After Wendy got off her call with Henson, she returned to the office and spent the rest of the afternoon scouring the web for news regarding herself. She got nothing.
After she got off work in the evening and went back to the Charles villa, she suddenly spoke up to Henson while they were having dinner together. “What did you do this time? I doubt Sally laid low, knowing how much of an extremist she can be,” she said.
“Simple, she needs a therapist. I just went to Ross,” he replied flatly.
“Why’d you go to Big Bro Ross for? You know Sally’s going to use this as an excuse to threaten him, right?”
“It’s only natural that he’d want to help you get out of this mess he caused you in the first place,” he said.
This made her glare at him through the corners of her eyes. “But Sally’s definitely going to make full use of this to coerce Big Bro Ross,” she repeated.
“That’s between them. So long as he doesn’t get rid of the root problem, AKA Sally, then he’ll definitely be plagued by this relationship for eternity. I was just giving him a chance to finally pry himself free from her,” he replied.
“You’re so full of sh*t,” she pouted.
“No, I’m not, I was just speaking facts. This is how you should go about dealing with problems. You should learn from me sometime,” he said as a matter-of-factly.
She lowered her eyes and smiled at that. She then gave him two thumbs up and joked, “Alrighty then, Mr. Mighty Capitalist. This should suffice, no?”
“I’ll accept all the praise that you can give me. You know, praise can come in other forms too, like a kiss, for example. Keep that in mind next time,” he teased.
She raised her eyebrows at that before giving him a faint smile. “Huh, I do praise people often… Perhaps I should start investing in more lip balm in the future,” she replied.
“You won’t dare,” he scoffed as he glared at her.
“Weren’t you the one who thought me to do that?” she snickered.
He then turned around and grabbed the back of her head to go in for a kiss, not caring whether she still had anything in her mouth or not.
She quickly turned her head to the side and wiped the corners of her mouth. “Ack, that was so unhygienic of you. I still had food in my mouth,” she mumbled.
“I don’t mind. Why don’t you swallow so that we can try again?” he teased.
When she heard that, she swiftly scooped two big mouthfuls of rice into her mouth. “Bwut I mwind,” she said through a full mouth.
He could only stare at her and give her a loving smile in response. “Anyways, you should only ever use that form of praise on me, and no one else,” he reminded.
She didn’t know how to respond to that. Which lunatic would actually have the nerve go around kissing people in public as a form of praise anyways?!
When noontime rolled around the next day, she received a call from Ross.
“Heya, Wendy. My mother made some food for you, citing it’s to nourish your body and she asked me to send it over to you. She hasn’t found out about the incident where Sally blackmailed you yet, and since I couldn’t bring myself to tell her either, that’s why I’m at your university’s campus gates now,” he explained.
“Your mother’s too kind, so be sure to send her my thanks. I’ll head downstairs to take it from you now then,” she giggled.
“Ah don’t, Wendy. Please don’t come to me by yourself. Is it alright if you find a male colleague for this?” he asked.
She immediately understood that he was doing this for her own good, as he probably didn’t want to cause her any more trouble.
“Sure, give me a moment, Big Bro Ross,” she said.
“Alright,” he replied.
After hanging up, she phoned Ian up to ask if he was up for the task. Unfortunately, he was at the hospital since half and hour ago as he had to bring a student to the ER.
“It’s alright, you should get going then. I’ll just find someone else to help,” she replied.
Just as she finished saying that, she noticed Linda had just entered the room.
“What do you need help for?” Linda asked the moment Wendy put down her phone.
“I need someone to help me get a bento from a friend at the campus gates. He’s waiting for me there right now,” Wendy explained.
“Let me help,” Linda offered.
“Ah, you can’t,” she declined. “I need a male colleague for this,”
“Does gender matter when retrieving a bento?” Linda quizzed.
“His ex-girlfriend’s the worst. I can’t believe she hid nearby just to get a photo of me and Ross talking together in his car so that she could use it to blackmail me. So, that’s why this friend of mine decided to have me find a male colleague to get the bento for me, so that something like that doesn’t happen again,” Wendy explained.
