Sheffield casually put his tie on his shoulder, and calmly took out a black card from his wallet. He handed the card to Tobias and said, "That's okay. I got this."
And Evelyn got him good, by making him responsible for the bill. But he owed her anyway for ruining her cheongsam.
After settling up with the cashier, Tobias gave the card back to him. "Mr. Tang, don't let your father see the bill. He'll get upset."
The most expensive meal Peterson had ever paid for was under three hundred thousand, but Sheffield had broken that record just a few days after he became the CEO.
Luckily, he had decided to pay for it himself. Otherwise, he might be called before the board of directors to account for the cost.
"Wow, the old man is stingy! He has been making money his whole life. He has more money than he could ever spend, but he still gets ticked at a small amount like this. What's money good for if he doesn't spend it? You can't take it with you!"
Tobias was dumbstruck by Sheffield's bluntness. But this newest CEO always spoke his mind.
In the parking lot, Sheffield paused in front of the car for a couple seconds. "Head back to the office." He decided that he had made a bad choice when he took over Theo Group. There was an endless river of documents to deal with every day.
Evelyn went back to the manor wearing Sheffield's suit jacket. She didn't want to attract any unwanted attention, particularly from her mom. She changed her dress in her bedroom before she went to Debbie's room.
Debbie had just gotten Gwyn to sleep. Seeing her come in, Debbie put her hand on her lips, silently telling her to be quiet.
Evelyn whispered, "She fell asleep so early today."
Debbie smiled. "She is such a sweetie girl. I told her Grandpa and Mom were both very busy today, and I would tuck her in tonight. I think she got it. After taking a bath and drinking some milk, she fell asleep."
Evelyn touched her daughter's head and said, "I'll take a bath first and take her to my room later."
"Let her sleep here. Your dad's away on business. Let her sleep with me. You need your beauty sleep."
"Okay." After kissing Gwyn on the cheek, Evelyn went back to her bedroom.
Three days later, Evelyn came to the offices of Theo Group again—and again to see Sheffield. She sent a message to him on the way. "I'm coming to your office to see you." Then she added, "With dinner."
She was sure that his old WeChat account was still active, because he hadn't changed his phone number. That meant he could get her message, if he bothered to check.
Although she never called him before, she had seen his contact information in the company directory.
When she and Felix pulled up at the entrance of Theo Group's office building, they were once again stopped by a guard—the same security guard who stopped them last time. Last time they were here, they had come across Sterling, who asked the security guard to let them through. Today, though, Sterling wasn't around, so the security guard was hesitant to let her in. "I'm sorry, Miss Huo. You'd better call Mr. Tang and ask his personal assistant to give us a call. We can't just let you in like this."
Evelyn nodded. She understood the guard was just doing his job. So she leaned back in her car and called Sheffield.
It rang for what seemed like forever. Fifteen rings. Finally, Sheffield picked up. "Sheffield Tang. Who's this?" He pretended not to recognize her number.
Ignoring his affectation, Evelyn said, "It's me. I'm downstairs, at the entrance of your office building."
"Oh, you want to see me?"
"Yeah." Didn't she send him a message already? Why was he still asking? Obviously, he was deliberately making this hard for her.
Sheffield purposefully paused a while before he continued,
"Then wait a minute. Joshua will be here soon. I'll ask him to escort you up here."
Evelyn was disappointed to hear that.
As soon as he ended the call, Sheffield called Joshua. He was pretty rattled, and it showed in his voice. "Hey, where are you?" "My office. I just got off work."
"Come to my office ASAP. Evelyn's waiting by the gate."
"What? Why? What's going on?"
Sheffield explained, "Evelyn came to see me. She was stopped by the guard. I told her you'd be here soon, and you could take her to my office."
"Why get me involved? Why don't you just go downstairs and pick up your woman? If you're busy, ask an assistant. Or call down to security and have them let her in. Why have me do it? What's wrong with you?" Joshua was getting more and more stupefied by Sheffield's behavior.
"I did that deliberately," Sheffield admitted.
"Did what? Keep her waiting? Why?"
"One, yes I'm making her wait. Two, because I can."
"You're gonna regret this. Leave me out of it." Joshua wondered if Sheffield had been hurt so deeply by Evelyn that he'd gone insane.
"I'm giving you a chance to be a good friend. You seriously turning me down?"
"I don't see anything good about this. I'm not coming." Joshua was not insane.
"Okay, okay. Dude, please do this for me," pleaded Sheffield in a gentle voice.
He didn't want to give Evelyn a hard time, but he felt he had to. If he got back together too quickly, it would make him look desperate. And she wouldn't love him as much if he looked too pathetic.
When he heard this, Joshua really wanted to kick Sheffield's ass. "So asking me to help you trick your girlfriend, right? One day, when she dumps you, don't ask me to help you get her back."
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing. I won't take this too far." He would make Evelyn love him even more. If he kept his distance, she might start to want him more. In the end, she would admit that she loved him. All he'd have to do was play hard to get.
Sitting in the car, Evelyn stared at the skyscraper of Theo Group. It was located less than 1 kilometer away from the offices of ZL Group. Sheffield could probably see the ZL Group building from his office.
Then she recalled how hard Sheffield used to try to sneak into her office to see her, and now she had to go through hell and high water to see him. How ironic!
He knew a lot of ways to get into ZL Group offices. She, on the other hand, could only wait for Joshua to get here and escort her in.
After a long time, there was a knock at her car window.
It was none other than Joshua standing there. Felix opened the car door from the outside. Evelyn got out of the car with Sheffield's suit jacket in her hand.
"Hey, Evelyn. Sorry to keep you waiting. Traffic was a nightmare." He looked at her apologetically.
"No, it's cool. I just got here. Let's go!" Evelyn turned to Felix and instructed, "Grab the food container."
"Yes, Miss Huo."
On their way to the entrance, Joshua cautiously asked, "Sheffield has been really busy since he took over as CEO. In fact, he's been working hard for so long, I think he's gone nuts. What do you think?"
'Sheffield's crazy?' Evelyn shook her head. "No, I haven't seen that."
"Well, what do I know?"
Many employees of Theo Group knew that Joshua was Sheffield's best friend. So Joshua was able to come and go as he pleased. No security guard stopped her when Evelyn entered the building with him.
Just as they were about to enter the elevator, Joshua suddenly looked at his cellphone and said, "Oh, shit! Sorry Evelyn. I gotta go. Tell Sheffield we'll hang out some other time."
Without giving her a chance to speak, he jogged out of there.
Evelyn was confused. She and Felix got in the elevator and rode up.
When they reached the top floor, Tobias greeted her. "Miss Huo, nice to see you again."
"Hello, Tobias. I'm here to see Sheffield."
Glancing at the closed office doors, Tobias said, "Please wait a moment. I'll let Mr. Tang know you're here."
"Okay."
Just like last time, Evelyn stood there, waiting while the personal assistant made the call.
This time, she didn't have to wait long. As soon as Tobias told her Sheffield was ready to see her, the doors to his office opened.