?Chapter 112:
Eileen finished work early that evening and, on a whim, decided to go to the underground supermarket. She ended up buying a lot of ingredients. With a heavy bag in hand, she trudged two blocks home, her arm throbbing with fatigue.
As she reached her ce, she noticed the lights were on inside, and her heart skipped a beat. Bryan must be here. As she opened the door and stepped inside, a pair of strong hands reached out to relieve her of the heavy shopping bag.
“What’s this for? Did you expect me to drop by?” Bryan asked with a smile.
Bryan observed that the ingredients in the shopping bag would be sufficient for the two of them to eat for several days. After changing her shoes, Eileen shed her down jacket. She exined, “I finished work early and impulsively decided to go shopping. Once I was at the supermarket, I couldn’t resist buying everything in sight.”
She trailed behind him into the kitchen and opened the fridge, but she was surprised to find it already stocked with ingredients. Eileen’s eyes widened as she turned to face Bryan, who stood at the dining table, his brow furrowed in concentration. Eileen asked, “You also went shopping?”
“The fridge can be rearranged to amodate more items,” Bryan said. Then he quickly emptied the shopping bag and started to reorganize the fridge.
They both tacitly avoided mentioning the earlier incident in Vicin Mall; their silence was an unspoken understanding. Eileen opted to stick to cleaning and cutting the vegetables, sparing herself the embarrassment of showcasing her culinary skills in front of Bryan. As she washed the vegetables, her phone on the dining table suddenly rang out.
With her hands still wet from washing the vegetables, she nced at the screen and saw an unknown number shing. “Can you answer that for me?” she asked Bryan.
“Alright.” Bryan, still engrossed in reorganizing the fridge, turned around and answered with a swift tap on the screen. He then activated the speakerphone and returned to his task. “What do you want, Eileen? How dare you ask your boss to fire Judie? Are youpletely out of your mind? You abandoned me, your own mother, and squandered all your earnings on your stepmother. And now, you won’t even lift a finger for Roderick and family? I’ll teach you a lesson you’ll never forget!”
The caller was none other than Denise Moran, Eileen’s estranged biological mother, whose voice Eileen had instantly recognized despite over a decade of separation.
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Eileen’s eyes widened in shock, and she turned to Bryan in disbelief. She didn’t know that he had fired Judie. Denise continued, “Don’t even think about defending yourself! I know it’s because Roderick visited yourpany, seekingpensation, leaving you reeling embarrassed and exposed, right? He only did that because he cares about you. You’ve been so naive to tolerate mistreatment for so long; you essentially gave yourself away to that man without any self-worth.”
Denise thought that Eileen’s silence was because she was trying to fabricate justification. Eileen swiftly wiped her hands on her attire and managed to end the call. She pressed her lips together, her eyes narrowing as she studied the man framed in the office’s open floor. The interior light cast an eerie glow on his partial profile, leaving the rest of his face shrouded in mystery.
She couldn’t see his expression, making it hard to read his thoughts. The phone in her hand jolted her again with the same unwanted call. She swiftly rejected it, then silenced her phone and flipped it face-down on the dining table, a decisive move to shut out the persistence. Bryan didn’t look up from the fridge for an extended period, his stillness a testament to his deep contemtion.
Eileen thought the phone call reminded him of Roderick’s incident, and it probably irritated him. But then Bryan moved. He grabbed a can of sd dressing and put it in the fridge before heading into the kitchen. “Could you wash the tomatoes for me?” he asked in a low voice.
“Yeah, sure.” Havingposed herself, Eileen returned to the kitchen to resume preparing the ingredients. Bryan cooked up a storm, serving a satisfying three courses and soup. Eileen had not tasted a home-cooked meal since moving in, and Bryan’s cooking was good.
After they finished eating, Eileen cleaned up as Bryan went upstairs. Once Eileen finished the dishes and headed upstairs, she encountered Bryan emerging from the bathroom, his sturdy chest glistening with droplets of water from his wet hair. The water ran down his ripped chest, disappearing into the towel knotted at his waist.
His dark eyes sparkled in the soft light, and the inviting scent of his shampoo lingered, teasing her senses. Eileen’s ears flushed crimson as she struggled to maintain herposure. She said, “The pajamas you worest time are still wet from the wash. I bought a new pair for you. You’ll find them in the cloakroom.”
“Bring it to me.” Bryan’s deep, raspy voice was a rich baritone that rumbled over Eileen, causing her to tense up. She spun around and hurried into the cloakroom, emerging with the pajamas and cing them in his hand. Avoiding another nce at his captivating physique, she swiftly retreated into the bathroom.
She had brought her pajamas into the bathroom, so after her shower, she didn’te out immediately, taking her time to dry her hair and pamper herself with a rxing skincare routine before finally exiting.
Bryan sat at the coffee table, positioned in front of the French window, surrounded by the inviting aroma of freshly brewed coffee tinged with the smell of smoke. When he saw Eileen, he transferred the cigarette to his other hand and pointed to the chair next to him. “Sit here,” he said.
When Eileen sat down beside him, he pointed to his pajama pants with a hint of mischief and asked, “Haven’t you learned my size yet?” When he was sitting, his pants rode up, barely covering his shins. Meanwhile, the pajama top strained at the shoulders, clearly too snug for his broad frame, and it was evident that the entire set was too small for him.
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