Chapter 32
Why did he laugh again?
Vanessa accidentally saw his expression and felt as if she had been stripped of a layer of clothes by his eyes, so her thoughts were seen through.
"Well?" Shawn looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Talking about old days with an old friend?"
Vanessa touched the tip of her nose and admitted awkwardly, "Yeah."
Shawn nodded and whispered, "I thought you went on a blind date."
Sure enough.
Why could he even know this?
And Vanessa felt that he seemed a little angry.
"Blind date? How could I go on a blind date? You're kidding." Vanessa added, "It's the weekend today, so I went to catch up with my old friends."
Shawn didn't answer, just stared at her as if waiting for her to tell the truth.
After a while, they just made eye contact and didn't speak.
"Good." Shawn casually said in a cold voice, "Then you're really idle."
Hearing his words, Vanessa was also angry.
If it were someone else who said this, she would certainly ignore it directly.
But this was Shawn.
Who was Shawn?
He was a man who would never speak normally.
She needed to understand his words in reverse.
On this thought, Vanessa realized that he was not angry with her.
He was really unhappy, but it was because he was jealous.
At the thought of this, Vanessa wanted to laugh, but she had to hold back. She could only raise her head and answer, "I am quite free. There is no one to accompany me."
She looked at Shawn. Tiny lights flickered in her eyes as if her eyes were talking.
Vanessa really wanted to convey her meaning through her eyes.
But then her mobile phone suddenly rang, breaking the atmosphere of the moment.
The bell rang for a long time.
Shawn looked at Vanessa's cell phone in her hand, turned his head, and said stiffly.
"Answer it."
It was actually a call from Vanessa's beauty salon.
"Good evening, Ms. Vanessa. This is Makarina beauty parlor. We now have an annual reward activity. In order to express heartfelt thanks to our frequent customers, we specially launch free member experience activities to experience the latest beauty projects."
Vanessa nodded, and the staff of the beauty parlor asked, "Would you like to experience the project tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow..."
Vanessa looked at Shawn until he also looked at her and said, "I have nothing to do tomorrow. Anyway, I am also idle. I should be able to go."
"OK, let me make an appointment for you first."
After hanging up, Vanessa scratched her forehead and was about to speak. Shawn suddenly said, "Have you finished the deep research of the Mondred company's IPO?"
Vanessa, "What?"
Shawn, "Since you have time, come to Mondred to work tomorrow."
Vanessa was surprised and speechless.
She was hinting at him to date her, but he told her to work overtime?
It was not until she went home and changed her clothes that Vanessa reluctantly accepted that she really had to work overtime tomorrow.
Well, maybe it would be a sweet time for them in the office.
Shawn read and worked while she made coffee and flirted with him.
When she was fantasying, her mother called.
"Vanessa, how are you today? What do you think of Lonn Foster?"
Vanessa was silent for a while before she took her thoughts back from Shawn. "Not bad."
"Not bad?" Her mother was not satisfied. "I often told you to be content and happy with the reality. I know that young girls nowadays often imagine stars and online celebrities as their boyfriends or husbands. They pay them money and finally indulge in this illusion. In the long run, girls will not like ordinary boys around them and will miss a lot of good men. What a pity."
"Mom, I just said he was not bad." Vanessa put her mother on speakerphone without expression and walked to the dressing table. "I didn't say he was bad. Why are you so worried?"
"I'm not worried. I'm chatting with you. I'm afraid you'll have unrealistic ideas."
"At least, I never have imagined that James Bond was my husband."
"It's called incest."
Vanessa felt helpless, "I'm going to take a shower. If there's nothing wrong, I'll hang up first."
"Wait." Her mother stopped her. "I just communicated with the headmaster. Lonn Foster said that he could contact you further. How about you two have a date next week? Don't just eat. You can go to the movies together, OK?"
"I'll consider it. I have to take off my makeup now."
After hanging up, Vanessa looked at herself in the mirror and suddenly felt that her light makeup today was too bland. No wonder Shawn only asked her to work overtime.
So the next day, she got up early and dressed up carefully.
She was just a little embarrassed when she was choosing clothes. She thought it was not good to be too conspicuous at work, but she thought that Shawn liked red.
After thinking for a long time, she still vaguely hoped that Shawn didn't really ask her to work but wanted to stay with her.
