Chapter 94 A Collusion
Nicole only went back to her seat after Joanna left. Looking at the draft in her hand, she suddenly lost the mood to continue.
Although Joanna did not adopt an aggressive approach, given today’s situation, Nicole reckoned her coming days in Gardner Corporation would be rather nasty.
She casually took a pen and placed it between her fingers to start spinning it. If she had known that there would be so many troubles in Gardner Corporation, she would not have come at the start. However, she was now already stuck in the midst of all the vexations.
Nicole spent the entire afternoon in her office. Due to Joanna’s return, the entire Design Department became much livelier and Nicole could even hear the noises from the outside as she sat in her office.
Soon, it was time to get off work. Nicole was not in a mood to work overtime, so she packed her stuff and was ready to leave.
Just as she was going to walk out from the office, a gentle voice emerged.
“Ms. Lisa.”
Nicole paused and turned to see Joanna standing at the entrance with a bright smile on her face. Joanna appeared to be quite enthusiastic as if the episode this morning had not happened.
She nodded at Joanna and did not strike an attitude. “Hey, Director Schmidt,” she acknowledged with a smile.
Joanna walked up to her steadily and stopped in front of her. “Ms. Lisa, thanks for leading our department during this time while I was away. The colleagues insisted on throwing a welcome dinner for me since I’ve returned. Please join us if you can.”
Nicole stared at Joanna for quite a while as she had no idea what the woman was up to. “I’d love to, but I have some family matters to attend to today, so I’m not available.”
Nicole came up with a random excuse. She did not go along with Joanna this morning in the office. As such, she did not know if Joanna would stir up more trouble, should she accept the invitation to the dinner.
The smile on Joanna’s face did not fade away when she perceived Nicole’s rejection. Instead, she lowered her head and drawled with downcast eyes, “I totally understand. After all, you’re occupied with myriad affairs as the Chief Designer of F&M Apparel, so of course you won’t have time to eat with people like us…”
Nicole was rendered speechless.
Now that Joanna had phrased it this way, if she continued insisting not to attend the dinner, she might offend all the staff in the Design Department.
Nicole exhaled slowly. At the thought of how Colton had done her a big favor, she knew she shouldn’t screw things up at the critical moment, so she bore with it.
“Not at all. I guess the dinner will happen at night. The timing would be just nice if that’s the case. I’ll drop by after finishing with my stuff.”
Joanna smiled upon Nicole’s agreement. “Sure. I’ll text you the location and time by then.”
“Thanks, Director Schmidt.” Nicole nodded and hummed before turning around to leave.
She had to admit that Joanna was a very sophisticated person, especially in front of others.
Nonetheless, Nicole thought it was just a welcome dinner and there would be many other staff around, so Joanna was unlikely to cause problems for her.
After Nicole had left, Joanna walked out of the office and went to the ground floor of the company. There, a woman dressed in bright-colored outfits walked toward Joanna—it was Queenie.
“Hi Director Schmidt, it has been a while,” Queenie wore a smile and said in a fawning manner.
There was not much expression on Joanna’s face as she cast a side glance at the man beside Queenie, who had an average, honest look.
With her eyes flickering, she asked, “This is…”
“Please allow me to introduce Mr. Henry Cooper. He’s a staff of Gardner Corporation too,” Queenie said.
Narrowing her eyes, Joanna gazed at Queenie in confusion as she couldn’t understand what Queenie’s intention was.
Queenie walked up and lowered her voice. “Director Schmidt, Mr. Cooper is Nicole’s ex-boyfriend.”
There was still not much change in Joanna’s expression. Instead, she smiled and questioned in return, “And what does this have to do with me?”
“Director Schmidt, if there’s nothing to do with you, you wouldn’t come down when I asked you, would you?” Queenie smiled and continued in a low voice.
“Nicole chased Sabrina away from Gardner Corporation the moment she came. Everyone in the company knows Sabriana is close with you. Moreover, she was fired because she put in a word for you. Isn’t this as good as humiliating you?”
Joanna’s face darkened when she heard Queenie’s words. The original reason why she went to see Nicole today was to negotiate for Sabrina’s return, but Nicole refused to let go of the incident.
“What’s your intention then?” Joanna stared at Queenie and asked. In fact, she had roughly heard about the affairs of the Anderson Family and knew the two sisters were not on good terms.
