Bought For A Baby, Kept For A Lifetime-Chapter 28: Hate

No, not just familiar—his eyes felt intimately familiar.

Without realizing what she was doing, Anne stepped into the elevator, slowly walking towards the man.

If anyone else could have seen her at this moment, they would consider her bold for daring to walk up to Andrew Sterling so audaciously. They would also think her mad for not once breaking her gaze away from his ice-cold, black-as-night eyes.

Anne didn’t know what she was doing; some sort of instinct pushed her to the man, as if when she got close enough, she would be able to see his eyes clearly enough to decipher what made it feel so familiar.

She didn’t realize that the closer she got, the harder his rigid face became. She didn’t realize that every step she took towards him caused something to awaken in his chest.

It was that strange feeling again—the tickling feeling of feathers touching his heart... a thousand feathers, or perhaps even a million, he couldn’t tell. And her scent, light and feminine, assaulted his senses, bringing back images of his head nestled at the crook of her neck so intimately, how he was buried deep inside her sweet tightness that...

He abruptly cut off those thoughts by shutting his eyes and clenching his fists.

Anne suddenly stopped when his eyes closed, and she realized she’d walked herself right up to the man and quickly took a few steps back. Looking up at him, she caught the tinge of redness on his ears, and she couldn’t believe it.

Why had this arrogant man’s face turned so red?

In the next instant, his eyes flashed open, and his hand circled her arm roughly.

"How dare you come anywhere close to me?" Anne was stumped by that question.

The familiarity of his eyes had vanished now for some reason, and she’d been awakened from the spell she’d fallen in.

"I’m sorry, I was just about to get in the elevator to go down to the—"

"Stay the hell away from me. I don’t want to see your face, I don’t want to smell your presence in the air I breathe. You have no right to breathe the same air I do, you have no right to look at me with those damned eyes, and you have no right—" He stopped himself, but the words that had been about to slip out of his mouth were: she had no right to make him feel this way.

She had no right to be a constant thought in his mind after that night.

But his eyes, gazing down at her, were still chilly. She felt as if he were holding back his rage towards her, otherwise he would have done something worse to her—something far worse than grabbing her arm so tightly it hurt.

What was with this man?

She remembered the last time she’d seen him. It was at a bus stop and nowhere near the company building, but he’d still acted like a high and mighty jerk, looking at her with this same kind of anger.

Some sort of courage rose in her, and she snatched herself out of his grip.

"Just what have I done to you that’s so bad? Do you treat every one of your employees like this?"

Her outburst caused his rigid expression to stiffen.

That was right. Why was he giving an insignificant person his anger?

His face instantly turned neutral again. When he spoke this time, it lacked any emotions.

"Don’t let me see your face again."

He strode out of the elevator with long steps as he made his way to the Chairman’s office.

Anne watched his tall back disappear as the elevator doors closed.

Don’t let him see her face again? Was she dying to see his face?

She couldn’t begin to understand him.

He seemed to have disliked her right from the moment she’d accidentally spilled coffee on him. At first, she’d thought that was the reason he disliked her, but just now...

Anne sighed.

His eyes just now showed nothing but hatred. He seemed to despise her.

Why would he hate her this much when he barely knew her?

Anne stopped by HR and grabbed the documents Clara had sent her to get. Then she went to the cafeteria and bought coffee. By the time she emerged, she looked like a courier carrying so many things in her hands.

She narrowly avoided bumping into many people till she reached the PR department again.

She sighted Rebecca coming towards her and quickly took a few steps to the left to avoid her, but like a carefully planned move, Rebecca also shifted to the left, bumping into Anne. Before Anne could steady everything she grabbed and not lose her footing, the coffee had spilled over her own body.

She heard a small giggle from Rebecca, and when her eyes raised sharply, the latter’s expression quickly changed to feigned remorse.

"Oh shoot, I’m so sorry! I was trying to avoid you, but you bumped into me."

