Chapter 202: Could It Have Mutated?
Chapter 202: Could It Have Mutated?
After chasing out of the restaurant, Elizabeth discovered that Eric Williams had already disappeared without a trace. Left disappointed, she could only return to the hotel where she was staying.
“Julia, what are you doing?”
The moment she entered the hotel room, Elizabeth saw a suitcase lying in the middle of the bedroom while Julia was hurriedly packing her clothes.
After folding a small T-shirt and stuffing it into the suitcase, Julia looked up and explained, “I... I’m leaving. I think I should go back to Los Angeles.”
Elizabeth stomped her foot in frustration at Julia’s lack of resolve. Reaching out, she pulled the flustered woman up and pressed her into a chair.
“Look at yourself right now. You’re like a little animal that encountered its natural predator and is desperately trying to flee.”
Julia had her thoughts exposed and her eyes darted away in panic several times before she forced herself to complain to Elizabeth.
“Isn’t it all your fault? You clearly saw him standing behind me and still didn’t warn me. After saying all those things, that guy’s definitely going to think about punishing me now.”
Elizabeth burst out laughing.
“Haha, punish you how? Spank you? Stop it, Julia. Those are all just your own fantasies, okay?”
Julia still could not help shrinking her neck.
“Y-You don’t understand, Liz. That guy’s really bad.”
Elizabeth genuinely could not understand Julia’s behavior. She rubbed her forehead and thought for a while before suddenly pulling the woman up.
“Come on, follow me.”
“Where are we going?” Julia asked as she rose with Elizabeth’s pull.
“We’re going to find Eric Williams. Since you’re so worried, I’ll help you explain everything to him face-to-face and tell him not to harass you anymore in the future.”
The moment Julia heard Elizabeth’s words, she immediately slid back down into the chair and stubbornly refused to get up. Her small hands tightly gripped the armrests as she hurriedly explained, “H-He’s never harassed me at all.”
“Then tell me, what exactly is wrong with you?”
“I... I’m not really sure either. Anyway, I’m just kind of afraid of him. And after what happened when I got drunk, plus what happened today, I’m even less brave enough to face him now, Liz. Can you just stop worrying about it?”
Julia stammered as she spoke. Even though she and Elizabeth were already close enough to be considered best friends, Julia still had not revealed the biggest secret in her heart.
At present, that secret remained known only to her and Eric.
Moreover, she still did not fully understand whether her emotions were really caused by Stockholm Syndrome. She had secretly read some books related to the subject, but the symptoms seemed... somewhat different.
Could it have mutated?
Elizabeth paced around the empty space in the bedroom in distress for several laps before suddenly clapping her hands.
“Julia, do you think maybe things are actually like this?”
The woman raised her head curiously, and Elizabeth analyzed, “Maybe it’s simply because you haven’t spent much time with him. And during the few brief interactions you’ve had, he always seemed relatively dominant, so that image got deeply planted in your mind?”
“M-Maybe,” Julia nodded after carefully thinking about it.
Things really were roughly like that.
Even during the filming of Pretty Woman, she had not spent much time alone with Eric. In fact, from the moment they first met until now, she had only slept with him that one time.
Although the impression had been rather... profound, it had still happened only once.
And then, the rest of her impressions...
The night they first met, he had looked down at her and said he could push her all the way to the top ranks of Hollywood actresses...
During the filming of Pretty Woman, she had taken the initiative to hint at him, and he had replied: “Forget it, I need to hurry back...”
She had tested him using Al’s invitation, and he lightly said: “Go ahead. Don’t delay tomorrow’s filming...”
Inside the trailer, he raised his hand, and she had actually felt anticipation in her heart. Then he abruptly slid open the trailer door with a crash...
After Pretty Woman became successful, she aggressively went to find him, and he scolded her: “You’re this impatient. What exactly are you trying to do...”
The company assigned her a driver and bodyguard. She found it novel and deliberately went to show off in front of him, only for him to mock her with his eyes...
It seemed that from the very beginning, she had always stood in the dust looking up at him, while he remained like an unattainable god high above her.
At the same time, he blocked out the sunlight and trapped her beneath the shadow he cast.
Seeing the expression of deep contemplation on Julia’s face, Elizabeth could not help snapping her fingers twice beside her ear.
“Ah?” The woman suddenly jolted awake as though startled from a dream and looked at Elizabeth in confusion.
“Julia, don’t you want to change the current situation?”
“H-How would I change it?”
Elizabeth said, “It’s simple. Spend more time with him. I don’t think Eric Williams is as frightening as you imagine. Coincidentally, he’s in Venice right now and isn’t busy with movies at the moment. You can spend more time with him. Once you understand him better, maybe you won’t be afraid of him anymore.”
With some vague expectation hidden in her heart, Julia finally raised her head.
“Would that really work?”
“If you don’t try, how would you know?” Elizabeth saw Julia beginning to waver and quickly seized the opportunity to pull her up. “Come on, let’s go find him right now.”
“Wait, I... I think I’d better change clothes first,” Julia struggled slightly and said.
Elizabeth looked at Julia’s loose pink sleeveless T-shirt and jeans and shook her head.
“This is fine already. Besides, it’s already past nine at night. Even if you changed into something beautiful, you’d just have to take it off later anyway. Why go through all that trouble?”
After saying that, Elizabeth dragged Julia out of the room.
Eric had just finished showering and changed into simple clothes. After flipping through the television channels several times, he found that although the hotel had cable signals for several major North American television networks, there were no good programs on. He could not understand the local television stations either, so he casually turned the television off and picked up the copy of Walden that Drew had bought for him before boarding the plane, idly flipping through it.
As a middle-aged man whose psychological age had already surpassed forty and whose heart had long been tangled by worldly affairs, Eric found it difficult to quietly appreciate this sort of essay collection anymore. On the plane, he had only casually skimmed through it before unknowingly falling asleep from boredom.
Now, reading it again, he still found it rather dull. As he continued reading, sleepiness gradually crept over him.
Just as he was preparing to go to bed, the room phone rang.
After answering it, he heard the hotel front desk informing him that someone had come looking for him.
“Come in. It’s already this late. What are you two doing here?” Eric asked casually as he let the two women into the room.
Ignoring the somewhat restrained Julia trailing behind her, Elizabeth familiarly wandered around the spacious suite living room several times. Picking up the book Eric had left on the coffee table, she glanced at it before raising her head.
“Oh? I didn’t expect you to like this book too.”
Eric poured two glasses of juice for the women and handed them over. Hearing Elizabeth’s question, he casually replied:
“I don’t like it.”