Chapter 14
Vanessa felt that if she still had the backbone, she should have rejected Shawn at this time.
She thought, "Did I ask you to drive me? Am I not able to walk? Didn't you just have a good time chatting another girl up? Right?"
But as soon as she turned around, she saw Shawn's face.
And seeing the car behind him, she immediately changed her mind.
In the end, Vanessa got into Shawn's car holding the thought of "enduring the humiliation in order to achieve her goal".
She thought that, after all, if she couldn't bear it, it would disrupt her plan.
But she was still very angry. Thus, she sat on the edge of the car, looking out of the window, with the back of her head to Shawn.
She thought that he didn't reply to her messages, he got angry when she praised him, and he instead tried to hook up with a woman who was so nervous that she sweated when she saw him.
Was she not beautiful enough?
Was she not working hard enough?
Or was it that the president preferred a woman who was afraid of him?
It was uninteresting.
Vanessa was so angry that she breathed more heavily.
But on second thought, she thought that what reason did she have to be angry?
Vanessa sighed, with the anger on her face disappearing and her eyes and eyebrows drooping.
She thought that it was actually her that was paying court to him, not Shawn paying court to her.
Alas.
She could just swallow her anger for now.
The car window reflected Vanessa's face and her every expression reflected on the glass changed frame by frame like a movie projection.
Shawn saw that she was angry at one moment, then sad, and then torn.
He looked around and then smiled faintly when he saw the rear-view mirror.
After a few minutes, Vanessa convinced herself completely.
She turned her head slowly and stole a glance at Shawn.
Having taken off his glasses at some point, he now dropped his eyes and looked at his phone.
The afterglow shone in through the front window, and the shadows and light on his face made his silhouette even more defined.
Since getting into the car, Shawn stayed silent and had no intention of talking to Vanessa.
As if he really just wanted to send her home.
Vanessa moved a little closer to him and then hesitated, thinking about what to talk about.
After having an idea, Vanessa gently tapped her chin with her index finger and was about to say something cautiously when Shawn's cell phone suddenly rang.
She immediately silenced.
As she heard that Shawn seemed to be talking about business matters on the phone, she then started to move to the corner quietly.
Shawn noticed her movement, so he switched his hand to hold the phone, leaned his elbow against the car window, and slightly looked to the side.
He saw Vanessa.
Vanessa was dropping her eyes and thinking about something.
The breeze from the air conditioner in the car blew the hair by her cheeks.
A few strands of silky hair were floating, fluttering lightly with her eyelashes.
She frowned for a while, and then she didn't, and the lights passing by on the road made her face faintly discernible.
"Mr. Yeats?" The person on the other end of the phone suddenly asked, "Are you listening?"
"Yes." Shawn stopped looking at her and said, "Go on."
The conversation lasted a long time and did not end until the car was parked in front of the neighborhood where Vanessa lived.
After Shawn hung up the phone, there was no sound around him.
He turned around and saw Vanessa leaning against the seat, with her head tilted sideways and her eyelashes slightly fluttering.
She was asleep.
And she was sleeping soundly.
In a daze, Vanessa dreamed about something. She frowned and slowly fell to the side.
Just when she was about to fall down, Shawn suddenly reached out and held the side of her face.
Her makeup was light and her face did not look greasy from the powder.
He felt her skin was delicate and soft as his palm touched it, and he could also feel the warmth.
Shawn then moved to help her back to her seat.
When he was about to withdraw his hands, she murmured.
Her lips were red and full, and could even make people seem to sense a sweet smell when seeing them...
Shawn slightly moved his thumb and stroked her lips gently.
--
Vanessa was still a little dazed when she slowly opened her eyes.
She massaged her neck and then slowly sat up straight.
When she glanced at Shawn beside her, she paused for a moment and instantly became awake.
At that moment, she immediately felt a mixed feeling of regret, speechlessness, and annoyance.
She wondered how she had fallen asleep again.
What a good opportunity to be alone with him in the car!
And she just missed it!
Vanessa felt chagrined and held her forehead.
"Have you been waiting for me for a long time?"
And she was about to ask him why he didn't wake her up...
But after she had finished her sentence, she decided not to keep asking him another question when she saw Shawn's eyes.
Shawn's eyes seemed to say, "Do you know how valuable my time is? Don't flatter yourself, OK?"
As expected, Shawn said lightly, "Not long."
Vanessa did not know what to say and her movements also became slow.
It was silent in the car for a few seconds.
Then Shawn said, "Why do you not get out of the car? Do you want to live here?"
Vanessa said, "If you don't mind..."
Shawn interrupted her, "Vanessa, I am very busy."
Vanessa did not speak.
After getting off the car quickly, Vanessa pulled the car door and said to him with a smile, "Then thank you for taking me home. I'll go first."
--
Standing at the roadside, Vanessa watched the tail-lights flicker and gradually figured out one thing.
She remembered that just now in the car, she had heard the driver ask where Shawn was going.
The place which Shawn was going to was not on the same road as her home.
