Chapter 27 You Should Eat Some Meat
Isabella was afraid of being seen, so she hastily hid under the desk and accidentally knocked over the water cup on the table. The water spilled all over the table, dripping onto her hair and collar.
Footsteps approached, and a pair of men's shoes appeared in front of Isabella, followed by Sebastian's voice from above. "Isabella?"
Isabella had no choice but to stand up, secretly hiding the bread behind her and blushing. She said, "Mr. Landon."
Sebastian's gaze paused at her collar for two seconds, "Why didn't you go to lunch?"
"I... I'm not hungry," Isabella lied.
As she finished saying she wasn't hungry, her stomach growled loudly. Isabella quickly covered her stomach with her hand, her face turning red.
Sebastian glanced at her stomach and said, "Come with me to the cafeteria. There’s something I need to discuss with you about the collaboration project with Mr. Williams."
"Okay," Isabella stuffed the unfinished bread into the drawer, grabbed her notebook and pen, and hurriedly followed him.
Sebastian caused a stir in the employee cafeteria. As the company president, he rarely ate in the employee cafeteria.
Sebastian found a seat with a good view and Jack quickly served him a meal. Isabella stood next to him, the scent of the food constantly teasing her nose, making her even hungrier.
"I'm so hungry," she said.
"I really want to eat!"
"Sit, Isabella," Sebastian said.
As Isabella sat down, she felt even hungrier.
Sebastian looked at her and pushed a plate of pasta toward her. "Have some," he said.
Isabella's defenses slowly crumbled. She knew that the cost of this meal meant nothing to Sebastian, and perhaps he had already seen through her lies. He was just respecting her by not calling her out on it. If she continued to refuse, she would really starve.
But she still felt very awkward and couldn't eat comfortably.
Fortunately, Jack was there. Sebastian didn't pay too much attention to her and quickly started a conversation with Jack about work.
As they talked and ate, it seemed like Isabella wasn't even there. Gradually, Isabella relaxed. She picked up her fork and ate with small bites.
"Isabella," Sebastian called her, instantly making her nervous. But he just smiled and said, "Why are you only eating pasta? You can have something else."
"Okay, thank you, Mr. Landon," Isabella replied, using a serving fork to take some green vegetables for herself.
Suddenly, there was a piece of meat on her plate.
Isabella looked up in surprise. Sebastian put down the serving fork and said with concern, "Eat some meat, you're too thin."
After saying that, he didn't immediately look away, but calmly locked eyes with Isabella. His gaze was warm and gentle, with a hint of sympathy, which made Isabella feel somewhat warmed.
She lowered her head and said, "Thank you, Mr. Landon..."
Sebastian smiled slightly, seeming indifferent, then turned his head to continue talking with Jack.
Not far away, several pairs of eyes were watching them closely. Laura had been keeping an eye on Isabella ever since she walked into the restaurant with Sebastian. When she saw Sebastian bring food to Isabella, she frowned.
The female colleagues sitting with Laura were equally shocked and began discussing them.
"What kind of relationship do Isabella and Mr. Landon have? Why is he so nice to her?"
"Who knows? Are they relatives?"
"Why do I feel like they might like each other?"
"No way! How could Mr. Landon like a simple girl like Isabella?"
"Could be. After all, everyone likes college girls, they're innocent enough."
"But isn't office romance prohibited in the company?"
"Excuse me! That's Mr. Landon we're talking about! He set the company's regulations to restrain the employees, but Mr. Landon is exempt from that."
Laura did not participate in the discussion, but instead took a photo with her phone and quickly sent it to Vanessa. She was used to sharing her experiences with Vanessa, even though Vanessa had already resigned. After sending her the photo, she also sent a bunch of texts.
Vanessa looked at the texts jealously. Instead of replying to Laura, she called Sebastian.
Sebastian's phone rang.
He picked it up and glanced at it, then walked to the window to answer the call. "Hello?"
On the other end of the phone, Vanessa said, "Are you coming back for lunch, Mr. Landon?"
"I already had lunch at the company. I’m not coming back. What’s up?”
"Alright then, it's nothing. I was just asking if you had lunch. I thought you would come back for lunch, so I made a lot of food... But since you already had lunch, forget it."
"Okay." Sebastian frowned. He remembered telling Vanessa in the morning that he had a dinner engagement and would be back late. Had she not understood what he said? Had she really made a table full of food for lunch?
"You should have more with grandma," Sebastian said.
"Okay." Vanessa pretended to obey him.
After hanging up the phone, Vanessa's smile gradually disappeared. She returned to the chat with Laura and opened the photo Laura sent. Her jealous eyes started to burn.
After some thought, Vanessa saved the photo and anonymously entered the company group chat. She sent the photo to all the groups and then exited the group chat, ensuring her own identity would not be discovered.
In less than half a day, Isabella became the subject of public criticism. Wherever she went, people were talking about her.
Even when she went to the restroom, she could hear negative comments about herself.
"Does Mr. Landon really like that Isabella? I went to the president's office to see her, and she's not that pretty! She looks so young, would Mr. Landon like that type of girl?"
"Don't judge a book by its cover. You think she looks young, but she might actually be very cunning."
"That's right. If she can seduce Mr. Landon, she must have some ulterior motives!"
"She's really smart. If I were that cunning, I wouldn't have to work so hard."
Isabella, who was in the small cubicle, was speechless.
Over the course of one afternoon, Isabella heard similar debates at least ten times. Since she had heard them, Sebastian probably knew about it too. She waited for Sebastian to clarify what was going on, but he didn't react until the end of the workday.
Could it be... that he didn’t know about this?
It was impossible. Even if he hadn't read the company group message, this had spread so widely that Jack would have told him.
This was about his reputation. He would definitely clarify things.
Isabella was confused, so she waited outside the company door when she got off work.
When she saw Sebastian's car approaching, she walked up briskly and raised her hand to stop him.
She felt that what she was doing was a bit childish, but she didn't expect the car to actually slow down in front of her.
