Sunlight poured into the room, casting long shadows that overlapped one another on the floor. The three of them were quiet for a moment and the atmosphere was a little awkward.
“Let’s find a place to sit,” Heather said to Paige next to her, ignoring Leon.
After choosing a spot next to the window, she directly went to take a seat while Paige followed her from behind. Leon fiddled with his hair and the corner of his lips curved upward into a resigned smile before he quickly went after them.
As Paige sat down next to Heather, Leon took a seat opposite them. For the whole time, his eyes were intermittently glancing at Paige. Heather took in his behaviors and met his gaze in the course, so she was pretty clear of his intention.
He had always been interested in beautiful women, especially mature ones. Paige carried the temperament of a mature lady from her head to toe, but what was more uncommon was the sense of abstinence on her.
Naturally, a playboy like him could not resist the charm of a mature yet chaste woman.
“Introduce yourselves.” Heather prompted in a formal tone. Not only was she not against workplace romance, but she also thought it might be good for Leon to fall in love with Paige.
On the other hand, Paige particularly disliked Leon’s frivolous bearing. She cast a look at him and impassively said, “Nice to meet you. I’m Paige.” She was reluctant to even hold out her hand to shake his.
Courtesy was meant for those who deserved to be respected, and that did not include Leon. Paige’s impression of him was awful, especially when he kept staring at her with a greasy gaze, which made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
A small smile formed on Leon’s face. He looked mesmerizing and beguiling when he smiled, but Paige was not attracted to him.
“I’m Leon. Nice to meet you too.” He winked at her, trying hard to make her fall head over heels for him.
Great, Heather thought, Paige’s impression of him must have hit rock bottom now. While watching their interactions from the sideline, she noticed that Leon seemed to have hit a hurdle. Even with his heavenly handsome face, it could not guarantee him smooth sailing when it came to picking up girls.
However, the colder Paige treated Leon, the more motivated he was to win her heart. The challenging situation evoked his desire to conquer her. To him, women were always at hand, and he loved those who were hard to get.
Not only did he not learn his lesson from the failed attempt to charm Heather, but it instead intensified his urge to flirt with other women who were uninterested in him. Nevertheless, there were very few who were able to resist his charm, and it was rare to encounter them. Now, he had finally met Paige, who was similar to Heather.
Therefore, Leon definitely would not miss this opportunity. Still, he had to make clear one thing, and that was whether Paige had a boyfriend. Heather had only mentioned that Paige was unmarried, but she did not tell him if she was still single.
He wanted to know more about Paige, and although he was able to investigate her background using the computer, it would be more direct to hear it from Heather.
After a while, three cups of civet coffee were served by the young waitress that Leon had flirted with earlier. She was a girl in her teenage years, and her face was flushed red from shyness.
Seeing Leon wink at the waitress, Paige felt disgusted at him. She found this sort of behavior childish and irresponsible. However, the young waitress was mesmerized by Leon’s flirtatious acts. If Heather had not darted her a sharp gaze, she probably would have been reluctant to leave.
The timid girl cast a glance at Heather before hastily leaving. Then, Heather darted a warning look at Leon, whose playful smile remained, unfazed by her warning. Meanwhile, Paige tried to not look at him as the very sight of him annoyed her.
Two years ago, Paige had a relationship that she would never forget—she had encountered a playboy. She initially thought that she would spend the rest of her life with him, but it turned out that the man had merely been fooling around with her.
Throughout their relationship, he had been caring to her; he treated her with extreme gentleness and would always say sweet nothings to her. However, she later realized that it was exactly how he had treated every woman he met, with the same tactics and means.
Just as she had genuinely wanted to marry him, she found out about his true colors from someone else. As the saying went, once bitten, twice shy. Ever since the incident, Paige had been devoting herself to work and never fantasized about romance.
Now, looking at Leon reminded her of the man; he even had the same flirtatious gaze as the latter. When one succumbed to love, one might mistake the flirtatious gaze as admiration to oneself. It was only after one had come to their senses did one know that he or she was merely a prey who had been played.
As seconds went by, Leon’s interest in Paige grew, but it was the opposite for her feelings toward him, especially when she noticed the trace of lust in his gaze as he looked at her.
After all, Heather had introduced Leon as her junior in university as well as her friend.
So why is he looking at his friend’s friend like that? Paige felt disdainful as she thought. He is just the same as my ex-fiancée. Both of them are sc*mbags.
Meanwhile, Heather gracefully took a sip from the cup of coffee in her hand. Unlike her, Leon disliked doing things slowly. He preferred gulping the coffee because to him, coffee was merely a drink to keep him awake.
The way Paige drank her coffee was different from Heather’s as well. While the latter usually seemed as if she was conducting a coffee-tasting session, Paige drank like any other ordinary person.
Upon seeing the way Heather drank, Leon wore a smug look on his face. “Heather, you possess the temperament of a noblewoman no matter what you do.” Leon had always loved to make fun of people—the more he liked a person, the more he made fun of them. Judging from the wide grin on his face, Heather could more or less guess that he was not complimenting her. After all, he usually praised the person before saying anything harsh.
“Shut up,” Heather replied rudely.
