Chapter 157 Yvette's Farewell Party
"What did you just say?" Wyatt blurted out, eyes wide. "Yvette, do you even hear yourself?"
Before Yvette could get a word in, Wyatt kept going, "The spots at Center Hospital are super limited, and the professor busted his butt to get you this chance. All you gotta do is pass the exam, and you're in. This is a golden ticket, girl. Miss it, and you might never get another shot at Center Hospital."
Wyatt paused, giving a bitter smile. "Yvette, you know all this, right?"
"Yeah," Yvette replied softly, her eyes glued to the computer screen filled with French text, the words flashing and reflecting in her bright eyes.
She pressed her lips together. "I'm prepping for the exam."
Maybe Yvette's words had some magic, 'cause Lassie had been chill lately.
Every day, she did the house chores and took care of Kyle and Wayne without a peep. She wasn't nagging Yvette as much and had stopped doing those annoying things.
Yvette felt way more relaxed.
Checking the time, she saw it was the end of the workday. She packed her bag and got ready to bounce.
Just as she reached the time clock and was about to punch out, a loud noise erupted behind her.
Yvette spun around, startled, to see bright-colored streamers reflecting the light, slowly drifting down and landing on her head.
She stood there, stunned, as her colleagues, led by Sylvia, came out one by one, grinning at her.
Sylvia burst out laughing, "Your confused face is priceless! We should've snapped a pic."
Sylvia walked over and brushed the streamers off Yvette's head. "Did you forget today’s your last day at the Medical Evaluation Center?"
Hearing this, Yvette finally got it—they were throwing her a surprise send-off.
She felt a bit touched but still played it cool. "It's just the end of the workday. Aren't you worried the supervisor will see this mess and dock your pay?"
Before she could finish, the supervisor popped up from behind a colleague. "Yvette's got a point."
"Supervisor?" Yvette was a bit taken aback. "What are you doing here?"
"You mean why am I in on this?" The supervisor shot a look at Sylvia. "Blame Sylvia. She blocked me and wouldn't let me leave unless I joined."
Yvette couldn't help but laugh. "Sylvia."
"Alright, don't get all mushy and fall in love with me," Sylvia said with a grin, "I'll clean up later, no worries."
Yvette looked at her coworkers, who she'd been with for so long, and felt so moved she couldn't speak for a moment.
She glanced at her watch. "No one's working overtime today? How about I treat everyone to dinner?"
Sylvia said dramatically, "You're treating this many people? If I'd known, I wouldn't have invited the supervisor."
Everyone burst out laughing.
The private room was lit up, with a dozen people from the department sitting around.
Yvette looked at these familiar faces, feeling a mix of emotions, knowing she wouldn't be working at the Medical Evaluation Center tomorrow.
When the food arrived, Sylvia called everyone together for a group photo.
Yvette checked out the photo in the group chat, her face looking beat but her eyes full of hope. She saved it to her phone.
Meanwhile, Albert had gone back to his old workaholic ways, either jet-setting non-stop or cranking out research reports day and night, putting a ton of pressure on Victor.
After their boss praised Albert in front of Victor again, hinting that he should take notes from Albert, Victor finally snapped and headed to Albert's office.
When Victor knocked on the door, Albert was deep into writing a report on his computer.
Victor felt the heat right away, pulled up a chair, and plopped down next to Albert. "Dude, why are you busting your butt so hard lately? You're stressing me out!"
Albert didn't even look up, just kept typing away like Victor wasn't even there.
Victor leaned in to peek at the screen and immediately got a headache. "Man, you're so buried in your research, making the rest of us look like slackers. You might as well be lovesick and moping around all day!"
Albert shot back with a sneer, "You are slackers."
"What's your deal? Why are you so salty with me?" Victor asked, looking nervous. "Did I do something to tick you off? I don't think so."
Albert's face darkened.
Just then, there was another knock on the open door, and Steve walked in, holding a stack of documents, which he handed to Albert.
Seeing Steve's expression, Victor burst out laughing. "What's up with you? Did Albert work you to death?"
Steve scratched his head sheepishly. "Not really, it's just I'm way behind Valdemar. I gotta step up my game."
Hearing that, Albert glanced at the time on his computer. "You can go now."
Steve asked, "What about the rest of the documents?"
Albert replied, "No worries, Mr. Thomas got this."
Albert's tone was serious, but Victor caught a whiff of sarcasm.
Noticing the difference in Albert's attitude towards him and Steve, Victor sensed something was off.
"Something's up, Albert," Victor said, eyeing him. "Are you gunning for me?"
Steve chimed in, "I don't think so. Mr. Valdemar trusts you a lot, why would he..."
Before Steve could finish, Victor suddenly had a lightbulb moment and asked, "Wait, Yvette didn't try to patch things up with you that day?"
Albert's face changed, his fingers paused, and he lightly rubbed his right hand fingers.
Victor quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, man. Who would've thought Yvette would be so hard to win over?"
Seeing that, Steve quickly backed out of the office, leaving just the sound of Victor's heartbeat and Albert's fingers tapping on the keyboard.
Victor said, "I really didn't mean it. To make it up to you, I'll help with the documents."
As he spoke, Victor pulled out his phone, ready to look up research papers for Albert, but accidentally opened Facebook.
Victor's Facebook page was on the News Feed, and it auto-refreshed, showing a new photo.
He was stunned, clicked on the picture, and stared at it for a long time.
Victor's Adam's apple bobbed, his expression conflicted.
After a while, Victor finally whispered, "Albert, isn't Yvette still recovering? Why is she out drinking?"
Albert's fingers twitched.
