Bella had never thought that a casual remark of hers would now be quoted publicly. Although she was very embarrassed, it was no use crying over spilled milk.
What was more, Quintin was at least considered a leader. Offending him was not good for her, so she struggled for a while, before nodding and bitterly smiling, “Okay, good …”
The other three interviewers looked at each other at a loss and left the conference room after nodding to Quintin.
“There’s still two hours until lunch. You can sit here and wait for me.”
Quintin said and walked straight out, without asking if Bella was willing to wait.
Bella rubbed her hair in embarrassment and thought that everything went well after she had arrived in F city, but did not expect on the first day of the interview, she was hit by the pie in the sky. Even she could not distinguish she was lucky or unfortunate.
Two hours were long, so she took out a book from the bag, but was distracted and could not read. Why did she say so much? Did she have anything else to do in the morning? Why would she want to talk to a stranger? If she hadn’t taken the initiative to talk to him, she wouldn’t have to sit here like a fool now, waiting to fulfill her promise.
At eleven o’clock, Quintin came to the conference room, opened the door, and said to her, “Let’s go.”
Bella put the books on the table into the bag and rushed to follow out. After entering the lift, she no longer dared to speak, but Quintin said, “Where are we going to have lunch?”
“Whatever.”
She replied nervously.
Quintin was helpless, “It’s obviously you who invited me to lunch. Why are you answering as if I invite you?”
Bella was startled and immediately explained awkwardly, “I didn’t mean that. I mean I just arrived in F City not long ago, and I’m not very familiar with this place. You can eat at any place you want. I’ll take care of the bill.”
“Oh, okay.”
Quintin nodded meaningfully. Out of the door of the company, Bella deliberately kept a distance from him. When Quintin had walked to his car, Bella was still dawdling in front of the company and did not come over. He waited for a while. When she came over, he asked teasingly, “You don’t want to invite me to lunch, right?”
“No.”
“Then aren’t you a little too motivated for that?”
Bella smiled stiffly, “I’m usually like this.”
“Get in the car.”
Quintin pulled open the car door and Bella got in. He drove the car to a Japanese restaurant and asked her, “Do you eat cuisine?”
“My treat, if you like.”
Bella feigned a generous gesture of invitation.
They walked in side by side to a clear and elegant box, and Bella said to Quintin, “You order the food.”
Quintin was blunt and ordered a few kinds of signature dishes. Bella sized him up, thinking that he was obviously aloof in the lift before, but this time why was he easy-going to have lunch with a job seeker like her? It wasn’t love at first sight, was it? …
“You say you’re new to F City. Aren’t you local?”
Quintin looked up to question her.
“No.”
“Then where are you from?”
Bella didn’t want to tell the truth, so she just said a random place, “A city.”
“Then why did you come to F city to look for a job?”
“My parents died, and I came here to turn to my uncle.”
Quintin was startled, probably not expecting her to be an orphan, and said apologetically, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you to the quick.”
“Alright.”
The waiter brought the food in. Bella ate while glancing at the opposite side, finally couldn’t help it, and asked timidly, “Can I ask you a question?”
“Well, yes.”
“How did I get hired?”
Quintin put down the fork and replied playfully, “Because of your name.”
“My name?” Bella was confused, “What happened to my name?”
“Don’t you have the word Haley in your name? My name is Quintin and your name is Haley. That’s why you weren’t accepted.”
“Is it because you and I have a common harmonic character?”
“Yeah.”
“… “Bella was speechless.
After lunch, they went out of the box, and Bella went to pay the bill, but she was told that the bill had already been paid. She was surprised and ran to ask Quintin, “Did you pay the bill?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Didn’t I say I was buying?”
Quintin smiled cynically and waved at her without turning back, “You owe me.”
It was already one o’clock in the afternoon when Bella returned home, and as soon as her aunt saw her, she asked worriedly, “Why did you just come back? Was the interview successful?”
She looked sad at first, before smiling and making a fist, “Yes!”
“Wow great!”
Mika hugged her happily, “I knew you would succeed with your intelligence.”
Although the process was a bit odd, Bella was also quite happy. After chatting with her aunt, she went to her room to rest. Only after less than half an hour of sleep, she woke up from a dream, where Kevin was having a wedding with Freya, whose belly was big. Both of them were smiling happily, which was deeply so ironic to her that when she woke up, she covered her chest and suddenly felt pain there.
