Love’s Change of Heart novel Chapter 221

Most of the employees from Constellation Tech were already downstairs by the time Leanna got to the hotel lobby, except for Elijah.

Minutes later, there was still no sign of him.

The employees from Constellation Tech started craning their necks and peering around as though expecting him to pop out of thin air, then whispered in a frenzy among themselves.

Just as the assistant was about to go upstairs to look for him, Elijah emerged from the hotel building. He chuckled apologetically, "Sorry to keep you all waiting. Shall we go?"

The restaurant was only a ten-minute walk away. As the employees began to make their way down the sidewalk, Elijah fell in step next to Leanna and said, "Come along now"

She nodded, but that was when she noticed the trace of blood crusted over the corner of his mouth. She gaped at him with wide eyes. "What happened to you?"

When he realized she was referring to the cut on his lip, he quickly turned to wipe off the dried blood. "Nothing. I bumped into something, I guess."

Leanna clutched his arm. "Don't move." With that, she hurriedly pulled out some alcohol wipes from her purse and handed them to him. "You'll infect the wound if you touch it with your bare hands. Here, sterilize the area."

Elijah didn't take the wipes. "l can't see where the wound is. Can you help me, Leanna?"

She hesitated for a moment, then nodded as she carefully cleaned his wound. Her gaze was focused, and her touch was gentle but firm.

While this was happening, Aidan stood not too far away, observing their exchange. A grim look passed over his face as the air around him dropped to freezing temperatures.

Even Jonathan had to take a wary step back in case the man combusted on the spot.

On the other hand, Leanna was oblivious to the hostility projected in her direction as she cleaned Elijah's wound. Still, when she caught Aidan's smoldering dark gaze, she paused in her ministrations. She stiffly drew her hand back and stammered,

Elijah flashed her a smile. "Thank you."

She rubbed the back of her neck self-consciously and looked elsewhere.

"l think the others should be halfway to the restaurant by now. Come on. Let's catch up with them," Elijah suddenly said.

"Alright"

An awkwardness hung between Leanna and Elijah as they walked side by side to the restaurant Neither of them broke the silence, and Elijah, uncharacteristically, did not try to make any small talk.

When they finally got to the restaurant, they saw that the others had already taken their seats at their respective tables.

Leanna was meant to sit with Elijah at the executives' table. The executives of Constellation Tech were all young-ish men in their mid-twenties to early-thirties, and they were close to Elijah. When they took their seats, one of the executives immediately teased, "Had I known we were allowed to bring our girlfriends along, I'd have brought mine as well. Now I'm trapped here watching you rub your relationship in my face, President Parker."

"Yeah, President Parker. You could've given us a heads up so that we wouldn't feel so left out This is borderline unethicall"

Elijah laughed. "Alright, give it a rest, boys. I told you guys beforehand that you could bring a plus-one."

At once, the executives started heckling him. One piped up, "Come on, prez, make the introductions already.½ Your girlfriend's looking a little awkward."

Elijah corrected, "Stop it, guys. She isn't my girlfriend yet"

Leanna smiled politely and nodded as she introduced herself, "Hello, everyone. I'm Leanna McKinney."

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His friend jested, "Come off it You're always using the same line when you meet a pretty girl.'

Taken aback by her forward approach, Elijah stammered, "But l.

When Leanna did not respond, the girl took it as a triumph and began whining while tugging on Elijah's arm. "Come on, President Parker Everyone's waiting."

Elijah was not exceptionally skilled at saying no to these things, so with an exasperated sigh, he relented, "Fine."

"Thank you, President Parker'" The girl beamed, then turned to look at Leanna with glittering eyes. "And thank you, Miss."

The smile on Leanna's face grew frigid. Skank, she thought as she cocked a brow at the girl.

Oblivious, Elijah said, "Shall we go over to the golfing area, Leanna?"

She nodded. "Alright'

The girl dragged Elijah along as she bounded over to the turf while Leanna trudged after them. As she watched the both of them walking ahead of her, she couldn't help thinking what Aidan might say if he were in Elijah's shoes. He'd probably say something along the lines of, "Your ineptitude doesn't concern me." or "How did you get through the interv'iew if you can't even manage something as simple as this?"

All in all, Leanna supposed that the one thing she could count on the b*stard was his sharp tongue and acerbic wit

She sputtered at the thought of this, but she quickly regained composure a second later. Are you out of your mind, Leanna? Why are you thinking about him all of a sudden? She patted her face to snap out of her own reverie. She couldn't understand why he was still occupying her thoughts even though he had stopped bothering her for a while now.

Meanwhile, the girl who had accosted Elijah just now had dragged him over to the golf turf and jerked her chin in a gloating manner at her peers. Then, she turned to Elijah and said coquettishly, "President Parker, they said I should hold the club like this to get an optimum swing. Does this look right to you?"

Elijah stood behind her and kept a polite distance as he helped adjust her posture. "No, it should be like this."

"Like this?" She deliberately held the club wrong a few times.

Ultimately, Elijah let out a breath of frustration and chivalrously held her wrist to adjust her grip. "Here."