Chapter 94: Very Awkward
Vivian Lowell looked at Julian Faulkner beside her, her mind wandering completely.
Her brain was processing things sluggishly. It took her a long moment before she finally answered, "Yeah... I’m having a little trouble falling asleep. I soaked in the bath for too long just now, so my body feels a bit uncomfortable."
"Close your eyes, and you’ll drift off eventually. Or, do you want to listen to some instrumental music? I can play some for you." Julian’s tone was still incredibly gentle. As he spoke, his voice was noticeably less hoarse than before.
Listening to him, Vivian nodded. A sudden whim struck her, and she asked, "Can you hum it? The instrumental music. I think with your tone of voice, it would sound really nice if you hummed."
A soft sigh echoed by her ear. It sounded helpless, but mostly it was full of doting indulgence. "I can," Julian said.
A melody floated over from beside her. Vivian closed her eyes and shrank completely into the covers. As she listened closely to Julian’s voice, she felt incredibly cozy and relaxed.
Julian’s voice was beautiful. It was a bit low, but not overly deep—it was a perfectly pitched baritone. When he hummed, the tune was melodious, making him sound like a man with a story to tell. His story.
Vivian thought of her mother-in-law, a gentle-looking woman she had never met. She had heard that Julian learned all his cooking skills from her. She wondered if women who knew how to cook always had such a patient and meticulous side to them. As she pondered this, she unconsciously drifted off to sleep.
She slept incredibly well that night, not dreaming at all. When she woke up, she heard faint noises beside her. RUSTLE. Julian was getting out of bed.
Vivian hadn’t expected to open her eyes to such an alluring scene. Julian was putting on his dress shirt, but he hadn’t fully slipped it on yet. He was half-turned toward her, putting the sharp lines of his torso on full display. This unrestricted view was somehow even more stimulating than the teasing glimpses she had gotten when he was wrapped in a bath towel yesterday. Vivian swiftly squeezed her eyes shut.
It was probably best if she didn’t take in such an NC-17 scene first thing in the morning. If the blood rushed to her head and gave her a nosebleed later, how on earth would she explain it to Julian?
Her mind was a jumbled mess. Just as she was hesitating over whether she should wait for Julian to leave the bedroom before getting up, the sounds beside her drew closer.
Because her eyes were closed, Vivian couldn’t see a thing. Only a sliver of sunlight filtered in through the window, but she could still faintly sense a shadow looming over her.
Looming over her? Her heart began to race. Figuring Julian might have left some clothes near her side of the bed, she reflexively reached out to help him grab them. The moment her hand slipped out from under the covers, Julian’s voice drifted down from above her.
"Did I wake you?" he asked with absolute certainty, having already spotted her small, restless hand feeling around outside the duvet.
Vivian fell silent for a moment. After a brief pause, she replied, "Um, no. I have a natural internal clock anyway. Since it’s light out, it must be past six, right?"
"Just about. It’s time to get up, eat breakfast, and head to the office." Julian gave her the precise time with his usual exactness. "It’s six twenty-seven. I’ve asked Vance Wyatt to come pick you up and take you to the office this morning since I have a meeting elsewhere.
"I should be back around two in the afternoon. We can go pick up Eleanor Rhodes together then. How does that sound?"
"Okay," Vivian answered. She reached her hand completely out of the covers to grab the clothes she had left by her pillow.
However, perhaps she had tossed and turned too much in her sleep last night, causing her pillow to shift. She had somehow migrated toward the center of the bed, ending up much closer to Julian! Naturally, this also meant she was further away from her clothes. When her outstretched hand failed to reach them, Julian offered, "Let me help."
With that, he walked around to the other side of the bed, gathered up all of Vivian’s clothes, and handed them to her.
That was when the awkwardness struck.
It was currently March. Although the weather in Aethelburg was warming up, one still needed to wear a base layer, a light sweater, and a jacket. Last night, she had only brought her base shirt and... her bra to bed.
Her bra had been tucked inside the shirt. Julian clearly hadn’t realized this when he picked the clothes up, and he hadn’t managed to secure the bra when he handed the bundle over. The bra slipped out from the bundle of clothes and fell right onto Vivian’s chest.
PLOP.
It was a soft sound, and it didn’t hurt at all, but the bra tumbled and landed right beside her—in an incredibly obvious, entirely unhidden spot.
Vivian’s face instantly flushed crimson.
This was her most girly bra. It was pink and even had a tiny, adorable bear on the strap. Girls always had a bit of a girly side to them, after all. Even those who dressed more androgynously usually harbored such preferences deep down. No matter how strong someone appeared on the outside, they still had a soft side on the inside.
Vivian considered herself a tough, independent career woman at work, but in her private life... she never expected Julian to discover her pink, bear-adorned secret, let alone in such an embarrassing situation!
Both of them froze.
Julian immediately turned his back. Vivian swiftly snatched her intimate garment back under the covers and stammered, "Um, thank you. Do you want to wash up first?"
Julian understood her underlying message. Without looking back, he replied, "Yes, I’ll go wash up first. Then I’ll wait for you downstairs so we can have breakfast together."
With that, Julian left. It wasn’t until she heard the bedroom door click shut that Vivian’s pounding heart finally settled back into her chest.
It was just too embarrassing! She cringed so hard she could have curled her toes and dug a three-bedroom apartment out of the floorboards! Squeezing her eyes shut, she scolded herself for being so nervous. She stayed huddled under the covers until she finished getting dressed, and only then did she finally crawl out of bed.
By the time she went downstairs, Grandma Faulkner was already up. The older woman looked at her eldest grandson, then at Vivian. She was in an inexplicably good mood, her smile stretching so wide it practically reached her eyes.
"Good, good!" Grandma Faulkner chuckled. Gesturing for Vivian to come over, she said, "Vivian, hurry and eat your breakfast! We have everything this morning—steamed egg custard, milk, you name it.
"You’re so thin, you need to eat more and nourish yourself!"
"Okay..." Vivian agreed, obediently taking a seat as Grandma Faulkner directed.
She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t help feeling that Grandma Faulkner was looking at her with the eager expectation of someone hoping a great-grandchild would be born soon.