章 16: Chapter 16: Neighbors
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"Josh, have you been waiting long?" Around one in the afternoon, a brand-new car pulled up in front of Josh, and Margaret got out and hugged Josh warmly.
"Not at all! It's an honor to wait for the most beautiful woman in the world!" Josh complimented her.
"Oh, Josh, you're quite the charmer," Margaret laughed, her face lighting up at the praise. Then she pointed to the driveway, "This is the car I prepared for you. What do you think? Do you like it?"
"It's a little flashy, but it's beautiful! I really like it!" Josh replied, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the car.
No doubt, since Margaret was a wealthy woman, her gifts wouldn't be ordinary.
While this car might not be up there with the Cadillac V16, it was still on par with Margaret's own Packard.
It was a 1942 Lincoln Continental, the last sedan Lincoln produced before the United States entered the war.
Although it had lost the elegant curves of the first-generation 1939 European-style model due to updates, it was more in line with Josh's aesthetic.
The only downside was that, as Josh had mentioned, it was a bit too showy.
Well, it wasn't the model itself that was flashy, it was the color...it was burgundy. (T/N: purplish red)
"Young people should be a little more vibrant! You look a little too mature for your age," Margaret said, seemingly unimpressed. "Come on, get in the car! You should drive!"
When they visited the house yesterday, Josh had mentioned that he could drive. Margaret didn't believe him at first, but after letting him try, she discovered that Josh's driving skills were even better than hers, so she wasn't worried about him.
As she spoke, Margaret reached out to grab Josh's suitcase beside him.
Josh had two suitcases, a large one and a small one.
The larger one was a classic 28-inch leather case from that era.
The smaller one looked to be only seven or eight inches.
Margaret didn't overestimate herself and try to lift the larger suitcase, as it looked quite heavy.
Instead, she decided to try the smaller one.
But as soon as she lifted it, she almost tripped.
Fortunately, Josh caught her quickly.
Gosh, if he hadn't acted quickly, it wouldn't have been just a minor accident; if the case had broken and spilled its contents, it would have been a disaster.
"What's in this suitcase? Why is it so heavy?" Margaret said, a little shaken after almost falling.
Although she said it was heavy, it only weighed about 30 pounds, which wasn't enough to be beyond her capacity.
It just exceeded her estimate, and she had pulled too hard, causing her to almost fall.
"It's not convenient to explain here. When we get to Evanston, you'll know," Josh said mysteriously, putting the small suitcase in the car.
"Wow, I'm looking forward to it!" Seeing Josh's attitude made Margaret even more curious.
They had no delays on the road, and Josh quickly arrived at the house in Evanston.
This time, the middle-aged man next door wasn't watering the flowers; he was in the yard, enjoying afternoon tea with his wife under the warm winter sun.
"Tommy, are those our new neighbors? Looks like we have neighbors now," the middle-aged man's wife remarked, intrigued by the young couple's arrival.
"No, we've always had neighbors; it's that girl. She just doesn't live here. It looks like our new neighbor is going to be that boy," Tommy, the middle-aged man, explained.
After Josh and Margaret visited yesterday, he did some research and found out that the house next door has always been occupied by a wealthy young woman.
So Tommy quickly thought of Margaret.
"Should we invite her for coffee? After all, they're neighbors," Tommy's wife suggested.
"Ha ha, let's not disturb the young couple. Look at that boy with his luggage; he obviously just moved in today. They might just be making themselves at home," Tommy teased with a smile.
"Well, you're right." Tommy's wife nodded, slightly embarrassed by the memories of the reckless things they did when they were young.
In this era, such behavior might have been frowned upon in China. But, in Europe and America, it was still considered normal.
Back in their youth, she and Tommy had done even more outrageous things.
Thinking about it made her blush a little.
"What's wrong, Sarah?" Tommy noticed his wife's reaction and, curious, put his hand on her leg, feigning ignorance.
Although they had been married long enough to be considered old partners, Tommy had spent four of the last five years away from his family.
It was only after moving here last year that they were reunited.
They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder, and being apart for four years had intensified their feelings for each other.
Besides, they weren't old; Tommy was in his early forties, and his wife had just turned forty, still a vibrant age.
"Come on, don't be silly. You have to pick up the kids later," his wife, sensing her husband's unseemly behavior, rolled her eyes and slapped his hand away.
American students got out of school early; even in the twenty-first century, they usually got out around three in the afternoon.
In the 1940s, schoolwork was far less demanding than in later years, and school ended at about the same time, if not a little earlier.
So now, after two o'clock, it was certainly not the time for romantic gestures.
Realizing this, Tommy could only reluctantly withdraw his hand.
At the same time, in the house next door, Josh and Margaret were not getting cozy, as Tommy and his wife had speculated.
After all, they had only known each other for two days. Although Margaret had a strong liking for Josh, she wasn't so forward as to be intimate so quickly; she still retained a bit of a lady's decency.
Besides, if it hadn't been for her husband's change in behavior after the marriage - his long absences and indulgences - Margaret might not have developed feelings for Josh... something she hadn't revealed to him.
For Margaret had already discovered that her husband, using his fame as a star athlete, had taken on more than one mistress outside the home, using her money to support them.
At that moment, Margaret's condition was similar to that of Rose in Titanic, who longed to escape the cage of her original life.
However, Margaret had the advantage over Rose in that her husband's betrayal preceded her own feelings for Josh, while Rose, though engaged to Caledon "Cal" Hockley, quickly ran off with Jack.
In addition, Rose was only a bankrupt noblewoman, while Margaret, though not a noblewoman herself, had the upper hand financially.
The marriage laws of the time were not as well established as they would be later, and the family's wealth came from Margaret's inheritance. If she took advantage of her husband's betrayal, Margaret's tennis-playing husband wouldn't see a penny after the divorce.
Likewise, Josh wasn't Jack.
Jack was a real poor guy who had won a third-class ticket at poker.
But Josh was not poor.
For example, when Josh opened the small suitcase, the 500 ounces of gold bars, weighing nearly 15 kilograms, left Margaret speechless for a moment.
This was certainly not because Margaret had never seen money before; after all, even at black market prices, 500 ounces of gold was worth over twenty thousand dollars, and Margaret's wealth was hundreds of times that amount.
It was just that when Josh had claimed to be wealthy before, she had thought he was just puffing up his pride.
She never expected that he actually had a lot of money.
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