The crisp sound of wind chimes rang outside as the two of them looked each other in the eye. With her lips slightly curled upward, Heather gazed at Matthias and replied, “Alright, we’ll do as you say then.”
She didn’t want to argue any further since he was confident. After all, it seemed that he had long prepared his countermeasure.
A smiling Matthias gently nodded. “Since you have assented to it, Miss Langston, then it’s decided for the time being. I’ll make the necessary amendments and decide on it later on.”
Looking at his triumphant smile, Heather had the urge to throw a pot of tea at his face. He had insisted on ‘discussing’ the collaboration with her, but in fact, he was forcing her to agree to it.
Obviously, he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Suddenly, she recalled an evaluation of him given by someone in the industry. The person had said that Matthias was indeed a wolf inside out.
After all, business was still business. He didn’t go easy on Heather at all and it seemed that he had everything planned beforehand.
Well, she could only blame herself for lowering her guard because of his abnormal behavior these days. How could she forget that he was the CEO of Locke Group? Of course, he would prioritize his company’s interests over anything else!
Heather was utterly annoyed at this moment. After maintaining a low profile for so long, Matthias finally revealed his cards on the table and she was completely defeated this time. Every time she dealt with him, there was not once she would gain the upper hand in the situation. Without fail, he would always cause her to have her guard lowered.
Rejecting the idea of having her elated mood ruined, she could only accept the outcome for the time being. Perhaps she would be able to come up with an idea to turn the tables around within the next few days. “Since we’re done talking about business…”
Without waiting for Heather to finish with her words, Matthias interrupted, “Let’s talk about personal matters then.”
Upon hearing that, she glanced at him with a complicated smile as she asked, “What is there to talk about?” In fact, she was not in the mood to discuss personal matters with him.
“Anything. I don’t want our relationship to be affected by business matters.” He was worried that she would blame him for not showing any mercy at work this time.
“I certainly wouldn’t confuse business matters with personal affairs. As for us, I don’t think we have any relationship that’s worth mentioning.” Heather was still attacking Matthias with her words. The fact that she had lost to him on business affairs resulted in her refusal to be easy with him on personal matters.
How could a woman possibly make a clear distinction between public and private matters? Capturing a faint hint of disappointment flashing across his face, Heather could feel a pang of slight guilt in her heart. It was as if she shouldn’t have treated him like this.
“Heather, don’t you care about our feelings and relationship at all?” Matthias asked as his heart throbbed in pain. To him, when he was in love with someone, he couldn’t wait to be together with her and spend the rest of their lives together.
She tried to see through him, yet he had his walls erected so high that it prevented her from thoroughly reading his mind. Sometimes she felt that they were meant for each other, but there were times when she had the feeling that they would end up arguing a lot as a couple with no end to the ‘war’ between them.
“Why are you so eager to know the answer? Shouldn’t we let our feelings come naturally? Don’t ever ask this kind of question anymore because I don’t like the feeling of being pressured.” A helpless Heather didn’t know how many times she needed to repeat herself so that Matthias would allow their relationship to slowly progress.
She had always openly rejected him in the past, but now, she was willing to give him a chance. Yet, he was still pushing his luck further and expecting more from her.
“We should indeed let our feelings come naturally, but we should also fight for it at the right time.” Matthias had his own set of theories. He believed that he should take the initiative to fight for something that he wanted and it was all thanks to his perseverance and tireless efforts that he was able to improve his relationship with Heather.
“Have some tea.” Heather elegantly poured a cup of tea for Matthias. His dominating aura was making it difficult for her to breathe.
As much as his tone was gentle and he had a warm smile, the words that came out of his mouth sounded rather aggressive. It was like he didn’t allow her to have any space for consideration.
As soon as he gulped the tea, the taste of bitterness filled the inside of his mouth. However, his expression remained unchanged. She faintly glanced at him from the corner of her eye as she knew he didn’t like bitter tea, which was why she had ordered a pot of it.
More often than not, Heather was always coming up with ways to make things difficult for Matthias. It was as if she wanted him to experience countless obstacles before giving him the answer that he needed. As a matter of fact, she was an extremely insecure person.
After having her sense of security held tightly in her hand, she claimed that she could be self-sufficient in making herself feel secure. However, it was people like that who often felt insecure toward others. Distrust was the norm for them.
Perhaps the only way to prove that they were truly in love was through the torture that they were subjecting the other party to. Someone once sang that the presence of a problem could strengthen a couple’s relationship. What kind of extreme romance could that be?
“I understand the reason behind your stubbornness.” Matthias gave a bitter smile. Nevertheless, the weather was inappropriate for them to be sentimental. Rather, they should seize this opportunity to take a walk outside and breathe in some fresh air instead.
“We’re just friends now, okay? Just friends,” Heather assured with a solemn expression. It was already a good start that she was willing to be friends with Matthias.
To her, she still needed some time before she could allow their relationship to move to another level. Before everything was settled, she would not easily allow herself to decide on her feelings.
The conflicts between the Lockes, the Langstons, the Harts, and the Moriartys were already a pain in the neck for Heather. How could she be in the mood to have a romantic relationship when she had to take care of such a mess on a daily basis?
