Chapter 219 More flirtatious
Darla smiled. “It’s only a little over a thousand dollars. I’ll lend it to you!”
With that, she pulled out her black card and handed it to the cashier. “Charge it to my card!”
When Alana saw Darla’s black card, she suddenly remembered that Stephan had given her one too.
However, she was afraid of losing it, so she hadn’t brought it with her.
The cashier, seeing the black card Darla handed over, instinctively reached out to take it.
Alana quickly stopped her, then said to Darla, “Thanks for the offer, but it’s not necessary.”
Darla smiled, amused by Alana’s overreaction.
“It’s only a thousand dollars, not a huge amount. What’s the matter? Are you afraid you can’t pay me back? If you can’t pay it back, just forget it. Consider it a gift for making you my friend.”
Darla had spotted Alana a while ago, but hadn’t called out to her.
Having seen Alana a few times before, always dressed smartly and with a certain
poise, Darla had assumed she was from a wealthy family.
She never expected that Alana wouldn’t even be able to come up with a thousand dollars.
That meant she was wrong the other time. She definitely wasn’t Stephan’s girlfriend.
Seeing her standing alone at the cash register, flustered and at a loss because she couldn’t pay, she looked a bit pitiful, so Darla kindly stepped in to help.
Alana didn’t want to owe Darla a favor, so she politely declined, “Really, it’s okay. I’ll just call my boyfriend and ask him to help.”
Her kindness met with a cold shoulder, so Darla didn’t press the issue and put her bank card away.
“Alright then.”
Alana gave a polite smile, apologized to the cashier, then picked up her phone and turned to call Stephan.
It wasn’t even eight o’clock yet, so Stephan was still out at a business dinner.
At such gatherings, it was inevitable that he’d have a few drinks.
However, Stephan kept Alana’s advice in mind and drank sparingly.
As for the majority of the alcohol, it all ended up in the mouth of his assistant, Vance. Vance found the alcohol bitter, but his heart was even more so...yet he simply
couldn’t bring himself to say anything.
Several of the business partners had wives at home, and not long after the gathering began, one after another, they started calling or sending messages asking when their husbands would be back.
“Mr. Hudson, I’m sorry, but my wife is quite clingy. She needs me to eat with her and needs me to tuck her in at night. Since I’m out this late, she’s worried and fears I might be flirting with other women.”
“My wife’s the same. She’s constantly texting and calling, she’s love to check up on me 24/7!”
“Mine’s the same!”
“Just listen to this...what a miserable life we live, day in and day out!”
Stephan listened as the executives complained about their clingy wives, his face expressionless.
He seemed unfazed, but inside, he felt a pang of bitterness.
Were these old guys complaining or bragging when they talked about this in front of him? In any case, it made him feel uneasy. Even though their business was nearly wrapped up, he didn’t want to let a single one of them leave.
It was not like he had a woman texting him 24/7....unlike them. Hmph!
Vance glanced at his CEO’s expression and inwardly gasped.
Usually, it was the CEO who flaunted his romance in front of him...now that someone else was doing it, he was feeling a bit sour, wasn’t he?
Vance held back a laugh, finally, his boss getting a taste of what it was like for a single guy to be force-fed dog food! One of the other executives also noticed that Stephan was acting strange.
Seeing his face as dark as a piece of charcoal, and not knowing which remark had rubbed him the wrong way, he quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
“Oh, come on, let’s not go there. President Hudson is still single...he doesn’t understand the struggles of us married men, so let’s not show off... or rather, let’s not complain!”
“Mr. Hudson must be so happy being single!”
“Exactly! Unlike us, who have to spend our social events trying to appease that tigress at home...it’s such a drag!”
Stephan took a leisurely sip of red wine, a subtle smile playing on his lips. “I’ve already announced it to my buddies, but I forgot to tell you all. I have a girlfriend now...I’m not
single.”
The other executives were all taken aback. “What? Mr. Hudson has a girlfriend?”
“I never would have guessed that President Hudson, who’s been single forever, would finally find a girlfriend!”
“Just who is the beauty who caught Mr. Hudson’s eye?”
“Yeah, back in the day, I set up so many women for Mr. Hudson to try to curry his favor, but not a single one managed to win his attention. I even thought he was gay...I was ready to set him up with men!” President Marco opened his big mouth, revealing a mouthful of gold teeth, and
accidentally let the truth slip.
Stephan shot a glance at him, his gaze turning a shade colder.
Marco’s heart sank instantly as he realized he’d said the wrong thing, and he quickly shut his mouth full of gold teeth.
He even slapped his own face hard.
“Ahem, ahem, my apologies. I was just joking...I certainly didn’t mean it!”
Stephan remained expressionless. “Whether it’s true or not, don’t pull that kind of stunt on me in the future. After all, I’m a man with a girlfriend, I cannot hurt her.”
Marco wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. “Yes, yes, yes!”
He never would have imagined that a man like Stephan standing at the very top of the pyramid, with the power to make the world go his way, could actually be kept in check by his girlfriend?
That was truly eye-opening.
Seeing that things were taking a turn for the worse, the other executives quickly changed the subject.
Suddenly, Stephan’s phone in his pocket rang.
He pulled it out and saw it was Alana calling; the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
He raised an eyebrow, casting a somewhat triumphant glance at the executives.
“Sorry, my girlfriend is also clingy, she wants my attention all the time so she’s calling to check in. I’ll take the call.”
Paying no heed to the executives’ reactions, Stephan answered the call.
His expression, which had been stern just moments ago, instantly softened into one of tenderness and affection. His voice was deep, magnetic, and alluring. “Sweetheart, what’s up? Why are you calling me? Are you missing me too much?”
That deep, magnetic voice sent shivers down the spines of the executives, giving them goosebumps all over.
Where was the Almighty Stephan Hudson’s aloof persona?
Alana, who was in the supermarket, also felt a tingling sensation in her ears from the man’s deep, seductive voice.
Her cheeks flushed involuntarily.
Seriously, this guy, wasn’t he supposed to be on a business dinner?
Why was he still being so unprofessional?
But then she realized he must have stepped outside to take the call, with no one around which was why he dared to be so bold.
Since he’d asked, she couldn’t very well say she didn’t miss him, after all, she’d
need to ask him for money to pay the bill later...so she bit her lip and said, “Yeah, I missed you.”
Stephan deliberately put the call on speakerphone so the girl’s soft, sweet voice carried right into the ears of everyone in the private room.
This sudden dose of romance caught the executives completely off guard.
Vance remained relatively calm, after all, this wasn’t the first time he’d been subjected to it.
Stephan glanced at the embarrassed expressions on the executives’ faces and let the corners of his mouth turn up slightly.
“How much did you miss me, hmm?”
Alana blinked.
This man was getting way too bold.
It wasn’t enough for him that she said she had missed him, he had to ask just how much she missed him.
Alana’s face flushed, the heat spreading from her cheeks all the way to the back of her neck.
“I miss you. I miss you so, so much. Out of ten points, nine are spent thinking about you.”
Stephan raised an eyebrow, his tone light and playful. “What about the remaining one percent?”
Alana bit her full, rosy lips. “I’m taking that last one second to think about it, I’m afraid you’ll get too full of yourself.”
Stephan couldn’t help but let the corners of his mouth turn up again.
He spoke gently, “I miss you too. Every minute, every second, I’m thinking of you...I want to be with you every moment.”
The onlookers were getting even more tensed.
Wait, were they just part of this couple’s little game?
The couple really didn’t care about them at all.
Alana couldn’t help but rub her face, which was growing hotter by the second.
Why did he seem to be getting more and more flirtatious?