He was very busy but still sent her home specifically.
So, she was wondering if Shawn was trying to make her feel better by doing so.
She was wondering if he was trying to make her feel better as he knew she was upset when she saw him chatting Sophia up?
Then she thought that it was just like that.
Thinking of this, Vanessa could not help but smile.
It was obvious that she was so happy that her pace became brisk, and she even took the initiative to greet a neighbor who was usually very annoying.
However, the happiness only lasted until she entered the door.
With a "ding" after she unlocked the combination lock, she seemed to get something straight.
She held the door handle and froze for a moment.
She realized that Shawn had chatted Sophia up first and then tried to make her feel better.
She then thought, "Damn, the jerk wanted to flirt with two women?"
Damn it!
Vanessa was so mad.
She slammed the door heavily, strode into the living room, threw her bag on the sofa, and then paced back and forth hurriedly with her arms clasped.
She was so angry!
As she walked, she was tripped by the leg of the sofa, and at the moment she fell down, she did not struggle and fell directly into the soft sofa.
Lying on the sofa and looking at the ceiling, Vanessa grabbed a pillow and pressed it against her chest, trying to make herself feel better.
She thought, "Actually, I'm not a good person either."
"Yes, that's it."
"Birds of a feather flock together."
Vanessa breathed a sigh of relief, and then she rolled over and stared at the ground for a moment.
With a "Bang", she threw the pillow out, hitting a picture frame.
She thought that although she had ulterior motives for him, she didn't flirt with others at the same time.
She was single-minded to him!
She was devoted!
That night, a second signature pen presented by Mondred Bank was broken.
--
The next day, everyone in the office could feel that Vanessa was not in a good mood.
Because when meeting her in the conference room, she was apathetic, when meeting her in the pantry, she was apathetic, and even when meeting her in the toilet, she looked like she had come to do a research assignment.
At the weekly meeting in the afternoon, the whole department attended and the chief editor stated a matter.
The interview about Shawn published by Vanessa had been printed and put on sale, the sales had doubled, and the number of readers of the electronic version had skyrocketed.
The meeting room resounded with warm applause, and it showed Vanessa respect no matter if it was sincere or not.
But her smile was fake.
Although she was unusual today, no one had time to care about her emotions on this busy day, except for her close colleagues.
Only Sophia, who sat at her station, could vaguely hear the sound of Vanessa poking the bottom of her cup with a spoon while making coffee.
And she also heard Vanessa murmur in a nasty tone, but not a sentence that included the word "Shawn".
Sophia was a bit shocked.
She thought that her uncle was so protective of her and wondered what he had done to make Vanessa hate him so much.
Sophia frowned slightly.
She wondered if Shawn went a little bit too far.
Not knowing whether they were less sensitive, or did so deliberately, there just were some people who would piss him off.
By the afternoon, Tracy went out for an interview. Lily walked next to Vanessa and took Tracy's seat.
"Vanessa, what's wrong with you today?"
"You seem unhappy."
"You should be happy for writing a great article."
"Let's get together tonight to celebrate."
Her voice was so loud that even Sophia could hear her clearly, but Vanessa was still typing on the computer and did not move, as if she had not heard Lily.
Lily then looked not good and continued saying, "I heard that you broke up with your boyfriend. Are you upset because of this?"
In fact, Vanessa did not deliberately hide the fact that she had broken up. Some colleagues had asked about it when they had not seen Jackson pick her up recently.
Therefore, the break-up was not a secret to her close colleagues.
And thus it was not strange that this matter had been spread.
But Vanessa still ignored Lily.
Sophia was concentrating on her phone, but when she heard this, she couldn't help but snicker slightly.
Although Vanessa was annoying when Vanessa ignored her, seeing that Lily was ignored as she obviously came to inquire, she inexplicably felt amused.
Lily got impatient and knocked hard on Vanessa's desk.
"Vanessa, I'm talking to you."
Vanessa suddenly came back to earth and looked up at Lily.
Then, Sophia saw her lift up her hair and take off her wireless headphones.
"Are you talking to me?" Vanessa said in a polite tone, "I was wearing noise-cancelling headphones and the noise cancellation level was turned high, so I couldn't hear you. Sorry."
Lily looked not good but still said with a stiff smile, "Nothing. I just care about you. I saw you in a bad mood today and wanted to ask if you broke up with your boyfriend."
Hearing that, Vanessa soon changed her attitude.
She looked her up and down and said with a cold voice, "Is it any of your business?"
Her tone was so aggressive that more or less the colleagues around had heard her, and the atmosphere suddenly became awkward.
Lily looked bad and didn't know how to answer her.
Vanessa did not care about her. She put on her headphones and then continued writing her article.
In such an awkward atmosphere, Lily's face was pale.
As Vanessa continued typing as if nothing had happened, she had no chance to express her anger and could only stride away with her hands flung.
The nearest onlooker at the scene, Sophia, didn't pay attention to Lily's expression when she left.
