Wendy was relieved when she heard him say that.
It was all a joke, right? Henson couldn’t possibly have the power to meddle in the university’s affairs, right?
Howell suddenly piped up at this moment, “Henson’s reach extends further than this.”
She was dumbfounded as she turned to look at him.
“Certain situations depend on his mood, though, but generally if you ask him for anything, he’ll usually oblige and do it for you. My brother was just angry at the fact that the president bullied you, so he replaced her with someone else,” he explained.
“B-but how can that be… this is a university,” she stammered.
“You have to understand that Mrs. Taylor is only a university president. Moreover, she isn’t a very responsible person, so it’s really easy to dig up evidence against her,” he said.
She was stunned speechless.
He continued, “Let’s go, Sister Wendy. I can ask our driver to drop you off at the villa first, so that he can drive me to Mason and Daisy’s place afterwards,”
“Howell, I think it’d be better if you hailed a cab to get to Mason’s place. I plan to go shopping as the weather’s looking pretty good today,” she said after mulling it over.
“Alright then. You better phone Henson later yourself,” he said.
“Sure,” she answered.
He then left by himself.
She stood at the entrance of the gym for at least fifteen minutes after that.
This revelation hit like a truck to her.
She’d always known that Henson was a powerful man, but she didn’t expect him to be this able.
So the rumours were true, he really had the whole city in the palm of his hands.
Wendy walked to the station and hopped onto a cab. She felt irritated for some reason while peering at the street through the cab window.
Some things, when entangled together, could certainly be a real pain to pry apart, much less tidy up.
Not even two stops later, her phone rang.
It was from an unfamiliar number. She picked up the call and greeted, “Hello,”
“Is this Wendy?” The voice on the other line asked.
She frowned and responded, “Yes, it is. May I know who you are?”
“President Burke on the line here,” he replied.
“Good evening, sir. Is there anything I can do for you at this hour?”
“I just set up a meeting with Mr. Charles and I thought of inviting you over as well. I can pick you up at the campus gates since I’ll also be swinging by the university later.”
“Ah, there’s no need, sir. You two are big shots and probably have a few things to discuss together, so I don’t think my presence would be appreciated there,”
It seemed that he loved being called a ‘big shot’ very much seeing as he guffawed afterwards. “Nonsense, Mr. Charles only agreed to the meeting because of you, after all. You’re the one who binds us together, so it won’t do if you’re not there. Hmm, what say I send my secretary over to pick you up?”
guffawed afterwards. “Nonsense, Mr. Charles only agreed to the meeting because of you, after all. You’re the one who binds us together, so it won’t do if you’re not there. Hmm, what say I send my secretary over to pick you up?”
“Ah, that’s really unnecessary, sir. I brought my students out to participate in a basketball competition today so I’m now standing in front of the stadium. What say you text me the address so that I can go over by myself later?”
“Sure, I’ll have someone text you the address later.”
“Thank you and see you later, sir.”
After hanging up, she took a deep breath and got off the cab at the station. While waiting for him to text her the address, she phoned Henson up.
“Did you agree to a meeting with President Burke?” She asked immediately after he picked up.
“Yeah, and I was just about to set off. Why on earth would you agree to have a meal with him?” He asked back.
She was dumbfounded by this. “He said that it was per your request,” she answered.
He couldn’t help but laugh after hearing her answer. It seems that the old fart had tricked them.
“How about I pick you up later?” He asked to change the topic.
“You don’t have to. The reason I called you was to tell you about that time when President Burke met with all the university staff, he quizzed me about our relationship. I merely told him that I was Howell’s tutor, so you better not say anything weird in front of him,” she huffed.
“Oh?” He gave a devilish laugh and asked, “Is that an order?”
“It’s more of a request,” she said. She daren’t issue him orders.
“Well then, this is my first time hearing someone use a commanding tone to request something from me,” he chuckled.
“What can I do to make it a request then?” She asked with a frown.
“Well, you can play cute for me,” he teased.
She was speechless. “This is boring, I’m hanging up,” she replied flatly.
“I’m being serious here. If you don’t play cute with me now, I’ll just treat you like how I usually do,” he insisted.
“Henson,”
“I’m listening,”
She bit her lip. She didn’t know the first thing about playing cute.
“I don’t know how to,” she said.
“You definitely do,” he replied.
“I really don’t know how,” she said with a flushed face. “There’s an old Chinese saying where ‘every daughter born into this world is their father’s lover in their previous life’, so this implies that only daughters with a father will know how to play cute. For a person like me who doesn’t have a father figure in her life, how would I know how to do so? I could only learn how to be strong like how my mother was.”
He fell silent for a moment before saying, “Well, what say you treat me as your father and I’ll give you all the love you missed out on?”
“You’re kidding,” she said, flabbergasted and looked at her phone in silence.
To treat him like a father figure… He’s really quite something.
“I mean it,” he said firmly.
“Only ‘hate’ comes to mind whenever you bring up the word ‘father’. Knowing that, do you still want me to treat you as one?” She quizzed.
“Then that settles it. I’ll be your man. I’ll pamper you and teach you how to play cute in front of me in the future. I’ll agree to your request today, but remember, you still owe me one,” he teased.
“I know. You better behave yourself then,” she ordered as a coy smile crept up on her face.
“You have nothing to worry about. I’d definitely get the title of ‘best actor’ if I was actually in the entertainment industry right now,” he boasted.
“See you in a bit then,” she replied with a soft giggle.
She received a text after hanging up.
She then followed the address on her phone and took a taxi to the Swallow Mountain Club.
Since this was a ‘members only’ club, she stood outside the door for a while as she was the first one to arrive.
The president’s car arrived a few minutes later.
Upon seeing her standing in front of the clubhouse in sportswear, his brows knitted together. “You don’t look very well-dressed tonight, Wendy,” he said.
“My apologies, sir. This is because I rushed over from the stadium,” she said as she looked down to see what she was wearing.
“Kid, I wouldn’t mind if you wore like this when it’s between us, since we’re family, but the fact that you didn’t go back to change is going to look really bad on you. I’m afraid this isn’t appropriate in the slightest for a meeting with Mr. Charles,” he scolded.
Henson’s car arrived as he was in the middle of chiding her.
Once he got off the car, the president immediately turned around and scampered towards him. He extended a hand with an amiable expression on his face. “Welcome, welcome, Master Henson,” he greeted curtly.
After exchanging handshakes with the president, Henson shifted his gaze over to her.
She was nervous while acting like she didn’t know him. “Good evening, Mr. Charles,” she greeted politely with a bow.
He curled his lips into a smile and replied flatly, “Hum.”
She heaved a sigh of relief.
“I’ve already reserved a private room for us, Master Henson. Let’s go as well, Wendy,” president Burke said.
“Yes, sir,” she answered curtly.
She finally entered the ‘member only’ clubhouse by tailing behind Henson and President Burke.
When she was the one who’d gotten here first, the doorman sized her up and mocked, “Do you think just any Johnson, Dick and Harry can come in here? If you want in, you better whip out your member card first.”
But the doorman didn’t dare say to her anything now.
Once all three of them entered the private room, President Burke said, “You have to excuse Miss Evans over here, Mr. Charles. She received the notice while she was at work, so she had to come over from the stadium right away and she didn’t have time to get a change of clothes. So, I hope you don’t mind.”
Henson smiled then looked over at her. “It’s fine, I’ve seen her in more casual clothes before anyways,” he said.