Chapter 86

“Really?” Miranda asked. Paul nodded. “Yes.”

Miranda took a deep breath. “Thank you. I feel much better.”

Paul watched her compose herself and felt slightly more relieved. “Are you hungry?” he asked. “I remember a decent Dolorian restaurant nearby.”

After considering it, Miranda accepted his offer.

The Dolorian restaurant’s signature dish was spicy wings. However, Paul couldn’t handle much spice, so they ordered a mix of honey-glazed and spicy wings.

The spicy wings steamed from the heat. They looked appetizing.

Miranda was still feeling down, but the lively atmosphere of the restaurant lifted her spirits slightly. Besides the wings, the fries were perfectly crisp, and the coleslaw was fresh and crunchy. They reawakened her diminished appetite.

Despite the raging storm outside, the restaurant was extremely warm. As she listened to the background conversations, her emotions slowly returned to normal.

She looked up and noticed Paul wasn’t eating much. His slow movements suggested he wasn’t hungry. It seemed he’d only brought her there to cheer her up.

Thinking about that dark, rainy night, she recalled his similarly gentle and subtle support. She felt immensely grateful.

“Thanks… for today,” she said. “I never thought I’d get into such a difficult situation. If Paul hadn’t appeared, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have escaped that predicament. To me, what happened was like a nightmare.”

Even though she’d tried to convince herself she didn’t care, how could she not be affected?

That thought snapped her out of her reverie. Meeting Paul’s clear gaze, she smiled. “Thankfully, you showed up like you fell from the sky. You were my savior!”

“That’s not quite how you use ‘savior,’” Paul said, bursting into laughter.

Miranda looked at Paul’s eyes behind his laughter-filled, steamy glasses.

“You’re much stronger and tougher than you think.”

Paul wasn’t comforting her; he wanted to emphasize her tenacity.

Miranda was stunned for a few seconds. Then she laughed out loud. “Your glasses are all steamed up! Can you even see anything?”

Paul’s glasses were indeed fogged from the steam, making him look comical.

He exasperatedly took them off, grabbed a tissue, and began to wipe them. “This is why I rarely come to barbecue restaurants,” he said.

Miranda smiled, cupping her cheek. “So you don’t like barbecue restaurants?”

“It’s not that I dislike them. I just find them inconvenient.”

After wiping his glasses, he put them back on.

Miranda nodded, thinking back to his visit to her house. He hadn’t really expressed his preferences then either.

Seeing her in a daze, Paul said, “The ribs are good. Try some.”

“Thanks. I will.”

Paul had to return to the lab, so he dropped her off at the duplex lobby.

The rain had stopped, but the roads were still wet. A chilly breeze made Miranda shiver. She automatically wrapped her jacket tighter when a woody scent reached her nose.

Looking down at her dark coat, she laughed. She remembered Paul only had on a turtleneck sweater. Was he… going to be okay?

The next day, she heard him sneezing incessantly. She concluded that men were no more resistant to the cold than women.

“I’ve sent your jacket to the dry cleaner. It should be back in a few days.”