Anne scoffed, "I bumped into you? I moved away so you could go first, and besides, there’s plenty of room here to move. If you really were trying to avoid me but ended up bumping into me anyway, does that mean you’re blind?"

Rebecca’s haughty-looking expression momentarily fell before her gaze darted over Anne from her head down to her toes with contempt. "I’m blind? But I’m not the one standing here with my shirt soaked in coffee."

She chuckled and said with a feigned good-natured voice, "You should really learn to watch where you’re going. You’ll have to go back and get Clara’s coffee all over again wearing those soiled clothes. A pity no one in this office has any spare shirts, so you’ll have to let it dry on you."

Anne suddenly smiled sweetly, "That’s okay, thanks for the advice. I’ll make sure to carefully watch where I’m going next time."

Anne heard sounds of held-back laughter come from the other employees.

"She’s so fucking dumb."

"She’s actually thanking Becky? So stupid."

Anne pretended she didn’t hear anything from the others and continued.

"But... why don’t we become besties, just for today? We should wear matching clothes."

"What?" Rebecca asked in confusion, but she didn’t even get a chance to ask anything else when Anne grabbed a cup from Kendra’s desk.

"Hey! My bubble tea!" Kendra complained when the cup was suddenly grabbed off her work desk.

The next thing that was heard was Rebecca’s loud, disbelief-filled gasp.

"What the fuck, are you insane?!" she shrieked at Anne, who still maintained a smile on her face.

"What are you screaming about? I just repaid the favor. You spilled coffee on me, I spilled tea on you. We’re even."

Rebecca’s eyes could be shooting lasers, if possible, with the amount of hate with which she glared at Anne.

"I said it was a fucking mistake!" she growled. She couldn’t even begin to believe her expensive Koline brand dress had been soiled. She was literally dripping in bubble tea as Anne had poured it right over her head.

Anne closed the distance between them, looking Rebecca right in the eye.

"I refuse to take apologies over such mistakes. Take this as a lesson—don’t let this so-called mistake happen with me again. If you see me coming, take a different route."

This person was clearly out to bully her, so it was best to give back to her the exact same thing she gave to Anne. Being quiet and taking insults was the safe route, but that would only encourage the other party. Standing up to them, however, would be something they least expect.

One thing was certain for Anne: if they steered clear of her, she would do the same. And if they attacked her, she would absolutely do the same.

"You ruined my dress, I already apologized to you. Do you think Clara will let you off this matter? Everyone saw me apologize, but you chose to bully me by pouring a drink over me too. You clearly won’t last in this department or in this company. Say goodbye to your new job." Rebecca couldn’t believe the rookie had decided to fight back, but either way, Rebecca had a way of dealing with her.

The other employees were shocked when Anne retaliated. They had assumed she was a meek and submissive type who would definitely avoid trouble at all costs, but she clearly wasn’t a pushover like they thought.

However, when Rebecca still turned the situation in her favor, they all smirked knowingly.

Clara was a kind soul who would never tolerate any injustice or stand idly by and watch people bullying others. Anne definitely wouldn’t get away with this.

As if she had been sent down at this particular moment, Clara came out of her office at the same time Rebecca saw the door move and instantly brought out her ace.

"Anne, aren’t you too mean? How many times do you want me to apologize to you? It was nothing but a mistake, but you actually poured tea all over me? Do you know how hard I worked to pay for this dress? Don’t you have any sympathy? Human beings make mistakes—how could you be so inconsiderate?"

Seeing Rebecca tear up, delivering lines like a telenovela top actress, the rest of the employees noticed Clara’s presence and instantly chimed in.

"Anne, you’re the one who’s wrong on this one. How can you say you don’t accept apologies when Becky has been apologizing to you so many times? You even ruined her new dress? That’s heartless." Jessica immediately backed up Rebecca.

Clara seemed to have gotten an idea of what was going on. She immediately approached the ruckus with a frown on her unearthly gorgeous face.

"What is going on here?"