With this in mind, Vanessa put on a red skirt in her coat and high-heeled shoes.
But when she arrived at the office building of the Mondred company, she had a bad feeling.
She knew that the fintech companies would work, but she hadn't expected to be so serious.
People came and went into the reception hall on the first floor, and the employees wearing work badges were in a hurry. Someone accidentally dropped some of the information in his hand. He squatted down to pick it up and hurried into the elevator.
This scene almost made Vanessa think that today was not Sunday but Wednesday.
For a moment, she regretted that she had dressed so conspicuously today.
But since she had been here, she couldn't go back to change.
So Vanessa ignored the eyes of passers-by and strode to the elevator.
While waiting for the elevator, she sent a message to Shawn.
"Here I am."
Shawn replied, "I see."
Vanessa, "I didn't expect that I would work overtime with you on this beautiful weekend."
Shawn's reply was simple and clear.
Shawn, "Do you feel aggrieved? Go to the eighth floor to find Mr. Wright to get files, and then come to the twelfth floor."
"Does he really treat me as an errand? Doesn't he have a secretary?" Vanessa thought.
Although she was dissatisfied, she got into the elevator obediently.
A few seconds later, the elevator stopped on the second floor.
Vanessa was looking down at her cell phone. When the elevator door opened slowly, she heard a familiar voice.
"OK, I'll tell Mr. Wright. Don't worry. I won't forget. I'll go to the personnel office first."
Bianca Yost was standing at the entrance of the elevator. Behind her was a man who was flattering her.
Bianca was stunned when she saw Vanessa in the elevator.
The man behind her glanced at Vanessa but didn't think much. After thanking Bianca, he turned away.
Vanessa and Bianca look at each other. The surrounding space seemed full of something, making them feel suffocated when they stood in the narrow elevator.
Bianca secretly looked at Vanessa's clothes and then took another look at the floor she pressed.
The eighth floor was the office of the chief financial officer.
At that moment, Bianca's thoughts were confirmed.
It had been a week since she was scolded by Ben last time.
But she was still unconvinced.
Not because she was deducted from her salary, but because she was simply not convinced that she was scolded for Vanessa.
From that day on, she wondered why Ben protected Vanessa so much.
He even hurried back to see her after work and chatted with her in the office for three hours.
Bianca was not new to society. She was two years older than Vanessa, had worked for five years after graduation, and had been in the management circle. She had seen too many things.
And like the current situation, it was very normal in her eyes.
With this in mind, Bianca stopped looking at Vanessa and stared straight at the elevator door.
Bianca had stopped thinking about Vanessa, but she saw the two figures reflected from the elevator door.
Vanessa had no expression. Bianca didn't know what she was thinking.
However, the most superficial sense of crisis in her heart slowly swept through Bianca's brain.
Among the money relationships she had seen over the years, those who had benefited the least, both men and women, had used their short youth to exchange for wealth that ordinary people couldn't get in a lifetime.
But the smart people would get the resources of contacts, which could bring them status and fame. Money, in these people's eyes, ranked last.
Bianca couldn't imagine what Jackson would think if Vanessa really relied on Ben to get her fame. If so, would her position in this relationship be threatened?
And once two people become love enemies, they would naturally become hostile in other aspects.
Even without considering Jackson, she didn't want Vanessa to stand tall in front of her one day.
Therefore, Bianca did not hurry out when the elevator stopped at the personnel office on the seventh floor.
She stepped forward, stepped on the edge of the elevator, and looked back, "Miss Green, although I don't know why you came to our company at the weekend, I want to remind you."
Vanessa looked up and raised one eyebrow.
Bianca went on, "Mr. Wright's wife is the vice president of a media operation company. If anything shameful happens to her marriage, it's easy for her to make it known to everyone with her ability."
Vanessa was stunned for three seconds before she realized what she meant.
It was not that she was slow, but that she really couldn't connect the person who said this with Bianca.
Then she laughed.
She even wanted to roll on the ground if she didn't consider it a public place.
"Are you reminding me?" Vanessa wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with her index finger. "So, did you give up your old business?"
Bianca could not refute.
The words "give up your old business" were so destructive that they stabbed Bianca's spine.
Now that they were in the company, Bianca was afraid that Vanessa would say any gossip, so she had to turn around and walk away.
