immediately sat up in the bed and searched for her mobile on the bed.