<b>Chapter </b>209
“What do you mean?” Joshua’s voice was low.
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Joshua sounded serious, his voice carrying a hint of warning.
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Seeing Joshua’s obvious displeasure, Xylia hurried to exin, “I mean, you’re the CEO of Garcia Group with a million things on your te every day. I didn’t want to bother you with something as small as the employee uniforms, so I just sorted it out directly with Mr. Garcia.”
Joshua didn’t miss the quick sh of unease in Xylia’s eyes.
He considered her words for a moment before asking, “So, you think if you talk to me about this, people might assume you’re trying to pull strings?”
Xylia admitted honestly, “Yeah, I was worried it could also reflect badly on your reputation.”
Lately, social media had been boiling over with all kinds of gossip about Joshua–everyone seemed to have something to say.
Xylia couldn’t help but feel uneasy about it all.
Before this, Joshua’s name had never even made an appearance on any trending list, but now he was getting dragged into scandals just because of her, and that made her feel even more guilty.
Joshua noticed that Xylia hung her head a little, clearly looking upset.
He went quiet, lightly drumming his fingers on the table. Thatid–back, carefree attitude he usually had was nowhere to be seen.
Xylia nced up at him and could tell he was definitely a little mad.
She wanted to say something, but couldn’t get any words out.
“Alright, from now on, you can talk to Mr. Garcia directly,” Joshua said, his tone surprisingly calm. He didn’t seem upset at all, and actually seemed to understand her point of view.
Xylia was taken aback.
“So, can you give me Mr. Garcia’s contact info?” she asked cautiously.
Joshua nodded, pulled out his phone, and sent her a message.
Xylia looked down at her phone in silence.
The message from Joshua wasn’t a contact for Mr. Garcia at all. Instead, it just said: ‘I’m the project lead for Garcia Group’s employee uniform project. Looking forward to working with you.’
Xylia looked back up at Joshua,pletely speechless.
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Joshua set his hands on the table and leaned in a little closer to Xylia, his whole posture shifting toward her.
“Sis, I’m the one calling the shots at Garcia Group, and trust me, having stylish uniforms actually helps keep everything running smooth behind the scenes. So it makes perfect sense for me to take the lead here–there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Or… do you just think I don’t know a thing about design and that’s why you don’t wanna discuss it with me?” Joshua teased her, shing a sly grin.
Whenever Joshua called her “Sis,” Xylia’s heart would skip a beat, for reasons she couldn’t exin.
“So, you really don’t know design?” Xylia asked.
Joshua blinked, surprised. “Well, do you think I do?”
“If you didn’t know, I wouldn’t even bother talking design with you.”
Xylia couldn’t help but roll her eyes, feeling just a bit helpless at Joshua’s teasing.
“Okay then, I’m officially passing the first draft to you, Boss Garcia,” she joked, reaching into her bag.
She pulled out the mockup and handed it over to Joshua.
But Joshua didn’t reach for it right away; a scowl creased his brows, clear annoyance flickering across his face.
“What’s wrong?” Xylia asked.
‘Wait… is he actually mad?‘ she wondered.
Joshua, a bit miffed that Xylia didn’t even realize what she’d done to irk him, finally grabbed the draft and dropped it on the table like it was no big deal.
“Did you seriously forget that you were supposed to treat me to a ‘candlelight dinner‘ tonight?” Joshua said, each word biting a little harder as he tried to make his point.
When he spoke the words ‘candlelight dinner,‘ Joshua practically ground them out between clenched teeth, putting extra emphasis on each syble–clearly, he was not happy.
Xylia caught his meaning instantly; she knew he was talking about tonight’s dinner.
<b>‘</b>But… I did bring him out for this, Xylia thought to herself, a little baffled.
‘I honestly have no clue why he’s so upset right now,’ she added inwardly.
“Yeah, the food’sing soon. Hungry already?” Xylia teased, her eyes sweeping over the empty table.
She tried thinking like Joshua for a moment, then nudged, “Should I ask the staff to grab a couple of candles- make it official?” She shot him a yful look.
‘Guess that counts as <b>a </b>candlelight dinner, huh? Xylia thought, a little amused.
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Joshua couldn’t help butugh out of exasperation, his tongue poking at his cheek.
He just sat back and let Xylia go ahead and ask the server for candles.
