Wendy heaved a sigh of relief while following Henson downstairs for dinner.
The table had already been set. After seeing her take a seat, he asked, “Do you want some wine?”
She rolled her eyes at him and said with a stifled voice, “I don’t drink anymore. I’ll never drink in front of you ever again.”
“Then, who who you want to have a drink with?” He probed.
“This is none of your concern. Just know that you’ll never see me drunk ever again,” she huffed.
His tone became serious all of a sudden. “If you dare drink in front of another man besides me, I’ll make sure to break your legs, you got that?”
His intimidating tone made Donald, who was standing at the side, break out in a cold sweat for her sake.
She turned to look at him and snapped, “Why are you so meddlesome?”
“You’re the one who made the first move last night, and with your looks, if I can’t push you away, neither can other men. The act of getting drunk is already an invitation to others to take advantage of you, and you wonder why I’m meddling so much?” He asked with an eyebrow raised. “Any woman I’ve touched, even if I have to take care of them for the rest of their lives with two broken legs, can never be touched by other men, you got that?”
With a bashful expression on, she exchanged looks with Donald who was standing behind him. “Just shut up and dig in already,” she urged as she glared at Henson.
“I’m asking if you get it or not,” he insisted.
She was speechless. Did the man feel no shame? “Yeah, yeah. I got it,” she said while nodding profusely.
“Also, don’t accompany the university president to do PR with other men anymore, you hear me?” He ordered.
She knitted her brows. “When did I ever do that? If it weren’t for you last night, I wouldn’t even have gone out for dinner with him in the first place,” she shot.
Upon hearing her say that, he smirked and picked up a fork.
While they were on the topic of the president, this made her think of Mrs. Taylor. She stared at him and struggled to get the right words out.
After taking two bites of his food, he said, “Whatever it is you want to say, just say it,”
“Were you responsible for Mrs. Taylor’s resignation?” She blurted.
He merely chuckled and didn’t answer her question.
“Why did you do that?” She asked.
“What do you think?” He asked back, and his gaze shifted to her arm.
“Was it really because I injured my arm then?” She pressed.
“It’s because she broke her promise, and was also narrow-minded. I did warn her that you were the woman I was protecting, but it’s apparent that she didn’t take my words to heart. So, you can’t blame me for getting rid of her, right? I feel like she should’ve seen this coming, and that she can’t blame anyone else but herself for her own blunder,” he explained.
She didn’t argue back after hearing him say that as she knew he was doing it for her sake. Some things were better left unsaid.
knew he was doing it for her sake. Some things were better left unsaid.
After dinner, she headed upstairs back to her room to do some reading.
After taking care of a few things in his study, he then entered her room.
“So, are we sleeping in your room or mine tonight?” He asked.
She frowned and said, “Are you serious?”
“Do you think I’ve nothing better to do? Or am here just for kicks?”
He pressed and shut the door behind him. “Let’s sleep in your room then. This’ll save you the trouble of walking about. You can keep reading, while I go take a shower,” he suggested.
Immediately after he entered the bathroom, she stopped lying flat on the bed and sat upright in an instant to look down at her nightgown.
No matter how she looked at it, the current situation was far too dangerous for her.
With that, she got out of bed to change into a pair of matching oversized shirt and pants in the closet.
She made up her mind to purchase a jumpsuit and sleep in it tomorrow night.
Otherwise, he’d be able to see everything with her terrible habit of tossing and turning while sleeping.
She scratched her forehead as her gaze shifted to the other side of the bed.
Why did she feel weirded out by the two of them sleeping together?
The more she thought about it, the more she felt that something was amiss. He couldn’t have set her up again… right?
……
On their first night sleeping together, he kept his word and slept beside her without doing anything.
Upon seeing that he didn’t do anything after forcing herself to stay awake for almost half a night, she could finally fall asleep in peace.
The next day, she returned the scarf she’d worn yesterday to Linda and gave the scarf that ‘didn’t suit her’ to Carmen as a gift.
Linda and Cael sang praises to Carmen after she put on the scarf, saying that it suited her a lot. This pleased Carmen, and she expressed her thanks to Wendy afterwards.
As a show of her gratitude, Carmen invited the three of them to lunch at a place near the entrance of the university.
Wendy planned to decline her offer in the beginning, but after hearing Carmen said that the four of them had never had a meal together since they started working at the office, this would be a good opportunity for them to bond.
At the mention of bonding together, the three of them happily agreed to go.
During lunch, Carmen suddenly piped up to everyone, “Ooh, I’ve some tea to spill. I heard from one of the professors in our department this morning that the university plans to make promotional brochures, and that they want to pick a few influential professors to go for a photoshoot.
“And in addition to those professors, they also want a few assistant professors and students as representatives. Apparently, they plan to use those photos in the making of a university enrolment pamphlet. The people selected would then naturally be the spokespeople of the university after that,”
“This feels like the first time the university has done this kind of promotional work,” Linda chirped.
“You’re right, but you know how new presidents are after entering office. But do you guys want to know the juiciest part of it all? After hearing the news in the morning, Linda from the Foreign Language Department sent her own recommendation letter to the president,” Carmen snickered.
Cael looked surprised after receiving the news. “Huh? But she looks terrible. Where’d she scrounge up all that courage to do so? If the president chose her, then we’d definitely stand a chance too,” he scoffed.
“Didn’t she graduate from Harvard though? I heard their degrees are world-class,” Wendy countered, as she felt that looks wouldn’t matter much in this aspect.
“What do you mean? No matter how capable she is, how can she be a spokesperson looking like that? If the students saw her on the pamphlet, they’d think, ‘holy crap! The professors in this university look so ugly!’ and this’ll affect their motivation to learn. No one would apply to our university then,” Carmen explained.
Cael couldn’t help but laugh after hearing that. “I, too, feel that she’s not up for the task. It’s just a shame that us assistant professors aren’t wanted though. If we were, then I’d take the opportunity to recommend myself too, as I believe this’ll bring honour to my family,” he said gleefully.
“Might as well forget about it. As long as Wendy’s here, we don’t stand a chance,” Carmen said with a hearty laugh.
Cael then pointed to Wendy’s face and said, “If only I could exchange looks with you,”
“I, on the other hand, want to exchange breasts with her,” Carmen joked.
The three of them immediately shifted their gazes to her chest, to which Wendy hurriedly wrapped her coat around the area in embarrassment. “My clothes just make them look bigger than they really are,” she muttered shyly.
As soon as she finished speaking, the waiter arrived and started serving them their food.
The topic gradually shifted as they had lunch together.
At noon, while Wendy was resting in her office and preparing herself to usher her students to the basketball court for another competition, someone knocked on the office door and called out to her. “Miss Evans, President Burke wants to see you,” they announced.
“Noted, thank you,” she answered.
After they left, three pairs of gazes in the office had shifted to her.
“What is it, Miss Evans?” Carmen asked.
Wendy shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “Who knows? I’ll need to go find out for myself,” she replied.
She pretended as if nothing had happened and walked out of the office, with twinge of confusion in her heart.
Why would the president come looking for her so blatantly?