This counts as sexual harassment, right?
Clarissa flinched and tried to create some distance with the man, but a short while later, Matthew moved closer to her surreptitiously before rubbing himself against her nonchalantly.
Ding!
The elevator stopped, signaling Clarissa’s escape. Promptly, she hopped out of the elevator without acknowledging anyone.
What she did was definitely not a model employee behavior.
Not only did she not greet Mr. Tyson when she came into the elevator, but she also slipped away like she had seen a ghost when she left, the few managers thought to themselves as they observed the woman’s action.
But… What is Mr. Tyson trying to do just now?
Gotta admit though, that girl looked quite pretty!
Clarissa could not be bothered by what other people thought of her. When she rushed back to the office, she still looked dazed and petrified.
“What’s wrong, Clarissa? Were you chased by a ghost?”
Amanda leaned against Clarissa’s desk with a coffee mug in her hand with a gleeful expression on her face.
Clarissa smirked. “It was something scarier than a ghost. I was in the elevator together with Mr. Tyson. Talk about terrifying!”
“What? Mr. Tyson?”
Everyone’s ears perked up when they heard Clarissa’s words.
She then remarked out loud deliberately, “Yeah, it was such a coincidence. If it wasn’t for Ms. Amanda who asked me to send in the document, I would not have been so lucky. Who would have thought that I’d be able to meet Mr. Tyson himself just a few days working in this company? Ms. Amanda, I should really thank you!”
Amanda’s face fell a little with jealousy.
However, she suddenly laughed before saying, “Wow, you are really lucky, Clarissa. However, doesn’t Mr. Tyson normally use his private elevator? How could you have run into him like that?”
“I don’t know. Apart from him, there was a group of senior management in there as well. It seemed like they were headed for a meeting. Ms. Amanda, if you want to meet Mr. Tyson as well, you should go and try your luck. Who knows, you could just run into him too.”
Amanda sneered, “I’m not interested at all.”
With that, she sashayed away from Clarissa’s desk.
However, a short while later, a certain someone could be seen leaving the office with a document in hand.
Because of Clarissa’s words, the colleagues who wanted to try their luck all went in and out, practically exhausting the elevator.
Clarissa was laughing silently to herself.
In the end, nobody saw Mr. Tyson again. Unwittingly, they turned to Clarissa with disappointment in their eyes,
Before they finished work for the day, Joyce suddenly announced a dinner gathering for the office.
Clarissa thought it would not involve her. But she was dragged by Amanda to the gathering too.
She thought that this was a good way to get to know her colleagues, so she did not reject the offer. She was quite curious to see how her colleagues interacted with one another after work.
She followed Amanda and got into another colleague’s car, heading toward the place where they decided to have their dinner gathering.
“Clarissa just joined us, so this can be considered a belated welcome party. Well, Clarissa, welcome to our team!”
Joyce led the celebration and everyone echoed their welcomes. Clarissa felt quite moved by the atmosphere.
However, her touching moment ended after what happened next.
Amanda smiled. “Clarissa, you should show some response to all of us seniors welcoming you to our team, right?”
Clarissa took another bite of her food. “What kind of response?”
“Come on, you are not making your senior colleagues pay for this meal, are you? If so, you are severely mistaken. Let me tell you, we have all experienced this. You should treat us to this meal to show us your generosity. This will help strengthen our relationships, and people won’t think of you as a stingy person, understand?”
Clarissa thought for a while and replied, “I see.”
Amanda smiled and suddenly stood up before announcing, “Hello my dearest colleagues, Clarissa says that she is buying our dinner tonight. So, just order whatever you want. Look at our Clarissa, isn’t she pretty and generous at the same time?”
While a few of them cheered out loud, Joyce and the rest glanced at Clarissa silently.
Clarissa smiled awkwardly while Amanda and a few other colleagues went all out with their orders.
“Ooh, lobsters are good. We can all have one each, and it’d be quite enough. Haha… Clarissa, the lobsters here are amazing, and it would be a complete waste to not have them while we are here. Waiter, one lobster for each of us please…”
Just when Clarissa was still rather taken aback, Joyce spoke up, “Amanda, I think you’ve crossed the line!”
Amanda smiled awkwardly and replied, “Don’t worry Ms. Joyce, Clarissa will be having some too.”
She nudged Clarissa, but Clarissa remained silent. Even though she did not know how big the lobsters were, their expressions told her that they were definitely not cheap.
Although she had the capability to pay for it, it doesn’t mean that she would allow people like Amanda to bully her into spending this money.
“Alright, let’s not order the lobster. We will add on other dishes later if we really need to.”
Since Joyce had spoken up, the rest did not say anything else. Clarissa heaved a sigh of relief.
When it was time to pay the bill, she took the opportunity to ask about the price of the lobsters. When she heard it, she had the urge to strangle Amanda.
Just as she was gritting her teeth, her phone rang. It was another video call.
