Sophie Cooper, the family nutritionist, spent the whole evening waiting at the Blackwood mansion. Christine never showed up, and all the food she'd prepared went cold.
Near dawn, she tried calling Christine, but the number was unavailable. Having a pretty good idea what was going on, she angrily texted her brother Jas. Sure enough, her guess was right - Christine was in the boss's office suite.
Thinking about her boss's brutish behavior and Christine's pregnancy, Sophie grew more furious by the minute. The anger even followed her into her dreams. The next morning, before 7 AM, she grabbed her dical kit and stord into Adrian's company's top floor.
At 7 AM, before office hours, only three people were in the spacious office: her brother Jas, Daniel the business assistant, and Thomas, the bodyguard.
Jas was already at his desk working. Daniel was pacing around with a magazine, pretending to study business matters while sneaking peeks at the inner room with a crafty look.
Thomas sat far away in loose casual clothes, sipping coffee.
Daniel spotted Sophie first.
Seeing the young woman's furious face, he froze for three seconds before his eyes lit up with realization: Ah-ha! So the woman inside must be Christine!
He rushed to stop Sophie, speaking in a low voice, eagerly sharing all the gossip - how intense last night had been, how Jas had called him in, how the boss didn't finish until past 3 AM, and how they'd all crashed at the office.
Sophie couldn't care less about gossip. Daniel's smug face only made her angrier. She jabbed him hard in the chest with her elbow, hissing: "The boss has gone crazy! Why didn't you stop him?! What if she loses the baby?!"
Daniel's face dropped as he clutched his chest dramatically, whining: "How could I stop him? He's the boss - nobody dares to tell him what to do!"
Sophie turned to Jas, hoping for so brotherly support.
Jas glanced up at her, looking amused, then returned to his work, typing away: "Don't look at . I'm staying out of this. If you're brave enough, handle it yourself."
"What the heck!"
Sophie deflated imdiately - of course she wasn't brave enough.
Sure, she wanted to help and felt terrible for Christine, but she knew her limits. Forget about taking action; just surviving Adrian's intimidating stare for five seconds would be an achievent.
Her eyes darted around sneakily before landing on the person sitting farthest away.
Thomas, as Adrian's bodyguard, always stuck strictly to his job description: protect the boss's safety, act when necessary, stay quiet when not. As for office gossip, he made it a point to ignore everything, pretending he hadn't heard a thing.
Sophie scurried over to him, cleared her throat, and while holding her dical kit, gave Thomas's arm a firm pat: "You- you need to do sothing! Thomas, you're the boss's right-hand man, you need to control him!"
The young woman stared at him earnestly, as if she was entrusting him with saving the planet.
Thomas took a sip of coffee, stood up, and gave her an amused look before coldly stating: "I'm leaving. Goodbye, thanks for the coffee."
Sophie made faces behind his back, muttering: "So unfair! No more coffee for you!"
For convenience, Jas, Daniel, and Thomas shared a large three-bedroom apartnt near the office. Located in the luxurious CBD, the neighborhood had all sorts of fancy anities. Sophie often visited, using "checking on her brother" as an excuse to hang out and enjoy their place.
But she wasn't just mooching. As a nutritionist, she had her specialties. Every visit, she'd bring her homade low-fat als or healthy snacks, plus carefully planned als. She'd share extras with Daniel and Thomas, and even help clean up their place.
Recently, while munching on Sophie's homade cookies and watching her clean, Daniel asked Jas curiously if Sophie was single.
Jas eyed sneaky Daniel, his internal alarm bells ringing. Though Daniel was decent enough in character and ability, his biggest issue was his sohow feminine looks and mysterious orientation. Plus, he was such a gossip. Jas instinctively felt this guy wasn't good enough for his sister.
He casually replied: "Actually, my sister has a husband back ho. Married five years, two kids—"
"Oh shut up! Jas! What kind of brother are you?!"
Sophie exploded, throwing aside her broom and mop, ready to charge at him: "You- you- you can't block my love life just because you're single!"
