Chapter 173: Date With Vanessa PT.3!
The car settled into a quiet hum of tires on asphalt, streetlights sliding past the windows in slow, rhythmic intervals. Vanessa sat angled slightly toward the passenger door, stealing glances at Liam every few seconds, then forcing her eyes forward like she hadn’t been caught doing exactly that.
Her bag buzzed against her lap. Again. Then again.
She didn’t need to check it to know who it was.
"Penina. Obviously."
"You know you can respond to her," Liam said, eyes on the road, the faintest smirk tugging at his mouth.
Vanessa let out a nervous laugh, reaching for her bag before stopping herself halfway. "It’s fine, she’s just being nosy."
"She seemed pretty invested back there."
"She’s always invested. Give her an inch of gossip and she’ll build an entire conspiracy theory out of it."
Liam chuckled, and the sound did something strange to her stomach, something she wasn’t used to feeling around him — or around anyone, really, not in a long time.
This was the part that unsettled her most, if she was honest with herself. From the very first conversation they’d had, back when Mrs. Harriet sent her in specifically to recruit him, Vanessa had been the one steering things. She’d walked in with intention, with control, fully expecting to read him easily and guide the interaction exactly where she needed it to go.
And somewhere along the way, without her fully clocking the moment it happened, that control had slipped entirely out of her hands.
She glanced at him again, trying to pinpoint exactly when the shift occurred, and found no clean answer. It had just... happened. Gradually. Completely.
"You’re staring," Liam said, not unkindly, catching her gaze briefly before returning his eyes to the road.
"I’m not staring, I’m—" Vanessa fumbled, cheeks warming. "I’m thinking."
"About?"
"Nothing important."
"Mhm." He clearly didn’t believe her, but let it go, the smirk still lingering.
Vanessa dipped her hand into her bag again, this time actually intending to silence her phone before Penina’s texts became an entire novel, when something shifted in Liam’s expression beside her.
[Ding!]
[Transaction Recorded]
Target: Mrs. Harriet (High-Tier MILF)
Investment: $200,000
Base Value: $285,000 (Extremely high financial investment + maximum emotional reaction on High-Tier)
[+300% Beginner Bonus Applied]
Permanent Bonus: +12% (Harriet Bond)
Rebate Received: $1,276,800
His face lit up — genuinely, unmistakably — a wide, almost boyish grin spreading across his features out of absolutely nowhere. His eyes flickered with something close to disbelief, like he’d just received the best news of his life.
Vanessa froze, hand still halfway into her bag, watching him.
"Is he smiling because of me?"
There was no other obvious explanation. They hadn’t said anything particularly meaningful in the last few seconds, hadn’t shared some private joke. Just her, sitting there, apparently inspiring an entire wave of pure, unfiltered happiness radiating off the man driving her to dinner.
Her ego inflated instantly, something warm and giddy blooming in her chest.
"Okay. Maybe I still have some effect on him."
Unable to resist, she slipped her phone out quietly instead, angling it toward him, thumb hovering over the camera button. She wanted proof — proof that Liam Hartley had looked at her like that, smiled like that, because of her.
She snapped the photo to send to Penina and ask her what this could potentially mean.
The flash went off, blinding and immediate, catching Liam fully off guard.
"Shit!" Liam flinched hard, one hand briefly leaving the wheel to shield his eyes, blinking rapidly against the sudden burst of white light searing his vision. "What the—"
"S-Shit! I’m so sorry!" Vanessa yelped, fumbling to turn the flash off, mortified beyond belief. "I didn’t realize it was on, I swear I just wanted a picture—"
"Of what, my retinas?" Liam blinked several more times, trying to clear the spots dancing across his vision while somehow still managing to keep the car steady.
"I panicked! I didn’t mean to—"
"Vanessa." He glanced at her sideways, still blinking, and the laughter hit him all at once, deep and uncontrollable. "Did you seriously just flashbang me in my own car?"
"It wasn’t on purpose!"
"I nearly swerved into oncoming traffic."
"You did not—"
"I could have!" He was full-on laughing now, shoulders shaking slightly, the earlier giddy smile replaced by something even more genuine. "I have never, in my entire life, met someone as clumsy as you."
"I am not clumsy," Vanessa protested weakly, though the heat in her cheeks betrayed her completely. "I just wanted a picture of you smiling. You looked happy about something."
Liam’s laughter settled slightly, though the smile remained, softer now. "Yeah. I was."
"Because of what?"
He glanced at her, something unreadable flickering behind his eyes before he turned back to the road. "Good news but something tells me you have an idea of what that is."
Liam knew this would do wonders to her ego because he couldn’t tell her about his system so why not let her carry on with whatever fantasy she had built enough to want to snap him.
It would make the experience more pleasant but also make this interaction a lot easier.
Vanessa studied him for a moment, curiosity nagging at her, but she didn’t push. Instead she pulled up the photo she’d managed to actually capture — blurry, half his face washed out from the flash, but his smile still visible underneath it all.
She smiled down at the image, saving it quietly, deciding this clumsy, slightly ruined photo was somehow still worth keeping.
Liam pulled up to The Amber Fork, a small upscale diner tucked between two brick storefronts, warm golden light spilling from its windows onto the quiet sidewalk outside. He parked smoothly, cut the engine, and rounded the car without hesitation, reaching her door before she could even think to grab the handle herself.
He pulled it open and offered his hand.
"After you," he said.
Vanessa glanced at his hand, then up at him, a small, amused smile tugging at her lips as she took it and stepped out onto the curb.
"Still playing the gentleman act?" she teased.
"Not an act," Liam replied, guiding her toward the entrance with an easy, unhurried confidence.