Chapter 162 When did he ever say he was interested?
"Last time, I hadn't got to know him," Gavin explained, "Our interactions with the Lancelot Group are mostly with their local Gedser branch office, so we hardly ever meet Charles in person."
"The last time we had dinner, I observed closely, and he seemed like a good man, someone worth spending a lifetime with," Gavin said enthusiastically.
Daphne offered just a few words, "He's not suitable."
"How do you know without giving it a try?" Gavin was determined to have Daphne meet him, after all, this was about her potentially spending her life with someone. "Trust me, he's a good catch."
Daphne pursed her lips. Her stance suggested she wouldn't give up until she achieved her goal.
Gavin pressed on, "Is it good or not?"
"It's because I've tried that I know he's not suitable," Daphne finally said with an indifferent expression, "I forgot to tell you, the reason I've not been around Gedser is that I went off to marry him."
Gavin was flabbergasted, "What? You're saying what?"
"Yep, he is my ex-husband. I just got back from finalizing our divorce," Daphne divulged without providing a reason for their split.
Gavin searched her face for any hint that she might be joking. But no matter how he looked at her, he felt she wasn't lying.
‘But... married? And now an ex-husband? That implied they tied the knot and then untied it???’
"Does Uncle know about this?" Gavin's heart was pounding, the situation seeming somewhat surreal to him.
"Yeah, I've told him," Daphne replied, offering up her final words on the matter, "You go handle business with them; I've got things to do."
"Wait!" Gavin called out to stop her.
Daphne turned back to look at him, her face as calm as if the matter she had just discussed was nothing more than the most mundane thing in the world.
"You're truly not joking?"
"I'm not."
"Then why did you get a divorce?" Gavin thought to himself that Charles didn't seem like a bad guy.
Daphne was silent for a moment before finally saying, "Irreconcilable differences."
Gavin wanted to ask more, but Daphne had already left his office, leaving him amidst a swirl of complex emotions. He decided to send a message to Lydia to see if she knew the reason Daphne and Charles had divorced.
Lydia simply replied to him with one sentence, "Because Charles is a jerk."
Other than that, Lydia didn't say much else.
Her reasoning was simple; if her sister hadn't taken the initiative to tell Gavin the reason for the divorce, then she couldn't just blurt it out.
Gavin, looking at Lydia's message, felt a complex mix of curiosity and an investigative spirit taking hold of his heart. This preoccupation was so intense that, even when he was discussing business with Charles, his gaze would occasionally drift over to him.
Today's meeting was to discuss some of the finer points of a collaboration that had already been agreed upon.
In principle, such matters could have been handled by Bill and Manager Taylor. But Charles, thinking of the importance of the Murphy Group, took the initiative to come personally, hoping for the slight chance to run into Daphne.
"The CEO, Mr. Lancelot is asking you a question," his secretary touched Gavin discreetly, lowering her voice to remind him.
Gavin finally snapped back to the present, "Sorry, I was lost in thought about the collaborative details, didn't catch that."
Everyone was shocked, yet no one dared to comment.
Mark coughed lightly, eyeing him strangely.
Charles's eyes also darkened.
The conversation didn't last long; once all the collaborative details were agreed upon, not much else was said.
Just as Charles was about to leave, Gavin suddenly had an idea and called out to him, "If Mr. Lancelot is free, would you care to stay for some evening soup?"
"Sure," Charles agreed.
In his view, Gavin also carried the Yan surname; perhaps he was related to Daphne. Getting on good terms with her family and leaving a good impression was always the right move.
Gwendolyn crinkled her brow upon hearing this, whispering to Gavin with great complexity, "CEO, you're not eyeing Mr. Lancelot, are you?"
Gavin, "What?"
Mark's heart leaped; the words "eyeing" circled in his head.
"Not sure if you're really into him or not, but keep it low-key in the office," Gwendolyn warned, not noticing Mark's expression, thinking her voice was too low to be noticed, "Mr. Lancelot is no ordinary person."
If Gavin had been confused before, now he felt like hitting someone. When had he ever said he was interested?!
Just as he was about to retort, he caught Mark watching them with a weird look in his eyes. In that moment, he understood everything.
"Please have a seat in the guest room for a while," Gavin didn't elaborate further; such topics only got muddier the more one tried to clarify, "I'll arrange everything and then we can go have that soup together."
Charles's dark eyes were slightly intense as he uttered one word in agreement, "Sure."
With a slight smile, Gavin left. When he returned to the office, Gavin confronted his secretary with a vexed tone, "What in the world were you babbling about earlier? Have you lost your mind?"
Gwendolyn cleared her throat softly, equally embarrassed, "I just didn't expect Mr. Lancelot to have such keen ears, that's all."
"Is this about having keen ears?" Gavin felt like he was going to explode, furrowing his brow in anger, "What do you mean by saying that I'm interested in him? I'm a man and he's also a man."
This guy’s discernment was questionable.
Gwendolyn stood there, too scared to make a peep.
If it hadn't been for the CEO's mother coming to the company expressly to discuss certain matters with him, he wouldn’t have even considered that angle.
"It was your mother who asked me to keep an eye on your interactions with other men," Gwendolyn confessed, "I saw you were so engrossed in Mr. Lancelot during the meeting, that you didn’t hear a word he said, that made me suspect."
Would a normal man stare dreamily at another man?
Their CEO was a workaholic through and through. Ever since taking the position, no one had ever seen him distracted during a serious business discussion.
‘Was it so strange for him to wonder?’
A tight smile flickered across Gavin's face. He rubbed his tired eyes, trying to suppress the emotions welling inside him. Was it such a crime that he was thirty and still didn't have a girlfriend? Did his mother have to question his sexual orientation?
It was indeed something only a mother would do!
After Gavin and Gwendolyn left, Mark also began to gossip, "Boss... You don’t think the CEO of Murphy Group took a liking to you, do you?"
He had seen the way Mr. Murphy looked at their boss during the meeting, which easily led to speculation.
"No," Charles replied calmly and in a low tone.
Mark was curious. ‘Why so certain?’
"He must be Daphne’s Gavin," Charles speculated, though he felt the truth was probably close to his guess, "Probably found out about Daphne and my divorce.”
‘Gavin?’ Mark figured out who he was referring to, then a thought struck him. Wasn't that his cousin-in-law?
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