[3] Misunderstanding

The girl was wearing a light brown outer coat, matching the colour of her tanned hair. Her hair was loose without any ties or hairpins. Her legs looked nice. Her skin was smooth, slightly darkened by the sun. It made her look exotic. Although the girl was sexy and beautiful, if she looked angry then anyone would be reluctant to approach.

"I'm clearly crossing, why don't you slow down your car? Huft! How annoying," the girl grumbled. She tried to spruce up her appearance again after falling onto the road. It was a good thing it wasn't raining tonight, or else her body would have been soaked by the dirty water carrying dust and pollution. Maybe the girl would have been even angrier.

Fred was silent as he watched the girl's silly behaviour. He noticed the distance between the car and the girl's fallen position. There was more than a metre separating the two. That meant the car couldn't have hit the girl. Maybe the girl just fell down because she was surprised. If Fred's car had hit her, she would be moaning in pain right now instead of grumbling incoherently.

"I didn't hit you, Miss. You just knocked yourself off the road. Besides, maybe you should pay more attention to where your feet are stepping. I was driving 30 kilometres per hour, I couldn't have hit you at that speed," Fred retorted trying to defend himself.

Unhappy with Fred's words, the woman got up and walked towards Fred. She pointed at him with her index finger and said, "Are you blind? You just threatened my life. How can you accuse me of that?" The girl looked even angrier.

"That's the reality. Who among us crosses the road without looking right and left? Who here would rather cross the road carelessly than look for a zebracross or a footbridge?" Fred felt that he was innocent. He didn't know why the girl was so stubborn in her behaviour.

"It's almost night. I just didn't want to miss the city bus. Thanks to you, I missed the bus."

The two people looked across the street. There was a city bus that had just finished picking up passengers. The bus continued on its route. Seeing this, the girl felt very disappointed and upset. She vented her frustration on Fred.

"What an ignorant man! Now how am I going to get home, huh?! I haven't fed Coki, what if he starves to death?" The girl continued to talk and blame Fred for all the bad things that happened to her today. The truth was that it wasn't a big deal. She was just overreacting.

"Who's Coki?" Fred asked spontaneously.

"He's my only real friend. He has fur and four legs. If Coki were here, he'd probably bark loudly at you and chase you without hesitation. Then he would have bitten you until you couldn't escape." The girl's words were getting more and more off-topic.

Even so, Fred tried to remain patient. He was actually very tired. He was reluctant to argue, especially with a woman. Fred also made a suggestion to the girl. "You can take a taxi instead. Why are you acting like you can only get home by city bus? There are other public transports you can try."

"I know you're rich, your shoes are so shiny. I guess you work in an air-conditioned room that's clean and beautiful. Your car is nice, a limited edition two years ago. So maybe you don't know that the taxi price is three times higher than the city bus price. If I use a taxi every day, I might not be able to pay the rent for my apartment."

Yes, clearly the girl was overreacting. Fred felt dizzy again. Hearing the girl rant was like listening to the sound of metal pans falling together. Fred took the initiative to help the girl. He walked to the side of the road and stopped a taxi.

"Where is your house?" Fred asked the girl.

"Victoria Street number 21th," the girl replied briefly.

Fred immediately asked the taxi driver how much it would cost to get to the girl's house. Then the driver answered the nominal price for the taxi service. Without hesitation, Fred took out cash to pay for the taxi. After he finished, he walked back to the girl.

"You can go home now. I paid for the taxi. Consider yourself lucky that I was nice to you today. Next time we meet, I'll probably be someone else," Fred explained at last. He immediately got into his car and continued his journey home. Now Fred was driving his car at high speed.

"Huft! What an arsehole man. It's rude to leave a woman alone on the street." The girl grumbled again. She watched Fred's car drive away until it disappeared from view. Meeting that guy was the most annoying experience of the entire day. Why did fate bring the girl together with the annoying Fred, she wondered.

"Hey, Miss. Are you coming or not? I've got a lot of work to do," the taxi driver said from inside the car. He had been waiting for a few minutes, but she didn't get in.

"Oh, yes. Sure, don't leave me." The girl hurriedly got into the taxi. Now her mind flashed back to the face of the annoying man she had just met. "Sir, did that man really pay you?"

"Yes, he even paid me an extra tip. He's really nice, are you guys a couple?" the taxi driver asked.

"Absolutely no."

The girl remained silent for the rest of the journey. The annoying man was now gone. But come to think of it, he wasn't really that annoying. The girl only experienced a momentary emotion because she was surprised to be almost hit by a car. The man was quite handsome with his office suit and muscular arms. Nobody knows why she was thinking about him all the time now. A moment ago, she felt very upset with him. But now somehow she wanted to see him again.

"It's impossible," the girl muttered while shaking her head lightly.

***