Clarissa hung up. Her heart thumped when she saw the time.
Oh no!
I forgot to cook dinner for Matthew.
I forgot that he’s back today.
Her phone rang once again. However, it wasn’t a video call this time. Trembling, she slid her finger across the screen and placed her phone by her ear.
Silence greeted her.
“Um… Hello?” Clarissa spoke cautiously.
Despite her wildly beating heart, she controlled her breathing for fear of panting out loud.
There was still silence on the other end.
I can’t with this kind of mind games…
She stammered, “I’m s-sorry, I-I w-was at fault. I forgot that you were coming back today, and I really know that I am in the wrong. Can I make it up to you, please?”
“Forgot? Or did you do this deliberately?”
“No, I really didn’t do it on purpose. We had a colleagues’ gathering tonight, and they dragged me along. I really forgot. We just finished, and I’m on my way back now.”
“What do you mean you’re going back?”
Suddenly, a cheery voice piped up behind Clarissa, “Clarissa, don’t hurry home yet. We still have somewhere else to go to.”
Amanda walked up to her and deliberately spoke to her phone loudly, “Oh, our Clarissa is young and beautiful, and she has loads of suitors. How could she pass up on some exciting nightlife? Hey, whoever you are, Clarissa won’t be coming home tonight!”
She could not care less about the person on the other end of the line and smiled at Clarissa. “I’m looking out for you here. If Kenny looks for you later, you can just spend some time alone with him and ignore us. Don’t waste this perfect opportunity!”
Clarissa had not hung up. By now, her face had darkened and she stared at Amanda coldly.
Amanda asked her uneasily, “Why are you looking at me like this?”
“Amanda, this is none of your business. Did I need you to make this kind of decision for me? Who do you think you are?”
With that, she told the man on the other end of the line, “I’m heading back right now.”
She then turned and left.
In response, Amanda’s face turned grim before she sniggered coldly.
Clarissa returned to the private room, bade farewell to her colleagues, and left first.
No matter what other people said, the most important thing for her now was to go back now to appease Matthew.
She had a feeling that this would be harder to deal with than office politics.
The living room lit up when Clarissa walked into the house. Mrs. Lawson ran up to her and whispered to her discreetly, “Sir has not eaten up till now, and he is in a foul mood. Miss, you’d better be careful.”
Clarissa sighed silently. Did he do it on purpose? I bet he did it on purpose…
She walked in with a huge smile plastered on her tiny face and headed straight to the sofa to look at the man who was busy with his laptop.
She chuckled lightly before saying, “ I heard Mrs. Lawson said that you haven’t had dinner? It’s so late. Why don’t I make you a light sandwich?”
Matthew did not even look up at her. All Clarissa could see was his frosty side profile which looked rather terrifying.
As her smile became awkward, she immediately headed to the kitchen to make the sandwich. She then added a salad before deciding to hide in the kitchen instead of going out.
She only brought everything out when all the food was ready.
“Erm… Uncle Matthew? Let’s have dinner, shall we?”
There was no reaction at all.
Clarissa had no choice but to walk out of the dining room and to the living room. She then stood next to the sofa.
With his laptop next to him, Matthew sat with his slender legs crossed. As he stared into nothingness with his deep dark eyes and a cigarette between his fingers, his thoughts remained unreadable to the bystander.
The atmosphere was so cold and frosty, Clarissa felt like she was about to freeze.
“Come on, let’s eat a little. You won’t feel well if you don’t eat dinner. Mrs. Lawson says that you have a weak digestive system, so you definitely should not go hungry. Being angry does not help either.”
Matthew took a deep puff of his cigarette before he finally looked at Clarissa. He then blew out rings of smoke which gradually dissipated between the two of them.
His eyes were so dark that Clarissa did not dare to meet them with her flickering eyes.
“Even if you are angry at me, you can’t joke around with your health. It’s really not worth it!”
Finally, Matthew responded frostily, “What would be worth it, then?”
“You should have a good meal, and stop wasting energy by getting angry at unimportant people like me. The more gracious you are, the healthier you will be. Don’t you think so?” Matthew snorted.
Suddenly, with his cigarette hanging off the corner of his lips, he reached out to pull Clarissa. She lost her balance and fell. With her abdomen over his lap, she looked like a child that was about to be spanked. It felt absolutely humiliating.
With his cigarette in one hand, Matthew used his other hand to press down on Clarissa’s waist so that she could not get up.
“Do you want to relieve my anger?”
Clarissa whimpered as she struggled to turn her head around, “No violence, please!”
Matthew chuckled and put out his cigarette. He looked up and declared, “I’m never violent toward women.”
“Then let me get up. This is really…” so humiliating!
She was just about to spring up when Matthew overpowered her once again.
At the same time, his hand moved and wandered around her sensitive areas. There was no way he wasn’t doing this on purpose.
“So, do you know what you have done wrong?”
