“Oh! I understand now, I’ll get them right away.”
The assistant lowered his head and mumbled to himself. Mr. Jackson, you are such a joker. Instead of insisting it was a gift, you should’ve just called it “stolen rose tea” from Mr. Norton. I knew Mr. Norton never gifted you anything.
This assistant had been close with Xavier since their university days. When Xavier inherited Jackson Group, he invited the assistant to work by his side, so the two were also friends in private.
“Oh, dear. My lax staff management is starting to encourage negligence in my employees. How could he forget all about the gift to the point where I have to remind him myself.” Xavier coughed lightly as he embarrassingly explained his odd exchange with his assistant earlier.
“It’s okay,” Hannah said as she shook her head. She didn’t want to cause the assistant any unnecessary punishment. As an employee herself, she hated unfair treatment. Several of her team members had been sacked due to customer complaints, so she could empathize with him.
Hannah took the assistant’s side and defended, “Actually, employees go through the worst. Take us, journalists, for instance; the company requires us to forage for juicy content, but this can easily upset the interviewees and lead to complaints against us. Plus, the more serious cases can lead to lawsuits. However, if we fail to write anything interesting, we’ll get punished by our superiors. Perhaps your assistant is too overwhelmed with arranging your daily schedule, so he forgot about the tea unintentionally. It’s not entirely his fault for forgetting”.
Xavier almost snorted at this. He thought to himself, Him? Arranging my daily schedule? How’s that possible? This bugger has been indulging in feasts and drinking to his heart’s content alongside me these past few days. He’s had too much of a merry time to be bothered by any work.
For obvious reasons, Xavier couldn’t outright say these thoughts. So he pretended to brood at her words, then nodded solemnly and said, “You’re right, Ms. Young. Life has not been easy on these employees.”
Immediately after, he flashed a sly grin and asked, “It sounds like your superiors are exceedingly strict with employees. I wonder if you were forced to interview me today, Ms. Young?”
Hannah really wanted to retort and say, “Oh, you couldn’t tell?”
But she wasn’t sure whether the senior editor would allow her to continue interviewing Xavier if she did blurt out those words. Moreover, saying those words meant revealing to Xavier that it wasn’t her intention to interview him at all. I’d be too embarrassed to conduct any more future interviews with him.
“No, the senior editor didn’t force me,” Hannah lied through her lips.
Oh, Mr. Dijon. Look at the extreme lengths I have gone for the company. At this point, I’m more than deserving of the ’employee of the month’ award. Or at least a gold star or some kind of recognition.
Xavier interjected before Hannah could elaborate. He hummed suspiciously at her answer. The smile on his face widened, revealing a neat row of pearly-white teeth. Then. he chuckled and affirmed his own assumption, “So you came to interview me on your own accord, Ms. Young? I must say I’m flattered.”
What? Hannah was taken aback by what he said. Can you be any more narcissistic than you already are? She wanted to correct him, but her lips thinned into a line as she didn’t know how to go about it. How do I explain it to him? What do I tell him next?
As luck would have it, Xavier’s assistant appeared with an elaborate gift bag looped in his hand and saved Hannah from her flabbergasted state. He announced as he gasped for air, “Mr. Jackson, I’ve brought the tea.”
Xavier’s sharp gaze snapped at his assistant. How convenient! Of all the times for you to show up, you chose to appear while I’m in the middle of picking up this woman. I’m starting to wonder if you did this on purpose.
Yet, Xavier only glared at his assistant without saying a word. What a blo*dy timing! He reached for the bag in his assistant’s hand and passed it over to Hannah. “Ms. Young, my apologies for making you wait. This is the rose tea from my friend, that I was telling you about. Here, sample it and let me know if it’s to your liking. If it is, I can ask my friend for more right away.”
Hannah’s hands twitched uncomfortably as she took the bag of tea from Xavier. She felt odd at the unexpected gift as she was only doing her job to interview him.
“Thank you for your kind gift, Mr. Jackson.”
“Come on, Ms. Young. I predict that there’ll be more future interviews to help increase our company’s exposure and whatnot. Given how professional and efficient you are, I may turn to you for assistance frequently, so please accept this token of my appreciation in advance. Besides, it’s a great honor to be friends with such a fine woman like you.”
