Nikki slowly turned around and got back on track: "You're right. He never even called me once, and I called him twice, and the answer I got was that he was busy with work. Now, he has time to go shopping with that girl."
Monica was surprised: "You called twice? I didn't call once."
Nikki: "Are you gloating?"
Monica was helpless: "You still had some fantasies before, but I knew from the beginning that he had no feelings for me. Am I not more unlucky than you? He hit a home run right at the start."
Nikki: “Hmm?”
Monica: "Yes, I was the baseball that was hit by him and flew out of the field. I didn't even have a chance to return to the field."
Nikki opened her mouth, unable to refute her bestie's metaphor, and couldn't think of any words of comfort.
"Okay, let's go buy Christmas presents. Not all handsome guys can be our friends. Maybe he and we have only met by chance twice." Monica pulled Nikki forward and comforted her.
While they were talking, the two women merged into the crowd.
…
Unlike Elena's previous "misunderstanding", Luke actually took her on a tour around New York City in the afternoon.
After leaving Times Square, the two went to the NYPD headquarters to see where someone was working and fighting.
Then, the two went to the Brooklyn Bridge, and then headed southwest to the mouth of the Hudson River, where they watched the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island from afar.
They did not take a boat to the island. It was not a very pleasant feeling to take a boat to the island in this weather. They could only wait until the weather was fine to go there.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, Luke sent Elena back to the school dormitory.
However, after parking the car in the parking lot not far from the back door, he took the opportunity of her greeting a young security guard to sneak into the college.
The Palande School of Art itself does not have strict attendance requirements, and as Christmas is approaching, most students leave school early.
For example, Elena's roommate had already gone on vacation with who knows what boyfriend, and she won't be back for at least a week.
After a while, Luke finally stepped into Elena's dormitory.
When his sister Claire went to USC, he just looked around the dormitory and did not go to her dormitory.
So, this was his first time entering a college girls' dormitory.
Palande is a not-so-famous art school, and the dormitory rules are not very strict. The decorations in the dormitories are quite unique, and there are strange things everywhere in the house.
Elena’s roommate is a New Zealand girl who likes to “make friends” and rarely returns to the dormitory.
Now, this double dormitory has almost become Elena's private space, and the roommate only comes back occasionally to sleep for a night or a day.
After using his keen sense of smell to analyze for a moment, Luke no longer worried about his mild mysophobia.
Elena's dormitory is where international exchange students live. The environment is better than that of ordinary dormitories. Not only does it accommodate two people in a room, but it also has a bathroom where you can take a shower, which is quite convenient.
But this is not a preferential treatment, because the price of this dormitory is much more expensive than ordinary dormitories.
Fortunately, Elena came here on a scholarship, and she was also an excellent student in this school, so her fees were partially waived, and it was not much more expensive than living in an ordinary dormitory for others.
In addition, she met a roommate who almost never went back to the dormitory. Her living environment is much better than the houses in New York that cost more than $1,000 a month.
Of course, this is New Jersey, not on the other side of the Manhattan River, so the rent is not that high.
While Luke was touring the dormitory, Elena had already taken off her coat and was only wearing a thin sweater and jeans. She took out a package from her closet and asked, "Would you like some?"
He turned his head and smiled: "Of course."
Elena also smiled and opened the bag of coffee in her hand: "Your taste hasn't changed, right?"
Luke: “Yeah.” His eyes fell on her.
Her movements were skillful and not too fast, which was a pleasure to watch.
Suddenly, she turned her head and glanced at him: "Why are you not talking?"
Luke sat down on the chair in front of the window and said with a smile, "I'm remembering the time when we first met."
Elena: “What is that?”
Luke chuckled: "I still remember that you took the initiative to invite me to have coffee on the third night."
Hearing this, Elena couldn't help but sneer: "Just remember this!"
Luke shrugged. "That was my first time traveling abroad, and it was also the first time a girl invited me for coffee. It was really memorable."
Elena couldn't help laughing, she picked up something from the side and threw it at him.
Luke caught it, looked at it in his hand, and said in amazement: "Your growth period has not ended yet, you are still growing!"
Elena pouted at him and turned a blind eye to someone playing with her underwear.
They chatted and laughed until the hot coffee came out of the oven, then they sat by the window with their cups of coffee in hand.
Elena's habits remain unchanged.
There was a chair and a small round table right in front of the window. This must be where she drank coffee in the dormitory.
There are a few books on the small bookshelf next to it.
There are art magazines, literary classics, and... um? Detective novels.
He held Elena, who was sitting on his lap, and took the detective novel: "Derek Storm, are you still reading this? I remember you didn't have this hobby."
Elena looked at the sky outside the window which was gradually getting darker and the snowflakes were falling bigger and bigger. She chuckled and said, "Because I want to know what your job is like."
Luke stuffed the novel back. “The protagonist of this book is a private investigator, and I’m a police detective.”
Elena was at a loss: "Aren't they all about solving cases?"
Luke chuckled: "We can use guns, arrest, interrogate and detain suspects, but private investigators don't have that right. But if you think it's fun to watch, you can use it as entertainment. Both of us are looking for evidence, so it's not completely unrelated."
Elena just hummed.
The night is getting darker outside the window, but it is warm as spring in the dormitory.
It gets dark very early in New York in the winter, and the street lights everywhere are lit at seven o'clock.
Jameson, the newly appointed security guard at Palande College, was walking around the campus with a helpless look on his face.
The old security guard retired due to illness and he was hired just a few days ago.
Christmas was approaching, and he was inexplicably scheduled to work the night shift for three consecutive days.
As a newcomer, he could only accept it and silently comforted himself in his heart: he didn’t have a girlfriend anyway, his parents were in his hometown, and he could earn some money by working overtime.
Moreover, it was just nightfall when the intercom rang, and another senior security guard on duty at the main gate openly told him that he could go out on patrol.
Jameson hesitated in the warm security room for a few minutes, but he had to get dressed and walk out, because he was a newcomer.