The restaurant didn’t have any, so Xylia asked the server if they could pick up a couple of electric candles–or honestly, any kind that didn’t need a real me.
“Xylia,” Joshua suddenly called out.
Hearing Joshua call her by her full name out of nowhere, Xylia felt weirdly unsettled.
She frowned and asked, “Is something wrong?”
Joshua was clearly annoyed, but when he looked at Xylia’s face, all his frustration quietly faded away.
“Can we just not talk about work during our date?” he said, sounding awkward.
He blurted it out, looking a bit embarrassed, his ears tinged with red.
‘Seriously? Did I really have to spell it out for her?‘ he grumbled inwardly.
Finally, Xylia realized what had really been bothering Joshua.
Seeing his face darken, she couldn’t help butugh out loud.
“You’re stillughing!” Joshua eximed.
Joshua reached out and pinched Xylia’s cheeks, stopping herughter dead in its tracks.
‘Wow, her cheeks are so soft,‘ Joshua thought, a bit smug.
He just grinned at Xylia’s feeble re, not bothered in the slightest.
Then, just to tease her, he gave her cheeks another yful squeeze.
Xylia smacked his hand away–hard.
‘You’re just like a kid sometimes, Xylia thought to herself, rolling her eyes at him.
“Oh yeah? Would a kid be able to date you?” Joshua shot back, undeterred, his tone full of yful defiance,
Xylia just pursed her lips, keeping quiet. She wasn’t about to get into a pointless back–and–forth with him.
She let it slide.
The mockup sat forgotten on the edge of the table, and neither of them brought it up again during dinner.
Joshua was genuinely pleased with how Xylia handled things after that.
To show his appreciation, he decided to treat Xylia to some stinky tofu.
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Xylia was over the moon, hooking her arm around Joshua’s and saying all sorts of sweet things to him—even buttering him up a little. The more she went on, the more Joshua just wanted to steal a kiss from her.
As they bought some street snacks, Joshua leaned in close to her ear and murmured something teasingly.
Xylia jerked her head up, her earlobes burning red–as if they might start bleeding any second.
Right away, she lifted her hand and gave him a yful smack on the head.
The next day, after wrapping up an online chat with Joshua about buying fabric, Xylia didn’t bother to talk to him at all.
‘He just keeps getting less and less serious, Xylia thought, a trace of annoyance flickering in her mind.
‘Seriously, the stuff he said to mest night was so inappropriate–it totally made me lose a lot of respect for
him.’
But even after taking a smack, Joshua didn’t get mad at all. Instead, he pulled her close, leaned in, and murmured right in her ear, his voice low and yful, “Sis, we’re already together now. Isn’t it about time you really got to know what kind of guy I am?”
Xylia instantly got goosebumps all over.
‘Getting to know someone is supposed toe before you start dating, isn’t it?‘
‘So what’s he even getting at now?‘
Xylia was convinced Joshua was just teasing her–flirting on purpose.
Most of the morning, Xylia couldn’t stop thinking about Joshua.
Josie caught how spaced out she was and grinned, “Whoa, Ms. Sadler, got your mystery man on your mind already–and it’s not even lunchtime yet! Hello, we’re at work!”
That snapped Xylia back to reality.
She bantered back with Josie for a moment, but before she could say more, someone came looking for them outside.
Just then, Be Jennings showed up at the door.
Xylia suddenly rememberedst night, when she’d told Joshua about saving that little girl from the kidnappers earlier in the day.
When Joshua found out the girl’sst name was Jennings, he’d mentioned that the Jennings family in Norhill had some kind of beef with the Sadler family.
He wasn’t sure what went down between them, but he told Xylia to stay away from anyone tied to the Jennings family.
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It was prettyte when she got homest night, so she hadn’t had a chance to ask Kaden about the Jennings family yet.
She’d nned to bring it up today, especially since they were supposed to have dinner with the Jennings family tomorrow.
But before she could even get around to it, Be showed up at her door.
“Sis! I came to see you!” Be chirped, her voice sweet and lively.
Be hade all by herself, carrying a pink elephant backpack and beaming up at Xylia with an adorable, radiant smile.
Xylia blinked in surprise. “You came here all by yourself?”
Be shook her head.
“The driver uncle dropped me off downstairs, and I came up on my own! Mommy and Daddy both know I’m here to see you, Sis,” she said proudly.
Xylia didn’t say anything else.