What she was thinking about were the headphones Vanessa was wearing.
And she began to think back and wondered if it was because Vanessa was wearing her headphones and didn't hear her that Vanessa ignored her when she called Vanessa several times on her first day at work.
The more she thought about it, the more she thought so.
Then when she thought back to the details during this period of time together, she thought that although Vanessa was not very cordial to her, she was quite kind and did not make her get in trouble.
Thinking about it again, she thought that Vanessa did not seem to be the kind of person who was arrogant.
So, it seemed that she had really misunderstood Vanessa.
In fact, it was okay that she had misunderstood Vanessa.
The point was that she had pretended to be miserable and sought sympathy from Shawn.
And it seemed that Shawn had made Vanessa suffer a lot.
Sophia scratched her head and got into a dilemma again.
Now that she knew that her misunderstanding had caused Vanessa to suffer a lot, it was impossible for her to not feel guilty.
But in her whole life, due to her background, she had always been superior and had never submitted to someone other than her elders.
It was even more impossible for her to suddenly tell someone about what she had done.
--
That night, Vanessa went to the hair salon after work to get her hair trimmed, and then she ate out by the way.
After returning home in the evening and taking a shower, it was already 11:30 at night.
When she was using a facial mask, she subconsciously took out her cell phone, and then she hesitated when she saw her message box.
She didn't send the message this morning, because she was angry.
But having adjusted her mind for the whole day, she began to vacillate again.
She put herself in others' shoes and thought that she was Party B, and it was normal for Party A to have more than one choice.
There was no reason for Party B to blame Party A for making a comparison among different options.
Having come around to it, Vanessa regained her vitality and immediately sent four messages to Shawn:
"There is no goodnight today."
"Because I am uneasy."
"I cannot sleep now."
"If you can add me on Whatsapp, I will be able to fall asleep."
There was no response from Shawn.
Vanessa thought for a moment that it might be time for taking a more effective way and then she sent messages again:
"Actually, it's because I left something at your place again."
"Did you see it?"
After sending these messages, Vanessa decided to wait for him to reply hopefully.
As waiting was too boring, she began to tidy up her room.
While packing the cupboard, she saw two tickets for Rachel Taylor's concert.
These were originally the ones she had snapped up on time in order to go to the concert with Jackson, but now the things were different and the tickets were wasted.
But when she saw that the time written on the ticket stub was tomorrow night at seven, Vanessa blinked and an idea popped into her head.
She remembered that Shawn also had the album of Rachel Taylor at home.
Then if they could go to the concert together, there would be great progress in their relationship!
Squatting and looking at the two tickets, Vanessa started to conceive countless ideas.
At this time, the cell phone next to the table rang.
Vanessa took up the phone and took a quick glance at the screen.
The screen showed a notification of receiving a message from "a non-typeable illiterate".
Vanessa's heart suddenly beat wildly.
The "td" in her dream had created severe trauma for her, and thus she now had a strange feeling of being overwhelmed as Shawn had replied to her message.
She was afraid that Shawn had really replied to her with a "td", so she preferred to receive a spam message.
After preparing for the worst, Vanessa unlocked the screen.
A non-typeable illiterate: "Left something again?"
"Hoo..."
Vanessa breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the message was not "td".
She smiled and then typed: "Yes, it's more important than the dowry that I left last time."
A non-typeable illiterate: "What?"
Vanessa: "It's my heart (//▽//)."
Then Shawn directly did not reply.
Vanessa: "..."
She touched her cheek and got chagrined again.
She wondered if she was too flirty.
Not knowing how to salvage the situation, Vanessa decided to ask her friends for advice.
She opened Whatsapp and stared at the interface of contacts. When she was wondering whom she should look for, a red mark "1" suddenly appeared in the column of "new friends".
It was like telepathy. After Vanessa had clicked on it quickly, she saw that it was a Whatsapp friend request from someone called "sy·lucky".
"sy"--Shawn Yeats for short.
She finally added him as a friend on Whatsapp.
She did not expect that Shawn was quite girlish as the postfix of his Whatsapp name was like that.
His profile photo was normal, which was just an ordinary photo of a corgi.
She thought that she didn't make Shawn feel that she was flirty and he seemed to like it.
Vanessa held her phone and sent him messages happily:
"You finally add me as a friend on Whatsapp."
"I'm so happy."
A moment later.
sy·lucky: "..."
Vanessa was lying on her bed with her legs crossed and wobbling, and shaking her head.
Vanessa: "Are you going to sleep?"
sy·lucky: "It's still early."
Vanessa smiled and then immediately took a picture of the concert tickets and sent it to Shawn.
Vanessa: "I just saw these and was wondering who I should go with."
sy·lucky: "What?"
Vanessa: "Are you free tomorrow night?"
It took a while for Shawn to reply.
sy·lucky: "Yes."
Vanessa smiled and squeezed the pillow with her hands.
Vanessa: "Then we will go together tomorrow night?"
She waited for a moment again.
sy·lucky: "Yes."