The joy brought by Bianca to Vanessa lasted only five minutes after Vanessa walked into Ben's office.
The joy brought by Bianca to Vanessa lasted only five minutes after Vanessa walked into Ben's office.
Because she saw that the file Ben had prepared for her was nearly half a meter high.
Seeing her stunned, Ben smiled and said, "These are all public materials you can refer to. If they are not enough, I will prepare more for you later."
Vanessa forced herself to smile. "These are enough. Thank you so much."
She thought Shawn was going to date her in the office, but he really meant her to work overtime.
Holding a large stack of materials, Vanessa went to the 12th floor. Ignoring the eyes of others, Vanessa walked directly into Shawn's office.
Her hands were sore. Shawn was sitting behind his desk, leisurely carrying a cup of coffee.
Seeing her coming, he just pointed to the sofa.
It meant to let her work there.
Vanessa put the document on the desk in front of the sofa, then looked through it and almost fainted.
Only the financial statements of the past three years gave her a headache.
Although the company was big, there was no need to show it off to her like this.
Maybe these materials had a great impact on Vanessa. She thought she really would waste this weekend. She then had to bow her head and start working.
Except for the occasional keyboard sound in the office, it was so quiet that the whistle outside the window was very clear.
Shawn sat behind the table. The sun shone on the desktop and then cast a geometric shape on the ground.
He followed the light and looked at the sofa.
Vanessa sometimes hit the keyboard and sometimes picked up her pen. She frowned and occasionally said some words.
Three hours passed in such a flash.
The silence of the office was suddenly broken by the doorbell, and then there was the sound of high heels.
Vanessa frowned, subconsciously thinking it was Bianca.
But when she looked up, she found that it was a strange middle-aged woman.
The woman put a stack of information on Shawn's desk, whispered a few words to him, and then walked out without looking askance.
It was almost twelve o'clock at noon.
After being disturbed by such an episode, Vanessa could no longer concentrate. Bianca's face appeared in her mind.
Just now, when she was in the elevator, she didn't think about it carefully. At this moment, she found that even Bianca had to work overtime.
Thinking of this, she couldn't help looking at Shawn.
While she was wondering how to speak, Shawn suddenly asked, "Are you hungry?"
Vanessa was stunned.
"No." She touched her face and felt that her face was normal today.
Shawn, "Then why do you keep looking at me?"
Vanessa was speechless.
Originally, she didn't think about anything else, but when she heard what he said, she began to stare at Shawn directly.
He was really pleasing to the eye.
"Can't I?" Vanessa muttered, "How do you know I'm looking at you if you don't look at me?"
Vanessa was used to deliberately teasing him. This time, however, Shawn did not deny it.
He also looked at Vanessa. His eyes behind the lenses were tinted with light amber by the sun.
His eyes thinned the air around Vanessa, making her shaky.
She stopped looking at him, picked up the tip of her pen, and scratched her hair. Suddenly she said, "Last time I heard, you have a niece."
Shawn stopped looking at her. He loosened his tie and then shut down the computer.
Vanessa tried to say casually, "Then your niece should be very happy. She doesn't have to work every day."
"Who said she didn't have to work?" Shawn came towards her, walking slowly.
"Does the rich lady have to work? I thought she could be the boss directly."
"She doesn't have that ability. It's good that she can do a good job at the grass-roots level."
"Well."
Vanessa seemed to understand, "Then you are really good at teaching."
But as soon as she looked back, she found Shawn sitting beside her.
His tie was half loose, and his first button was untied. He reclined casually on the sofa.
The hem of their clothes met. While Vanessa moved, it sounded.
When Vanessa was stunned, Shawn took off his glasses and looked at her.
His eyes became deeper without his glasses.
Vanessa had heard that men with deep eyebrows and eyes were affectionate.
So at the moment when she looked into his eyes, she had some sense of fear based on the blend of guilt and shyness in her heart.
"Why are you hiding?"
Shawn pinched her chin. "Won't you allow me to see you?"
The warmth of his fingers on her chin spread to her entire face.
They were so close that their breath was intertwined. Vanessa's voice became lower and lower, "I'm afraid you'll be addicted to my beauty and can't extricate yourself."
"Then what are you afraid of if I'm addicted?"
"..."
"Are you afraid I'll eat you?"