4
When I woke up the next morning, Celine was gone. She had left for work.
I got up, washed up, and went to Celine’s company.
The receptionist greeted me right away: “Are you here to see Ms. Liu? She’s in a meeting now, I need to check with her assistant first.”
Hearing “assistant“, I paused, suddenly realizing something. “What did you say? Which assistant?”
Seeing my sudden seriousness, the receptionist was startled. “J–Jack.”
So it was him. I guess I hadn’t paid attention to company matters for too long and didn’t know when he had joined as Celine’s assistant.
Seeing me lost in thought, the receptionist tentatively asked, “Mr. Lin, should I let Jack know you’re here?”
I shook my head, “No need, I’ll go up myself.”
After I left, some new receptionists gossiped.
“Is that really Mr. Lin? He doesn’t seem that well–matched with Ms. Liu. I wonder how she ended up with him.”
“Shh! Watch what you say! Mr. Lin owns company shares!”
“But Ms. Liu and Jack seem unusually close!”
“Keep it down, he hasn’t gone far yet. It’d be bad if he heard!”
I narrowed my eyes, ignoring the chatter as I took the elevator to Celine’s office.
I sat on the couch, waiting for their meeting to end.
About half an hour later, I heard footsteps and a man and woman talking outside.
It was Celine and Jack’s voices.
Celine said softly, “Jack, Alex has been acting strange lately. Why don’t you check on him after work?”
Jack scoffed, “Didn’t you say you were going to break up with him? Why do you still care?”
Celine was silent for a moment before saying, “Let’s wait a bit. The company can’t do without the Lin family right now. You have to believe me, I like you. Alex isn’t even my type.”
Then I heard the sound of kissing.
My whole body was shaking.
Tears welled up in my eyes again, falling onto my phone.
This feeling of being betrayed by two people at once was awful.
After a while, I heard Jack’s voice: “Celine, will you marry me?”
Unfortunately, Celine opened the door just as she was about to answer Jack, and her words got stuck in her throat when she saw me.
I didn’t get to hear Celine’s answer.
“Celine, why aren’t you saying anything?”
Jack walked in like he owned the place, but stopped abruptly when he saw me.
Celine’s brows furrowed as she stared at me intently, pretending to be calm as she asked, “Alex, why are you here?”
<
I leaned back in the chair, saying nonchalantly, “I heard we’re looking for a spokesperson for the new product. I came to take a look.”
Jack put both hands behind his back, lowering his head to avoid looking at me.
I knew this was Jack’s habit when he was nervous.
I held back my tears, trying to keep my tone normal as I looked at Jack and asked, “Jack, when did you start working at the company?”
By now Jack had come up with a response. He walked over to me with a grin.
“Didn’t I tell you I quit my job? I saw Celine’s company was hiring so I came to work here temporarily. I’ve been busy moving recently so I didn’t mention it to you.”
I looked at Jack and Celine.
They were still trying to fool me.
I asked, “Is that so?”
Celine quickly answered, “Yes, that’s right.”
I nodded and said “Oh.”
Looks like they still planned to keep me in the dark, playing me for a fool.
