Out of Control: Into Your Everything-Chapter 81: Zhao

Aaron was surprised, and took the bag gingerly. Even though he was dying to know what was inside, since it was something Julian Ford was giving Scarlett Shaw, he didn’t dare open it himself.

He left the president’s office and immediately headed downstairs to the Investment Department to give it to Scarlett.

Scarlett looked at him, baffled. "What’s this?"

Aaron said, "Just open it and you’ll see."

Hurry up, hurry up—he was so curious.

Seeing Aaron’s impatient face, Scarlett felt like a bandit was trying to trick her, so she deliberately refused to open it. She set the bag aside and, calm as ever, said:

"I’m busy right now. I’ll open it later."

Aaron said, "Are you even human? Don’t you have any curiosity at all?"

Scarlett blinked, "So because I’m focused on work, I’m not human anymore?"

Aaron: "But this is—"

President Ford gave this to you—he got stuck mid-sentence and didn’t dare finish.

Lily, at the neighboring desk, overheard and looked over, all excited. "Assistant Carson, what’s this about—Christmas is almost here, so you especially bought a present for Scarlett?"

Aaron just hemmed and hawed vaguely, neither confirming nor denying it.

Scarlett glanced up at Aaron—one look at his constipated expression, and she instantly realized the bag was most likely from Julian Ford.

Scarlett hadn’t really been interested, but now her curiosity had been piqued. She opened the bag and took out a hand warmer.

The hand warmer was pink, shaped like a cat’s face—round and chubby, the rechargeable kind.

Compared to the one Jasper Spencer gave her at the guesthouse, this one was much more exquisite and cute.

Scarlett paused, a gentle warmth spreading from her chest in waves she couldn’t control. Her fingertips tightened lightly around the hand warmer, and for a moment the whole world went silent.

Lily grinned knowingly and teased, "Assistant Carson, who would’ve thought—you’re so thoughtful, even knowing Scarlett’s hands get cold."

Aaron smiled but kept quiet.

Inside, though, he was floored.

The person who knew Scarlett’s hands got cold wasn’t him, but the one upstairs in the president’s office.

A hand warmer might not be worth much money, but considering Julian Ford gave it, and right when Scarlett needed it—don’t tell him this wasn’t deliberate flattery, because Aaron absolutely wouldn’t believe it.

Usually, even when it was gifts for important clients, Julian just had him pick something out—Julian would only take a quick look at the options.

This time, though, it was obvious he’d put real thought into it.

Aaron was suddenly at a loss.

Could it be that Scarlett—once considered a fallen stock—still had hope?

Scarlett felt a little blank, and almost on autopilot, took out her phone and opened a WhatsApp chat with Julian Ford.

She typed a simple thank you.

But right after sending, her slender fingers still hovered over the keyboard, and almost as if possessed, she typed "I really like it," and sent it off—then instantly panicked and recalled the message less than a second later.

For the rest of the workday, Scarlett’s attention stayed on the cat hand warmer. Not even noticing when Skyler Miller walked by her desk, until she suddenly heard,

"Scarlett, go home early and rest up. You’ll be flying for more than ten hours tomorrow."

Scarlett snapped back, "Oh—okay."

As she spoke, she carefully, almost like it was a treasure, put away the hand warmer. Skyler glanced over and joked, "Just bought it? It’s adorable."

Lily had just shut down her computer. Hearing this, she came over and said, "Assistant Carson gave it to her."

"Really?" Skyler’s mouth fell open, totally shocked. Lowering her voice, she said, "Scarlett, are you and Aaron a thing? That hand warmer—judging by your face, you love it."

She’d just walked out of the office and had seen Scarlett staring fixedly at the hand warmer. This kind of unfiltered, eyes-light-up joy couldn’t be faked.

Scarlett was genuinely happy.

Although, when Julian Ford transferred her a six-figure sum, she’d been pretty damn pleased, too. But those two feelings were fundamentally different.

The money was, naturally, pure respect and love for RMB.

This one, though, came with just enough of a dangerous edge that it made her wary, whether she liked it or not.

Suddenly, it dawned on Scarlett—the feelings she’d thought would eventually fade over time were, before she knew it, totally out of control.

She’d dated Ryan Ford before—they’d known each other for five years and dated for three, which definitely wasn’t brief.

But she’d never expected much from Ryan. Even when she found out he was cheating, beyond anger at being betrayed, the larger feeling was a kind of regret, as the tenderness left in her by him saving her from rock bottom gradually wore away over the years.

But with Julian Ford, everything was beyond her control.

She might be more into him than she let herself admit.

At home, Scarlett quickly packed a suitcase for tomorrow’s trip abroad. She also made sure to take out the hand warmer, intending to bring it along for instant use.

But once she’d picked it up, she couldn’t stop looking at it. In the end, she even snapped a full shot of the hand warmer, posted it on her private blog, and captioned it,

Love it.

Normally, besides WhatsApp, Scarlett barely used any other social app. Most of the time, she only checked the trending news on her blog. She had exactly two followers—one of whom was Yana Yarrow, and the other was basically a stranger.

Why she and a stranger followed each other was still a mystery. The only reason it happened was that when she first registered, before she’d gained a single fan, this person suddenly followed her.

And their username was kind of hard not to notice.

Just a single character—

Scarlett.

Out of curiosity, Scarlett followed back. At first, she’d sometimes peek at the profile of this namesake.

But their profile was squeaky clean—not even a single liked post.

In the end, Scarlett decided it had to be some junk account randomly generated by the blog platform.

So she didn’t think about it again.

The next day, Scarlett met Skyler Miller at Capitoline Airport. But what she hadn’t expected was, when she arrived, Skyler was there with Julian Ford.

Skyler looked serious—they were probably discussing work. Ford, as usual, was cool and aloof, but you could tell he was really listening. For once, he didn’t have his boss attitude on display. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Skyler caught sight of Scarlett from the corner of her eye, waved, and beckoned her over.

Scarlett kept her eyes front, making sure to pay Julian no extra attention. Getting close, she greeted politely, "President Ford, Manager Miller."

Julian’s gaze swept over her—he nodded coolly, then turned back to Skyler. "Thanks for handling things with Roman Lawson this time. Must’ve been tough."

Skyler smiled, "It’s my job."

Aaron had just finished checking the luggage and walked over, surprised to see Scarlett and Skyler together. They chatted a bit before realizing they were both handling the Roman Lawson project.

Skyler asked, "Your flight is the same as the President’s, right? Is the company getting new partners overseas?"

Aaron smiled, "Something like that."

His answer was vague, but that told them Julian Ford wasn’t just traveling for business.

Naturally, nobody probed the boss’s itinerary. Skyler changed the subject, suddenly looking at Aaron with interest, and said:

"Assistant Carson, so what was the deal with the hand warmer you gave Scarlett yesterday?"