Daniel burst out laughing, cleared his throat, smoothed his hair, and asked seriously: "So... what do you think about ?"
Sophie glanced at him once, then quickly turned to grab her broom: "Actually, being single isn't so bad after all."
Daniel: "..."
Thomas, fresh from working out, walked past them while checking his phone ssages, letting out a low chuckle.
He'd set up a simple gym area in the common room, where he'd do shoulder, back, glute, and leg workouts. Among the three guys, he was the most dedicated, constantly building muscle. Jas hit the gym three or four tis a week, while Daniel refused strength training, sticking only to the treadmill.
Sophie rushed over with her broom, asking Thomas if he was laughing at Daniel or her.
Thomas, still in his workout clothes with a towel around his neck, ignored the question. He casually pocketed his phone and said he needed to get to work.
Sophie pouted, swishing her broom at his shoes, saying sarcastically: "Bye-bye, lonely single."
Thomas gave her a blank look, then suddenly flicked her forehead, saying: "See you, little single."
That unexpected gesture left Sophie unusually stunned for 30 seconds, her hand frozen halfway to her forehead. Then she scurried over to Jas, tugging his sleeve, asking if Thomas had a secret crush on her.
Among their group, Jas was the oldest and Sophie the youngest. Everyone followed Jas's lead in treating Sophie like a little sister. Clever and full of ideas, she never really saw these three n as brothers, including Jas.
In Sophie's words: "All n are crazy, and, ahem, the boss is the craziest."
Of course, she'd never say this to Adrian's face - partly because he was terrifying, and partly because he paid... really well.
If it weren't for Adrian, she and Jas, two holess kids, would probably still be struggling sowhere out there.
Jas didn't believe Thomas would have a crush on his scatter-brained sister, but at Sophie's insistence, he observed Thomas for three months - from work hours to morning workouts, lunch breaks, boxing with the boss, attending events, until closing ti. There wasn't a single hint of attraction toward Sophie.
He "tactfully" told his silly sister: "Give it up, stop being delusional. Thomas is definitely not interested in you."
Sophie wasn't happy with this, touching her forehead where Thomas had flicked her, grumbling: "All n are liars! If he's not interested, why did he flick my forehead? That's what always happens in TV dramas!"
Jas didn't bother comnting on his sister's romantic fantasies, saying she'd watched too many dramas and turned her brain to mush.
Sophie's awkward behavior around Thomas lasted for months. She'd avoid greeting him and run away whenever she spotted him, until Thomas got sick from irregular als while attending too many business events with Adrian. He stayed ho for two days with stomach problems.
Sophie, visiting Jas, ended up taking care of Thomas for a morning.
She made him banana smoothies and brought herbal tea, telling him to drink that instead of his usual iced coffee.
They chatted casually, and before leaving, Sophie ca back to get revenge, flicking Thomas's forehead and saying fiercely: "Good! Bye!"
Surprisingly, Thomas didn't get angry. Sitting in bed, one hand on his stomach, he chuckled softly and said: "Thank you, see you."
Sophie ran out without looking back, thinking to herself: Who knew Thomas could actually be nice?
But then again, being nice was his only good point. Whenever it ca to the boss's personal matters, if it was even slightly outside his job description, he wouldn't lift a finger to help. Always with that "I only do what I'm paid for" attitude, so unhelpful!
Would it kill him to lend a hand?! Doesn't he know anything about earning good karma? No wonder he's been single for so long, hmph.
While listing all their quirks and faults, Sophie sat by the bed, taking care of Christine who had just woken up in the office bedroom.
She complained about her bad luck working with these foolish n, then looked up to see Christine covering her mouth, eyes crinkled in amusent.
Sophie pouted, asking: "What's so funny, Miss Christine?"
Christine lowered her hand, leaning against the headboard, her eyes soft with warmth as she said sincerely: "Thank you."
Indeed, Sophie, Jas, and everyone around Adrian were complete strangers to Christine.
Yet she felt they were all incredibly kind to her.
Such nice group of people.
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