novelraw Chapter 212: "I Miss You.
Chapter 212: "I Miss You.
Jessie Sterling raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
"Don’t you want to know who voted for you?" Jade Moyer asked.
The moment he asked, Jessie Sterling didn’t even have to guess anymore.
It was clear now who had cast that last vote she’d been puzzling over.
"Why would you vote for me?" Jessie still couldn’t quite wrap her head around it.
Jade Moyer didn’t seem like the type to be socially oblivious. If he was going to vote for anyone, it should have been one of the senior cast members.
Jade Moyer chuckled. "I just get a different vibe from you!"
Jessie: "..."
’What kind of reason is that?’
"Tanya, Elena, and Wendy Lawson all seem pretty familiar with you, so I just decided to go with the flow. And now it looks like that really was the popular choice." Jade Moyer made no attempt to hide his reasoning from Jessie.
For a moment, his candor left Jessie a little speechless.
She chuckled.
Jessie had thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep, being in a new place. But unexpectedly, after answering Victor Morgan’s call and listening to his familiar voice on the other end, she gradually drifted off to sleep, even with the sound of hailstones clattering outside.
She woke up the next morning, a little after eight o’clock.
Jessie glanced at the phone beside her pillow and was surprised to find that the call was still active.
"Victor Morgan?" Jessie whispered his name.
She wasn’t really holding out much hope, but a second later, a reply came from the other end of the line.
"Yes, I’m here."
The moment Jessie heard his voice, the thousand-kilometer distance between them suddenly didn’t seem so vast.
It was as if Victor Morgan was still right there beside her.
"Why didn’t you hang up?" Jessie asked.
Victor Morgan should have been in Uncle Carter’s car by now. When Jessie wasn’t home, he didn’t wait to have breakfast with her before going to the office. Normally, after his morning workout and shower, he would eat breakfast and be out the door before eight.
"In case you woke up and were looking for me, this way you could find me immediately," Victor said.
Jessie mumbled, "What would I need to look for you for?"
’It’s not like she’s a three-year-old child who would wake up and start crying for her parents. Besides, Victor isn’t her parent.’
Victor seemed to let out a short laugh. "Alright, then it was me who wanted to find you."
Jessie’s face flushed red.
"I missed you," Victor’s voice came through the phone again.
Jessie felt her face grow even hotter.
"Then come and see me," Jessie said.
She knew it was impossible. She was only going to be here for a week before returning to Aethelburg after filming. ’Am I really going to make a busy man like Victor Morgan fly all this way just to see me? Even if he came, we wouldn’t get any private time. We’re filming a show; there are cameras everywhere.’
Jessie was just teasing. She wasn’t the type to put someone she cared about in an awkward position. Right after she said it, just as she was about to add, ’I’m just kidding,’ she heard Victor’s clear reply—
"Okay."
Jessie walked into the bathroom; of course, she didn’t believe him.
"I was just kidding. Don’t really come, okay?" Jessie added, just in case.
"Mhm," Victor replied noncommittally, then asked, "Are you getting used to things over there?"
He, for one, was definitely not.
Even though he’d been on the phone with Jessie last night, when Victor Morgan lay in bed alone, he felt the bed at home was suddenly too big, the space beside him too empty.
He was used to sleeping while holding someone in his arms. Now, when he turned over, there was only cold, empty air.
He wasn’t used to it, and he didn’t like it one bit.
He had assumed Jessie would feel the same as him, but he didn’t expect to hear her muffled voice from the other end of the line, garbled by a toothbrush and the whirring of its electric motor.
"It’s going okay."
After all, Jessie was already well-acquainted with three of the other guests on the show, so there wasn’t much of a settling-in period.
Hearing this, the man sitting in the back seat of the car couldn’t help but grit his teeth.
He felt a surge of indignation.
’Why was he the only one feeling out of sorts?’
Victor didn’t want to admit the sour feeling in his heart. It was as if he was the only one of the two who cared so much. He hadn’t heard the answer he’d hoped for, and now he was trapped by his own expectations.
"But I’m still not quite used to sleeping at night," Jessie said, her mouth full of toothpaste foam.
The man, whose expression had been grim just a moment ago, suddenly brightened up at her words, as if the sun had broken through the clouds after a storm.
Victor hadn’t realized he could be placated so easily by Jessie. She didn’t even know that her words had had that effect on him.
Victor let out a stifled laugh.
Jessie was baffled. "What are you laughing at?" she asked.
Victor didn’t answer. He just felt that in the mere twenty hours they’d been apart, he suddenly missed her even more.
’He was a lost cause.’
"Hurry up, finish getting ready, and go eat. It’s getting late," Victor said, changing the subject.
Jessie gargled with mouthwash a couple of times as if in response, then finally ended the call with Victor.
After heading downstairs, Jessie suddenly remembered that the production team had only provided dinner for them last night. For the coming days, they would all have to fend for themselves.
Out of the eight of them, Jessie was up relatively early.
Right now, only she and Joanne Warren were in the living room; the others were presumably still asleep.
"Elena," Jessie greeted her.
"Jessie."
"What are we having for breakfast?" Jessie asked. "No, wait. Do we even have anything to eat?"
Joanne Warren gave a wry smile. "There’s nothing in the kitchen."
Jessie: "Nothing else at all? Are they making us start from scratch and be self-sufficient?"
"It looks that way."
Jessie: "..."
’Looks like I’ve really signed myself up for some unnecessary hardship,’ she thought.
Fortunately, the sky outside was clear now, not dark and overcast like the night before when it had hailed.
Jessie decided to go out for a walk with Joanne Warren.
There was a patch of land right outside the house with some green vegetables growing in it. Jessie didn’t recognize the plants, but even if she did, just eating a few leafy greens for breakfast... wouldn’t be nearly enough to fill her stomach.
Not far from the house, about two kilometers away, there was a market.
Jessie and Joanne Warren walked out and ran into a local. They asked if it was market day today, and after getting an affirmative answer, the two of them headed in that direction.
On the way, Jessie took a deep breath. The morning air seemed to carry the scent of mountain mist, mingled with the aroma of trees and soil.
"Elena, are we going to the market just to look, not to buy?" Jessie asked.
They didn’t have a single penny on them right now. Even if they wanted to buy something, they were powerless to do so.
Joanne Warren said, "Not necessarily."
"Huh?"
Joanne Warren suddenly opened her backpack and showed Jessie what was inside.