“Since we’re friends and we’re done talking about work, can I invite you for a walk then?” Matthias dared not expect more from her. There were not many people whom she would regard as friends. At least for now, he knew that he had a special place in her heart.
“Where do you want to go?” a clueless Heather asked. For Matthias to come up with such a suggestion, surely he had a place to go in mind.
“Should we go for a picnic?” He suggested an idea that had him feeling good about himself.
She gazed at him in confusion and asked, “How are we going to have a picnic when we don’t even have anything prepared beforehand?” At this moment, she started to feel helpless with his constant influx of ideas.
“Why do we need to prepare anything when we can get the ingredients from nature?” Matthias was getting excited. He had always wanted to do something to entertain himself as he had recently been having a frustrating time.
“Are you planning to eat raw, wild vegetables?” Heather asked sarcastically. They did not even have any cooking utensils with them. What a whimsical man!
“We can buy a camp stove with a pot and make our own hotpot.” It was the first thing that came to his mind. He was indeed living up to his name as the ‘hotpot lover.’
“What about the soup base?” She certainly had no idea how to make a hotpot base.
“We can get it from the grocery stores.” The issues that she mentioned were definitely not a problem for Matthias.
“So, are you planning to buy a camp stove and the soup base from the grocery store while looking for the remaining ingredients from the mountains?” Heather had a feeling that they were going on an adventure on the west side. A bad premonition was warning her that they were about to brave the elements for their picnic.
“Yes, there’ll be a lot of fresh, natural ingredients from the mountains and the sea. I can fish while you harvest the wild vegetables.” Matthias was high in spirits. He had never done anything like that before and it actually didn’t sound too bad.
Upon hearing his words, Heather instantly had goosebumps all over her body since there was no way she was going to touch dirty soil with her hands. After being with Matthias for a long time, it felt that her germophobia would be cured sooner or later.
“No way. I don’t like touching dirty things, especially soil that looks dark and sticky.” It was a big fat no from Heather to harvest the wild vegetables from the ground. Moreover, she didn’t think that it was a great idea at all.
“Well, I don’t mind exchanging my role with yours. You can fish while I harvest the wild vegetables then.” He had always wanted to do something extraordinary. While growing up, he never had the chance to experience such fun in his childhood and that was why he wanted to give it a try now.
With her eyes slightly narrowed, Heather suspiciously looked at him. It turned out that Matthias had such a childish side as if he was a boy who had yet to grow up.
If anyone found out that they actually do such a thing in private, they would definitely end up being on the news headlines again. She might not have done this before, but she didn’t have any intention to try it either.
“Why do we need to get our ingredients from nature? Why can’t we just bring our own ingredients?” Still, she felt that it was way more convenient to get them from the grocery store.
“We work for what we eat and that’s what makes a picnic meaningful.” Matthias continued to persuade Heather into agreeing to it. At the thought that he would be able to do this with her, his eyes gleamed with joy.
“What’s so meaningful about it?” It was obvious that she was rejecting him and his idea. Yet, he was like an idiot with an IQ of 70 at this moment. From time to time, he insisted on his attempt to persuade Heather to agree to his proposal.
“It must be extraordinarily delicious to eat the food from our own labor.” Matthias reasoned while attempting to move her with his emotions. Coming up with all kinds of methods to persuade her, he was as determined as that time when he wanted to convince her to agree to the collaboration project.
“I earn through mental labor every day and I use the money I earn to buy anything I want. That’s also what I get from my own labor,” Heather replied sternly as she disagreed with his statement.
“Stop shilly-shallying! Let’s go!” Matthias didn’t want to argue with her anymore. She was a philosopher, so there was no guarantee how long the conversation on this topic would last once she started to talk about her philosophical theories.
Without any hesitation, he pulled her to her feet. As it was not the first time he held her hand, his movements were so natural that she didn’t seem to care about it too much.
Soon, she was almost lifted from her seat as he dragged her all the way to the door. As they walked past the aisle, people were casting curious and envious gazes at them.
On the other hand, the lady boss was greeting other guests when she saw Matthias dragging Heather down the aisle. Instantly, the woman flashed an understanding smile because it seemed like the two of them had progressed rather quickly.
Heather struggled slightly as she attempted to withdraw her hand. However, her effort was futile. She was no match for Matthias in terms of strength at all. Suppressing the urge to kill him with her death glare, she pretended to be casual as she greeted the lady boss, “Miss, I’ll call it a day for now. I’ll drop by again when I have the chance to do so.”
Matthias also nodded at the lady boss as a courtesy. Contentedly, she fixed her gaze on the two of them. It had been so long since she last came across a match made in heaven.
“Next time when you come over, I’ll have the private room reserved for the both of you,” she said politely with a charming and vulpine smile.
As soon as they walked out of the shop, Heather waved his hand off with great force and warned with a gloomy expression, “Don’t touch me. And don’t hold my hand so casually either.” She strode away in irritation, hoping to leave Matthias far behind.
Yet, he caught up with her in just a few steps and argued, “There’s nothing wrong with friends holding hands, right?” Since she had claimed that they were friends, he could do anything freely under the guise of friendship from now on.