“Ex-girlfriend? Women like her need to get their heads checked. Anyways, you shouldn’t worry about a thing. Just let me retrieve it for you,” Linda assured
her as she placed a few documents down on her desk. “Is he currently waiting for you at the campus gates?” she asked.
“Yeah, but-” Wendy gasped
but Linda had already chirped to her that it was going to be fine with a pat on her shoulder. “What’s his name?” she asked.
“Ross Lowry,” Wendy mumbled.
“Alright. Be back soon,” Linda said then
left shortly after. Wendy could only call to inform Ross that her female colleague had volunteered to get the bento from him instead.
“I’m so sorry I got you into this mess, Wendy. I can’t believe I made you worry over me,” he said guiltily on the other end.
“It’s not a big deal, so no need take it to heart. I’m just glad you’re doing alright,” she replied.
“So no need to worry about me,”
When Linda arrived at the gates, she scanned the surroundings and noticed a man walking towards her with a bento box in hand after getting off their car.
She instantly noticed him walking towards her in a gray suit.
Her gaze was immediately transfixed on his face.
After walking up to her, he said in a gentle voice, “Linda, right?”
“Yes, I am, and you’re Mr. Lowry?” she replied with a nod after coming back to her senses.
“Right,” he answered then passed her the bento. “This is for Wendy. My mother made these dumplings herself. If you don’t mind, you can have this together with Wendy. Sorry for troubling you to come all this way, by the way,” he said apologetically.
Her face flushed pink as she shook her head. “Thank you so much,” she muttered.
“I’ll be taking my leave first then,” he said.
“See you then, Mr. Lowry,” she said with a nod.
He gave her a nod back then spun around to leave.
After a long exhale, she also started making her way back to her office.
After walking some distance away, she stopped in her tracks and used a hand to pat her face. “Stop fangirling already, Linda,” she muttered to herself.
When she arrived at the office, she placed the bento on her desk.
“Thank you so much, Linda!” Wendy thanked.
When Wendy opened the lunchbox, she saw that there were a number of dumplings inside. “Let’s have this together for lunch then. We can skip out on going to the canteen today,” Wendy said as she passed Linda a fork she retrieved from a cabinet.
“So, this friend of yours… I heard he broke up with his girlfriend?” she asked casually as she grabbed a fork.
“Yeah, it was just a while back too,” Wendy replied.
“His ex-girlfriend sounds like a tough nut,” Linda quipped.
“Yes, she is. Big Bro Ross has always been an upright person, but it’s his ex who keeps getting suspicious of him. She’s the type to hunt down every woman that goes near him, regardless if they’re just acquaintances. Can you imagine how paranoid she must be to even suspect if I have a boyfriend? Even after they broke up, she even hired someone to keep tabs on him. The woman’s already gone off the deep end, I’m afraid,” Wendy sighed.
“Poor Ross,” Linda muttered before asking, Anyways, how old is he again?”
Wendy stared at her for a second before bursting into a fit of laughter.
This made Linda flush crimson. “What’s so funny?” she huffed.
“Ross is 29 this year and is currently working as a manager in the San Diego Grande Mall. He’d spent some time living abroad before this, but had to come back early because his girlfriend kept getting suspicious of him. But they’ve already broken up since then,” Wendy said and
paused for a while before resuming, “What say I set the both of you up when he’s completely gotten rid of his ex, Linda?”
“Normally, I’d say that it won’t be necessary, and yet… my heart is telling me the total opposite,” Linda giggled nervously.
“I know, but this is the first time I realised that you’re into someone,” Wendy giggled.
“Don’t make fun of me, Miss Evans,” Linda pouted.
Wendy knew that Linda was a kind-hearted and a very down-to-earth person, so
she genuinely thought of introducing Linda to Ross.
Heh, just thinking about it was enough to make her excited.