The Sway and Slide of Love

Noelle froze for a second before yanking her hand back without a second thought.

"What nonsense are you spouting?" she asked through gritted teeth. "This is all your fault!"

"My fault?" Hendrix was still grinning. "I tried waking you up multiple times, but you refused to get up."

"If it weren't for you-" She wanted to keep arguing, but she forced herself to swallow back the words just as they were about to leave her lips.

Hendrix seemed amused by her reaction. "What about me?"noveldrama

Noelle refused to engage further. Biting her lip, she propped herself up and got out of bed.

"You didn't finish your sentence. What about me?" Hendrix followed her, pestering her with questions.

Ignoring him, she marched into the bathroom and slammed the door shut, cutting his voice mid-sentence.

But she could still hear his low, pleased laughter from the other side. Annoyance prickled at her, but thoughts of Irene pushed it aside. Right now, she was in no mood to bicker with him. After quickly freshening up, she left the hotel with him.

"Relax," Hendrix said once they were in the car. "I had someone inform your mom last night. And the police haven't gotten any missing person reports, so everything's going to be okay."

Noelle continued to ignore him.

After a pause, Hendrix suddenly pulled out a bottle of milk from somewhere. "You haven't eaten all day. At least drink a little milk."

Before she could react, the driver-a local with a thick accent and a warm smile- chimed in cheerfully, "Lovers' quarrel, eh?"

Noelle opened her mouth to respond, but Hendrix beat her to it.

"Yeah. She's mad at me, and I can't seem to make it up to her."

"That's normal. Pretty girls always have tempers. With a wife this beautiful, you've got to spoil her, right?"

"Oh, really?" Hendrix turned to study Noelle seriously, as if verifying whether the driver's description of "beautiful" was accurate.

His intense gaze made her skin

prickle. Just as she was about toet

snap at him, Hendrix spoke first,

che's really sweet. Um the

who messed up."

The driver clicked his tongue and glanced at Hendrix through the rearview mirror. That look clearly said-respect.

Hendrix just smiled and nudged the milk toward Noelle again. "Drink up. Wouldn't want you passing out as soon as you step out of the car, would we?"

Noelle knew he was referring to how she had nearly collapsed earlier. Out of pure frustration, her cheeks flushed an even deeper red.

The oblivious driver, however, kept rambling, "Yeah, you should drink it. It's bad to skip meals. You're already so thin what if your blood sugar drops?My wife's the same, always talking about dieting. But skipping meals isn't the way to go. Nothing's more important than your health. This "

Before the driver could launch into a full lecture, Noelle finally snatched the milk

and drank it. By the time she finished, they had reached the village.

Noelle immediately spotted Irene sitting by the door. Her hair was neatly combed, and she sat there calmly. Yet, her presence loomed over Noelle like a storm cloud, causing her to instinctively tense.

At that moment, Hendrix dropped his playful demeanor. He reached over and

gripped her hand tightly.