When it was time to leave, Alexander had just led Sophia to the entrance of the hall when Megan, who was in the middle of relaying some information to the staff, suddenly called out to the former woman. “Ms. Yarrow!”
Sophia glanced at Alexander and stopped in her tracks before turning around to face Megan with a faint smile. “It’s been a while, Ms. Queen.”
“Indeed, it has.”
Megan tensed up as she noticed Alexander glancing at her. Still, she forced a smile knowing that she owed Sophia a word of thanks for the Pegasus carving. “Thank you, Ms. Yarrow.”
The woman still knew her manners, and this time, her expression of gratitude sounded much more sincere than all those apologies she uttered in the past.
Sophia couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in response. “Not at all. That was only fair.”
Megan pursed her lips. “Still, I must thank you. Anyway, I’ll have to go submit my information, so I shan’t bother you and Mr. Xenos now.”
With that, she turned and left.
After watching Megan leave in a hurry, Sophia shot Alexander an amused glance. “Are you that frightening?”
Alexander eyed her in return, the frostiness in his eyes vanishing instantly. “She’s just too faint-hearted.”
The woman let out a chuckle. “Let’s go.”
As Megan returned to Casper’s side, she couldn’t resist looking at Sophia again.
By then, the latter had already walked out the door with Alexander, leaving behind nothing but her graceful silhouette.
I don’t want to admit it, but she really is gorgeous. She’s the one who started the bid on the Pegasus carving. And I know two million means nothing to her now, but she didn’t continue raising the bid. It doesn’t take an idiot to know that she deliberately let me win the bid.
After arriving home, Megan explained what had happened to Harold and Jessica with mixed feelings.
“It doesn’t matter what she intended by that. Just don’t get on her bad side,” Jessica reminded with a frown.
She now knew not to underestimate Sophia, having already suffered at the hands of the latter twice.
“I’m not stupid, Mom,” Megan retaliated sullenly.
She felt like hiding whenever she saw Sophia after the past two incidents that had happened between them.
That was why she was on edge the whole time while bidding for the Pegasus carving; Harold would have been displeased if she didn’t win it, but at the same time, she was worried that Sophia would accuse her of starting another fight.
I can’t believe she actually let me have the carving. Is this all a dream?
Harold pondered for a moment before expressing with uncertainty, “Maybe she did it for Samuel.”
Megan froze briefly. “I think Dad’s right, Mom!”
“I’ll give Samuel a call, then,” Jessica remarked after some thought.
Harold nodded. “Sure. Being the middleman here must be tough, especially after what happened the last two times.”
Jessica scowled at the thought of the past events.
Still, knowing that Sophia had helped them this time, she took out her phone and gave Samuel a call.
Samuel was elated to hear the news. “Really, Aunt Jessica?”
Surprised to know that Sophia forwent the Pegasus carving for his sake, he couldn’t quite believe his ears.
“Well, we don’t know what Ms. Yarrow was thinking. But there’s no denying that she made things easier for us, so be sure to treat her to a meal on my behalf,” Jessica chided in a joking manner.
If she were the one treating Sophia to lunch, a mere couple of exchanges between them would probably lead to another fight.
“Okay, Aunt Jessica.”
After hanging up, Samuel dialed Alexander’s number right away. “Hey, Alex, is Sophia with you?”
Alexander shot Sophia a glance. “What’s up?”
“My aunt just gave me a call to tell me about the Pegasus carving. She wants me to treat you both to lunch on her behalf. Are you free tomorrow? It’ll be a Sunday.”
Hearing that, Alexander muttered to the woman next to him, “Samuel wants to buy us lunch.”
Sophia beamed. “Sure.”
She had something to discuss with Samuel, anyway.
“Okay.”
“See you tomorrow, then,” Samuel replied in an unusually tactful manner.
“Yep.”
Alexander hung up and turned to Sophia. “What is it?” he asked, noticing her staring at him.
The woman smiled. “It’s been a while since you last hung out with Mr. Schild and the rest, hasn’t it?”
“I never received an invitation.”
Previously, he did, but Samuel eventually accepted the fact that Alexander was the type to ditch his friends after getting himself a woman, so the calls stopped coming.
Then, Sophia recalled what she had seen a few days ago. “Is Mr. Schild seeing someone now?”
Alexander’s gut instinct was to disagree in contempt, but the smile on Sophia’s face made him change his mind. “Why?”
“I saw him with a girl a few days back, but they were too far away for me to be sure.”
That was on the second day of Alexander’s work trip. She had asked Robert out to lunch and later spotted Samuel leading a woman into his car.
“It’s possible.”
Even so, Alexander found it hard to believe that any woman would be interested in a dolt like Samuel.
Of course, there were those who approached him for his money, but he would have still been smart enough to see through them.
Seeing that Alexander wasn’t sure either, Sophia stopped asking.
The winds were rather dreary after dusk in July.
After changing into her loungewear, she stood at the kitchen door and huffed while watching the man cut the fruit. “Are you staying here again tonight, Mr. Xenos?”
He had already spent the past three nights here.
When Alexander was done slicing the watermelon, he washed his hands and brought the plate of fruit over to her. “I don’t want to go home,” he responded only after holding a slice in front of her lips.
Sophia bit into the watermelon and tried to grab the entire slice, but he had already placed it over his own mouth and taken a huge bite.
Her cheeks flushed slightly as she walked to the couch to turn on the TV. “Shouldn’t you start paying rent, then?”
In response, the man followed her over with the plate of fruit, took his wallet out of his pocket, and handed it to her. “The code is your birthday.”
Sophia opened up his wallet to find several thousand in cash along with two bank cards.
Baffled, she took the cash out and separated fifteen hundred from the stash. “Five hundred per night. That’s the market rate.”
Alexander sat down next to her with an arched brow before giving her one of the bank cards. “I’d like to book a lifetime room, then.”
Sophia raised an eyebrow too. “How much is there in here? A lifetime room’s going to cost you a lot more.”
People usually charged less the longer the stay, but for her, it was the opposite.
“I’m not sure, but there shouldn’t be less than thirty million in there.”
He had so many cards that he couldn’t remember the amount that each one contained.
The woman returned the card in an instant. “You’re lowballing me.”
“How much do you want, then?” he asked, passing her a slice of watermelon.
She turned to him with a grin. “There’s no lifetime service at the moment.”
Noticing the smugness in her eyes, the man gulped before grabbing onto her to kiss her.
“My watermelon—”
He placed her watermelon slice on the table and pulled her toward him.
The air conditioner was on, but the temperature couldn’t seem to stop rising.
Sophia glanced at her slice of fruit on the table and reckoned that she wouldn’t be able to eat any more of it tonight.
