Adam Jones was briefly stunned and when he looked at Elly Campbell, he caught her tugging the corners of her lips in an ambiguous smile before she stepped inside without a word.
Gazing at Elly’s slender silhouette, Adam remembered the mocking edge to her smile from just a moment ago. His heart suddenly tightened, and he stood outside the restaurant in silence for several seconds before abruptly remembering something.
He recalled the time when they had just married, one day she waited for him below the Jones Corporation building to tell him that a new spicy restaurant with a fantastic reputation had opened in the commercial plaza near his company. She had made several attempts to reserve a table and finally succeeded, wanting to invite him to dine with her.
Back then, without saying anything, he had coldly dropped the sentence, "I don’t eat spicy food," and left, leaving her standing alone in front of the Jones Corporation building for a long time.
Now, reflecting on the way her expectant smile had instantly stiffened and then turned into a look of disappointment, Adam felt a sudden sharp tug at his heart, so tight it was almost painful.
Standing outside for a while, he eventually went in. Elly had already sat down by the window, casually flipping through the menu that the waiter had brought over. Because of the earlier incident, Adam felt somewhat guilty and even found it hard to look directly at her.
Elly ordered a few dishes then handed the menu back to the waiter. After Adam placed his order, the waiter left.
The two sat opposite each other, and another awkward silence fell. Reminded of his past unkind behavior, he felt somewhat guilty and couldn’t maintain the dominant and overbearing attitude he had at the beginning.
Elly, on the other hand, just wanted to eat her meal and leave as soon as possible. She had absolutely no intention of speaking to Adam.
There weren’t many people in the restaurant at the time, so the dishes they ordered were served quickly. He noticed that Elly kept picking at the lighter dishes, not touching the spicy ones he had specifically ordered for her.
"Don’t you like spicy food?"
He had only recently learned from his grandmother that Elly used to be a person who loved spicy food. That’s why he had specially chosen this spicy restaurant. But now, she hardly touched those dishes. Could it be because he was the one who ordered them, she didn’t want to eat?
At this thought, Adam’s eyebrows knitted together in slight displeasure, and Elly, due to his question, paused her chopsticks for a second. After just two seconds, she heard her say indifferently, "My taste has changed."
What Elly didn’t let Adam know was that, back then, when she heard he didn’t eat spicy foods, she had forcefully made herself abandon her love for spicy dishes just to accommodate him.
Only now had she realized it wasn’t that he didn’t eat spicy food; he just didn’t want to join her for a spicy meal.
Thinking this, Elly laughed mockingly at herself inside. Wasn’t it what she deserved, after all? Back then, she had not even recognized Adam’s obvious rejection and had forced herself to change her own tastes.
The truth slapped her face time and again with burning intensity.
Facing Elly’s indifference, Adam, seemingly grasping at straws for conversation, said, "How easy can it be to change one’s tastes?"
Elly’s gaze shifted from her plate to him, those beautiful yet chilly eyes carrying a multitude of emotions that even Adam could not decipher. She suddenly said, "It’s not easy to change, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be changed."
If she could make herself give up on a man who was deeply rooted in her bones, then giving up eating spicy food was hardly difficult.