Chapter 273 A Portrait of Elliot
“Is there anything else that you think needs some changes?” Anastasia asked.
“Nope. This draft will do. Send it to Felicia right away and have it made.” Elliot put down the draft and noticed a pile of other draft papers. “What else are you working on?”
“Um… N-Nothing,” she stuttered as she walked toward the window to open it and leave it ajar upon finishing her words. After all, she wanted to experience the chilly breeze grazing across her cheeks, but when she did that, she was greeted by a strong rush of wind that flew into the room. For that, the papers on her desk were scattered all over the place, except the one that was pinned down earlier.
“Ah!” Anastasia was overwhelmed by her panic and came over to pin the paper down, but the gust of wind carried the papers along with it and left them scattered all over the ground, which amused Elliot.
At that moment, he suddenly recognized that one of them was not a blank piece of paper that happened to billow in front of him, so he extended his arm to catch it. Meanwhile, she bent over to pick up the papers, desperately looking for the one that she didn’t want Elliot to see, but when she looked up once again, the paper she had been searching for was already in Elliot’s hand.
“No, you can’t see it! Give it back to me!” Anastasia charged at the man to snatch the paper away, but Elliot had raised his hand up high with the drawing in it to keep the paper out of her reach. Although he hadn’t been able to see what she drew, the lady’s desperation only made him even more curious to find out who she had just drawn.
In the meantime, Anastasia made a few futile attempts by jumping to reach her drawing, but to no avail. Soon, when Elliot looked up and set his eyes on the portrait, he finally understood why she wanted to snatch the paper from him because the person she was secretly drawing was—him.
Then, he passed the paper back to her. “You can have it back.”
“Don’t read too much into it. I-I was just being bored.” Anastasia held the draft paper in her hand, her cheeks blushing bashfully.
The man curled his lips upward happily. “Yeah, I’m aware of that. You think about me when you get bored.”
“No, that’s not true. I was just… practicing my drawing skills, and since you are handsome, your face makes a perfect choice for portraying. That’s how simple it is.” Anastasia was tongue-tied and stuttered as she spoke.
“Are you saying I look handsome to you?” Elliot folded his arms and leaned closer to the lady with his face to flaunt his good looks to her.
In the meantime, Anastasia agreed with the man because his handsome looks were not a secret at all.
“Nigel is handsome too, but why didn’t you draw him?” he asked with a smile, trying to make her admit he was important to her.
Since she was unable to talk her way out, she decided to admit it and said, “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. I like drawing you. If you like it so much, you can have it.”
“I like it a lot, so I guess I’m going to keep it then! In fact, I’m going to hang it on the wall in my room.” Elliot finished his words and took the paper from her hands. “I’m going to keep it nicely as a token of appreciation for your… good faith.”
Anastasia was rendered speechless upon hearing his request. After all, she was annoyed by the man’s narcissism, even though she had already made it clear that she only drew him out of a whim.
“I’m going to check on Jared now.” Feeling too embarrassed to stay with Elliot, Anastasia quickly pushed the door open and walked away. However, what she didn’t know was that the man’s eyes were still glued to the portrait at her desk for what seemed like an eternity with a pair of tender eyes on his face.
Since the next day was Saturday, Anastasia finished her dinner and supervised her son, who was doing his homework. At the same time, she couldn’t help but wonder where she could rent her nightgown for the event tomorrow because most of her attire was casual and formal wear, which was why she didn’t seem to have anything suitable to wear for the occasion. Also, she didn’t ask her father whether Naomi would be attending that event with her daughter because she reckoned that was Francis’ business.
Later that night, Elliot took over Anastasia’s job and put Jared to sleep on her behalf by playing Rubik’s Cube with him to tire him out. On the other hand, Anastasia was in her room, reading the text messages on her phone to kill time until she went to bed.
Despite the vast range of short videos that were available to watch on the internet, she couldn’t help but feel empty on the inside. After all, she was occupied by her work and accompanied by her son during the day, but when the sun went down, she began to feel lonely.
