Chapter 2

He had been there when the deal fell through.

We had already negotiated to the end, and the other party had agreed to our cooperation.

Then, Naomi had burst in and insisted on toasting the CEO of the client company, Robert Lance.

Robert had not even tried to hide his displeasure.

She continued behaving as if she were completely oblivious.

As a fresh intern, she was pushing Robert to have a drink with her. I could not fathom how she had the audacity.

Robert became angry.

I held her back and put on an apologetic smile to appease Robert.

I told her to drink three glasses as a penalty for herself. She started crying loudly.

“Lucia, why do you have to tear other women down? Why do you always have to push me into doing things I don’t want to do?”

At that moment, Clarence’s expression had been extremely grim.

I assumed his anger was over the deal that we had had in the bag, only to watch it fall apart at the last second.

But his anger came from the fact that I had made Naomi apologize and drink those three penalty glasses.

I was truly exhausted.

“I’m not trying to start anything, Clarence. Let’s just break up.”

I ignored his dark expression, packed up my things, and left the company.

When I got home, I started packing my luggage again.

The most annoying part about breakups was all the packing that entailed. It was going to take a while.

As I dug through the drawers, my hand froze mid-motion. I pulled out a pair of red stockings that were not mine.

The stockings were completely shredded. Clearly, things had grown a little spicy.

I threw the stockings into the trash can, took a photo of them, and sent it to Clarence.

He tried to explain himself in the messages, but I did not reply.

Instead, I dialed another number.

“Didn’t you say you want to be my boyfriend?”

On the other end of the line, Ascher Grant screamed with excitement.

He offered to come help me move my luggage, but I refused.

If Clarence happened to run into him, I was afraid Clarence would beat him up. It was better to avoid unnecessary trouble.

I had another apartment on the west side of the city. When the month’s bonus came through, I would be able to pay off the remaining loan on that place completely.

I would finally have a home of my own.

At that thought, my mood lightened considerably.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

I thought it was the mover. But when I opened the door, it was Clarence.

I was startled for a moment and wondered if I was seeing things.

Last year, when my appendicitis kicked in, I had almost passed out from the pain. I had called him and asked him to come take me to the hospital.

His response had been inhumanly cold.

“I’m at work, Lucia. You’re a grown adult. Can’t you even dial 911 yourself?”

But just last week, Naomi had accidentally splashed warm water on her leg at the office and let out a yelp of pain.

He had immediately scooped her up in front of everyone and drove her to the hospital himself.

He never left work early for anyone except Naomi. She was his only exception.

I never expected to be the one breaking his rules for once.

He glanced at my packed suitcases. His voice carried a faint trace of panic.

“What are you doing?! You’re pulling the breakup card just to make me cave, aren’t you?

“I already explained to you that those stockings were Omi’s. She left them here by accident.

“She got caught in the rain that day, so I had her come up for a cup of tea. Her stockings ripped, so she changed into another pair before she left.”

I narrowed my eyes and tried to recall the events of that particular day.

That was during my business trip two weeks prior. I had been overseas for work, and when I landed, it was storming.

I asked him to pick me up, but he said that he was working overtime at the office and did not have time, so he told me to take a cab home by myself.

When I got home, I saw the unfinished cup of tea on the coffee table.

I thought he had specially prepared it for me. It turned out that I had picked up someone else’s leftover drink.

Perhaps because he also thought of this incident, his expression turned somewhat awkward.

“Don’t read too much into it.”

I shook my head and remained calm as I responded, “I’m not reading into anything. It doesn’t even matter anymore.”

His expression grew confused, and he stared at me for a long while.