Hearing this, Paige looked at the two of them with a puzzled look on her face. This is probably how they interact. Therefore, she remained silent as it would be safer to watch quietly from the sideline to prevent getting involved in anything.
“Heather, I was complimenting you. Why are you so fierce to me?” Leon grumbled in aggrievement. However, Paige found his attention-seeking behavior unacceptable, especially when it came from a man because her ex-fiancée had used to do the same, just more extreme.
Why would a grown man like him try to make people feel sorry for him? Is he trying to compete with a woman to find out who is more sentimental between them? With such thoughts in mind, she inwardly gave him a negative score.
Nonetheless, she had some reservations about his working ability. After all, he must be a professional in his industry to be able to be recruited by Heather. No matter what kind of character he had, she still hoped that he would be mature and responsible in his work; hence, she suppressed her disapproval toward him for the moment.
“Nothing good ever comes out from your mouth. You can tell me straight if you want to criticize me. Don’t play any tricks,” Heather snarled. Paige, who witnessed Leon being told off, felt a little happy as seeing Leon being scolded actually eased her discontentment.
“Heather, I can’t believe that you view me in such an awful manner. I complimented you from the bottom of my heart, yet you treated me so cruelly.” Leon continued to act pitiful; his pair of large bottomless eyes could even melt the heart of the observers.
Then, he took the opportunity to approach Heather but was pushed away by the latter. “Drop the act. We are here to talk about some serious matters.” She did not want to continue to watch him fooling around, and at the same time, she did not want Paige to see her fierce side.
“Okay, I understand. The reason you asked me out is to discuss the start-up of the business, right?” Leon casually replied. He seemed nonchalant, as if he did not treat this important matter seriously.
“What are your thoughts? We can briefly discuss it today.” At this topic, Heather’s attitude became stern as she pushed the cup of coffee to one side. The way she slightly narrowed her eyes was stunning.
Her eyelashes were prominent and her complexion was flawless under the sunlight that cast on her face. Leon could not take his eyes off her gorgeous face, and Paige took notice of the hint of inconspicuous fervent emotions in his gaze.
However, it lasted for barely an instant. When Paige looked into his eyes again, all she could see was a smug look. It stunned her for a moment and made her think that she might have seen things. Nevertheless, Leon falling in love with Heather wasn’t something surprising.
“Pick an auspicious day to start the business. It’s that simple. We will play according to the rules and take it one step at a time. We are just starting a company. Relax and have fun.” Leon had always been skittish, but the word ‘have fun’ stung Paige’s heart and caused her to glare at him in anger.
When he realized that her fierce glare was directed at him, it was too late for him to regret his words. Then, she uttered in dissatisfaction, “We are not starting a company for fun, so I hope you can take this seriously. The three of us gathered here today to make plans about our business, and we are going to start from scratch. This is an important moment in our lives. If we have this sort of carefree mindset, how are we going to face all the future challenges?”
Listening to Paige, Heather became more engrossed in watching the commotion and gloated over Leon’s position. He’s in deep trouble now! He actually rubbed the nice-tempered Paige the wrong way and infuriated her. Thinking of this, she was somehow secretly excited about the turns of events. Although she knew that Leon was extremely serious about their new business set-up, she had no intention to explain to Paige on his behalf. Instead, she wished that Paige would be able to teach him a lesson for speaking without thinking.
When Paige started questioning Leon without warning, the atmosphere suddenly became so serious that he felt awkward. It seems like Paige can’t take jokes.
Pleadingly, he darted a glance at Heather, hoping that the latter would stand up for him and explain the situation. However, she only gave him a you-are-on-your-own glance in return.
“Please don’t misunderstand me.” Since Heather had no plans in helping him, he had no choice but to clear the misunderstandings himself. “Have you heard of Chairman Mao’s famous quote? It is said that ‘all enemies are paper tigers’. Our strategies should be built on the foundation of our contempt toward the enemies, but our tactics should be devised by starting from taking them seriously. What I’m trying to say is that we should have a carefree mindset when working. A happy job makes a healthy life.”
Leon was not sure if Paige accepted his explanation, but from the surface, her anger seemed to ease a little. Her gaze somehow made him feel guilty and reminded him of his homeroom teacher when he was in third grade, who had dominated his nightmare as a child. He intended to ask Heather in private if Paige had been a teacher before this because her intimidating presence was comparable to that of a stern homeroom teacher.
Heather took another sip of coffee, concealing her smirk with the cup. I can foresee that things will become interesting between them. They seem to make quite a good match.
“Paige, do you have any suggestions?” Heather thought that it was time for her to say something, else Paige and Leon would continue to stare at each other awkwardly.
“November is just around the corner. Why don’t we set the grand opening on the first day of the month? I’ve checked and it turns out that it’s an auspicious day.” Paige had long been waiting for this day to come. Ever since Heather mentioned finding a day to officially start their business, she had been keeping it in mind. After conducting some research, she thought that 1st November was a good day.
“I don’t really mind the date. The arrangement of marketing activities on that day is more important. Don’t you think that you guys should be a little more specific and practical in your proposals?” Heather said helplessly. Not only was Leon being unhelpful, but even Paige’s suggestion was not on point.
