Maria looked at the necklace and felt uneasy. Last time, her agent arranged for her to attend a party to gain resources, and after meeting Waylen, he had been overly friendly with her in an abnormal way.
Maria was always cautious and when she sensed something was wrong, she would either indirectly or directly express that she didn’t want any involvement with men. However, after being quiet for a day or two, Waylen started pursuing her again until he showed up at the hospital unexpectedly.
Now Maria felt like she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Thank you for your kindness Mr. Stawarski but I…” Maria hesitated as she tried to figure out how to politely reject Waylen’s advances. She lifted her eyes and subconsciously looked towards Osborn.
Osborn also frowned because he knew who Waylen was; they even had some bad blood between them due to an incident where Waylen got handsy with an actress at a party while Osborn was present.
However, Osborn never expected that Waylen would try to hit on Maria too.
When their eyes met, Osborn walked over quickly and grabbed Waylen’s left shoulder saying: “Waylen, Maria is resting right now in this hospital room which is not the place for you to flirt around. You should leave before things get worse.”
Waylen heard the sound of his voice but his eyes were full of impatience as he clicked his tongue wondering why Osborn acted like a fly buzzing around him all day long. What’s wrong with him?
He turned half-way around looking down on Osborn from head-to-toe disdainfully before sneering, “Osborn, I’m curious why every time I go somewhere you follow me like some kind of fly? Besides this time I came here specifically just visit Maria so what does it have anything do with you? Are you her parent or boyfriend? Don’t meddle if there isn’t anything going on.”
Maria furrowed her brows lightly wanting to say something but then heard Osborn turn back saying, “Jannie, please escort him out since not everyone can come into this ward freely without permission. Tell him wash his mouth first before coming back.”
“You!”
As soon as Waylon heard these words, he became furious clenching his fists tightly while staring fiercely at Osborn. He was readying himself for action while Osborn remained calm maintaining eye contact without flinching one bit.
Osborn’s assistant heard the commotion and quickly walked over, grabbing Waylen’s arm and forcefully dragging him out. “Mr. Stawarski, Miss Marner needs to rest. You should go first,” she said anxiously.
Finally getting rid of Waylen, the assistant breathed a sigh of relief and went outside to get some fresh air, kindly closing the door behind her.
Maria’s troubled expression finally eased up as she smiled gently at Osborn and thanked him.
“It was nothing,” he replied with a sigh of his own. Sitting down on the edge of Maria’s bed, he spoke earnestly, “It wasn’t really a big deal. I just didn’t expect Waylen to bother you like that. I know it’s normal for new actors to attend social events for networking opportunities but you should keep your distance from him since he comes from a wealthy family and is known for being quite promiscuous.”
Maria nodded in agreement while biting her lip; she had been careful all along but couldn’t fend off Waylen’s persistent advances without outright rejecting him again.
“Okay, I understand now,” Maria said softly before changing the subject, “By the way… it sounds like you have some history with Mr. Stawarski?”
Osborn let out another sigh before casually replying, “Not really… just got into a fight with him once when we attended an event together because he was being inappropriate towards one of the girls there.”
Maria froze momentarily before blinking in surprise at Osborn then bursting into laughter, “I never would’ve guessed that you were capable of fighting! You always seemed so refined!”
Her teasing successfully lifted their previously serious conversation into something more lighthearted as Osborn chuckled along with her.
Since finding out about Susan’s plan to sabotage Jane’s designs on their project blueprint, Jane had been busy modifying her own design details while also creating a fake one that looked exactly like what Camille had drawn according to Jane’s instructions earlier that day, not deviating even slightly from what they discussed during their meeting.
After finishing up both drawings, Jane breathed another sigh of relief before printing them out and calling Camille over to pick them up.
After Camille arrived, Jane handed her the drawings enclosed in a transparent plastic bag and instructed, “If Freda comes to you again about the dress issue, make sure to place these drawings in a conspicuous place. Give her a chance to take them, understood?”
Camille looked at the blueprint, nodding emphatically, as if holding onto some top-secret document, “Got it, I’ll remember!”
As expected by Jane, or perhaps no one could resist being nagged from behind, Freda came to Leo’s studio again the next afternoon. She used the excuse of wanting to see how the dress design was going.
When Camille saw her, she was also excited and showed off her sketches like a treasure. “Look, this is my initial design. I’m going to add cat’s eye stones in matching colors as embellishments and use gold thread for the cuffs. If you find anything unsatisfactory, just let me know and I’ll make changes.”
Freda pretended to be pleasantly surprised when she took it over but her mind wasn’t really on it at all. While holding onto Camille’s sketches in her hand, she glanced around casually until suddenly noticing a sketch on display that had a corner sticking out. It was Jane’s design.
Freda immediately thought of this place and became excited all over again but couldn’t show it too obviously. She only looked at Camille’s drawing for a few moments before nodding and saying, “Your design is very good; I really like it so let’s just go with this style.”
After putting down the sketches, Freda paused for a moment before locking onto her target, pretending that she had just seen something interesting. With curiosity written all over her face, she pulled out that sealed baggie which contained an elegant red vintage European-style dress skirt that Camille had mentioned last time.
Freda revealed an expression of surprise, “Wow, Camille! Is this Leo’s competition entry? It looks so beautiful!”
Camille was shocked; quickly grabbing hold of the baggie from Freda while giving her suspicious glances before locking it away in one of their drawers using a key specifically made for such purposes.