The Game Is On

I took out my phone and sent a message to Wendy right in front of everyone’s faces.

“Don’t do it, Claude. Lloyd is definitely just kidding around. You’re dating Naomi here!”

“That’s right, Claude. She’s the general manager of Glazed Light. It’ll be hard to wrap things up if you take that last step.”

“Say something, Lloyd! Are you trying to ruin the company?!”

“Since all of you think that Miss Clark is a hard target, should we get someone easier?” Lloyd smiled calmly and intentionally twisted their words.

When he looked at me, his eyes were filled with provocation.

Despite being my girlfriend, Naomi said nothing and just kept watching short videos.

I shook my head. “I lost, so I’ll accept the punishment.”

Since Wendy did not answer the phone, I sent her a voice message.

“Dating is more interesting than working. Do you want a boyfriend, Miss Clark?”

I even attached a selfie.

Everyone in the room fell into a strange state of silence.

Naomi froze and shifted her eyes away from her phone to stare at me intensely.

“You actually did it, Claude? I was just joking.” Lloyd was really excited and kept sneaking glances at Naomi.

The atmosphere in the room turned tense.

Then, whispers rose around me.

“Has Claude lost his mind?”

“Who knows what’s on his mind?”

“I think he’s trying to make Naomi angry, since Naomi is so close with Lloyd.”

Once Lloyd saw that he had achieved his goal, he grinned and continued fanning the flames.

“Claude, you should delete the message. Unless, of course, you really intend to woo Miss Clark?”

Naomi shot to her feet and stormed up to me before demanding an answer. She said, “What’s the meaning of this, Claude? Am I nothing to you?”

Everyone fell silent again as they kept watching us.

When Lloyd teased and mocked me, she did not respond. However, when someone else teased Lloyd, she smashed a wine glass against his head.

Lloyd seemed like her boyfriend even more than I did.

Worse still, they knew each other from way back. After Lloyd was let go by his former company, Naomi hired him, claiming our company was missing a photographer.

Ever since he joined, though, we had been arguing more.

Lloyd was flashy. Soon after he joined the company, he rode a modified car to go on a road trip with Naomi.

While working, he refused to take photos of anyone other than Naomi.

His bias toward Naomi was blatant to all.

Compared to him, I was an introvert and much more boring.

In the beginning, Naomi would keep some distance from him. Later on, they started going everywhere together.

Naomi would even ask Lloyd to take private photos of her life every month.

When she saw that I was not responding, she flew into a rage.

“You make me sick! I’m not eating anymore! We’re ending the party right now!”

Naomi turned around to leave, but Lloyd pretended to be the mediator and grabbed her hand.

“Don’t go! No matter what, it’s Claude’s birthday today, and we haven’t cut the cake. Claude, you need to calm your girlfriend down.”

Lloyd gave me a challenging look.

I met his gaze squarely and said coldly, “You know that she’s my girlfriend too, huh?”

I took out my phone and showed him a hotel billing statement, and it was billed to the supplementary card I had set for Naomi.

“You can’t even pay for your own hotel room to sleep with another woman? You should earn enough money for a vasectomy instead.”