###Chapter 46: No Longer the Little Girl No One Cared About
He had given her the perfect out.
It wasn’t that you needed company, but that I was offering a more comfortable environnt.
Maxine Rhodes’s tense back relaxed imperceptibly. She didn’t turn around, simply murmuring a low, "Okay."
In the study, the warm, yellow light of the ergency lamp did indeed dispel the unsettling darkness.
Ethan Hawthorne had her sit in the comfortable recliner while he sat behind the desk and opened his laptop.
"I just need to wrap a few things up," he explained.
The faint tapping of the keyboard, the sound of his steady breathing, and the muffled patter of rain, deadened by the heavy curtains, blended into a strange yet comforting white noise.
Maxine curled up in the recliner, a thin blanket he had handed her draped over her, the crisp scent of him lingering in the air.
She secretly glanced up at him. The light cast soft shadows on his well-defined profile, his long lashes lowered, his expression focused.
This man always knew how to show up when she needed him most, and when to maintain the perfect, comforting silence.
An indescribable sense of security enveloped her.
Her initial fear gradually faded, replaced by a long-lost tranquility, the feeling of being safely protected. Exhaustion washed over her, her eyelids growing heavier and heavier, until finally, she drifted off to sleep, cocooned in that serene sense of safety.
After her breathing beca even and deep, Ethan Hawthorne’s fingers stopped tapping on the keyboard.
He lifted his gaze, his eyes landing on her sleeping face. His usually cool, detached expression softened.
He watched her quietly for a long ti before rising with extre care. He dimd the ergency lamp, returned to his seat, turned off the laptop screen, and simply sat with her in the darkness.
「Later that night.」
CLICK—
With a soft click, the overhead light in the study flickered on without warning, banishing the warm, hazy glow. The power was back.
The harsh light made Maxine Rhodes furrow her brows, and she began to stir, half-asleep.
The instant the light ca on, Ethan Hawthorne reacted with lightning speed. He rose swiftly and silently, his hand reaching out to press an inconspicuous master switch button next to the main light switch on the wall.
CLICK. The light, which had been on for no more than two or three seconds, went out again. The study plunged back into darkness, with only the ergency lamp casting its warm glow.
After doing all this, he quickly sat back down, as if he had never moved at all.
Maxine Rhodes, now fully awake from the brief flicker of light and dark, rubbed her eyes in confusion. "Did... Did the power just co back on?"
Ethan Hawthorne sat in the shadows, his voice as steady as ever, betraying nothing. "No."
He paused before adding, his tone carrying the perfect touch of exasperation, "Probably just an unstable voltage. It flickered."
"Oh."
Maxine didn’t suspect a thing. She shifted in the recliner, and the heavy wave of sleepiness soon pulled her back into her dreams.
Once he was sure she was fast asleep again, a slow smile spread across Ethan Hawthorne’s lips in the darkness.
He selfishly wished for this night—dark, but warm with her by his side—to last a little longer.
The next afternoon, Maxine Rhodes pushed open the glass door of the dessert shop, and a wind chi tinkled brightly.
"Well, well, if it isn’t Director Rhodes, finally rembering this lonely old soul?"
Susie Sumrs, wearing an adorable strawberry apron, was serving a freshly baked soufflé to a custor. She turned and shot Maxine Rhodes a playfully resentful look.
After finishing up with her work, she ca over with two cups of hot cocoa and a slice of their signature tiramisu, sitting down across from Maxine.
"So, spill. How are things with you and your Mr. Hawthorne?" she teased, though the concern in her eyes was unmistakable.
Maxine curved her lips into a smile and briefly recounted the story of last night’s power outage and how Ethan Hawthorne had rushed back.
Susie bit her spoon, her eyes instantly lighting up. "So your husband really just dropped everything and raced back through a thunderstorm for you? Not bad, him!"
Maxine looked down, stirring her cocoa. "He just happened to be working nearby."
"Don’t give that!" Susie leaned in, lowered her voice, and pointed a finger toward Maxine’s ear from across the table. "Maxine Rhodes, you’re still as terrible a liar as ever! The tips of your ears turned red just now when you said that!"
As she spoke, she leaned back in her chair, scooped up a large bite of tiramisu, and closed her eyes in satisfaction. Then, her tone shifted to one of rare seriousness. "But for real, sweetie, if you’ve t the right person, it’s okay to try relying on them a little. You’re not that little girl anymore, the one who could cry until her voice was hoarse and still be ignored."
She paused, then added with mock sourness, "Sigh. It just ans a certain soone will probably have even less ti to grace my humble shop with her presence! So much for ’sisters before misters’!"
Maxine couldn’t help but laugh. She leaned over, affectionately resting her head on Susie’s shoulder, her voice taking on a soft, wheedling tone. "I know, I know, Boss Sumrs is the most magnanimous~ I promise, I’ll report here every week on ti from now on, rain or shine, okay?"
"That’s more like it!" Susie couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from turning up as Maxine leaned on her.
She gave Maxine’s head a gentle, mock-annoyed push, but her voice softened. "Alright, sit up. Try the new cake. I saved it especially for you; no one else gets any."
A sweet feeling filled Maxine’s heart as she ate the cake, but it also made her start to rethink her relationship with Ethan Hawthorne.
When she returned to the office that afternoon and received the notice about a business trip to Jaxen, Maxine found that, for the first ti, she had the urge to proactively report her travel plans to soone else.
anwhile, Ethan Hawthorne finished a video conference. His gaze swept over the clear blue sky outside, and the corners of his lips lifted unconsciously at the thought of the upcoming weekend.
He was planning to ask Maxine to go to a newly opened hot spring villa in the suburbs this weekend. Her eyes had clearly lit up when she saw the brochure for it last ti.
But just as he was about to invite her, Maxine told him she had a business trip to Jaxen over the weekend—with Benjamin Sterling, no less—and that she had to leave that very evening.
Hearing that she was going on a business trip with Benjamin Sterling, Ethan Hawthorne couldn’t sit still. He quickly called Erza Sinclair.
"Mr. Hawthorne?" ca Erza Sinclair’s voice.
"You’re coming with on a business trip to Jaxen this weekend," Ethan Hawthorne said. "Book tickets for tonight."
A three-second silence followed on the other end of the line before Erza’s voice returned, struggling to remain professional but failing to hide his despair. "Mr. Hawthorne... has a project run into a problem that requires urgent attention? I’ll coordinate with the Jaxen branch imdiately..."
Ethan Hawthorne’s tone was nonchalant. "There’s no problem. I just suddenly rembered that it’s about ti I paid a personal visit to our branch in Jaxen."
"...Yes, Mr. Hawthorne."
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