Chapter 200 I Think There's Something off about You Today
The doc's office door was tightly shut, and Miranda craned her neck, her intense stare practically burning a hole through it.
She had no clue how long she'd been waiting, but finally, the door creaked open.
Regina stepped out, clutching a thick stack of test reports. Miranda bolted up to her.
"Regina, what's the deal? Nothing major, right?"
Regina, seeing Miranda's freak-out, just shrugged. "It's cool."
"What do you mean by 'cool'?"
"No life-threatening stuff."
Miranda was left speechless.
Seeing Regina so chill, Miranda felt a wave of panic and mumbled, "Regina, why you sound so weird?"
"I'm really fine, just my old headache acting up." Regina stuffed the test reports into her bag and flashed Miranda a sweet smile. "Let's roll, it's almost five. You should totally have dinner at our place tonight. Thanks for tagging along, Miranda."
Miranda frowned the whole way as she drove Regina home.
As soon as they walked in, Emily rushed out to greet them. Seeing Regina in good spirits, she sighed in relief, "Mrs. Semona, where'd you and your friend go today?"
"Just hit the mall for a bit."
"Buy anything?"
"Yeah, snagged a bag."
Miranda couldn't wrap her head around why Regina would lie.
Around seven, Douglas strolled in house.
He looked a bit surprised to see Miranda. Actually, Regina had fibbed to Emily.
She hadn't told Douglas about their afternoon outing. Only now did she explain, "I've been sleeping too much at home, so I wanted to get out for a bit. Asked Miranda to come with."
Douglas glanced at Miranda with a polite expression, but she was uneasy, causing her to instinctively look away.
Regina quietly took Douglas's arm. "Let's eat."
"You must be beat and starving after being out all afternoon. You didn't have to wait for me."
Miranda chimed in quietly, "It's an honor to have dinner with Mr. Semona."
They all headed to the dining room.
The table was loaded with a fancy spread, but Miranda, lost in thought, barely touched her food.
"Not feeling the food? Want something else? I can have the chef whip it up."
Douglas's concern made Miranda even more flustered.
She took a deep breath and said, "No, no, there's plenty here. I like all these dishes!"
Douglas casually popped open a bottle of wine. Miranda had never had it before, but she knew it.
This bottle was worth over $100,000.
"Regina mentioned you like a drink? Go ahead, have some tonight."
"No, I gotta drive!"
"I'll get a driver to take you home, or if you want, you can crash here for a few days?"
Miranda knew exactly what Douglas was hinting at.
"I'd rather not stay, but if Regina wants company, she can call me anytime."
"Thanks."
"My pleasure."
Maybe because Douglas chatted with her a bit, Miranda's nerves from the afternoon started to chill, and her mind wandered.
Faced with a table full of mouth-watering food, she finally started to nibble.
But she kept sneaking glances at Regina.
Regina was all about her food, acting like everything was totally normal.
Miranda thought to herself, 'Maybe I am just tripping?'
Knowing Regina, she wouldn't do anything crazy or out of line.
Dinner was pretty chill overall.
Miranda, a bit buzzed, insisted on heading home to see her mom. Douglas got a driver to take her.
After that, he noticed Regina heading to the study to read and followed her.
He plopped down on the sofa, casually flipping through a book Regina had been reading. Seeing what it was about, Douglas was kinda surprised, "You thinking about applying to the State Department?"
Regina was deep in her book, not really looking his way. She was jotting down notes while replying, "I've had this idea since I graduated, but it got shelved for a bunch of reasons. Not sure if I'll apply, just prepping for now."
"If you wanna go for it, I'm all in."
Regina still didn't look up, but her eyelashes fluttered, giving away her emotions. The calm she had kept up seemed ready to crack.
She asked in a low voice, "What will the Semona family think?"
He smiled slightly, "They'll be proud of you, no doubt."
The Semona family had made their dough through business and had delveloped an extensive family.
Most of the kids took over the family biz when they grew up. Leo had divvied up his enterprises before retiring, giving everyone their roles.
But not all Semona family members went into business.
Leo had originally groomed Douglas's dad as his successor, but Herman later became a prosecutor, which made Leo proud too.
Douglas's mom had been the principal dancer at the National Theatre back in the day, someone Leo admired a lot.
As for Nicole, as long as she was happy, the family let her do her thing. She never had any pressure from the family, so now she just traveled, shopped, and spent money.
With Christmas coming up, Douglas hadn't seen her yet. He heard she was jealous that Douglas and Regina had seen the Northern Lights last time, so she went to see them herself this time.
"Regina, just do what you wanna do. Don't sweat anything else."
Seeing Regina stay quiet, Douglas closed the book in his hand and walked over to her at the desk.
But weirdly, since he came into the study, Regina hadn't looked at him.
What he didn't know was that Regina wasn't avoiding him; she just didn't dare to look.
"Regina?"
"Yeah?"
"Look at me, will ya?"
Douglas's half-joking request snapped Regina back to reality.
She looked up and instinctively explained, "Sorry, I was too into my book."
Douglas glanced at the book filled with dense notes, he was lost in thought.
His gaze was super sharp, making it hard for Regina to hide anything from him.
She slowly closed the book and asked him back, "What's on your mind?"
Douglas's eyes darkened. "I think something's off with you today."
