Chapter 85: Repeated Confirmation
That afternoon.
When Vivian Lowell woke up from her nap, the sunlight from the floor-to-ceiling windows behind her was streaming right into her office.
The warm rays of sunlight fell on her. Feeling incredibly comfortable, Vivian closed her eyes to enjoy the gentle spring light. It was as if she could even smell the fragrance of flowers!
Fragrance of flowers?
Vivian paused. She seemed to have actually smelled flowers!
Just as she was thinking this, the receptionist called to say that the lady who had visited that morning had returned, bringing a few others with her. She said they were here to report for work.
As soon as the receptionist finished speaking, Vivian saw Leo on the security monitor by the door.
"Let them in," Vivian said.
When Leo walked in, she was carrying a large bouquet of pink roses.
Pink roses carried a beautiful meaning. Sending them to Vivian, Leo wanted her to be strong and to thrive. She hoped the fragrance would remind Vivian that the things the Lowell family had done to her couldn’t cause her any real harm.
Vivian would always be the best Vivian in the world.
Receiving the flowers, she was deeply moved.
Speaking of which, in her previous life, when Shelly Lowell joined the company and Vivian was taking care of her in every way possible, Leo had actually approached Vivian about it. Leo had warned her that Shelly was very skilled at winning people over, and though everyone in the company thought highly of Shelly, Leo felt she was nothing but a manipulative hypocrite.
She had warned Vivian to be careful and not to give her whole heart to Shelly, otherwise she would likely be used.
At that time, Vivian had been blinded by "family ties" and naturally hadn’t listened to Leo’s words, brushing them off completely.
As it turned out... Leo was a great judge of character. Shelly was indeed a two-faced manipulator, and she had definitely used Vivian.
"Why are you crying?"
Leo had only bought the flowers to cheer Vivian up, never expecting them to make her cry. She hurriedly pulled some tissues from her small bag to wipe Vivian’s tears. "It’s all my fault. I just wanted to make you happy. Why are you crying?"
"It’s nothing!" Vivian suddenly hugged Leo. "I just feel like you’ve been so good to me, following me here! And you even brought me flowers. I’m just crying tears of joy!"
"You silly girl!" Leo smiled and patted Vivian’s back like a tomboy.
Just then, the receptionist nearby suddenly stood up. Facing Julian Faulkner, who was walking over from the elevator, she bowed respectfully. "Good afternoon, President Faulkner!"
"Mhm." Julian didn’t look at the receptionist; his gaze landed solely on Vivian.
For a split second, upon seeing someone dressed in a highly androgynous style hugging Vivian, Julian’s brows knitted tightly together.
Vance Wyatt’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Straining his sight, he pointed at the small bag hanging around Leo’s waist and said, "President Faulkner, there’s a makeup bag! She must be a girl! President Faulkner, don’t overthink it!"
In an instant, Julian’s deeply furrowed brows relaxed slightly. At the same time, he turned around and shot Vance an inexplicable look. It was as if Vance had just spouted a load of nonsense.
What did he mean by overthinking it!? Such a thing was absolutely impossible to begin with!
"..."
Vance felt like a mute forced to swallow a bitter pill—unable to speak, he could only choke down his grievances. He was too miserable! Vance wanted to bang his head against the wall! He had been so earnestly considering his boss’s feelings, only to be rewarded with an unfeeling eye roll!
When Vivian heard the receptionist’s voice, she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. Looking at Julian as he approached, she asked, "President Faulkner, what brings you here?"
President Faulkner?
Hearing this distant form of address, Julian’s newly relaxed brows furrowed once more. He first glanced at Leo. After noticing that Leo was wearing eyeshadow and a bit of lipstick, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief before finally turning to Vivian.
"I’m heading out for a meeting, so I came to see you. Oh, right. Vance said you like fruit tea, so I picked up a cup for you on the way." With that, Julian handed the bag containing the fruit tea to Vivian, almost as if he were performing a routine chore.
Vivian felt it was very strange. No matter how she looked at it, Julian’s movements were a bit stiff. Could it be that he was doing this reluctantly?
But then again, no one could force Julian Faulkner to do anything! Could it be that Grandma Faulkner was behind the scenes, urging Julian to treat her better?
Vivian looked at Julian in confusion as she took the fruit tea. Realizing it was her favorite peach flavor, she said, "Well, thank you.
"Since you still have things to do, you should get going! I have work to do here too!"
"Mhm," Julian replied softly. He cast one last glance at Leo, as if wanting to make absolutely sure of something, before finally leaving.
Vivian quickly finished processing the onboarding paperwork for Leo and the others. A total of five people had come over from the Lowell Group this time, meaning that more than half of Vivian’s previous team was now here.
"This makes things much easier. Everything will proceed as usual. I have quite a few design cases here, so you guys can look them over and distribute the work among yourselves. Once the jobs are completed, the dividend for everyone will be 5% higher than before. Is that acceptable?"
All five of them nodded.
Given the monetary value of their projects, this percentage was already very high. Previously, they would get a 10% cut on a project; now it would be 15%. That was effectively a 50% increase!
By the time these matters were settled, it was already past four o’clock.
Vivian returned to her office. She was just about to take a break when her phone rang. It was a WhatsApp message from Ethan Grant. He was asking her out to dinner at a nearby Western restaurant at half past five, mentioning he wanted to chat about the matters concerning the Grant and Lowell families.
Vivian remembered that place. The ambiance was nice, the steak and foie gras were quite good, and their oysters and ham were local specialties. They also had caviar.
Well, looking at it this way, Ethan was pretty good at picking restaurants. At the very least, it was a place that gave Vivian an appetite.
"OK."
Vivian replied to Ethan’s message. She was just about to put her phone down when WhatsApp chimed again.
Hearing the notification, Vivian was a little surprised, thinking that a playboy like Ethan could actually reply to her messages in seconds. But upon looking, she found that her chat window with Ethan was empty. There was no reply from Ethan after her "OK."
It wasn’t Ethan?
Vivian backed out of the chat and discovered that the message was from Julian.
"Finished with my meeting. Are you still at the company? I’ll pick you up to go home for dinner."
It was a brief, concise sentence, completely in Julian’s style.
Vivian moved her fingers and replied, "I have plans tonight. You can go home on your own. I’ll take a cab back later."
"Alright."
Julian replied quickly. Vivian set her phone down and began tidying up, getting ready to head to the Western restaurant for dinner.