Opening the laptop, she logged into QQ, quickly saw Alice’s avatar flickering crazily. She clicked on it and there were at least dozens of messages.
“Bella, where are you? Why can’t I get through your number? Did you change your number? I went to your house yesterday to look for you and your mother-in-law said you’re gone. I just realized that so much has happened to you these days, and I’m really sorry why you didn’t tell me anything after all that happened. Don’t you consider me a friend? Hurry up and reply to me when you see the message. I’m really worried about you.”
“Bella, I’ve been leaving you messages for two days. Why haven’t you replied to me yet? Do you really not want me as a friend anymore? I know you hate Kevin, but there’s no need for you to even contact me if you hate him. You can tell me where you are, and I will never tell Kevin. He also called me today and asked me if I know where you are, and I said no. I really don’t know that, but even if I did, I wouldn’t tell him. So you hurry up and reply to me, miss you!!!”
“Bella, you still haven’t responded to me. Are you really planning to lose contact with me completely? I’ve been very bored for a while. Freya has moved to the Jones-Sharp’s house, and I haven’t heard from you again. Louis is still missing you. In short, there are all kinds of worries, and I’m also a bit tempted to run away from home …”
Bella looked at the messages one by one, and when she saw that Freya had moved into the Jones-Sharp’s home, she burst into tears, and in the end, that woman had still won. This was truly the most ridiculous irony to her.
She stretched out her hand to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes. The last shred of hope in her heart shattered, and even if she was a little reluctant, she could only accept that Kevin and she really couldn’t back.
“Alice, I’m living a good life now. You don’t have to worry about me. I don’t contact you not because I don’t think of you as a friend, but because I want to get rid of the past, which made me unbearable. One day after I can face the pain I experienced in the past, I’ll go back to see you. But now you just guard your happiness well. As long as you stick to it, you’ll be rewarded. I stuck it out but I didn’t succeed. I never regretted at that time. Don’t message me anymore, and don’t tell me anything about him. I just want to live quietly now. I wish you happiness with all my heart, my dearest friend …”
Clicking send, she turned off the computer.
She really said goodbye to the past.
The next day, Bella prepared to check-in at the company. Sitting on the bus, she could not help but think of Quintin and she silently prayed that she would never be assigned to the marketing department.
In spite of this hope, things often did not go as expected.
At the personnel department, the other two colleagues also arrived one after another, and after completing the relevant formalities, the head of the personnel section took out a record card and said, “Now I’ll read the departments that you are each assigned to, and a department assistant will come to lead you over later.”
“Odette, Business Department.”
“Carla, R&D Department.”
“Bella, Marketing Department.”
As soon as the HR chief finished, Bella spoke out, “Why am I in the marketing department?”
The beauties around her stared at her, thinking that she was deliberately irritating them. Everyone knew that the marketing department was the best department in the whole company, and others who wanted to enter couldn’t enter it, but she looked aggrieved, typically taking it for granted when taking advantage of others.
“Miss Finger, do you have any opinions about the marketing department?”
Only then did Bella realize that she might have lost control of herself a bit and shook her head in embarrassment, “No.”
“It’s fine. Each of you gets ready and go report to your leaders.”
Odette and Carla were led away successively, and Bella was then also led away. The marketing department assistant was a very pretty-looking young girl. Bella followed behind her, feigning to be casual and asking, “Who is in charge of this newcomer allocation department?”
“Mr. Stock.”
The assistant answered crisply.
Bella gasped. As expected, she was being watched by this guy.
After making a few detours, she arrived at the company’s core department, the marketing department. As soon as she walked into the hall, she could see the rigorous work atmosphere. The assistant kept leading her into the director’s office and said respectfully, “Mr. Stock, this is Haley, the new employee assigned to our department.”
Quintin looked up, “OK, I know. You go out first to tidy up the desk for her.”
Bella was surprised to measure him, who was different from yesterday and no longer wore a casual outfit but wore a formal suit, hair combed in a systematic way, like a rich and handsome guy.
If yesterday he was dressed like this, she would not mistake him as coming to apply for a job. In fact, she shouldn’t blame herself …
“What a fate! Haley, we meet again.”
Quintin extended a hand.