A Girl’s Heart - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I was surprised. A beautiful woman who had been divorced for more than ten years and still hadn’t remarried—it was hard to believe. Or perhaps this wasn’t the first time she had left a husband? I wondered silently.

“Then why haven’t you remarried? Are you afraid of men now? If so, your ex-husband must have been a real scoundrel.”

She laughed and shook her head.

“It’s not that I’m afraid. It’s just that I’ve had a rather unfortunate fate when it comes to love. A beautiful woman with an ill-fated destiny, you know.”

I looked up at her. She really was beautiful. There was a delicate flush across her smooth, thin skin, so fine that it looked almost like tracing paper. It gave me the impression that if someone stroked her cheek too hard, that flawless skin might tear. Her lips weren’t particularly full, but they were a vivid pink. Her eyes were bright, sparkling and slightly moist, irresistibly captivating.

I blurted out a compliment:

“You really do have beautiful skin. If some men saw you like this today, they’d probably be so busy staring at you that they’d walk straight into a lamppost.”

She burst out laughing with delight.

“OK! That’s the best thing anyone has said to me all day.”

She clenched her right hand and raised her thumb in approval. The way she said “OK” and gave me a thumbs-up made me think she was probably only a little over thirty-five. But looking at her face, she seemed considerably older than that.

“You never say anything less than absolutely right. There are always a few men hovering around you.”

“Then why don’t you grab one of them and drag him home?”

She sighed. It was the first time I had heard a sigh escape those fresh, alluring pink lips.

“I told you already. A beautiful woman with an ill-fated destiny. Five or six years ago, I fell in love with a man. His wife had died, and his children were already grown and studying abroad. Yet he was still extremely charming—tall, handsome, and incredibly attentive to me. Once, when I was sick, he sat beside me and fed me porridge, one spoonful at a time.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised and eager to hear more. “And then what happened?”

“Then he got a job with a foreign company in the south. I think his salary was several thousand dollars a month. And that was the end of us.”

“Why didn’t you go south with him?”

“He never asked me to. I only found out when he left. The following year, he came back to Hanoi. I knew he was here, but I didn’t go to see him.”

“He didn’t come looking for you either?”

“No.”

She lifted her beer mug.

“Come on! Let’s have a toast to the day we met.”

Her voice was cheerful and animated. I had the strange feeling that she had just been telling me about someone else’s love story rather than her own.

I raised my mug and clinked it against hers. She took a long drink, then picked up a fermented pork roll and handed it to me.

“Relax and enjoy yourself. The fermented pork rolls here are really good.”

A woman so cheerful, likable, and beautiful, yet so unfortunate in love. It really was true—a beautiful woman with an ill-fated destiny.

“So after that, did you decide to become a nun?”

“Become a nun? What are you talking about?” she laughed. “But a few months ago, I just ended things with another man.”

Her story was becoming more and more fascinating.

“What was he like? Tell me about him.”

“Well, if I had to describe him, he was actually a good man.”

“A woman as beautiful as you? What man wouldn’t be good to you?”