Chapter 159 - 157: Struck by Her Beauty
"Sir..."
Simon walked over, but before he could say more than a word, a single glance from Simon Adler silenced him.
He immediately fell silent. Confused, he watched Simon Adler’s chest heave once before the man gently closed the rear door of the car.
’Huh?’ Simon was utterly baffled. His eyes seemed to ask, ’Is there something I forgot to do? Why aren’t you getting in?’
The school officials who had followed them over were also surprised by the sight and asked if he had left something behind.
"It’s nothing. Please, go on ahead."
Unlike Silas Grant, Simon Adler wasn’t particularly warm in his dealings with people and couldn’t be bothered with pleasantries.
He dismissed them with a single sentence.
He couldn’t be bothered to explain.
It was Simon who stepped in, offering a smile and a brief explanation to the school officials.
After they left, Simon sighed under his breath. He turned and saw Simon Adler leaning against the car, head bowed as he lit a cigarette.
There were still students around. Simon cleared his throat. "Maybe you should smoke in the car? Someone might take a picture of you out here."
Simon Adler paid him no mind. He lit the cigarette, took a drag, and slowly exhaled a few smoke rings.
After a moment, he replied, "I’m not a celebrity. Why would I care about that?"
"But it could damage your public image. What if it affects the company..."
"Isn’t that what Silas Grant is for? If the sky falls, he can hold it up." Simon Adler was perfectly content to let things be. "It’s enough that he’s the one always putting on a show. I don’t have time for theatrics."
Simon was left speechless.
He had assumed Simon Adler just wanted a smoke, so when his attempts at persuasion failed, he simply stayed outside with him.
Glancing around, something occurred to him. He asked curiously, "I saw Miss Grant in the audience earlier. But it looks like she left early. No idea where she went. I thought we might get to say hello after the event."
"We have plenty of time. Why not ask her out for a coffee?"
Simon suggested.
He hoped Simon Adler would seize the opportunity.
One of them was in Portia and the other in Jynsia; meeting up was never easy. Now, by sheer coincidence, the distance between them had shrunk to just a few kilometers. Not meeting now? ’It’s practically a crime not to.’
"This is a golden opportunity to get the girl, Boss. Wake up and smell the coffee."
"I don’t get why you’re such a workaholic. Look at Mr. Grant—he takes vacations every now and then. Rumor has it he’s started dating."
"The head honcho himself is doing it, you should take a page from his book."
Hearing this, Simon Adler chuckled and flicked the ash from his cigarette. ’That’s a bit interesting.’
"If I were to ’learn from him,’ he’d probably find himself out of a job. And you’d likely never see him take another day off."
Simon didn’t catch the deeper meaning behind his words.
He just took it as a casual joke.
The cigarette quickly burned down to its end.
The weather in Jynsia wasn’t great today. It was gray and overcast, and a wind had picked up, making it feel even colder than Portia.
Simon, wearing only a suit jacket, felt his nose turning red from the cold. Seeing the cigarette was finished, he thought they could finally get in the car.
He stepped forward and, with his usual practiced ease, moved to open the rear door for Simon Adler.
Before he could pull the handle, a hand stopped him.
"Let’s wait a little longer."
"..." Simon reluctantly drew his hand back. "Are you actually waiting for someone?"
’How come I didn’t know about this?’
He racked his brain. His boss had graduated years ago. The only people he knew at the university were a few professors, and they had just seen all of them.
’Who else could there be?’
’Mia Grant?’
—
The back of the minivan was spacious. Mia Grant had only meant to rest for a moment, but she’d ended up drifting off to sleep while she waited.
She had a dream. In it, a creature that was part wolf, part dog, was chasing her, just like in some old commercial she’d seen as a kid.
With nowhere left to run, she scrambled up a tree. Clutching a flimsy branch, she peered down.
The wolf-dog’s eyes were deep, glinting eerily in the darkness. It wagged its tail, circling slowly beneath the tree as if deliberating whether to climb up and kill her with a single bite or to let her go.
But before the wolf-dog could make its choice, the hand propping up her cheek suddenly slipped.
Her head lurched forward. Mia Grant jolted awake, her heart pounding. Fortunately, she’d managed to cushion her chin with her other hand just in time, narrowly averting disaster.
She took a deep breath, now wide awake.
Mia Grant sat up straight and looked around, remembering now that she had left the event early and was in Simon Adler’s car.
She pulled out her phone to check the time. She’d been asleep for nearly twenty minutes, and she was still the only one in the vehicle.
There had been a driver when she first got in. He’d greeted her before getting out.
Suddenly, her gaze froze on a shadow outside the window.
A man was leaning against the front of the car. His back was to her, and all she could see was the lean, strong line of his waist, outlined by a well-tailored suit.
’Nice build,’ she thought, ’but I can’t tell who it is.’
Pulling her thoughts back, Mia Grant’s gaze shifted, and she spotted a familiar face standing outside.
It was Simon Adler’s assistant. ’His last name is Cole, I think.’
They had just met a couple of days ago.
He was standing sideways, facing her direction, talking to the figure who was leaning against the car.
As a proper executive assistant, he was naturally wherever his boss was.
Which meant the man leaning against the car was Simon Adler.
She watched them discreetly. The car’s soundproofing was too good for her to hear their conversation, but Mr. Cole’s expression was rather intriguing.
After a few moments, the two men outside showed no signs of getting in. Growing a bit impatient, Mia Grant leaned forward, lowered the window, and called out, "Excuse me, why don’t you two come in here to talk?"
"..."
Her voice made Simon’s eyelid twitch. From his angle, he had a direct view of Mia Grant’s face.
Simon Adler, however, only heard her voice. It was soft and carried a slight nasal quality from just having woken up, making her tone of confused inquiry sound almost like she was whining playfully.
No one hearing a voice like that could possibly refuse her.
After a brief silence, Simon Adler straightened his stiff back.
He glanced first at Simon, whose expression was a rapidly shifting spectacle.
First shock, then barely concealed glee.
The corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably, fighting to break into a smile that he was desperately trying to suppress. It was utterly comical.
He suddenly thought that Simon shouldn’t be his assistant, or a photographer for that matter. ’A comedian might be a better career choice for him.’
Simon had no idea that in the space of a single glance, his boss was already contemplating the smoothest way to fire him.
He was too preoccupied to notice, his eyes fixed on Simon Adler with a teasing glint, the very picture of someone settling in with popcorn for the main event.
His expression practically screamed, ’You sly dog! So you were secretly wooing her behind our backs!’
Simon Adler ignored him. He disposed of the cigarette butt, then meticulously wiped the lingering ash from his fingertips with a handkerchief before slowly turning around.
Their eyes met. A beautiful Ragdoll cat was perched at the open window, blinking her big eyes as she looked up at him.
Her clear eyes were full of a kitten-like curiosity.
Simon Adler had thought he was prepared, but he never imagined that with a single glance, the walls he had so carefully built would crumble in an instant.
Mia Grant frowned. She didn’t understand what he was staring at. He wasn’t speaking, wasn’t getting in the car, just... looking down at her.
"What are you looking at?"
She glanced around. Everything seemed normal.
After a few seconds, Mia Grant seemed to realize something. "You... haven’t been struck dumb by my beauty, have you?"