Chapter 64: The Lady I Saw That Morning
The notification appeared before he could do anything useful with it.
Target Info: Rose West
Location: Approximately 10 meters away.
Mood: Docile.
Adrian stopped mid-sentence.
"She’s probably what?" Jenna asked. He looked toward the café entrance. Rose was walking in.
Of course she is. He hadn’t seen her this morning. She hadn’t responded to his knock so it was reasonable to assume she had an early class.
Apparently, her early class involved her bumping into him in the worst possible situation.
The door bell rang open, and Rose step in. Her eyes were fixated on her phone, lucky for him.
He turned back to the table and picked up his coffee.
His options were simple. Pretend he hadn’t seen her. Or accept that pretending not to notice someone walking directly into the same café was probably the least convincing thing he could do.
He put the cup down.
"Adrian." Jenna added, snapping him back to reality. "Are you even listening?"
He didn’t bother to respond to that. "Rose is here."
Jenna blinked. "What? Who’s Rose?"
Adrian stared for a moment, mildly surprised. "My girlfriend? She just walked in."
Jenna glanced toward the entrance. Rose was still looking at her phone.
"Oh. The slut." She looked at Adrian. "How does that matter..."
She stopped herself. "Oh." Then she looked back at Adrian. "Oh."
"That second one sounded worse."
"I’m just surprised."
"You’re making a face."
"This is my face."
Adrian stared at her. Jenna adjusted her expression.
"Better?"
"Marginally."
Rose finished whatever she was doing on her phone and slipped it away. Then she looked up. Her eyes found Adrian almost immediately.
They moved to Jenna. Then back to him. She paused, an awfully painful pause.
Adrian had spent enough time around Rose to recognize most of her expressions. But this wasn’t any he had seen.
Somehow, that was worse. As if things couldn’t get worse, Rose walked over.
"Hey babe." Adrian forced a smile. She continued. "I didn’t think I’d see you here."
Adrian looked at her. "Same... uh. What’re you doing here?"
"Don’t be so dismissive. I just want to have breakfast." Rose replied. "You wouldn’t mind if I had breakfast with you, right.."
She looked at Jenna, as though she was searching for something.
Jenna smiled, as though she hadn’t called her a slut a few minutes ago. "Jenna. We’ve met."
"I know." Rose pulled out the chair beside Jenna and sat down. "Sorry. I have bad memory."
She kept her smile on and turned to Adrian. He looked at his drink, observing the surprisingly cream texture of his milkshake.
"So what are you two doing?" Rose placed her phone on the table.
"He was helping me with something," Jenna said before Adrian could speak. "An audition, actually. I’ve been working on something for a while and..."
She glanced at Adrian. "...apparently a generous benefactor situation happening."
What the fuck? Why’d she just say all that. Wait. Maybe I’m overreacting.
Rose looked at him, her expression unreadable like before.
Fuck.
"I offered to help with her with a few things," Adrian said. "It’s nothing, really."
"Mm." Rose nodded slowly. "It still sounds generous."
He didn’t have a reply for that. Jenna continued explaining the audition, but Adrian had stopped paying attention to most of it.
Rose was listening.
She wasn’t angry. At least, he didn’t think she was. But she wasn’t exactly relaxed either. She kept looking at Jenna. Then occasionally at him.
’She’s definitely thinking about something.’
He just had no idea what.
"...so ideally I’d want the full two hours," Jenna was saying. "The first twenty minutes are usually just warming up anyway, so..."
"Sorry." She cut Jenna’s narration. "I think the hunger is starting to get to me... um."
Rose stood. Then she looked at Adrian. "Babe."
Adrian paused as his eyes widened. He looked at her.
"Come with me?"
It wasn’t really a request. Jenna stopped talking. Rose glanced at her.
"We’ll be right back."
Then she looked at Adrian again. Adrian got up. He followed her toward the counter.
The café was busy enough that nobody paid them much attention.
Which was convenient. Because this was definitely not about food. The line moved forward. Adrian didn’t say anything. Rose didn’t either, until she did.
"You know..." Rose said. "I went downstairs early yesterday morning."
Adrian looked at her. "I remember."
"I saw someone leaving our apartment building."
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
"Brunette," Rose continued. "Medium height. Nice clothes."
She paused.
"She looked like I knew... oddly enough."
Adrian looked straight ahead. He knew exactly who she meant. Jenna. Terrific, just terrific.
"I didn’t think much of it at the time," Rose continued. "But then I walked in here and saw her."
She glanced toward the table.
"Sitting right next to my boyfriend who happens to live in that same apartment building..."
Adrian’s mind went blank for a second.
He had an explanation. Technically. Jenna had been at his apartment because she slept over. Fuck no. He was definitely not gonna say that.
So what exactly was he supposed to say at that moment? His mind remained completely blank. Then, Rose turned toward him.
"What was she doing there, Adrian?"
Adrian looked at her. He tried to find an answer that didn’t sound like an excuse. Nothing came.
Yeah. He was screwed.
He tried again. Still nothing.
Rose’s expression changed slightly. Not anger. Something closer to disappointment mixed with suspicion.
"Adrian."
"Yeah?" He answered almost immediately.
She didn’t respond. He looked away. There wasn’t a single answer he could give that wouldn’t immediately lead to another question.
And lying to Rose about something she had already noticed was probably the fastest possible route to making this worse.
He was still trying to figure out what to say when Jenna’s voice suddenly came from behind them.
"Are you two getting food or are you planning to kiss over there?"
Adrian turned. Jenna was watching them from the table. She looked entirely too entertained.
Rose looked at Adrian for another moment. Then she turned toward the counter.
"We’ll talk about it later."
Adrian stood there for half a second. He turned to Jenna. She was still there, same confident smug on her face.
He was not grateful to her. He was, however, slightly less trapped than he’d been two seconds ago.
He followed Rose.
Rose ordered. Then ordered something else. Then another thing.
Adrian watched the total climb. A bowl. A side. Two drinks. A pastry. Then something else he hadn’t even heard her mention. He looked at the screen.
Was she hungry, or was she preparing for an emergency?
"Baby." Rose said. "You’re paying, right?"
Adrian looked at her.
She smiled innocently. He sighed.
"Yeah." He forced a smile. "I’ve got it."
It wasn’t because he suddenly felt generous. At this point, refusing would only create another problem.
He handed over his card. The System responded almost immediately.
Cashback Processing.
Target: Rose West
Investment Potential: 62%
Cashback Multiplier: 1.24×
Cashback Received: $124.00
Adrian stared at the notification for a moment. At least something had gone right.
Rose collected her food.
"C’mon." She added, as he looked at him. "Let’s go back to your friend."
The emphasis on friend wasn’t subtle. She smiled at him. A moment passed.
Adrian nodded. "Yeah."
Rose walked away. Adrian turned back toward Jenna.
This wasn’t how harems worked in the webnovels.
The beautiful girls were usually supposed to get along. At worst, they were supposed to glare at each other dramatically.
Nobody had mentioned having to survive breakfast while managing two separate relationship problems before noon.
He walked back to the table.