Blanche has a good appetite, as Kent has known since he cooked for her at her flat, and even though she talks about not being able to finish it, once it’s good, she can eat it no matter how much it is, so he specifically ordered two of the same.
Blanche moved slowly, as if she was worried about giving something away in front of him.
The chopsticks landed in the bowl, along with the meat.
She looked up but met Kent’s slightly depressed face, “Eat more if you’re hungry, you’ve just expended so much energy, you should need to replenish it back, right?”
He gave her the perfect excuse.
“Mmm.”
Blanche responded and quickly buried her head in her food.
During this time Melissa’s call followed, asking where she was going, Blanche didn’t know where and didn’t answer, just said, “Staying with Mr Lewis.”
“Business?”
“Well …… hmm.”
Her answer was vague, but in Melissa’s perception, Kent had nothing to do with being alone with Blanche other than his work.
At this Melissa couldn’t help but show sympathy as well, saying quietly, “Blanche, you’re …… working really hard.”
“It’s nothing, you go ahead and play with the rest of your coworkers, we’ll probably be back by the end of the night.”
“Okay.” Melissa nodded, “So do you have anything to buy? I have to go out later to do some shopping and bring some back for you on the way.”
“Anything, you’re on the clock.”
“Yes!”
Melissa agreed, not wanting to delay the work between Blanche and Kent, and quickly hung up the phone.
Kent glanced over and said, “Melissa?”
“It’s her.” Blanche nodded, “Asked where we’d been, and I couldn’t really say anything else, so I told her she was at work.”
Kent lost his smile, “Are you sure this won’t fall on their radar as me being a bad boss who deprives his employees of vacation time?”
“I ……”
Blanche couldn’t argue with that, but on second thought, that’s what he did, so there wasn’t anything wrong with his summary.
She didn’t say anything, but that hesitant attitude made Kent guess what was on his mind and cry a little.
He sighed helplessly, “If I hadn’t dragged you out, I’m afraid you’d still be lying in the hotel.”
Kent’s guess was right, but being right was a different matter.
Blanche nodded, gripping her chopsticks tightly, but also wondering why, inexplicably, “But if that’s the case, why did you bring me to the temple?”
With all the sights and places to visit, temples were too boring.
“Trying to get your head around it to save you from being sluggish all day long.” He didn’t roll his eyes in good humour.
Blanche didn’t acknowledge it in the slightest, but didn’t dare retort , only muttering in a whisper, “It’s not like there’s anything wrong with my job.”
Kent heard it all and was a little exasperated.
Her ability to do her job was obvious to all and he had never questioned it, but the other side of her had a low IQ that would set people’s teeth on edge!
Blanche said, giving him another careful glance, unable to resist her curiosity, but then she withdrew the words that had come to her lips.
The man wrinkled his brow, a little curious, “What, you have something to say?”
“No!”
“Lie!”
Blanche wanted to cry, how could he be so thorough about this, when she could hide her thoughts so well, but he always caught her in such small things!
“Actually, last night you were drunk and dragging me around and seemed to be having dreams ……”
Kent’s heart stuttered, “What did I say?”
“You called out for mum.”
The man’s grip on his chopsticks tightened a few notches and his face hardened a little, “And?”
“Nothing else.” She immediately said, “Really, it was just a couple of shouts, I was just looking at you curious and wondering what your mother really looked like.”
Kent’s brow loosened for a few moments, “You want to know?”
She blinked her eyes and suddenly couldn’t help but feel a little sheepish, smiling sardonically, “Actually …… there’s no need to necessarily know.”
“Let’s take you to see her some day, or you can come to my house, only, I only have one picture of her.”
His mother didn’t like taking photographs when he was younger, and with Edward Ford’s distaste for them, they lost almost all of their family and his mother ended up having to take him wandering with her, not to mention thinking about taking photographs.
But who knew that the photo she took when she was about to marry Edward Ford would end up as a posthumous photo ……
Thankfully, the photo did not show the man he loathed.
Blanche vaguely sensed the sad air about him and couldn’t help but apologize a little sheepishly, “I’m sorry, did I …… ask a question I shouldn’t have?”
She always felt that the man’s words and actions in front of her made her unable to resist the urge to feel sorry for him, as well as, to smooth out the uneasiness and hostility between his brows ……
“No, that’s all in the past.”
Kent shook his head and fell into silence the next second, and Blanche didn’t dare to ask any more questions.
It was only after dinner that the pair slowly made their way back to the hotel, while the group yelled their reluctance to leave thinking that they would be returning home tomorrow.
Melissa’s voice was the loudest, “Then you can stay here for the rest of your life, we certainly don’t have a shortage of people like you in the company anyway!”
“No way!” The male colleague immediately gave Kent a righteous look and said, “I’m going to work with Mr. Lewis, so I’m not going to stay here.”
“Then shut up, and besides, you’re a real …… ass-kisser.”
There was a roar of laughter and Kent did a rare job of matching a few of the jokes.
He said, “Okay, let’s all go home and get some rest, pack up and go back home for a couple of days before going to work.”
“Boss is wise!”
Kent smiled back and took the lead in getting up and going back into the room.
Kent had already left, so there was no point in the rest of them staying, so they all got up and went back to their rooms.
Melissa came over and took Blanche’s hand after she had made an early morning appointment with her boyfriend and said, “Blanche, we should go back to our room too.”
“Yeah.”
On the way back to her room, Melissa couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, “Mr Lewis is nice, but he’s too much, you haven’t had a thoroughly enjoyable day since you got here, and all you can think about is work when you get back.”
On reflection, she still thought Kent was being a bit unkind.
Blanche smiled, “It’s okay, I’ve done almost everything I needed to do, surfed, soaked in the hot springs, watched the fireworks, ate good food, isn’t that what I came for in the first place?”
Melissa thought about it carefully and it was true, but it was a little unfair to think that they were having fun while she still had to bury her head in the sand and follow her work.